Freelancing 101: Where business meets pleasure

Posted by Antonea Nabors on July 9, 2009

Like any business, it takes time to build a strong and trustworthy clientele. So where does someone new to freelancing find new clients willing to pay for their services? The easiest way to find clients is through family, friends, and word of mouth. The downfall of this method comes when these new clients expect discounts and think that your work method is customizable to fit into their schedule just because you are acquaintances.

Design is a very new and unknown territory to many of the clients you will accumulate over your professional design career and new things scare people. Expensive services make people runaway as well. It is important to establish from the very beginning that you are a professional and just because you happen to work from home doesn’t make it ok for these types of clients to take advantage of your craft and your services.

Example: Your mom has been getting her hair cut at the same salon for the past 10 years and her stylist mentions that the salon is in desperate need of a website redesign. Being the amazing mother she is, she tells her stylist that her son/daughter does web design for a living and leaves a business card with the salon.

You now have a new client who has a long-lasting relationship of 10 years with your mother and because of that relationship they assume it will reflect in the price that you quote them for their redesign. Not to mention your payment plan doesn’t work for them!

So, how do you maintain a balance between business and pleasure while keeping both parties happy?

First impression means everything!
Chances are your new client contacted you by either being directed to your email through your business card or website. These two mediums are your first impression. Even though you are a freelancer it is important that your marketing material look professional. This lets your client know immediately that you mean business.

Keep the casual conversation to a minimum.
Even though your client was introduced or referred to you in a casual setting the last thing you want to do is devalue your professionalism by allowing your client to have ongoing casual conversations with you. By keeping the majority of your client conversations on a professional level they will realize that you are serious about your job and their project.

Bind them to a written agreement and contract.
Paperwork sometimes makes people feel like you can’t trust them, and the last thing you want is for your client to feel like you can’t trust them, especially when they are a family friend or a friend of a friend. Let it be known that paperwork is part of your workflow and design process and that you provide it for the protection of their business.

Educate your client.
Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of potential clients haven’t the slightest idea as to what a logo, website, or a brochure costs and why it costs what it does. It is your job to enlighten your client to every reason why you have quoted them at the price you did. It is unethical for anyone to pay someone else a large amount of money and not to know why. It makes your client feel 1000% better about paying you your desired fee once they know why.

When is it ok to give a discount?
Discounts are tricky because designers aren’t mind readers. Do I give my new client a discount on their first design project because they are an acquaintance, or should they understand that I am running a professional business and charge them full price? If I give them a discount the first time will they expect one every time? Or do I not even consider a discount at all until they are proven to be a trustworthy client and quote them for my services and risk the chance of being too expensive and potentially lose a new client?

Discounts depend solely on the information you have gathered from your client before quoting them. If you have assessed your client and let your professionalism shine through, then hopefully you have learned enough about them to make the decision to offer them a discount or not to. Discounts also are determined by your affordability. Can you financially afford to cut the price for this person? Do you see promise of them using your services in the future?

Giving someone a discount is 100% up to you. I wouldn’t recommend giving discounts out to one-time clients. Discounts should be something earned, and if you are only doing one project for someone with nothing lined up in the future for them they don’t really deserve a discount unless they have brought other paying clients to you.

I have made every mistake in the book when it comes to freelancing. I hope that these few areas of concern enlighten you and help you make the right decisions. It is important for all designers new to freelancing know the power of saying NO. You are not obligated to provide your services to anyone who isn’t willing to pay for their appropriate price or to someone who takes advantage of you just because they are paying you. You will encounter all kinds of clients throughout your freelance career and you should always stay in control of your own work. Jeremy Jaymes of Papertree Design has an excellent article about the types of clients he has encountered over his time of being a freelancer. I’d suggest reading his article: It Takes All Kinds, Be Cautious before jumping into any design project with a new client.

On July 13, 2009 at 1:54 am Luis Lopez wrote:

Is really difficult to start a business in design, because everyone thinks they can do what we do, or his son, or daughter or friend.
So the idea is that we do things not really valuable like a layer, or accounting.
You are right with your ideas, I think the same, we must educate our clients and show them we are professionals, tray to make valuable our profession, for us and for the other colleagues.
Excellent article lady!!

On July 13, 2009 at 11:23 pm Antonea Nabors wrote:

Thanks Luis!

It is most certainly about educating our clients. The thing about being a lawyer or an accountant is that they are well-known jobs. Design isn’t nesseciarily a well-known job. When you hire an accountant to do your taxes you know what to expect. With design on the other hand clients aren’t always too sure what to expect and that’s where educating them comes into play.

On August 2, 2009 at 2:00 pm Kaplang wrote:

I have invested a lot of time and money in to my Graphic Design degree and it annoys me very much to see some of the cowboys around here trying to do my job simply because they have purchased a bit of software and maybe a book. Still I love what I do and I will continue, quality will speak for itself in the end