In this week’s episode we chat some more about how to start a freelance design business. We look at how to make that initial rocky road into freelancing freedom a little bit more steady. If you’re looking to build a solid foundation for your creative business and freelancing efforts, then today’s episode is for you.

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Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:00] This week we’re revisiting one of our most popular topics: freelancing
[2:00] Freelancing in particular takes a lot of courage
[2:30] Lisa remembers freelancing and hiring her own office space
[3:15] She looks back at renting an office and signing the lease on the office space
[4:00] This made Lisa believe in herself, take it seriously and make It work
[5:00] Dustin and Ian think that Lisa was brave to rent an office as quitting your job and moving into freelancing is scary enough
[5:45] When working for yourself you must consider the tax amount as this can be a significant cost
[6:30] As soon as he gets paid Ian automatically puts aside 20% of his earning for tax
[6:45] Lisa agrees but Dustin found this a bit more difficult
[7:30] Ian remembers gaining interest on his savings account
[8:00] Lisa reveals she gets 8% interest on her savings account in South Africa
[9:00] Lisa used to work out how many jobs will she need to cover rent, make a living etc.
[10:30] Dustin just finished ‘The 4-Hour Workweek Book’ by Timothy Ferriss
when he made the move into freelancing
[11:00] He went back to college to finish design and immediately started freelancing
[11:30] He knew exactly how much he needed to make it, but didn’t know how to get to that number
[12:00] Tom says he felt the same and he used to make business plans that didn’t translate into anything
[12:45] Tom started freelancing as a teenager while he was still living with his parents
[13:30] He remembers the struggles he had with the lack of finance
[14:00] He used to be a Technical Editor for a magazine about Photoshop
[14:30] Lisa knew she needed a long-standing client so she can afford the office space
[15:10] Getting that one client was a game changer for her, and she never had to advertise her business again
[15:40] Dustin agrees and says that finding someone who constantly needs work is where he got traction as well
[16:00] Dustin worked for the ‘Paid to Exist’ blog which needed graphics, eBooks and website work, as they need constant work
[16:40] Ian was able to move from 2 to 5 days of freelance work when he started working for one of his friends
[17:20] This provided him with regular income
[17:45] Tom suggest using reminders for annual events and pop the client an email to ask if they need any work done
[18:15] One of Ian’s other clients was a subscription based company for which he applied designs via style sheets to the naked websites
[19:00] Knowing that was regular work meant he had time to say yes to more work and promote himself
[19:30] Lisa’s biggest client was Medical Aid for which she did newsletters, membership cards, website etc.
[20:00] Dustin says you need to find a client that has no budgetary restrictions as it’s much easier to sell to them
[20:20] The worst types of client are bands – as they rarely have budget
[21:00] One of Tom’s clients was an electric base teacher for which he redesigned the whole website and got a lot of maintenance work from
[22:00] Steady work is important as this will help pay the bills
[22:40] Lisa says that even though her brand ambassador projects were not exciting they’ve helped pay the bills
[23:00] A perfect client is someone who appreciates the value you bring to the business, is willing to pay for it and is happy you’ve taken over the design work
[23:40] These types of companies expect to pay for a designer and you don’t need to resell them constantly
[24:00] They are also more relaxed and they trust you more
[24:40] Dustin gives an example of friend who anticipated a client’s work for an entire year and calculated their retainer
[25:10] Clients dream of working with these types of people and are willing to pay the bill
[25:45] Tom suggests clarifying with the client which work is included in the retainer and which type of work will incur an additional cost
[26:00] Ian never used a retainer as he feared he would get it wrong
[26:30] Look at your stats and see how many people you’re losing and gaining and be strategic about this and address the problem
[27:00] Lisa tried a retainer once and it didn’t work because of lack of brief and direction, which meant she was doing a lot of extra work
[28:00] She says she spent more time on this than on a normal job, and she could have spent her time on doing something more lucrative
[28:30] Dustin had a retainer which had a set amount of time every month, and even if the time didn’t get used he would still get paid
[29:20] Tom would like to continue with the freelancing topic, and do a new episode on creating physical and digital products
[30:20] Dustin’s first step into freelancing was getting something credible
[31:00] When he got started with freelancing Ian still did a lot of work for the company he used to work previously
[32:00] His restaurant work also came from recommendations from past relationships
[32:30] It’s important to have good relationships with people that might need your services
[33:30] Lisa used to do free pitches for jobs
[34:00] Her turning point came after doing a huge project, which the client said it won’t go ahead with, only to use her design later
[34:50] This made Lisa believe in her that she was good enough to do the work, charge more and stop doing work for free
[35:30] This negative experience helped boost Lisa’s confidence in her talents
[36:20] You will not be able to bypass these experiences, but you’ll also have loads of positives
[36:50] These experiences will also shape you and teach you how to act in certain situations
[37:20] Moving into freelancing means completely changing you mind set from when you were an employee
[38:00] It is important to think positive and be optimistic about your work
[38:30] Dustin needed to own something and didn’t want to spend his time working for someone else, doing something he didn’t want to
[39:00] Ian remembers one of his friend’s dad who was a graphic designer, had a studio at home and wanting to be like him
[39:50] Once you go freelance you can never go back
[40:40] Wherever you are at right now, look at what you want and go for it
[41:20] The hosts suggest not to focus on the money, but what type of designer you want to be and what you want to achieve
[41:40] Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode


“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!”AG_GD