Year One

31 August 2010

It’s been a whole year since I officially started working as a freelance designer last August. I graduated from uni, had a brief fling with some full-time remote working, had an awkward interview with a recruiter and then decided that I’d rather give it a go by myself.

Getting Started

I felt pretty ready for freelancing full-time, I’d had a lot of experience on projects whilst I was at university. I knew I could run a project and I knew I could do the work. I’d done a one-day course at uni in freelance accounting and got myself a business account and subscription to FreeAgent so I felt like I could stay on top of the finance side.

The first month started pretty slowly, but that was only the first month. With the help of two lovely people in particular, Chris Book and Simon Wheatley, I got to know a few people and started getting a few projects under my belt. I really couldn’t thank these two guys enough for recommending me to their friends and giving me great opportunities.

I’ve found that meeting people (I don’t like networking, it’s too false) is incredibly important when you’re starting out. After that, my network seemed to grow itself!

The Stats

I can’t believe how much I’ve done. I’ve just worked these out:

• Projects completed –; 27
• Current projects –; 6
• WordPress themes created –; 13
• Logos designed –; 10
• iPhone app designs –; 3
• Static website designs –; 6
• Illustration projects –; 2
• Website maintenance projects –; 3
• HTML e-mail designs –; 1

Getting Work

From the stats above, you can see that I’ve been busy! Thanks to Chris and Simon and a lot of really great clients, I’ve managed to be constantly booked up and busy since last October. I’m now booking up around two/three months in advance.

It’s been difficult. Learning to not stress and cope with a big workload is one of the many things I’ve tried to get my head around.

Trying to learn

Not necessarily things I’ve already learnt, but things I’m in the process of learning!

1. Scheduling projects is all well and good but nothing ever stays on schedule.

Feedback isn’t instant, work takes much longer or nowhere near as long as estimated. It’s not a nightmare if I don’t stress about it, but I’m getting good at frequently reorganising and juggling projects.

2. Desk space is important.

Work got miles easier when I had my own working area set up. Matt built me a great custom desk, shelf unit and wall-mounted my second screen. When I’m at my desk, I’m working. The division between working at home and just being at home makes a big difference.