Freelancing has a number of benefits ranging from personal comfort to financial gain and individual recognition. Even so, I have seen many freelancers finding themselves at a dead-end during the process. Reason being, either the fluctuating income affects their household, or they simply get swallowed by powerful competitors. If you ever do have a disastrous end to your freelance career, it can be very difficult to take that journey back towards full-time employment.

Here is where the importance of part-time freelancing comes in. Part-time freelancing gives you the opportunity to experiment and test your skills in a freelance career without risking your regular livelihood. It also allows you to learn new skills by working on an array of diverse projects, which in all probability you would be unlikely to experience in employment where you are required to work on a limited number of your company’s fixed clientele.

Keeping the above points in mind, here a few tips to start and maintain a part-time freelancing career.

A Portfolio Site – Showcase Your Work to the World

When starting a career in freelancing, it is important to let yourself be known to the world. For this purpose, a portfolio site is the best thing to attract potential clients. If you are already in the field of designing and in full-time employment, it will be much easier for you to develop a portfolio out of the work you have previously done. Otherwise, you may need to work on some projects (perhaps pro-bono) specifically for the purpose of building up your portfolio.

Spend a good deal of time on developing a portfolio site that not only showcases the work you are most proud of, but also work that demonstrates your full range of skills. Don’t pile up the site with just anything and everything and also keep updating it regularly.

Focus on Experience, Instead of Financial Gain

When stepping into part-time freelancing, it is advisable to keep your regular job as your main source of income. It will enable you to gain experience without having to worry to much about the financial side.

Although, by taking this approach you will earn less in the short-term, however, focusing on experience will enable you to improve your skills, understand different types of clients and gain much experience that will prepare you for taking that final leap from freelancing part-time to full-time.

Keep Working On Personal Projects

Starting a freelance career comes with the struggle of finding new projects and clients. Even in the middle of a successful freelance career, you may find ‘client dry-spells’ that may leave you with no project to work on. Sitting idle is very discouraging and you may end up suffering from creative block.

In such a situation, it is advised to keep on working on personal projects. These personal projects may include projects from family and friends or for some charitable organization. Although, it is good to keep looking for new design projects, however, don’t get so over occupied in it that it diverts your attention and starts affecting your focus.

Map out a Work Schedule

Part-time freelancing is often accompanied by a regular employment. Apart from a 9 to 5 job, a part-time freelancer has a number of other things to manage as well, including household tasks, giving time to the family and personal relaxation and recreation. Therefore it is crucial for a part-time freelancer to devise a proper work schedule to make the most of their time.

Distraction can be the biggest hurdle for a part-time freelancer. It is common, when starting in freelance, for people to either get too indulged in it or too distracted in other things around, and it is very likely that such individuals look back a few months down the road and realize that they have made very little progress.

If you develop a habit of scheduling the work right from the beginning and remembering it is a business will help you to run an organized freelance career.

Develop Your Standout Factor

In the world of cut-throat competition, the ‘standout factor’ is what vouches your success. Especially, if you have plans to convert part-time freelancing into a full-time freelance career, it is important for you to discover and develop your ‘standout factor’ that will allow you to survive in the freelance world of growing competition.

Once you have developed an angle that differentiates you from the rest, put all of your efforts in letting potential clients know about it.

Follow Your Own Business Patterns

Business patterns are crucial for the successful management of your business. Devising your own business patterns saves your time, costs and resources and will add in the contentment factor to your work.

The basic work patterns include work schedule, invoicing and payments, outsourcing, networking, customer services and marketing.

The more you can streamline your processes for these activities, the more time you will have for actual design work. If you do successfully follow your business patterns in part-time freelancing, it will be much easier for you to adapt when you go full-time as well.

Be Comfortable about Pricing

itching, pricing and invoicing is one of the most crucial aspects of a freelance business. It is at this point when the freelancer actually gets the reward for their efforts and services. However, pricing your design services can be very difficult. Especially for new freelancers. Use your part-time freelancing status as a test-bed and experiment with the pricing, you will then be able to devise the best pricing pattern through trial and error.

