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.

2. Potential for Higher Income

By leveraging your efforts through outsourcing you are able to increase the potential income of your business. If you outsource projects, or portions of projects, efficiently you will be able to take on more projects or larger-scale projects. Also, your income potential can be increased if the cost of outsourcing the work to someone else is lower than what it would cost you (in terms of the value of your time) to do the work yourself.

While outsourcing work to others may increase your expenses, it also frees up more time for you to do other things, which should allow you to increase your income. Maybe the time that you save can be used to work on marketing your services, other client projects, developing new products and services, or administrative work related to running the business.

3. Increased Efficiency

Like any business owner, you will never have the time to do everything that you want or need for your business. However, outsourcing some work can help to free up time that will allow you to focus on the things that you determine are most important. The increase in efficiency comes when you are able to spend a little bit of money (comparatively) that will free you up to do work that will help you to make a lot of money (comparatively).

In addition to freeing up time for other work, you can also choose to work fewer hours and use that time that you gain from increased efficiency for time away from work. Most freelancers and self-employed designers work long hours, sometimes by choice and sometimes not by choice. If you’re looking at ways to reduce your hours and spend more time with family and friends, outsourcing is a possibility.

4. Allows You to Focus on Your Strengths

One of the downsides to being a freelancer is that you have to do everything for your business, whether it is an area of personal strength or weakness. By outsourcing some work that is not in your strongest areas you can free up more time to work on the things that you love, and in areas that you excel. Some freelancers choose to hire virtual assistants to handle as much of the administrative work as possible, freeing them up for more creative work. Some designers may not be as adept at coding and may choose to outsource development services while focusing on the visual design instead.

Even if outsourcing doesn’t increase your income, if it helps to make your work more enjoyable by eliminating or reducing some of the things you dislike, it may be worth doing.

5. Turn Away Fewer Clients

Many freelancers and small design agencies wind up turning away a lot of potential clients for any number of reasons. It could be a lack of time to work with all the potential clients, lack of experience or skill in a particular area, lack of desire to work on a certain type of project, or a client whose budget is too small. All of these issues can possibly be addressed by outsourcing, meaning that you could provide a solution to more clients, even if you are not doing all of the work yourself.

Turning away fewer clients also means that you’ll have more paying clients. If you can manage to outsource projects efficiently and effectively, it can result in a higher income, even if it is from projects that you wouldn’t want to accept without the possibility of outsourcing the work.

6. Segmenting Projects is Possible

Outsourcing work doesn’t mean that you have to outsource the entire project. Especially when it comes to web design, there are opportunities and possibilities for outsourcing a particular segment of the project. An example that many freelancers do is outsourcing of coding work. There are countless PSD to HTML service providers who are able and willing to take your designs and turn them into working, coded pages. The price varies from one provider to the next, but in many cases you could get the coding work done for much less than if you did the work yourself (in terms of the value of your time). It’s not ideal for all situations, but many designers find it to increase their efficiency. In this case you would still be dealing with the client directly and you would be doing most of the work on the project yourself, you would simply outsource one aspect of the project.

7. Transition from Freelance to Agency

If you are currently freelancing and you would like to run a design agency with employees at some point in the future, outsourcing can help with the transition. Very few freelancers or independent designers have the financial capability to take on an employee with a set salary and benefits without funding, but outsourcing work is much more feasible. While outsourcing you can get a feel for who you might like to hire as an employee when the time comes, and you can work to increase revenues and build the business to a point where you could hire an employee.

Cons of Outsourcing

1. Your Reputation Depends on the Quality of Others’ Work

When you are outsourcing part or all of a client project, the client may or may not be aware of it. Either way, your reputation is at stake. One of the most significant reasons that designers choose not to outsource is because of concerns over the quality. There are plenty of people that you could outsource to who would do a great job for you and your clients, but there are also others that wouldn’t live up to your expected level of quality. Finding the right people to work with is not always easy.

If you outsource work and the project doesn’t meet the deadline or doesn’t turn out as the client had expected, your reputation can take a hit. This is especially true in situations where the client doesn’t know that you are actually outsourcing, because they will think it is your own work that is lacking. Even if the client does know that you are outsourcing, they are trusting you to manage and oversee the project, in which case you are still responsible for the results.

2. More Administration and Oversight Work

While outsourcing can help to free up some of your time, it also means that you’ll have more administrative and oversight responsibilities. This includes paying invoices and added financial record keeping, finding and interviewing the right people, communication, and in some cases supervising progress. Ideally you can find people who need very little supervision whom you can trust to do quality work, but those relationships usually take some time to develop.

3. Can Make You a Middleman in Communication with the Client

In most cases, when you are outsourcing work you will still want to be in direct communication with the client, which means that you will be a middleman of sorts. Communication becomes more challenging when layers are added, so it becomes even more critical in this situation. You may be gathering feedback from a client and passing it on to whoever is doing the work, which increases the possibility for miscommunication or misunderstanding. Additionally, it means that you’ll still be dedicating time and effort to the communication rather than being able to pass it off to someone else.

In some cases you may be able to have the client and the service provider communicate directly, but this is not always possible or practical.

4. Reduced Control Over Meeting Deadlines

Being able to meet deadlines is a critical to keeping your clients happy. As you outsource parts of the project, or the whole thing, you will have less control over when the work is complete, as you will be relying on the person that you have hired. This is just one of the reasons why you need to be very careful about hiring the right person. Also, it’s a good idea to build in some time for unexpected delays by setting a deadline for the service provider that is at least a few days prior to the real deadline of the client. That gives you time to review the work and to deal with any setbacks.

5. It Takes Time and Effort to Find the Right People

Outsourcing is, of course, most effective when you are working with the right people. Ideally, you’ll have qualified service providers that you can work with on an on-going basis rather than needing to find someone specifically for each project. Outsourcing becomes a lot more practical, efficient, and profitable when you already have the right person for the job.

Unfortunately, finding the right person (or people) can be a real challenge, and you may go through some bad experiences along the way. During this time it means that you’ll be dedicating extra time for finding the right people and evaluating their work. At this stage you may find that outsourcing actually takes just as much time as doing the work yourself. The upside, of course, is that once you’ve found the right people it takes much less of your own time and becomes more profitable.

6. Potential Instability of Your Team

The challenge doesn’t stop with just finding the right people. You’ll also have to keep them as a part of your team once you have found them. With outsourcing, you may be working with different people all the time. When you’ve found someone that is good to work with, they may move on to a different path in their career and you may have to find a replacement. There is often less stability and more turnover than you would have if you were hiring an employee.

7. Clients May Not Be On Board

Some of your clients may have chosen to hire you because they are familiar with your work and they really felt that you would be great for their project. In situations like this, the client will want to work with you, not with someone to whom you are outsourcing the work. Of course, there may be parts of the project that you could outsource without having any real impact on the client, and they may not even know about it, but it’s still something to keep in mind.

