We're happy to open up a new category if there's enough demand for one so if there's anyone else out there lurking that would also like their own sub forum let us know!
Meantime do join in the general chat Vickie, although there are freelancers from all walks of life on the forums, a lot of the issues affecting everyone are the same.
I have to be honest and say this is not an area I've worked in, but just going on the grounds of any design work, or any freelance work really..it comes down to the scope of the work agreed (preferably on an agreed and signed off basis) before you start the work.
What was in writing at the start of the job? It sounds like you were asked to produce 2 concepts for one bookcover? Do you have any written evidence of the fact that they only commissioned you to design one cover? A purchase order, email ?
This will back up your case, but obviously tread carefully to ensure your prospect of future business doesn't suffer.
Yes you should be charging for use of the second option as this wasn't within the agreed initial scope of the work. They may say that you've already done the work but ultimately they stand to gain commercial advantage of a second book published without design & artwork costs, whether it's an insert or not, whether it's sold separately or not, your work is allowing this second book to have a professionally designed cover.
So once a project goes off the agreed track, that is the time to hold your hand up and say 'this isn't what we agreed but I'm happy to come to some mutually beneficial agreement so we both gain'.. the terms are of course down to you, as you have already done the work you might only agree to bill for a % of the first cover - but personally I'd say don't be too keen to devalue your work too readily - make sure it's a sensible percentage that tells them you know the commercial value of your work.
With the stylesheets - again how much scope is there agreed for these? There should be a limit to the amount of work or hours per £250 agreed by both parties, with an added agreement that if client amends go over this extra work is done by the hour at £XX.
If nothing is set up for this job you could try talking to the client and saying I've spent xx hours so far for only £250, can we come to some agreement for additional costs for any remaining work at £xx hour - i.e. appealing to their better nature, but making a firm note to self not to allow this to happen next time!
With cover redesign - new job - new scope of work and new costs to be agreed. Grill the client over what they want and get the agreement down in writing - and agreed by them in writing by return - before you start. You now have the added benefit of knowing what they might suddenly want at a later date, so clearly state what's involved in the cost you quote and what will cost more and how much more.
Every time they go over what's been agreed, drop them a line and say 'we're about to go over the quote, I'm happy to do this extra work but as agreed it'll be at rate of £xx per hour, I'll keep you up to date what extras I'm doing on a regular basis for your sign off'
This isn't legal guidance, it's just based on my own personal experience so I hope it helps somewhat?
We do allow Freelance Alliance users to link to their profiles in their sigs as an extra perk of their membership, but our terms do state that other sig links are not currently allowed.
The problem with allowing sig links is that some may not join into the spirit we intended for this board, i.e. freelancers supporting each other with shared knowledge and just general water cooler chat too. We know this from moderating the board for several years now! Some have joined to contribute the least possible; "Yes I agree." type posts, but include website URL, twitter, blog links etc underneath that. Add to that the many 'online PR' outfits using sig links for SEO purposes..and I hope you'll see where we were coming from.
Avatars can and do brighten the place up and we have always encouraged users to use trading names or another name they'd be recognised by, which enables them to be found through a quick Google search.
We do review these terms from time to time though, and recently we had started to think we could allow one sig link as part of a brief description for those contributing over a (significant) number of post counts as one idea. What does everyone think?
We are open to others ideas that improve this forum for freelancers too - so please do tell us what you'd like to see here.
Welcome aboard! What's your line of work Sarah? I've just bumped a very old thread about the credit crunch (sounds oddly tame 2 years on!) affecting freelancers so do let us know how you're faring.
SEO copy is a whole new area I'd say, and one worth gemming up on as a skill on your CV.
Navigation is really web design, whereas you're being asked to produce copy for a site. It depends on the client's brief at the end of the day, what's the objective of the copy you're paid to write? Arguably all site copy should be optimised for the major search engines (as well as achieving whatever other objectives they lay out) but it's worth asking how much importance they place on this, you may be able to educate them. You could always team up with an SEO expert if they are happy to invest in this.
The Tories have today pledged to review IR35 should they win. Mark Prisk said: “...we recognise and value the contribution of freelancers and we are well aware of the way in which the current Government has treated them. We want to deal with this problem comprehensively, in a way which provides us all with a lasting solution, not a short term fix.”
Thanks for posting your question. Taking a break to have children is a great time to rethink your career and plenty of mums have made a great success of working from home and for themselves at this time too.
How to get started.. if you have a look elsewhere on here this is asked by lots of people trying to work out the best way to get the business coming in. Most will tell you word of mouth is No. 1, since a personal recommendation by someone who knows you/has used your services removes the risk of the unknown for prospective clients. So tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know what you're doing. And don't forget to thank the people that get you business this way too! They're then far more likely to keep pushing your name out there.
