"Nice site, but after looking at a few of your posts it looks like you don’t like clients or enjoy freelancing all that much. Looks like you had a lot of bad experiences – sorry, just seems that way." – Rachel
Lol. That’s a pretty good observation, Rachel; you don’t have to feel sorry about it. I’ve actually had some wonderful clients over the years, and I do enjoy freelancing. But my passion in developing this blog, as well as the resources I’ve made available, is to help creative professionals avoid the mistakes I’ve made in my career.
A close look at any design forum and you’ll see there’s not only a lot of confusion but frustration out there. Freelancing, like any profession, has pros and cons. Sanitation workers get a lot of fresh air, but most of the air is smelly due to the garbage they collect. Similarly, doctors typically make a fair amount of money but endure a tremendous amount of schooling as well as pressure. Freelancing affords us a unique lifestyle, but along with that often comes: unfair clients, steep competition and lower profit margins (seems like everyone’s a “designer” now).
I’ve found there are more than enough websites and blogs that cover fonts, color palettes, cutting-edge designs, Photoshop tutorials, etc, but there weren’t many of them that address the real challenges that freelancers face – in an honest, upfront way. That’s what my passion is; for good or ill. Freelancing is a wonderful profession, and there are loads of people out there that are enjoyable to work with. I just want to make sure that creative folks like you are as prepared as possible to deal with the trials that await you.
Whether you’re self taught or you’ve gone through design school, I’ve found that most aspiring (even experienced) designers can get tripped up by certain situations. I know I have, I’ve had to learn the hard way, like so many other designers. My goal and passion for all of this “stuff” is to help freelancers enjoy and profit from their talent…and at the same time, avoid the costly mistakes so many of us have made along the way. I am here to help.
"I’ve seen other designers use social media to build their business; do you have any advice on it?" – William
Thanks for dropping me a line, William. Social media can be a valuable component to getting clients and keeping the ones you have. The challenge with social media is to provide a mix of personality, humor, valuable/relevant content to your followers, providing special offers, sprinkled with a touch (just a touch) of marketing/sales and information about your personal life. Lean heavily towards providing content that is valuable and relevant to your followers.
Like anything else, your clients must have a reason to follow you; they have to get some value out of it. Ask yourself, “How will following me on social media outlets help my clients in either a professional or personal way?” If you can’t answer that, you can’t realistically expect people to want to follow you. If you can answer that and you feel your clients will get some value from hearing from you, I’d say, “Go for it.”
Be helpful, be relevant and be genuine in your social media communications, and remember that people will always want to hear from you if you have something THEY feel is valuable.
Thanks for the mail, guys, feel free to drop me a line anytime. I am here to help.
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