As a general rule, if you build your brand around your personal skills, expertise, and experience, outsourcing work may seem deceptive to clients. This will also depend on what parts of the project you are outsourcing. As a designer, you will be hired for your creative abilities, so outsourcing the visual design would more be more likely to cause conflict than outsourcing coding.

You Must Decide for Yourself

As with just about anything in life, the pros and cons mean that there is no absolute right or wrong decision when it comes to outsourcing. You’ll need to weight the pros and cons and see how they fit with your goals, your process, and your way of doing business. If you have words of wisdom from your own experience, please feel free to share in the comments.

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.

Mistake #1: Not Saving Enough Money Before Moving to Full-Time Freelance Work

This mistake often happens even before making the move to full-time freelance work. If you are planning to try full-time freelancing there are a lot of uncertainties about how much money you will earn, especially during the first few months while you will likely need to work harder to find clients while establishing your business. In order to avoid financial problems and more stress than needed, ideally you will have at least enough money to cover a few months of your living expenses in case things start slowly.

Many people leave a full-time job and assume that they will be able to start making enough money right away. In some cases it does work out this way, but not always. In fact. most new freelancers don’t bring in a whole lot of income the first few months, so that savings may be essential. Not only will it help your personal financial situation, but it will also prevent you from needing to go back to a full-time job right away because of upcoming bills.

Mistake #2: Lack of Planning for Taxes

Staying on the financial theme of the previous point, taxes are one of the most significant differences in working as an employee or being self employed. As a freelancer there will be no paychecks from an employer with taxes already deducted. Many freelancers underestimate the amount of taxes they will need to pay, or they simply lack the discipline to not spend the money.

You’ll have to be prepared and disciplined to set aside enough money for taxes, and you may have to pay quarterly estimated taxes throughout the year. Everyone’s tax situation is unique, so seek the guidance of a tax professional that can help you to plan. This way you won’t be surprised by owing a lot of taxes at the end of the year, and you won’t face unnecessary penalties for not doing things properly.

Mistake #3: Accepting Every Project that Comes Your Way

When you’re first getting started as a freelancer and you’re in need of client projects the natural reaction to an inquiry from a potential client is to want to jump into the project right away. However, not every project will be a good fit for you, and if you want to save yourself some headaches take the time to make sure any project is a good fit before accepting the work.

This is a mistake that I made in my early days as a freelancer and I learned quickly from a few bad situations that I needed to be more selective. This doesn’t mean that every project that you pass on is for a “bad” client, it just means that it wouldn’t be an ideal fit for you. In my case a client wanted to use an obscure CMS (content management system) that I’ve never had another request for in the years since. The price that I was charging didn’t justify the amount of time that was required to learn the CMS. I should have either charged more or used a more familiar CMS that wouldn’t require as much time. The project wasn’t a good fit for me because the client insisted on this particular CMS, and I knew it was something I would never work with again. It wound up being a waste of a lot of time that I could have used in other more productive ways.

It’s a good idea to think about the type of clients and projects that appeal to you. It could mean working with a specific industry, a certain type of design (example, web or print), a CMS, or even a specialization like e-commerce websites, PSD to HTML conversion, etc. Knowing your ideal project can also help you to know what projects simply don’t fit with your big picture goals, and when that happens it is a good idea to pass on the project. If you don’t want to completely pass on the project, make sure that you at least quote a price that is high enough to cover the loss of your time that you could be spending on other projects.

Mistake #4: Not Using Contracts

Almost every freelancer has a problem arise at some point from either not using a contract at all or not going into enough detail in a contract. This is a mistake that you probably won’t make too many times before you realize the importance of contracts, but it’s even better if you can start off by using contracts effectively to avoid any of these problems.

One of the most common problems that freelancers face (even experienced freelancers) is fighting scope creep. On many projects you’ll find that the boundaries of the project are pushed or stretched as clients ask or expect you to work on things that weren’t originally a part of the project when you provided the quote. A contract is an outstanding tool to help prevent scope creep because it allows you to clearly define what is and what is not included in the price that you are quoting for the project. This helps to get everyone on the same page, and then when scope creep sets in you’ll be protected and you can charge additional amounts according to the extra time that is needed.

Contracts are also helpful for establishing guidelines for when payments must be made, deadlines that must be met by both the designer and the client, limiting liability, and defining intellectual property rights. If you don’t have a contract that you already use on your client projects we have a few available at Vandelay Premier that may interest you:

• Web Design Contract Template ($6)
• Logo Design Contract Template ($6)
• Website Maintenance Contract Template ($6)
• SEO Services Contract Template ($6)

Mistake #5: Starting a Project Without Collecting a Percentage of the Payment Up Front

Another common mistake that involves the financial side of running a business is not collecting a percentage of the payment up front. Contracts also help with this issue. By starting on a project with no up front investment from the client you are drastically increasing your chances of having problems with payments arise later. Getting a percentage of the payment up front will ensure that you are only working with serious clients and you’ll avoid wasting your time without getting anything for your work. Plus, clients will be more committed to the project since they already have something invested.

The up front money also helps to provide you with some income that may be needed before the project is completed. Clients who don’t pay anything up front are more likely to drag a project along slowly, which only delays your payday further if you are waiting until completion of the project to invoice the client.

Mistake #6: Jumping in to the Design Work too Quickly

Although the design and creative work is ultimately what motivated you to work in the industry, before you start designing for a client project you should dedicate the time necessary to adequately get to know the client, their customers, and the specifics of the project. Each client and each project is unique, and without investing the proper time to get familiar with the situation it is impossible to get the best results.

It’s a good practice to establish some sort of process for working with new clients so that you get to know as much as possible. Some designers like to meet with clients for face-to-face meetings when possible, others conduct interviews on the phone, some have questionnaire that they ask clients to fill out, and at times you may even need to talk to customers of the client in order to get their perspective. While this does take time, it will drastically improve the results for you and for the client.

Mistake #7: Working Without Tracking Your Time

As a freelancer, how you manage your time will be critical to your success. There are many aspects to running the business aside from just doing the design work, and in many cases it can be difficult to know how much time you are spending on different tasks. By tracking your time you will have a better picture of how your time is split between the different activities involved in running the business, and hopefully you will be able to identify any inefficiencies that could be improved. Especially when you are just getting started it is important to know how you are spending your time so that you can make the needed adjustments, and for planning your time.

Tracking your time is also very helpful for evaluating your rates. Without tracking your time you won’t really know how much time you have spent on a project. But if you do know how much time you spent on a project you can calculate the hourly rate earned on that project. New freelancers often find that when they calculate their hourly rate for a project it is much lower than they anticipated. Under charging is a common mistake for new freelancers, but by knowing how much time you have dedicated to past projects you can do a better job of estimating the amount of time needed for future projects, and you can improve your accuracy for developing quotes that will pay you a fair rate.

