Putting fake projects in your portfolio will do nothing but show you up to be a fake.

Of course you can't put projects in your portfolio unless you've worked on them but you can't get projects to work on until you have something in your portfolio.
The way around this is to create your own projects.

Approach the project as you would normally and produce something just as high quality as you can.
Including your own projects shows initiative, willing and professionalism.

Another way is to offer your services for free but be aware of other scammers simply using you to get cheap labour.

demo_man, post: 7484 a écrit : I'm in the situation where we are trying to take on jobs in design, as a starting point which come our way (hence the winging it scenario).

So what happens when your client calls you to say that the site has gone down?
What happens when the server dies and you have to reload from a back-up?

Not trying to annoy you but the less you know the more pain you'll have to suffer.

It's not what tools you use, it's what skills you have.

Are you saying that you've started the work but haven't even quoted for it yet?

:eek2

No, I don't have much use for physical photos but when I do I print them myself.

Nope about the online printers as i never use them due to the cheap quality.

Anyway - your site - It's not bad at all. A few things:
essence of your child’s personality - there's a big gap between d' and s in child's. Also the portraits didn't load.

Holsten campaign has 2 spelling mistakes.

Some good work there though.

So you do some work that you are paid to do.
And you got a contract for this, right?
What do you mean you didn't get a contract?

1 - Yes
2 - Speak to your local tax office
3 - Depending on the project but generally monthly. All invoices should be kept electronically, i think, for up to 6 years.

It's very rare, but if I ever get any spare time I convert that into creating new work.
I haven't watched TV for about 2 years!

Just a few points as I don't know the full SP on this but all terms need to be 100% clear. It seems that the first point, all they are asking for is for you to be 100% clear on who is doing what.

"4.3 2.1 asks for one third deposit" 50% is the norm. Why make things difficult?

"4.3....whilst we'd want very much to adhere to 7 days" - 7 days for what? payment? 30 days is the norm.

Correct me if I am wrong but it seems (as I said I don't know the full story), like you've just grabbed the contents from somewhere else and not really changed much.

Remember, they are paying you. You have to get them on your side and part of that means being flexible.

Tell them your rate, if they don't want to pay it, tell them your rate again!

Why should they be treated any different to your other clients?
How do you think your other clients would react if they found out you're doing work cheaper?