Then get your name on as many quality freelance directories as you can (there is a difference, you don't want to sell yourself short). With Freelance Alliance it's definitely what you make of it. Upload a full portfolio so clients searching can see exactly what you're capable of there and then, no clicking here there and everywhere else. If you do join (and it's £5 a month which we think is a no brainer :cool2) then list all your skills and your location as the site optimises you for both so your profile is found by clients searching for graphic designer in your location in Google as well as direct searches made on the site. Then, remember to reply to those who send you enquiries! Yes it sounds a bit mad but even if you're busy do say 'thanks for thinking of me I'm fully booked but please do consider me for future work' and then follow them up when your work pipeline runs dry. Not everyone does and I think it's a real shame.
Some nice roles just posted if anyone's interested:
Web Designer - Leicestershire - £20,000 - £25,000 - Temporary to Permanent position.
Freelance Graphic Designer - £250 per day - Swindon - Ongoing basis
Creative Team (Art Director and Copywriter) - £280 each per day - Swindon - Ongoing
Email Campaigns Executive - £20,000 - £25,000 - 3 Month contract, potential to go perm – Bedfordshire
Digital Copywriter - Bristol - £23,000 pro rata - 3 Month Contract
Multimedia Designer - Agency based in Oxford - 6 month contract (potential to go perm) - £30,000 - £40,000 dependant on experience.
PHP/Web Developer - Bedford
Also direct work posted this week: Freelancer journalists needed for national UK newspaper.
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The Jobs page tends to have roles offered through recruitment agencies, or smaller/student jobs. If you're a freelancer wanting to attract larger, direct clients then go to Find a Freelancer - Freelance UK
Just as a coincidence I've been emailing a supplier of photographic quality paper and this is his response ""Almost any Inkjet printer, even the budget ones can produce high quality brochures provided the right paper is used. I'd recommend looking for a satin finish paper, with decent weight so it feels like a brochure AND one which is printable both sided" Good quality brochure paper should cost around £8 for a pack of 50 and less if buying in bulk".
It's a good idea to work out what sort of business you'd ideally like to take on so you can set your goals. Be it an industry similar to that you already have experience of so you can charge a better rate, or perhaps something completely different that you think you might enjoy more. That will allow you to focus your marketing efforts (and costs) trialling marketing techniques/media at that industry section or within a geographical limit so you have a better idea of what works. So set some objectives so you have an initial focus. Lots of people have some success just telephoning companies they'd like as clients. Just be yourself without the hard sell, do some basic research about the client first, jot down what you want to achieve from the call before you pick up the phone (who makes the decisions to buy your service/does anyone currently supply those services - and if so if that up for review at any point are good starters) and then just call to establish contact. It's unlikely they'll have a project just sitting there with budget signed off at the point of your call, so the aim is to get yourself on their radar and try and establish what problems you could solve for them.
In the meantime don't stop telling absolutely everyone you know that you're after work. Print up some postcards with your details on and hand those out, attend local networking events, sign up to online directories (Freelance Alliance springs to mind!), tell the Twitter world what new projects you're working on.
You say you're doing the word of mouth thing, Vince Golder has written a useful book for freelancers that hones this art. Included are his tips on how to get your clients to be your salesforce for you (by endorsing you), thanking clients for referrals (freebie spot of work for client referral), writing to clients to formally thank them for their business at the close of the year to name just a few..so it's a question of actively pushing 'word of mouth' and treating it as a two way street (i.e. what's in it for them) rather than just sitting back and hoping your client will remember to mention you next time they meet someone who might need you.
Interesting reply Opus, thanks for that. I absolutely agree it makes sense to get a sense of budget and gear what you can do within that.
Also, as I said to Sarah, I know of freelancers that have a framework of hourly rates they charge depending on who it's for (large client requiring more indepth work/client offering repeat business/small business but enjoyable work/clients you know always want a million changes/rush hour rate/work I really want in my portfolio rate etc) so this stacks up with what you say about consistency in charging.
One other tip if the project is a bit complex or an unknown client, and if you are asked to provide a quote (i.e. estimate) rather than work for a fixed cost, might be to add in a 20% contingency to each estimate, and make it clear it will only be billed if the scope of work goes beyond that detailed in the quote. So author's changes/unplanned couriers/client decides they want expensive print finishes at 11th hour might fall into this category.
Clients may eye this with suspicion initially but if you say you will advise and seek agreement to costs before going above the basic quote rather than just suddenly bill it, most will get used to it.
The advantages are that it makes it easier to bill inevitable extra charges and by seeking prior agreement you're unlikely to get your invoice queried.
One potential downside is making sure clients understand what it is, especially if they're comparing your quote to another supplier.