There is one rule for pricing design services and that is, there is NO rule! Therefore, the best tip is to balance your rates with what you feel comfortable with and with what you feel you need to earn. If you would like to keep your rates low while you are just starting out, there is nothing wrong with that. Similarly, if your client is comfortable with paying you a handsome amount for your services, then again, there is no issue in charging them accordingly.

Network on Regular Basis

Last but not the least; networking is as important for freelance designers as business development. Networking, if maintained, comes with a number of benefits that range from business development, staying up-to-date with new techniques and making new connections from the people in your field. Especially for the part-time freelancers, it is important to develop strong connections that may help in the future.

Conclusion

Having a career in freelance design is a great opportunity. There are a number of designers these days who desire to be able to set their own hours and work from home. However, taking freelancing as the main source of your bread and butter is not initially the best idea, and not advised. Therefore, perhaps you should stick with your regular job and take up part-time freelancing until you know that you are ready to take that final step into full-time freelancing.

Part-time freelancing requires efficient management of time and resources that may equip you for the greater challenges ahead. Take the luxury of accepting and rejecting any project that does or does not suit you and don’t spare any opportunity to let the people know that you mean business!

The post Thoughts & Considerations for Freelancing on a Part-Time Basis appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The efficiency of the invoicing process is integral in maintaining a healthy cash flow of your business. Smart invoicing enables you to streamline the payments from multiple clients and enables you to get paid in time and according to your desire. No matter what your current invoice process is, you can take steps to help improve both timely payments and customer relations.

Automated Invoicing vs. Manual Invoicing

If you are a salaried designer, your invoicing and billing is taken care of by your employee, however, invoicing is a menace for freelance designers who constantly have to generate invoices for their projects. Since, sending quotations and invoices is an important part of your work; it is important for you to decide whether you want to go for automated invoicing or just do it manually.

According to the data management company Formscan as per their recent survey, 48% of UK’s businesses still use entirely manual invoice processing systems. This is very typical of orthodox organizations to have strange hesitation towards automated processes, however, these days a lot of software and online tools are available to make things easier for the people (like freelance designers) who handle multiple responsibilities at work. No matter you opt for a server-based invoicing or a computer-based online invoicing, finding the right one is your task and with some good research it is not really that hard.

First Thing First, a Background Check

To conduct a smooth invoicing process, you should be careful in the very first place. Before getting into a legal contract with a certain client, it is suggested that you conduct a background check of the client’s payment habits. You can do so by doing a little research about the client’s reputation in the market regarding payments.

Moreover, (though companies don’t usually share their financial information with outsiders) if possible, you can ask your client to provide you with information regarding their outstanding bills and payments. A background check will enable you to figure out how seriously this client is going to take your billings.

Map out Your Invoicing Terms

When you are dealing with different clients at the same time, chances are that you may easily get dodged when it comes down to the financial matters. Most of this dodging happens when certain confusion arises between the two parties. Therefore, in order to minimize any confusion what so ever, it is good to map out some invoicing terms and present them to the clients beforehand. Some of the most important things to highlight can be:

• Determine your advance fee
• Number of days you would need to complete the task
• What is going to be the fee which you will charge in case of late payments
• Whether you will deliver the completed project before or after the complete payment
• What will you charge in case of re-do
• What should be the mode of payment

Although there will be situations when you will have to bend a few laws, however, try to stick to these principals as much as possible.

Detail of Charges

It is always a good idea to avoid any surprises in your bills. Therefore, provide a comprehensive detail of charges in your invoice i.e. you have charged the X amount for the XYZ service, etc. If you don’t give the details and roll out a lump sum invoice, there are chances that the client gets confused and resulting in an unwanted payment delay. Although you can do it in the manual invoice as well, however, almost all invoicing systems have this feature by default or allow you to customize your bills accordingly. Remember, that the clients have all the rights to know what services they are being charged for.