Tracking your time is also helpful to see how many hours you are working each week. If, like most freelancers, you are working from home it can be challenging to draw a line between personal time and work time. Tracking your time will help you to see the big picture of how much you are working, and hopefully it will prevent you from falling into another trap for freelancers, working too many hours. It’s important that you have enough time away from work and with your family and friends to avoid burnout and to help you to actually enjoy your work.

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.

This InDesign file has been created by The NetMen Corp and it can be downloaded for free.

Here are some basics details and instructions for editing the file:

• It comes in InDesign CS5 format, as well as an IDML file to convert it for InDesign CS4.
• The free font Expressway is used.
• To add your own portfolio items, save the .jpg files in the same folder as the InDesign file, select one of the existing thumbnails, open the links panel and click on re-link, then select your image.
• The social networking icons at the bottom can be linked to your own profiles. Select one of the icons and open the hyperlinks panel (Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks).
• When you are ready to save it as a PDF, go to File > Export and select Adobe PDF (Interactive). Exporting it at 300 ppi will give you the best image quality.

Download the file (13.2 MB zip file)

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.

1. Be Pleasant to Work With

People typically choose to do business with those that they like. As you’re designing a website for a client, if you’re able to produce a quality of work that they are happy with and if they enjoy working and communicating with you, you’ll have a much better chance of securing on-going work.

I hear from people all the time who do not enjoy working with their designer and are looking to make a move to someone else. While this is not always the designer’s fault, if you can focus on providing a high level of customer service and being easy to work with, you’ll have more clients who are interested in establishing an on-going relationship.

If you have just finished a website for a client and you are presenting a proposal for your on-going services, the client will be thinking about whether or not they would like to work with you going forward.

2. Prioritize On-Going Work

A key to building up more on-going work is to place more emphasis on it. Typically, designers focus on finding new clients and working on those projects to get the client’s website completed without giving much thought to what they could offer on an on-going basis. Take the time to fine tune the services that you offer, and consider developing a package that you could offer to clients to help them going forward. Some designers do this by charging a set amount per month for a certain number of hours of work each month. Other designers charge an hourly rate and provide the services whenever needed by the client.

If you choose to go the route of offering a package to your clients you will want to define exactly what is included and what is not, in effort to prevent issues in the future. Here are just a few examples of what you could offer to provide:

• Help with updating content
• Design services for things like newsletters and flyers
• CMS upgrades and maintenance
• Plugin installation
• Social Media Marketing
• SEO monitoring
• Landing page design

Many of your clients could benefit from having someone to help in these areas on an on-going basis. If you take the time to develop your services in these areas and present it to clients in a way that shows the value to them, you should be able to retain more of those clients beyond the initial website design work.

3. Offer a Variety of Services

One of the keys to retaining clients for on-going work is being able to help them with a number of different services. Many small companies don’t have anyone in-house to handle the types of services that you can provide, and if they can get a number of different services from you rather than going to several different people, it will be easier and more cost effective for them.

While it may not be worth it for a client to retain you on an on-going basis just for tweaks to their website’s design, it may be much more valuable to them if you can do other things as well, like monitor their server’s up time, manage their Facebook or Twitter page, provide analytics reports to track their campaigns, etc.

4. Focus on Results

If your clients are to continue to pay your for your services month in and month out, they will need to be getting some results. Focus your efforts on things that will have a direct impact on their ability to get more out of their website. For example, set up some custom reports or e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics that will provide data that can be used to make improvements to the site, and increase revenue.

Another example, use a service like Raven (which can be private labeled) to set up reports that track search engine rankings and analyze competitors. This data can be used to generate more targeted traffic and increase revenue, and the reports can be presented to the client so they can see the results.

Still another example, set up and manage a pay-per-click campaign to increase sales, signups, or whatever is the goal of the client’s website.

These are just a few examples of how you can focus on results and increase the bottom line for your clients. If you’re able to directly improve their business through your work, chances are they will continue to work with you.

5. Provide Solutions

Working with clients on an on-going basis is likely to mean that you will be doing a lot of different things in order to help them. We’ve looked at a lot of the possibilities so far, but that is really just the beginning. Each client’s situation will be different, so evaluate what it is that you can offer that would provide solutions to some of the challenges that they face with their website and doing business online.

If you have designed a great-looking website for your client but it doesn’t attract much targeted traffic, provide a solution that includes search engine optimization services or setup and promote a Facebook fan page.

If the client’s website is generating a lot of traffic but has little to show for it, provide a solution that includes setting up an opt-in email list. Help them to set up a newsletter, design and code a custom newsletter template, and develop a plan to maximize sign ups.

You’ll simply want to take a look at their website and their business and how it could be improved to produce better results. Think about the skills that you have and how you could put them to use to provide solutions to the challenges that they face. Communicate your proposed solutions to the client, and if they see the value in it you may have another on-going client.

What’s Your Experience?

How do you go about developing business from on-going clients? If you have tips or thoughts that you would like to share please leave a comment.

For more on business and freelancing please see:

• Making a Positive First Impression with Clients
• Facts About Marketing for Freelance Designers
• Keys to Effective Web Design Proposals
• How to Successfully Localize Your Design Business
• 21 Productive Things Designers Can Do with Down Time

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.

Ways to Make Positive First Impressions

Professional Portfolio Site

When clients visit the portfolio site of a web designer they will be forming opinions on the abilities of the designer partly based on the quality of the portfolio site itself. An attractive, professional, and functional portfolio site can be a tremendous tool for helping to land more clients, and it is one of the best ways to make a positive first impression. Most clients will expect your portfolio site to represent the best work that you are capable of, so be sure that it gets the attention it deserves.

For inspiration to use in your own portfolio site design you may be interested in:

• 40 Impressive Design Agency Websites
• 25 Beautiful Freelancer Portfolio Websites
• 25 Impressive Design Portfolio Websites
• One-Page Portfolios: Trends and Showcase

Quality of Work Displayed in the Portfolio

In addition to the quality of your own portfolio site, the quality of the work that is showcased in that portfolio will also be a big factor in the first impression that is formed by your clients and visitors. Before deciding on which designer to hire, clients want to see examples of work that have been done for other clients. If your portfolio shows a high quality of work on your client projects they will know that you are capable of producing the same great work for them.

Don’t feel like you have to show all of your client projects in your portfolio. It’s ideal to showcase your best work even if it means using a smaller number of projects in your portfolio. If you have projects from a few years ago that don’t represent the best work that you are capable of now, leave them out of your portfolio. You may also have projects that satisfied clients but didn’t really stand out as a quality piece to you. You may also want to leave these items out of your portfolio site.

Quick Response

If a client has visited your portfolio site and decided to contact you about their specific project they will probably be filling out a contact form or emailing you. The amount of time that passes before you respond can impact the first impression that they have regarding your communication. If you’re able to get back to them quickly they’ll feel more confident that you will manage the project effectively than if you take several days to respond.

