Questions You Should Ask Yourself before Going Freelance

Many designers out there see that freelance work is more flexible and comfortable than full time employment.  Some go even further, thinking that being a freelancer is all about waking up late and being your own boss. These misleading thoughts are actually the first steps to failure as a freelance graphic designer.

Believe it or not, a freelance job is much harder than most full time jobs. If you have a different opinion, let’s see in this article what you need to become a successful freelance designer, and you can share with us your opinion and what you think about both types of jobs.

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Unlike a full time designer job, freelance jobs are not restricted to certain working hours, a place or a boss that runs after you to meet the deadlines. While these seem to be disadvantages of full time jobs, a few designers really need these restrictions in order to finish their work, especially when they are not obligated to stick to deadlines and project requirements. On the other hand, a full time job is more stable and ensures a monthly salary even if you did not do enough projects during the month.

While working a full time job is more secure and less risky, you can gain more profits and revenues from your freelance projects, the secret is to know how to handle it.

Moving to a freelance-based job is very challenging and you should be 100 percent sure that you can handle this new life successfully. Therefore, there are few questions you should ask yourself before thinking of quitting your full time job and becoming a freelance designer. Let us overview these questions and observe them together.

Does freelancing suite you?

Do you really think that you can become a successful freelance designer? This is a very important question because no one can really answer it but you. Due to the risky nature of freelance jobs, you need to always dedicate more time to work in order to get revenues that can help you in hard times when there is a lack of projects. Thus, you will need to work for longer than in an ordinary full time job, which means that you will either work late nights or early mornings, and this is totally the opposite of what many designers think.

Also, do you think that you are disciplined enough to meet deadlines and understand the project without supervision? If so, then you can successfully handle your own clients’ projects and meet their requirements and deadlines. Check Fatal Mistakes Freelancers Should Avoid.

 

Do you have the required experience?

In full time design jobs, you are part of a large team that makes you a small gear in a big machine, in which you can rely on very focused and specific experience and skills to handle your part of the job within the team.

A freelance designer should have more skills and experience than a full time designer, because the client may ask for different types of designs. For example, the client may ask both for logo design and web design, while a full time designer can only be required to do either of these tasks.

The more experience you have, the more projects and clients you can get. However, being specialized in one design field gives you more experience in it. You can extend this experience to help you in your freelance job.

Some opinions suggest that designers can learn programming to be able to handle complete projects and do both designing and developing for a project. It may be very hard for many designers to excel both in design and developing, but they can just know basic coding information to handle small tasks related to their design work, such as converting designs to HTML and CSS. Check Skills You Need to Get a Design Job.

In addition to knowing the design tools and having technical skills, you will need other skills, such as:

• Management skills, as you will need to manage your own projects. Also, you may have to work remotely with different teams.
• Presentation skills, as you will need to present your services to the client in a professional way in order to be considered for the job.
• Marketing skills are required to market your skills and services. Bad marketing can have a bad impact on your freelance career.
• Financial management, as you will need to manage the payment process from different clients; here are some Tips to Manage Your Freelance Payments.

Where can you find clients?

While full time designers do not need to look for new projects, a freelance designer always needs to find new clients and build business relationships. When you become a freelance designer, you will need good business development skills and the ability to find new business possibilities and extend your client base.

Freelance designers who rely on a limited number of clients face real problems when a client stops working with them, either because their project ends or due to other problems that might occur in the employment. However, you need to find out where you can find new clients. Here are some ideas that can help:

• Contact local companies and present your services based on each company’s needs
• Find clients on remote hiring sites, such as Elance and Odesk. You can find more similar sites in the article, Quick Guide for Freelancers to do Well in Recession
• Find clients on design sites that have job boards, such as Smashing Magazine and Freelance Switch
• Find clients on full time jobs sites, such as Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired, LinkedIn, CareerBuilder and Dice
• Build attractive profiles on design social media sites, such as Behance, Coroflot and Deviantart

 

Can you live with it?

Life as a freelance designer is totally different from having a full time job, as you are not restricted to working hours and you will find yourself looking for new projects all the time. This can turn your life upside down and change your daily routine completely, especially when you have a family.

Thus, it is very important to ask yourself if you can lead this new lifestyle and really adapt to the new workload. While a full time job is full of meetings and work within the team, team communication is very limited in freelance jobs, as you will get in touch with your clients and do meetings online, especially when you and your client are in different countries.

 

Do you have a workplace?

Having your own office or workplace is very important to start your freelance design job. Many designers think that going freelance means they can really work from any place, but that is only for necessary tasks, such as communication and email follow-ups, etc.

If you are looking for a serious freelance design career, you need to have an office or a place to work that is quiet and enables you to focus on your tasks. You will need to have all the required equipments in this place to help you have a better workflow.

As we mentioned, many designers prefer to stick with office jobs, as they are more secure and allow you to get promoted on a career path, while others are ambitious for more revenues and challenging projects from various clients. The questions above are very important and you should consider these before starting your freelance design career. Do you really think that freelance jobs are better than office jobs? Do these questions answer your inquiries about freelance jobs?

Share with us your opinion and let us know your own point of view on freelance jobs.