I'm really interested in doing more freelance work alongside my studies next year when I have a bit more time, but I'm really not sure whether I am able to at the level I am.

 

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on the capabilities you need to have in order to go freelance. I am at the stage now where I have spent a lot of time working on smaller sites but am not enjoying working for free as much as I used to. At the present moment I have only worked on a few paid jobs (and that was with project management, not dealing directly with the client) but I need to know what level my skills need to be before I can consider taking on work myself.

Not sure how we'd assess what level any one was at to be honest.

I guess you've got to ask yourself how confident are you in delivering what the client wants?

 

If the client wants A, B and C and has a budget of £'s then you've got to be sure that you deliver A, B and C for £ budget. Or if you're not comfortable with B then you need to be aware of someone that can fulfil B.

Not sure how we'd assess what level any one was at to be honest.

I guess you've got to ask yourself how confident are you in delivering what the client wants?

 

If the client wants A, B and C and has a budget of £'s then you've got to be sure that you deliver A, B and C for £ budget. Or if you're not comfortable with B then you need to be aware of someone that can fulfil B.

 

I guess that's where I'm not sure. I wouldn't ever take on someone who wanted wordpress, or CMS, or shopping carts, because I can't do that. But I'd be happy to take someone on who wanted something simple, and there do seem to be enough people out there who just have small businesses and don't want the whole works.

 

The thing I'm not sure if how GOOD I have to be to begin offering services to people. At the moment the only work I have done has been from friends who are obviously less likely to want very complex things, or I've been doing work for free so they can't really complain as much (not that I don't put my all into it even if it's free.) I just don't know where to start. Perhaps I need to spend a couple more years working for free before I can start making any money... but then I start running out of good challenging projects to make me learn more anyway.

Perhaps I need to spend a couple more years working for free before I can start making any money...

 

I have work I can give you.....always willing to exploit free labour

 

or maybe you should just get your portfolio online and let prospective clients decide if you're good enough to be hired!

Edited August 23, 201214 yr by bikeman

the thing here is to go freelance its not always the skill that counts u need to have to the ability to sell ur skills and convince people that what u do is the best so along with ur web design skills u need gud marketing knowledge too

 

my point here is u can earn a living just by designing logos or u earn nothing or peanuts making decent websites

 

but yes if you do consider adding ur free works to ur online portfolio that sure wud help u in getting future clients who are willing to pay

I have work I can give you.....always willing to exploit free labour

 

or maybe you should just get your portfolio online and let prospective clients decide if you're good enough to be hired!

 

I have a portfolio online, but it's not good enough I don't think to warrant work.

I have a portfolio online, but it's not good enough I don't think to warrant work.

 

Hi Fran,

 

Just had a wee ganders at your portfolio and yeah ok, the work isn't the best that the web has to offer, but it most certainly warrants you getting paid work.

For anyone wanting to do freelance, the business side is as important as the design / develop side. I would say, stop doing free work. If you have recorded the hours that a project takes to complete then you can work out your preferred hourly rate and will have a base line for what to charge clients, assuming the size of the site is comparable.

 

It may feel like a great idea to do loads of free work, but you are just undervaluing the skills that you have already gained. If you do some good paid work, it will be good for your reputation further than friends and such like.

 

Good luck though!

 

Stevo!

It's not so much about how good you are at the job (gasp!) although I'd say don't be wantonly sh1te at it. It's more about how good you are at running your business. If you're not able to retain clients and attract new ones regularly you'll go under. So be prepared to spend 20-40% of your time marketing, answering the phone & emails, and generally schmoozing (aka networking) with potentials.

 

I've seen your work - you're good enough to be paid for what you do. Now it's just a case of believing it, and doing it. Good luck!

It's not so much about how good you are at the job (gasp!) although I'd say don't be wantonly sh1te at it. It's more about how good you are at running your business. If you're not able to retain clients and attract new ones regularly you'll go under. So be prepared to spend 20-40% of your time marketing, answering the phone & emails, and generally schmoozing (aka networking) with potentials.

 

I've seen your work - you're good enough to be paid for what you do. Now it's just a case of believing it, and doing it. Good luck!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks. I guess I should take the advice my Dad always said about his job. 'I'm the best in the industry because I tell people I am. And if they don't go with anyone else, then how will they know if I'm not telling the truth?' Obviously not exactly the same, but it's still true that most clients won't know that I'm not brilliant and therefore will be happy with what they got unless it's good enough.

 

I'm more putting this forward as a plan for a few years. I currently work full time, and next September will commence my final year of my multimedia degree, but I'd love the prospect of going freelance upon graduation (I have a friend who is doing very well as a wordpress dev - bit jealous of her job to be honest!)

 

The main problem I have is getting known. I only want small businesses, and people I've worked with are happy that I only work evenings and weekends, but when taking on paid work, can I really expect to be OK with me being a student and only working weekends? I think I've worked out my hourly rate should be about £10 judging by my skills and what others do, but I don't know if people will even be willing to do that when they can get a full-time always at the end of the phone web designer for not much more...

 

I'm currently trying my hardest to bulk up my portfolio and have a few friends who 'know' of me as a web designer so I've had a few queries, but nothing solid. I find a lot of people ask me about whether I can do them a site 'or rather just "how much would it be" which I can never really answer) but it's getting them to commit. I think it's usually just a flaky idea they have because they know I can do it and then fancy the idea of it.

Edited August 24, 201214 yr by Fran Haselden

£10 is very low for a freelance rate, even if you're just starting out.