Having a quick response time can be difficult because you’ll need to be able to balance the projects that you are currently working on with the need to respond to inquiries regarding future projects. Most likely you get a lot of email each day and responding immediately to each one can break up your workflow. It’s not necessary that you respond immediately, but the sooner you can get back to that client the better. Remember that they will be forming opinions based on your communication and they are most likely reaching out to other designers as well. If you’re able to quickly make a strong first impression it will go a long way towards encouraging them to chose to hire you rather than continuing to speak with other designers.

While there is no specific answer for how quickly you should respond, most clients will respond positively if you get back to them within one business day of their inquiry.

Personalized Attention

Each client and each project is unique. How you communicate with them will show that you appreciate the uniqueness of their project, or it can make them feel like you want to put them in a box with a generic response that is used with all of your potential clients. In order to show the personalized attention you should ask questions and get to know their situation, what they are looking for, and what you can do to help.

It’s a natural response for people to appreciate personalized attention, so the designer that makes the client feel like their project will be given the attention it deserves will be most likely to get the job. Ultimately the client wants positive results for their business as a result of the project, and they’ll feel more comfortable about getting those results with a designer that takes the time to provide personalized attention for the project.

Your Own Ideas and Suggestions

While you’re communicating with the client about their project and what they are looking for, don’t be afraid to present your own ideas or suggestions for the project. Some clients will know exactly what they want and they’ll only want you to make it happen, but most clients will view their web designer as a consultant as well. They’ll appreciate working with someone who can advise them through the process based on their professional experience.

If you’re able to make some suggestions or present ideas that could make the project more successful, less costly, or easy to maintain and manage going forward, the client will quickly see the value of hiring you.

Detailed Quote

Many clients don’t understand how designers come up with a price to charge for their work. Because prices can vary so much from one designer to the next, the client may feel like numbers are just being thrown around randomly. By providing a detailed quote that includes line items and a price breakdown, clients have an easier time understanding exactly what is involved, what they will be getting, and how the price is determined. Detailed quotes help to put clients at ease with the price.

Additionally, if you are in competition with other designers for landing the project, a detailed quote can show everything that is included in your proposal. Comparing prices from one designer to the next is often an apples to oranges comparison as not all designers are going to include the same things in the quoted price. Are you going to be doing things like setting up email accounts for the client, setting up analytics, social media, transferring files to a new server, etc.? If you list all of the services that you will provide in a detailed quote the client can get a better idea of exactly what you are offering, and they may not get the same thing from other designers who are quoting a lower price.

Clarity

In all communications with the client, clarity can go a long way towards making a positive impression. Avoid using industry jargon and terms that the client won’t understand and communicate with them at their own level. Jargon often confuses clients and makes them feel uneasy about the project since they don’t want to sign a contract for a project that they don’t understand. Make an effort to provide clarity and they will have a better impression about your ability to work with them and communicate effectively throughout the project.

What’s Your Opinion?

How do you go about making a positive first impression with clients? If you have any advice for our readers please feel free to leave a comment.

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.

1. Establish a Preferred Method of Communication

There are a lot of different ways that you can communicate with clients, and that also means that there are a lot of different ways for your clients to try to get in touch with you when they need something. In general that is a good thing, but it’s most efficient if clients know the best way to reach you so that they don’t waste time leaving messages in different places and so that you actually get their messages.

Many designers prefer email communication, or maybe an app like Basecamp. There are also a lot of other ways that clients can reach out to you, like phone calls, Twitter, Facebook, and even text messages. And when it comes to email communication, most people have more than one email address, so that can potentially complicate things as well. It’s a good practice to establish one as your preferred method of contact. That way clients know the most effective way to reach you, and you can have all of your communication organized in a way that works for you.

2. Develop a System

Once you have decided on a preferred method of communication you will need to develop a system for managing that communication. This is where project management and CRM apps can come in very handy, as they allow you to easily organize all of your messages with clients. However, you can also set up your own systems just by using something simple like folders for your emails. What system you choose to use is not as important as the fact that you have a system that works for you.

Without a good system you’ll probably find that you waste a lot of time trying to figure out what has been said between you and a client. Systematizing will allow you to maximize efficiency and waste as little time as possible on things that could be avoided with better organization, and you’ll also reduce the risk of making errors in your communication with clients.

3. Establish Policies Involving Communication with Clients

There are a number of issues that could arise involving communication with clients. As a result, it’s best to have a policy on the issues and share that policy with your new clients. This helps to avoid potential issues and it sets expectations both for you and for the client.

Some examples of things that can be addressed in your policies include:

• How soon should the client expect a response to an email?
• What method of communication should they use when there is an emergency?
• Will they be able to contact you on weekends?
• Will they be able to call you?
• Will they be charged for time on phone calls?

The basic goal of having a policy is to be clear upfront so that potential problems down the road can be avoided. It helps everyone to be on the same page and to know how the communication can be done in an efficient and effective way.

Issues like the length of time that clients should expect to wait for a response to an email can be especially applicable if you only check email at certain times throughout the day, as many designers do to be able to focus on the task at hand. Things like this can be good to clarify so that clients don’t feel like you’re ignoring their email for hours.

4. Avoid Industry Jargon

One of the worst things that you can do when communicating with clients is to use words and terms that clients don’t understand. If you do use industry jargon, be sure that you at least provide an explanation. Sometimes you may assume a client knows what you are talking about, but if they don’t it can cause problems later, so it’s best to err on the side or caution.

After you’ve worked with a client for a little while you’ll probably get a good feel for their level of experience, and with that knowledge you can know how to communicate with them so that they will understand, without over explaining things that they already understand.

5. Put it in Writing Whenever Possible

Most freelancers and designers work on projects with several different clients at any given point in time, and keeping track of all that communication can be very difficult. Also, clients have a lot more going on in their daily work than just dealing with the design project, so they can have a difficult time remembering everything as well. For these reasons and for your protection it is best to put it in writing whenever possible.

Phone calls me be a good way to communicate with some clients, but the downside is that there is no record of the details of that communication. With email you can go back and look at exactly what was said and when. This is helpful for those times where you just aren’t sure exactly what was said, and also for situations that might arise when a client remembers things differently than you do. If you are going to rely heavily on phone calls for your communication with clients it may be a good practice to write up a quick summary of the call after you get off the phone, and email a copy to the client. This way there is something in writing that can be referred to later if needed.

What is Your Experience?

If you have communication tips of your own please feel free to leave a comment.

When most designers consider making the move to freelance work they typically consider things like their specific skills and the potential freedom and flexibility that comes with freelancing. While those things are important it’s also critical that freelancers are able to find enough work to stay busy and to earn a living, and that usually requires some effort in marketing.