It's not for every instance, but it might be useful if you have some 'unknowns' about either the project you're quoting for, or what the client is like to work with.
Well here is today's dilemma, as recently discussed by Sarah as part of her weekly blog
Most freelancers will need to juggle employment with evening and weekend freelancing before they take the plunge to freelance fulltime..
How did you manage it? Did freelance clients need to get hold of you during the day? Did you tell your boss? Does it depend what kind of boss you have, i.e. "I pay you to work for me, burning the candle at both ends and I won't be getting the best of you during the day/you'll be off soon then" or "I'm glad we have the benefit of your entrepreneurial spirit".
You may find more on Contractor UK - for UK IT Contractors, IT Contracting and Computer Freelancers in that case. The IT contracting market is competitive at the moment so you may find you can't immediately negotiate on where you work. Perhaps look at those contracts that will further enhance your CV and make you more desirable to hire/keep hold of in the long run, over and above the location? Perhaps then you can work your way up to bargaining on working some of the week at home, either having the sold the benefits of doing so to your client on your first contract or others in future.
There are articles on this site explaining VAT however:
Do you do web development/design work Philippe? If so perhaps take a look at our own network and directory.
Freelance Alliance is not a bidding site; it's a directory of UK based freelance media and creative professionals. It costs £5+ VAT per month to be listed in the network.
Here's what some members say about it:
"Freelance Alliance is simple to use, easy to find, and great value for the money. A wonderful resource for all freelancers to expand their web presences and reach out to new clients - highly recommended."
"In the short time since joining the Freelance Alliance I have experienced a significant increase in the amount of quality enquiries and leads from clients; totalling more than £17000.00 in just one month. If it keeps on like this I will need more staff."
“I joined the Freelance Alliance a few months ago. At first I was slightly reluctant to pay the joining fee but it has definitely been worth it. I’ve have had a surprising number of people contact me asking to collaborate on projects and more importantly offering potential work. The site is easy to use and it took minutes to create my profile and upload my portfolio. I’ve recommended the site to many freelance colleagues of mine and they’ve been just as impressed.”
I was waiting to see what other freelancers say has worked for them, but here are some initial thoughts in the meantime..
The first thing I would say is that if you're going to be working direct with clients is to make sure you get your paperwork sorted as there will be no agency/production companies to protect you from late/non payment. There are plenty of other threads on here discussing the wording of contracts and please do read 'Starting Out' and 'Running Your Business' on Freelance UK.
You're absolutely right in that a diverse range of companies of different sizes and operating in different sectors will have a need for your services, especially if you diversify into graphic and web design.
You have several options. One is to talk to different companies locally to see which of your skills they utilise on a freelance (or agency) basis. Do they have a marketing department? Do they need to produce an Annual Report/website/brochures/exhibition graphics? Can you get a copy to see if you could improve on that for less/same costs? What 'pain' can you solve? The obvious one at the moment is helping companies keep their order books turning over by investing wisely in freelance professionals. That's a message we use when we market our freelance directory to companies hiring freelancers. That will build your database of contacts and should give you some idea of demand from different sectors.
If word of mouth is working for you then ask for referrals. The more you can do to educate clients on what you can do through calling them/direct marketing/PR etc obviously the better. If production and design agencies list their clients then make contact with those companies to see what work they give direct to freelancers.
The above concentrates on the local geographic area that you choose to service. You could of course cast that net a bit wider but it becomes more time consuming and costly. Online marketing not only gets you found by local clients but those searching for specialist skills in addition. If you do a Google search for "freelance 3d modelling" or "northamptonshire 3d modelling" you'll find members of our directory, Freelance Alliance, popping up. This ensures members are found by clients searching on the web, as well as direct searches on the directory itself.
I hope that gives you some initial ideas. Please do let us know how you get on.
If you look on this forum you'll see others have discussed the issue of getting clients' agreements in the past, and the difficulties they faced from not doing so, so protecting your business in this way is a must in our view.
If you could offer any tips to companies to enable them to get the best out of freelancers, what would they be?
The main ones we guess would be:
1) Be clear what you want before briefing the freelancer
2) Leave the creative to the freelancer (e.g. refrain from saying "I want the logo bigger on that page, change that to red, use me in the photoshoot" etc)
3) 20 last minute changes were not part of the original costs agreed
4) Please pay me promptly
Are there any other pointers, however small, that may help clients? Are there any further arguments to be had on the above points? Some clients will argue they should input with the creative work as they're the owners of their brands/companies/projects..where's the line in the sand?
We ask because we'll be publishing an article to help clients dealing with freelancers - so now's your chance!
How does everyone else set their rate? Do you use similar spreadsheets or a formula to tot up overheads so you have a starting point before you then look further to what a client is likely to pay/what the competition charge etc?