 

Freelancing provides no sick pay, no holiday pay and no guarantee of steady work. Separate out yourself as an individual from yourself as a business, even if there's no legal separation. The business should be able to pay for your hosting, trade publications (books, magazine subscriptions etc), insurance, hardware and software, before paying you (the individual) a living wage. Tax and NI falls entirely on your head as well.

 

Let's take 20% as a reasonable profit margin for your business. You've already lost £2. Out of the remaining £8, assume 20% as a rule-of-thumb figure for tax and NI: £6.40. Suddenly you're down to practising a profession for burger-flipping money.

 

Flip it around. Charge £15 per hour while you're a student. Out of every hour, pocket £10 and stash £5 - that'll cover any tax and NI you have to pay (not sure what the rates/details are for students), your hosting and all the things I mentioned. Don't be in too much of a hurry to spend when you don't have to.

 

Before you finish your course, the business should have enough sitting in the pot to punt for a copy or two of Adobe CS7 (or whatever the version is by then) at student prices.

 

I'd advise against going straight into freelancing out of Uni, though. Andy Rutledge points out (and I agree with him) that you can learn far more about practising your profession in an agency before striking out on your own.

As Fran is a student she possibly doesn't currently have an income, if that's the case she can get away without legally having to pay tax.

 

Personal allowance before NI and Tax is around £8,700 (I don't know exactly, that's why I pay an accountant).

 

If you charge £15 per hour you could probably squeeze out two simple 'small business' websites a month for that.

 

So that's £725 a month, zero tax.

 

With respect, I would have thought a student would be quite happy with that kind of income for doing a weekend and evening job.

 

Even then if you do start to earn past the threshold there are many ways to reduce your tax bill whilst remaining in the law.

I went freelance January 2010 after 8 months of playing around.

 

It was part time, even now I am only just 'seriously' getting into it and its been very much part time up to now.

 

If you are not confident enough to put yourself in front of people it is not for you, you have to push and push. You can be the best designer around for miles, have the best coding skills and can deliver all this for less than anyone else but if you cannot put yourself in front of people you will not get anywhere.

 

I think more people fail there than they do because of poor skills.

Selling yourself and your work is the job. As Ste says if you don't have the confidence to present and sell yourself you will likely fail.

 

Here's a little secret:

 

The majority of our clients don't even ask to see our previous work.

£10 is very low for a freelance rate, even if you're just starting out.

 

Freelancing provides no sick pay, no holiday pay and no guarantee of steady work. Separate out yourself as an individual from yourself as a business, even if there's no legal separation. The business should be able to pay for your hosting, trade publications (books, magazine subscriptions etc), insurance, hardware and software, before paying you (the individual) a living wage. Tax and NI falls entirely on your head as well.

 

Let's take 20% as a reasonable profit margin for your business. You've already lost £2. Out of the remaining £8, assume 20% as a rule-of-thumb figure for tax and NI: £6.40. Suddenly you're down to practising a profession for burger-flipping money.

 

Flip it around. Charge £15 per hour while you're a student. Out of every hour, pocket £10 and stash £5 - that'll cover any tax and NI you have to pay (not sure what the rates/details are for students), your hosting and all the things I mentioned. Don't be in too much of a hurry to spend when you don't have to.

 

Before you finish your course, the business should have enough sitting in the pot to punt for a copy or two of Adobe CS7 (or whatever the version is by then) at student prices.

 

I'd advise against going straight into freelancing out of Uni, though. Andy Rutledge points out (and I agree with him) that you can learn far more about practising your profession in an agency before striking out on your own.

 

Thanks, I'll look into this. Although I considered this as less of an opportunity to make money and more to get experience and perhaps a little reward on the side. I do work full time already, and the resources/books etc that I spend money on (far too much!) I already buy anyway. Perhaps I should work out how much I generally spend a month on web related things + tax and use that to work out my earnings. To be honest, £10 is fine for me really as this is all just a plus, and something I enjoy doing and spend most of my free time on anyway.

 

And yes, I definitely would like to go work somewhere for some time but I'd love the opportunity to even work on my own projects too, before perhaps considering doing my own thing permanently.

 

As Fran is a student she possibly doesn't currently have an income, if that's the case she can get away without legally having to pay tax.

 

Personal allowance before NI and Tax is around £8,700 (I don't know exactly, that's why I pay an accountant).

 

If you charge £15 per hour you could probably squeeze out two simple 'small business' websites a month for that.

 

So that's £725 a month, zero tax.

 

With respect, I would have thought a student would be quite happy with that kind of income for doing a weekend and evening job.

 

Even then if you do start to earn past the threshold there are many ways to reduce your tax bill whilst remaining in the law.

 

I am a student but I work full time so I do earn above the threshold, but tax is not huge as I don't earn anything (luckily I have that all sorted as I've worked on freelance jobs before)

Luckily freelancing is not yet under a tax requirement to continue its business functions. Here in our country freelancers earn a lot more than normal office workers and that is because a lot of foreigners will pay a lot more for a good provider/worker. Rates are really dependent in part on your client's location since the same kind of job and task can be paid differently depending on how the client perceives its worth.

You seem to use all the right words to form coherent sentences, yet I have no idea at all what you're saying...

 

Also, where are you from? Look at this site's URL - in the UK we have to pay tax whether we're freelance or not, and as far as I know, regardless of where the money comes from.

Edited August 30, 201214 yr by notbanksy

Also, where are you from?

 

Philippines

Philippines

 

lol