In this post we’ll take a look at some facts about marketing for freelance designers. If you’re considering moving into freelancing hopefully this information will help in your preparation. If you’re already freelancing and looking to get more out of your marketing efforts the article should be a help to you as well.

Time You Spend on Marketing is Time Lost for Designing

Marketing is a necessary part of running a business, but it’s important to keep in mind that your design work is the primary focus of your business. In an ideal situation you will develop some passive marketing methods that can bring new clients to you without the need for you to dedicate a lot of time to finding clients. The goal is to minimize the amount of time that you spend on marketing efforts so that you can dedicate more of your time for designing and for taking care of your clients. Most designers would prefer to not have to spend a lot of time on marketing anyway since doing the design work is the motivation for entering the industry in the first place.

There are plenty of methods for marketing your services and finding new clients, but some of them require much more time and effort than others. While these types of marketing methods may be needed at times, you aren’t going to want to spend the majority of your time just trying to land work.

Participating in design contests or spec work may lead to a new client, but more than likely you will just dedicate a lot of time without any payoff. Bidding sites work well for some freelancers, but for most they wind up just being a waste of time. If you’re able to get to the point where clients come to you because they have seen your work somewhere else or because of your name recognition, you will be able to spend most of your time on income-generating work, and on work that you enjoy.

Marketing is Needed, Especially for New Freelancers

Although the amount of time dedicated to marketing should ideally be kept as small as possible, marketing will always be necessary to some extent, and for new freelancers it will require more time and effort. If you’re considering making a move to the world of freelance designing be sure that you are prepared to spend considerable amounts of time on other aspects of running the business aside from just doing the design work.

There is too much competition in the industry for someone to build a successful freelance business without doing any kind of marketing work. However, if you work on building up a client base and taking care of them, eventually you should get to the point where marketing only takes a small amount of your time.

Your Network is Extremely Valuable

A strong professional network is an extremely valuable asset for any freelancer. If you’re well-connected to others in the industry and in related industries your marketing efforts can become a lot easier. A network is great for getting referral business, collaborations, launching new products and services, and really just about anything else.

If you’re starting out as a freelancer and you already have an established network, you’re at a great advantage. If you find yourself struggling to stay busy with client work, put some emphasis on strengthening your network by making new connections and improving existing ones. In the long run you’ll be much better off by dedicating time to building a network as compared to using that time to respond to project listings on bidding sites.

Word-of-Mouth is More Effective Than Just About Any Other Kind of Advertising

When one of your clients or someone from your network recommends you it will be much more effective at landing new business than just about any other type of advertising that you could do. People trust their friends and colleagues, so a personal recommendation carries a lot of weight and goes a long way towards convincing the potential client that you are the right person for the job.

Referrals and word-of-mouth advertising will typically occur naturally if you are building up your client base and taking care of those clients. Each happy client that you have out there is a potential salesperson for your business. And the best thing about referrals, it takes no time or effort on your part to find the lead. All you need to do is communicate with the potential client about your services and their project, and close the deal.

Some designers even encourage word-of-mouth advertising by giving a referral bonus or by doing something special for a client when they send more business. Another effective way to encourage referrals is simply to ask for them. While some of your satisfied clients will take the initiative to tell others about you, many times they won’t really think about who they know that could benefit from your services, but if you ask for referrals they’ll probably be willing to help out.

You Need to Stand Out

With so much competition out there it is critical for you to stand out in some way. Most potential clients will be browsing through several portfolios and looking at the work or many designers before deciding who to contact. It’s important that you stand out so they will feel that you may be a great fit for their project.

There are any number of ways that you can stand out. Some popular methods include: an amazing portfolio website, work done for a high-profile client, specialization, extensive work in a particular industry, and name recognition. You don’t need to do anything crazy so that you stand out to everyone who visits your website. What’s important is that you stand out to your target audience. So take time to think about what types of clients you want to work with. Think about what they will be looking for in a designer and find some way to make that happen so that you stand out as a great candidate for their project.

Your Portfolio Site is Critical

Your portfolio website can be an outstanding marketing tool. It can serve as a 24 hour salesperson for your services. If you’re offering web design services, visitors to your portfolio site will be judging your work not only by the quality of client projects shown in your portfolio, but also by the quality of your portfolio site itself.

A great portfolio site can help to establish yourself as a leader in the industry. With the popularity of web design gallery sites and design blogs that showcase sites for inspiration, a high-quality portfolio design can attract a lot of links and attention from the industry rather quickly.

Social Media Opens Up Possibilities for Passive Marketing

Social media and networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus present plenty of opportunities for promoting your work and building connections to others, but be careful of how much time you spend as it can easily absorb more time than you intend.

With social media it will take some time to establish your presence, build a following and connect with other users, but once you are established it can be a great way to passively market yourself. It’s a good practice to set aside a small amount of time each day, or at least a few times per week specifically for social media, but stick to it and don’t get carried away with the amount of time.

Marketing on social networking sites is usually most effective when it is not a blatant advertisement for your services. Sites like Facebook and Twitter were created for networking, but most users don’t want to feel like they are subjected to advertisements for your services. Some designers get great results by doing things like sharing their work in process, or linking to projects that they just finished, while asking for feedback. This gives you a chance to showcase your work while still being involved in productive conversations with your fellow users.

If you have a decent following you may be surprised that you can quickly find new potential clients just by posting about your completed projects or works in process. One of the great things about using social networking for finding work is that if you have established a connection with your followers over a period of time, once they have a need for your services it will be easier to land the work since you have built some rapport already.

Blogging Can Be Effective, or it Can be a Big Waste of Time

In this past we’ve published posts on the topic of blogging for freelancers (see 9 Reasons for Freelance Designers to Blog), but the reality is that many freelancers wind up wasting a lot of time by blogging with no results. Some designers just like to blog for a hobby with no intent to use it as a marketing method, and if that’s the case there is no problem with not getting results from your efforts.

If you want blogging to send new clients your way you will need a plan rather than randomly just posting something related to web design. With no plan it’s easy to spend time without seeing results, but with a plan you should (in time) get some new work out of your blogging efforts. When you are developing the plan for you blog think about your target audience and how they will relate to the services that you offer. Most design blogs target other designers with their content. Sometimes that content will lead to new clients, and it can certainly help for achieving more search engine traffic. But on the other hand you may also want to consider blogging about topics that your potential clients will be looking for.

Also, you should think about how you will convert blog traffic into client projects. Will you publish posts about your availability for client work? Will you publish posts to showcase client projects that you have just completed? Will you place links to your portfolio in prominent places on your blog? Will you encourage visitors to take action by contacting you about their projects?

There are any number of different approaches that you can take with your blog. The important thing is that you have a plan for getting results from your efforts and you’re not aimlessly spending time on the blog. For a more detailed look at the topic we have a brief e-book How to Use a Blog to Market Your Design Business, which is available at Vandelay Premier for $6.

