So, I decided to give my portfolio a little make-over.. Its out dated by 4 years..

 

Im looking at freelancing.. However I have 2 people who want to do it along side me.. We all have portfolios to a point.

 

Im happy to keep my portfolio running as ive also got a learning timeline structure on there, some tutorials and other bits.. (might need to change it from being a portfolio,) Its my: lastnamedesigns.com

 

Well, Im debating do

 

I keep my domain I have as my portfolio

 

or do I create another domain and have a portfolio there?

 

Do you get alot of business from having a more business name instead of a personal one?

 

Is something like

 

creative-design.co.uk

 

more likely to get more clients compared to

 

lastnamedesign.co.uk

 

 

I am currently employed, and I asked my employer once "how come we charge £1500 for a website a freelancer would do for £600, yet we still get business?" and his reply was "People would rather go with a company than some kid sat at home in his bedroom, you get more reassurance as a client if its a company in an office building... Thats why we make out our team is also bigger than it is"

 

So Im curious, should I go more business like or personal?

 

Either way my portfolio lastnamedesigns.com would still exist, but maybe more as a Skills/CV record.

 

----

 

Design...

 

Fun, colorful ,creative vs corporate professional business?

 

example :

 

http://ndesign-studio.com/

 

http://www.netdreams.co.uk/

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

my advise wud be to get personalized domain name

 

the reason

1) You are currently employed..

2) I don't think you are going to leave your present job and go full time freelance ?

3)Personalized domain name can also get lots of business if u have a solid portfolio

4) Also u can use a business domain name and show it as one woman company (creative-design.co.uk)

 

 

reson for edit

i just noticed u mention that u have 2 people who want to do along side with u so u can go for a business domain and show works of all 3 people.. that wud also work ..

 

Design wise you can have a mix of creative with a touch of business professional look

have a look at cssmania for some inspirations

Edited April 30, 201412 yr by sash_oo7

Personally I don't think the domain name matters too much, I know plenty of freelancers who don't use a "name" domain and they do just fine. Just make it easy to remember and if you can as short as possible.

 

 

 

I am currently employed, and I asked my employer once "how come we charge £1500 for a website a freelancer would do for £600, yet we still get business?"

One thing to avoid when freelancing is to go too cheap, yes you may find someone to do work for a 3rd of the price (as in your example) but you can end up out of pocket. My advise is to work out an hourly rate and price projects using that, so if you use say £20/hour and the project takes 40 hours then 20x40= £800. Also when freelancing you may be surprised at how quickly the hours get used up, even if you're doing a simple 5 page static site from scratch it's very easy to spend several weeks on it when you take into account all the processes involved.

Edited April 30, 201412 yr by BlueDreamer

I've been working freelance under my own name for about 3 years, but I'm now moving to an 'agency' name to appear bigger and give myself scope in future to expand. Many people, particularly small business owners, want to hire a single person to do their work as more often than not it's cheaper than going with an agency.

 

However, I find this can lead to a few problems as some clients simply see you as a single person, and will attempt to take the p*ss with things like invoices. I've had people try to negotiate on price AFTER the agreed work was completed. Thankfully legally binding written agreements stop problems like that (even an email where the client agrees to pay a certain amount for services you list is considered a contract), but it still doesn't prevent people from trying.

 

Late payments can be a pain too. An agency will have their accountant chase up unpaid invoices as soon as they're overdue, charging the standard late fee on top for every day it remains unpaid. As a freelancer, you'll probably be chasing these up yourself, and constantly requesting payment and threatening late fees can have a negative impact on your relationship with clients, even though you're well within your right to do so.

 

Also, as your boss says, you may be seen as inferior to larger companies and so will miss out on jobs that you can handle just as well as them. However, as a studio/agency, you may find you're now having to pitch for work and compete against other, bigger agencies, putting in a day or two's work to get the pitch together, only to lose to a more experienced agency.

 

What you can do is keep your yourname.co.uk address, and start another simple site that lists yourself and your companions as a collective of some kind, outlines the services you offer, and details what each person does to reinforce your strength as a team. You're able to remain working as a freelancer on your own work and outsource work to the others as and when you need to, but if a bigger project opportunity comes along you can tackle it as a collective.

 

I'm currently collaborating with a collective of this nature in Manchester called Tariff Street. They're a web/digital development team comprised entirely off freelancers/self employed developers who now work together under the TF banner. They each bring a different strength and perspective to the team, which enables them to compete with even the biggest agencies.