Hi,

I'm a graphic designer in Suffolk working from home around my 3 year old daughter. I have a set office space and set days in which I'm home to focus on work while my daughter is at playgroup.

As well as my own clients what I'm really looking for is to take on work from an agency. Does anyone know the best way to go about this? I have worked with a couple of agencies before - one that responded to an email I sent to many local businesses which led to a marvelous project but now they've changed direction. The other was a local lady on twitter looking for someone to complete short-notice projects. Unfortunately she was getting them all done in order to sell the business and emigrate!

So whilst the relationships with these businesses was very good and I enjoyed the work, they were not long-lasting.

Can anyone please give me any direction?

Many thanks.

Thank you Mark. It's a hard decision!

Hi,

I currently have two web sites, victoriaanndesign.com and victoriaanndesign.net.

The first is my original site which I'm not totally happy with but does the job - it includes a few past designs, contact details, services offered and a bit about me.

The second is a Wordpress blog that I set up a short time ago and has so far lacked consistent content, or visitors for that matter. 🙁 However, I like the blog and the simple editing format and plan to steam ahead with it this year.

Now, I'm paying twice the hosting at the moment plus I'm having to think about re-designing the first site. In your opinions, is it a sensible option to scrap the original site and send all traffic to the blog? I could perhaps add further pages to display the services offered on there.

What do you think? Thanks!

Vicki

It's hard isn't it! Even harder to come up with your own logo/branding but that's a different matter.

I was going to choose something sleek, dynamic and edgy (well that's what I had hoped!) and went through a million options before choosing to use my first and middle name - it works very well for me.

Good luck!

Hi Sarah,

My clients are usually happy to pay a deposit but I only ask for 15-20% upfront.

I'm not sure what others do.

Vicki

Thanks Sarah. I am scoping around for other work as we speak and have a couple of things lined up. I am going to print some flyers and post to local web design companies as they sometimes need external people to design logos for them.

Hi guys,

I'm just finishing my glorious 9 months of maternity leave and after a brief telephone conversation with my boss, have been told that I can work for him on a self employed basis if I want to. I am going to meet him today at 1. :eek:

This means I will be able to work from home so can be around my baby, and I can advertise and take on other work. I work in graphic design so this fits nicely.

Bit scary because I'm going to have to do my accounts, invoices etc. I've already been working self employed but not on a large scale as I was always employed too - so my tax returns were very simple before! He says he can guarantee work so I hope that sticks.

Only problem I have is that he thinks I can work on long term projects that I have no idea about, I do graphic design and he wants me to install a shopping cart onto a web site! :confused: Not looking forward to telling him I can't.

So that's me anyway thought I'd drop in and introduce myself. Any advice welcome!

Vicki