Offline Marketing Can be Effective but is Often Ignored

Because web designers spend so much of their time online and because there are so many possibilities for online marketing, offline methods often get overlooked. If your online methods aren’t working as well as you would like, try changing things up by spending some time with face-to-face, in-person networking.

Popular offline methods of marketing for freelancers include attending networking events, conferences, seminars, handing out business cards, and meeting with people from your professional network.

It’s Necessary to be Proactive

For those freelancers who are just getting started and building a client base it is necessary to be proactive when it comes to networking and marketing. Don’t sit back and wait for clients to come to you. Make an effort to build relationships with others in the industry, reach out to people that you have never met, ask for referrals, contact people that you think could benefit from your services, and just be willing in general to put yourself out there.

Another way that you can help yourself by being proactive is to respond as soon as possible to anyone who contacts you about a project. Most potential clients that contact you will also be reaching out to a few other designers at the same time. The truth is, many designers are slow to respond to those inquiries, so if you show some initiative and get back to the client before other designers you’ll have a better chance of landing the work.

Current and Past Clients are a Great Resource

If you have been working with clients for a while you have a very valuable asset at your disposal in your client list. It pays to stay in contact with past clients by following up a few times per year to see if there is any way that you can help them. This doesn’t take a lot of time if your contacts are well organized, but it can lead to new projects pretty easily.

In addition to past clients, the clients that you are currently working with can be a great resource as well. If they’ve hired you for one service you may want to offer them some other services that may also be able to help them. Rather than needing to find more clients you can sell more services to some of your clients.

If there was some change in the products or services that you offer this client list can be a great source for getting a few projects quickly.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have some tips from your experience marketing yourself as a freelancer please feel free to share them in the comments.

Knowing when to make the move to full-time freelancing can be a difficult decision. Making the move too soon can lead to added risk that most people would prefer to avoid. On the other hand, a fear of taking that risk often leads to waiting longer than necessary. With that in mind, this article discusses 10 signs that you are ready to make the move to full-time freelancing.

The information in this article assumes that you are currently working a full-time job. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, especially with the current economic conditions. If you’re without a job and you’re looking into freelancing as a possible way to earn a living you may be forced into full-time freelancing earlier than you would otherwise prefer. But for the purpose of this article we will be looking at a situation where you are able to dictate when you give up the full-time job and move to freelancing.

If you’re struggling with the decision of when to move to full-time freelancing, these ten signs may be indicating that you are ready.

1. You Have Money Saved in Case of a Slow Start

Almost every designer that makes the transition from full-time employee to full-time freelancer will experience a short-term drop in income. Setting up the business and finding some clients can take a little bit of time, so unless you have work lined up before you leave the full-time job you will most likely have a reduced income at first. Of course, there are exceptions to this and it’s possible that you could immediately start making enough money to live on, but it’s best to be prepared by setting aside money to cover your living expenses for a few months in case of a slow start.

How much money you need to save will of course depend on your own situation and your expenses. It will also be influenced by your family situation. For example, if you have a spouse that earns enough money to cover most of the family’s expenses you will have more flexibility. If you’re responsible for the only income in the family and you have a few kids to support you’ll have less flexibility.

2. You’re Able to Deal with Some Instability in Income

One of the biggest differences between working as an employee and working as a freelancer is the stability of income. As an employee you know you will be getting paid a specific amount every two weeks, or maybe every month. But as a freelancer your income will fluctuate depending on the projects that you are working on and times at which you will be paid by the client throughout those projects.

There may be months where you make a lot more than you would have made in a full-time job, and there may be other months where you make very little. Some people have no problem dealing with an unstable income and planning for those slow times, but others would prefer to simply know what they are going to be paid and when it will happen.

If the thought of not knowing how much money you are going to make is something that you might not be able to handle, full-time freelancing probably isn’t for you. But in many cases this instability is something that you can learn to manage and even appreciate, as it gives you the opportunity to earn more than you could with a full-time job.

3. You Have More Potential Clients Than You Can Handle Part-Time

If you’re thinking about moving from full-time employment to full-time freelancing hopefully you have been able to do some freelancing part-time to test the waters before jumping in. If you are turning clients away because you don’t have enough time to dedicate to their projects, that is a good sign that there will be enough demand for your services if you move to full-time freelance.

Of course, you’ll need more projects or higher paying projects if you move to full-time freelance, but you’ll also have more time to market your services (if needed) and you’ll be building a larger client base that could lead to on-going work and referrals. Being able to land clients is obviously one of the most significant factors in being successful as a freelancer, so already having more clients than time is a good sign.

4. You’re Willing to Put in Long Hours

While most people are drawn to freelancing because of the flexibility and freedom that it brings, the truth is that most freelancers work longer hours than the typical full-time employee who works 40 hours a week. From the outside it may seem that freelancers probably get to sleep in and work when they feel like it, but for most freelancers long hours are needed, at least early on.

Although freelancers often work long hours it is not always the case that they have to do so in order to earn a living. Many freelancers enjoy their work much more than they did when working as an employee, and the added freedom to chose which clients you work with and the benefits of seeing more rewards (often financially) for hard work can lead to a desire to work longer hours.

While it may not always be necessary for you to work longer hours as a freelancer, it is something that you should be aware of and you should anticipate it at least in the early months while you are establishing yourself.

5. You Desire More Freedom and Responsibility

If you’ve been working for a design agency or as an in-house designer and you find yourself wishing that you had more freedom to choose the projects that you work on and more responsibility for managing projects, freelancing can provide that for you. Most people want the freedom that freelancing can provide, but not everyone wants the added responsibility that comes along with it. As a freelancer you will be responsible for securing the work, leading the project, doing the design work, communicating with the client, and really anything else that is involved.

As an employee you probably have very little say in what projects you are assigned. Your company lands a new client and it is your responsibility to work on the project whether it is something that interests you or not. As a freelancer you will have the opportunity to pursue projects as you see fit, and if you are in a position where there is a lot of demand for your services you may be able to always be working on projects that interest you.

6. You Have a Portfolio That Shows Your Best Work

Every freelancer needs a strong portfolio, but you don’t have to start from scratch. Depending on the situation with your employer and the clients you may be able to use some of your work from your full-time job in your portfolio. If it’s your work that you are showing off it really doesn’t make much of a difference to potential clients whether you did that work as a freelancer or as an employee. Also, if you’re freelancing part-time on the side you will be able to use those projects in your portfolio, which can help to make the portfolio stronger before going to full-time freelancing. Sometimes freelancers also use personal projects in their portfolio, which is an option if you don’t have client projects that you’re able to include in the portfolio.

If you already have several quality items that you are able to showcase in your portfolio you will be one major step closer to being ready for full-time freelancing. If not, that is something that you should focus on before attempting to freelance full-time.

