when HiFi is just not an option

Running a design business, either as a freelancer or a small agency, is a big challenge. Getting the most efficiency out of your time is essential, but it’s also very difficult for those who wear many different hats, like freelancers. One of the most common ways of dealing with this challenge for efficiency is to outsource work to others. It could be anything from design work, front-end development, back-end development, marketing, to anything else that needs to be done.

There are some very strong reasons for outsourcing, and likewise the are some equally strong reasons against outsourcing. In this article we’ll look at those pros and cons, which will hopefully prove to be helpful to those who are trying to decide on whether or not to outsource.

Pros of Outsourcing

1. Leverage Your Efforts

Whether you are a part-time freelancer, full-time freelancer, or you run a design agency, the business aspect of your work is just as critical to your success as is your ability to design and/or code. One of the principles that is key to growing a business is that you need to be able to leverage your time and efforts. As a one-man operation you will only be able to earn money for the services that you can provide to clients yourself. But by expanding your business, in this case through outsourcing, you can leverage your efforts and make money based on the work of other people as well.

This makes an assumption that one of your priorities is to maximize income and profits, which may not be the case with all designers. Some designers prefer working on every aspect of client projects rather than outsourcing or hiring employees, even if it means reduced potential for business growth.

Making a transition from employed designer to freelance designer can be intimidating for even the most talented of designers because there is so much more involved with being successful as a freelancer. As a freelancer you’ll be responsible for every aspect of your own business, and it’s those aspects aside from the actual design work that typically create the most significant challenges. While the transition is rarely easy, if you take a look at the mistakes that are commonly made by other new freelancers you can prepare yourself and avoid those potential pitfalls.

In this article we’ll take a look at 7 mistakes that many new freelancers make. The purpose is to help those of you who are in the process of moving into the world of freelancing, or considering it. By knowing these challenges ahead of time you’ll be better prepared to avoid them in your own business.

If you find yourself frequently exchanging emails with potential clients, you may be interested in sending them a PDF file that shows off your work. This free InDesign file will allow you to do just that. You can customize the file to include your own details and samples from your own portfolio, save it as an interactive PDF and email it to potential clients.

The biggest challenge that most freelance web designers face is the constant need to find new projects. Having enough work from paying clients on a consistent basis is of course necessary in order to earn a living as a freelancer, but many designers struggle in this area.

One of the most effective ways to work towards a more consistent income with less of a need for relying on new projects is to focus on providing on-going services to your clients. Instead of designing a website for a client and parting ways, if you are able to offer on-going services that will provide some value to those clients, you can continue to work with them and reduce your reliance on new projects and new clients.

If you provide services for even a small number of clients for just a few hours each week it can easily result in a small but stable income stream, more time working for those clients, and less time searching for new work. For example, having 5 on-going clients to whom you provide 2 hours of work each week would total 10 hours of work per week, or 25% of a 40 hour work week. It may not seem like much individually, but having that 10 hours of work each week in addition to new client projects can make a big difference for many freelance designers.

The purpose of this article is to look at some ways to retain more of your clients for on-going services. If you’re looking for more stability in your income as a freelance designer it is highly recommended that you take a look at your process and see what you can do to convert more of your one-time clients into long-term clients. Here are a few keys.

When it comes to landing clients for design projects, the first impression is extremely important. With so many web and graphic designers out there, clients have a lot of choices about who to contact and ultimately who to hire. The first impression can be the difference in a client contacting you to get a quote or moving on to the next designer. And the first impression after personal contact can be the difference in the client hiring you for the project or choosing another designer who seemed like a better fit.

Most clients are a little uneasy about the process of hiring a web designer. Many are intimidated because they don’t feel like they know enough about the industry to have confidence that they are hiring the right person. Some are unsure of how much they should expect to pay for the services that they need. If you’re able to make a positive first impression with these clients and put them at ease that their project will be in capable hands by hiring you, you will be much more likely to land the project.

In addition to converting more leads into paying clients, making a positive first impression can also help designers by reducing the amount of time and effort that is needed to secure the work. It’s inevitable that you’ll need to dedicate some time to communicating with potential clients before they decide to hire you, but it can also be very frustrating when you spend a significant amount of time and then they choose to hire someone else or to put the project on hold. The less time that you spend before getting a commitment from the client the more time you will have for working on the projects of those clients who have hired you. If you’re able to make a strong first impression and the client doesn’t need a lot of time to decide to hire you, that is an ideal situation.

Communication skills are absolutely critical to designers, and really to any type of client work. Regardless of how skilled you are as a designer you will need to be able to communicate effectively with clients in order to do the best job possible with their projects. And if you are a freelancer or an independent designer, communication is of the utmost importance to the success of your business.

In this article we’ll take a look at 5 quick tips that can help in your own communication with clients.