Thursday, January 13, 2011

Starting a Freelance Web Design Business: The Basics

By James Goldstein


You have finished your schooling and are deciding where you to start as a web designer. Free lance web designing is a form of starting your own business. The advantage is that you won't have the stress of overseeing other employees work to make sure it is up to standards. You will be doing all the work yourself. You also will not have the overhead of paying other employees.

After you finished the web design college, a counselor should have met with you to talk about your future plans. You many have discussed becoming a freelance web designer/developer. While attending classes, your instructor should have gone over the steps involved in becoming a freelance web designer. There are several steps that should be followed even if you are going to freelance.

You should first think of a name and logo for your site. The logo should be catchy, short, but plainly state what you do. It should be SEO friendly so search sites will land on your front page first. Also design a short pitch to advertise your expertise in this field. It should be less than 50 words, and you should be able to tell it easily when someone asks what you do.

Once you have the name and logo that you are going to use, you will want to do a promotion piece on what your skills and talents are. Be concise and clear in stating that you are a freelancer, and that you will be doing the work yourself. You can do this pitch in text and pictures on your front page, or even download a small, well done video clip.

While you were taking your web design courses online, you should have been working on an online web portfolio. You can now continue using this portfolio as your promotional tool. Add to it with links to your projects, information about yourself, and what your talents actually are.

Make sure you do some research on all the legalities of being a freelance web designer. Most of the copy right laws, contracts and legal papers are similar from state to state, but be sure you know your legal responsibilities, the clients legal responsibilities and the details of the contract before you even start looking to build your client base

Before you start, you should have a budget made up of what it costs to design a website. Since you will have different types of customers who require different types of web design, you should use a budget that reflects the highest cost of everything. This will ensure that you are covered for all costs. Your fee schedule should be plain and clear. Compare what other freelancers are charging.




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