7. You’re Confident in Your Abilities and in Your Process

If you’re working for an agency you most likely have some co-workers that you can turn to for help or advice when issues arise in your projects. As a freelancer you’ll be on your own. That independence is great in many ways, but you’ll need to be able to get the job done without having a team of co-workers at your disposal. This can be a pretty stressful situation if you’re not confident in your abilities.

In addition to having the ability to get the job done, you’ll also need to develop a process for managing client projects. This includes everything from getting initial details about the project, to determining a price and drafting a proposal, to gathering and organizing client feedback, to invoicing, and everything else in between.

8. You Have Experience Working Directly with Clients

Sometimes by working as an in-house designer or working for an agency you may be shielded from having much direct contact with clients. As a freelancer this is a major part of your job, and in order to be successful you’ll need to be good at working with clients. In an ideal situation you will have some experience working with clients and managing projects before moving to full-time freelance. If you can’t gain this experience through your job (as may be the case with many in-house designers), starting with part-time freelancing while still at your full-time job is a great way to move forward. The experience that you gain from freelancing part-time will help to prepare you without the pressure that you would have if you jump to full-time freelancing without this experience.

9. You’re Willing to Deal with the Finances of Running a Business

Most freelance designers don’t especially enjoy this aspect of running a business, but it doesn’t have to be that bad. There are a ton of tools and apps available that can help with invoicing and managing your finances, and for a one-person operation it’s not going to require a significant amount of your time. If you’re willing to put in the effort to get your finances organized and stay on top of them, you won’t need to be a financial expert.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t need to be that complicated, some people just don’t want to deal with this aspect of business. If that’s the case, full-time freelancing is probably not a good fit.

10. You Have a Strong Professional Network

Having a strong network can help a freelancer in countless different ways. If you’re fortunate enough to have already established a strong professional network before moving to full-time freelancing you will be in a great position. Simply reaching out to people in your network to let them know that you will be moving to full-time freelance work can result in new projects and referrals which will help you to hit the ground running. In addition, you may find some opportunities for mutual benefit that can lead to on-going sources of new clients.

Aside from gaining clients there are a lot of other benefits to having a network. When you’re just getting started as a freelancer you may want to have a few experienced freelancers that you can turn to when you have questions about managing projects, developing proposals and contracts, establishing policies for payment, or even just for getting feedback on your design work.

A network can also be extremely helpful if/when you need to outsource part of a project to someone you can trust. Collaborative projects are also a possibility. In general, a strong network can make the transition to full-time freelancing much more successful and can help you to get through some of the challenges that you’ll face. If you have that strong network already, you are in a good position. If not, try to focus on building some relationships and connections before moving to full-time freelancing.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make the Jump

My personal opinion is that preparation certainly helps to make the transition smooth, but everyone’s situation is unique. If you really want to move to full-time freelance but you don’t have all of these 10 points covered, don’t feel like making the move simply isn’t an option. Many people respond well to the challenge of making it in full-time freelance despite having a few things working against them. Sometimes having a little extra pressure is good for motivation and can lead to better results, but not everyone’s situation allows for taking that kind of risk. Evaluate your own situation and see if you are ready and able to face the challenges before making the jump.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have any advice that you would like to share please leave a comment.

An increasing number of web and graphic designers are turning to free resources in effort to promote their services and products. In an industry that can be highly competitive any means of standing out and gaining exposure can go a long way. The method of gaining exposure from freebies is being used by designers for promoting their services for clients, as well as for promoting their own products, such as WordPress themes and PSD files. A few months ago we looked at some real world examples in Designers Using Freebies to Grow Their Business, and today we’ll explore the topic further by providing some tips for those who would like to try this method for themselves.

The freebie promotional method includes a great deal of flexibility, so it can be used by designers and developers in a number of different ways. As was already mentioned, freebies can be used to gain exposure in attempt to land more client work or to sell more files and resources. In addition, freebies can be distributed from your existing website or blog, from a website or blog owned by someone else, or you can set up a site specifically for distributing freebies. We’ve all seen freebies being distributed from blogs, but an example of a site whose primary function is distributing freebies is Allur. They also sell WordPress themes, which the freebies help to promote.

We have some experience of our own using freebies on this blog as well as on many other design blogs, mostly to promote our design resource membership site, Vandelay Premier. The post is written based on our own experience, observing what other designers are doing, and from talking to other designers about their experiences with freebies.

Have a Plan

Giving away resources like PSD files, Photoshop brushes, vectors, icons, and textures is a great way to gain some exposure and subtly promote your other products and services, but in order to make it work you’ll need a plan. Do you want to use freebies in effort to land client work, or do you want to use freebies to promote premium resources that other designers can purchase?

You’ll also want to consider whether you want to release the freebies on you own existing website or blog, on sites or blogs own by others, or if you want to establish a site specifically for distributing the freebies. Creating a dedicated site will require the most time and effort and is probably only a good idea if you plan to spend considerable time on freebies going forward or to build up a large collection of free resources.

Whether your ultimate purpose is to find client work or sell premium resources to designers you should consider what freebies to release and how they relate to your products and services. For example, at Premium Pixels designer Orman Clark has given away free PSD files for website layouts. Those resources can be downloaded for free and coded versions are available as WordPress themes at ThemeForest. So the freebie is great at attracting interest and anyone who wants to use it on WordPress can get the theme and save themselves the time and effort of coding it.

Not all freebies will promote your premium products this well, but it’s a good idea to release freebies that will appeal to the same specific audience as your products or services, and if you can form a natural flow from the free resources to your products or services it will have a better chance of being a successful promotional method.

Focus on Quality Over Quantity

Although freebies aren’t going to directly earn money for you, it’s still in your best interest to invest the time and effort to makes sure the quality is high. Those who download the resources will likely judge the quality of your products and services based on the quality of your freebies. If the free resources prove to be useful to them and you have other premium products available they will be more likely to consider making a purchase. If you’re a service provider, high-quality freebies will show potential clients the type of work that you are capable of producing for them.

Consider Using Freebies to Build a List

If you’re giving away resources to designers you may want to consider building a list while you’re at it. The list could be either a separate mailing list that you ask people to subscribe to in return for getting the free resources, or the list could be a subscription for updating people when new free and/or premium resources are available. Either way, the list will allow you to gain more exposure and reach more people on a repeat basis.

For example, Allur uses a modal popup to encourage visitors to subscribe to be notified when new resources are released.

Another example is from this blog. At the bottom of each post we have a promotion that offers a bundle of free vectors and icons for anyone who subscribes to our mailing list. It has proven to be a helpful method for promoting our mailing list and communicating with subscribers on a regular basis.

Popular Blogs Provide A Great Platform

There are hundreds of thousands of people out there who regularly read and subscribe to design blogs. The leading web and graphic design blogs have a huge reach, and some of them release freebies for their readers. If you have a high-quality resource that could be of use to readers it would provide a tremendous opportunity for exposure. In most cases you’ll get a link back to your own site and you may even get a brief author bio.

While it’s not an easy path to success, the exposure that comes from top design blogs can certainly send some visitors to your site and possibly result in new clients or product sales.

But Don’t Ignore Smaller Sites

Although the leading design blogs do present tremendous opportunities, smaller blogs shouldn’t be ignored. It will be easier to get your resources released at smaller blogs because they won’t have so many offers from other designers, and they still could have a significant and highly-targeted audience. Some smaller blogs have even developed very loyal and active followers, which may result in more downloads or more attention being paid to your freebies.

Brand Your Preview Images

If you’re releasing freebies on other websites and blogs it is a good practice to brand your preview images by using your own logo whenever possible. Most blog readers simply scan content and they may not notice the text that credits you with the freebie, but they’re likely to notice your logo on the image preview. Additionally, many blogs have their content scraped by other sites and if you include the branding on the preview image you will be getting exposure wherever that it is being scraped.

For example, Qbrushes created some brush sets for Smashing Magazine and they used their own logo, as well as Smashing Magazine’s logo, in the image previews. These brush sets have been linked to by a lot of other blogs, and in many cases the preview image is used. So Qbrushes has gained a lot of exposure by using their logo here.

Brand Your File and Folder Names

In addition to branding your preview images it’s a good idea to brand your file and/or folder names. Most designers download a lot of freebies, and while those freebies may stay on their hard drive for a long time they might eventually forget who created them or where they were downloaded. If you include your name or your website’s name in the folder or file names it can serve as a reminder when they use the files.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have any tips from your own experience of using freebies for promotion, please share your thoughts in the comments.

Being able to draft an effective proposal is an essential part of staying busy and keeping money coming in as a freelance designer. In order to land client work you will need to be able to break down what you have to offer. Working on proposals is often an intimidating part of the process for new freelancers, so we’ll take a look at some things that you can do to improve the effectiveness of your own proposals for client projects.

Here are some keys to proposals that will help you to land the client’s business.

Meets the Needs and Wants of the Client

Before submitting a proposal to the client you should take the time to get to know their project and specifically what they want and need. A proposal that matches up with what the client wants will obviously be the most effective in terms of landing the business, but some designers tend to rush the initial stages of getting familiar with the client and project. This often leads to a proposal that doesn’t really fit with what the client wants, and it results in lost business and missed opportunities.

In addition to covering the things that the client wants, if you have identified some things that the client really needs you should include them in your proposal, and explain to the client why it is in their best interest. This will help the project to be more successful for the client, and if they choose not to follow your advice at least you have done your part by advising.

Specific Line Items

Clients often get overwhelmed when they see the total price of a project. Sometimes this is due to the price being higher than they expected, but most often it is because they don’t see everything that is involved in getting to the final product. Even if your proposed price is higher than the client is expecting (or hoping for) it’s still possible to land their business by justifying the cost. The best way to do this is to break the proposal down into line items. This way they can see the specific steps or parts of the project, and each one can have it’s own cost, which adds up to the total price.

As an example, rather than quoting a web design project by simply giving a total price, present line items for things like wireframing, design and layout, HTML/CSS coding, backend development, testing, etc. It’s helpful to also provide an estimate as to how many hours of work will be involved in each line item. When a client sees this it shows that you have given considerable thought to their project and it helps them to see how much is involved in the whole process. When it is broken down prices often look more reasonable and justified to clients, and less like you are just pulling a number out of the air.

Easy to Understand

The most effective proposals will be clear to the clients. If they can’t understand it they may feel uneasy about agreeing, or there could be conflicts later if they were under false impressions about the details of the project. Write proposals in language that is easy for anyone to understand and avoid industry jargon whenever possible. If you spent time getting to know the client and the project before preparing the proposal you probably have a good idea about the level of understanding, and you can draft the proposal accordingly.

Make sure that you take the time to ask the client if they have any questions about the proposal or if anything is unclear, and straighten out those issues before moving forward. If the client is able to feel comfortable with the proposal and with your willingness to be upfront and to take care of anything that is unclear, they will likely feel more comfortable about working with you and trusting you with their project. If the proposal is confusing to them and makes them feel like you’re trying to slip something past them, getting their business will be unlikely.

Limitations

One of the purposes of developing a proposal that is specific and detailed is to set the scope of the project, rather than leaving it open ended. You may also want to mention some specifics that are not included in the fee quoted in the proposal. Again, this helps to avoid unnecessary conflict later, and it helps to protect you from scope creep.

Consider Multiple Proposals

In some situations, certainly not all, you may want to consider giving the client an alternative option. An example of this would be if you’re working on a proposal for a client who has a budget that doesn’t match up to everything that they want to include in the project. If their budget is significantly lower than you can charge for everything that they want, you may consider developing two proposals: one that incorporates everything that they want and comes with a higher price tag, as well as an alternate proposal that matches their budget but doesn’t give them everything. This way you can give them an option in their price range and they can decide if they can live without certain parts of the project in order to stay on budget.

If your proposal is way over their intended budget it’s easy for them to walk away, but if you give them another option it shows that you’re attempting to work with them and they may decide that it includes everything they really need.

Accompanied by a Conversation

Ideally you will be able to have a conversation with the client to go over the proposal and explain anything that may surprise them. There may be times when a client has hesitations, but being able to talk through them can help to work out the differences. Also, a conversation may allow you to identify areas of concern for the client, and you may be able to make small adjustments to the proposal to address these issues. If you don’t discuss the proposal with the client it is much more difficult to identify the specific aspects of the proposal that concern the client.

Followed Up

Many clients will not make a decision right away. For this reason you’ll need to be pro-active and follow up with clients if you haven’t been able to secure the business. Just because you haven’t heard from them doesn’t mean that you have no chance to get their business. Many clients hesitate to move forward, so don’t just assume that they have hired someone else and they no longer have a need for your services.

All you need to do is send a simple email, or make a phone call, to ask if they have made a decision. Also, ask if they have any questions regarding the proposal. In order to encourage clients to move forward more quickly you may want to consider adding an expiration date to your proposals. For example, you could mention that your proposal is valid for 60 days and then after that time you would need to re-evaluate the project. Since your prices may increase in the future and since your availability may change it is perfectly reasonable to do this, and it can also encourage the client to make a decision and take action.

Create Your Own Proposals with the Freelance Starter Kit

At Vandelay Premier we offer a bundle of resources called the Freelance Starter Kit. The bundle includes things like contract templates, identity sets, interviews, e-books, and more. The identity sets include templates for proposals, so you can easily present an attractive and effective proposal to your clients. As of the time of this post being published, we are currently collaborating with MightyDeals to offer a $10 discount on the Freelance Starter Kit ($19 instead of $29). See the details of the deal.