Provide Multiple Modes of Payment

In the world of cut-throat competition, the standout factor is what vouches your success. Especially, if you have plans to convert part-time freelancing into a full-time freelance career, it is important for you to discover and develop your standout factor that will enable you to survive in the freelance world of growing competition. This standout factor may be your client dealing, special discounts, a unique way for marketing or some value added service (on-spot delivery, professional copywriting or printing services, etc.).

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, your clients should be aware of all the modes though with you can accept the payments. Making transaction easier for them and communicating clearly is always a good thing for increasing the likelihood that you will be paid on time.

Follow-up your Outstanding Bills

There are only a bunch of clients in the world who pays their vendors immediately after receiving an invoice from them. A follow-up is thus an integral part of the invoicing process. As your invoices reach their due dates, take out some time to follow-up with the client regarding its status.

As suggested earlier, if you have already mentioned the due date of payment in the invoice, start a gentle follow-up a day before the due date. Once the due date passed, start a rigorous (but not annoying) follow-up till you get paid. Also, keep reminding them that they will owe you some extra bucks for late payment.

Send It to the Concerned Person, Only!

Many designers face the issue to late payment merely due to sending the invoice to the wrong person. This is particularly the case when you are dealing with a large organization where your invoice mostly ends up generating no response when it’s not sent to the concerned person. Therefore, before initiating the invoicing, be sure to know the name and other contact details of its right recipient. This will result in a smoother and faster invoicing process at your client’s end.

Final Thoughts

Although invoicing is a bit difficult and problematic process, nevertheless; as a designer who is making a livelihood through his freelance business, it is unavoidable. Make sure to be clear in your communication and avoid all kinds of confusions as much as possible. Always remember that invoicing process doesn’t involve sending the invoice only; you need to take different careful steps to ensure its seamlessness.

The post Designers’ Guide to Float through the Invoicing Process Successfully appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Giving attention to your clients is perhaps the most integral part of customer relations and the most decisive factor for the fate of your business. It makes the client feel special and prompts him to prefer you over your competitors when it comes to generating business opportunities. However, one debate that always rises among marketing and business development professionals is that should you be giving attention to the ‘bird in hand’ i.e. the clients with whom you are already working, or ‘ two in the bush’ i.e. new and potential clients that exist in the market.

For that matter, I am giving a complete analysis of the pros and cons of keeping your attention on the existing clients, and the pros and cons of diverting your attention to the new ones.

Your Attention on the Existing Clients

Existing clients are those clients with whom you are in a continued process of delivering services. For every design agency or studio, existing clients are of great importance as they are a source of continuous business generation. Although sticking to your existing clients and keeping them happy is one of the best marketing strategies, however, in order to decide whether they deserve the better share of your attention or not, let’s probe into the advantages and disadvantages of the existing clients for your business.

The Pros

Comfort Level and Understanding

As mentioned earlier, existing clients are the ones who are already in the work process with your organization, therefore, you tend to develop a good level of comfort and understanding with each other. This feeling of mutual comfort and understanding enables you to screw down to your client’s mind and bring out exactly what they require, and also makes your client feel ‘at home’ while working with you.

On the other hand, new clients need more hand-holding. Either they don’t understand the service, and are often dubious about it, or it takes a lot of time for you to bring out the best possible solutions for them.

Lesser Investment

According to U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, “it’s five times cheaper to keep a client than to get a new one.”

Existing clients spare you from investing a good amount of your time money and resources on them. Once a client becomes a part of your wok cycle, and you develop a mutual understanding with each other, then you get the liberty to skip certain formalities. For instance, while working with an existing client, a design agency doesn’t always have to take print-outs and make dummies of every revised design. Instead, soft copies of the design are often made for the client’s review.

Prospect of More Work

When you are in a working relation with an existing client, and you tend to pass through a specific period of serving them successfully, there are chances that the client would want you to work on some other projects as well that come under your scope of services.

For instance, a fellow designer of mine was working for a client who was very contented from his design services, and so after the successful completion of the third project, the client offered him a bulky printing project, which was priory being done by some other vendor. The printing project earned him a good deal and he is now a permanent vendor for designing as well as printing jobs of that client.

Referrals and Testimonials

Even if your existing client does not offer (or are not able to offer) you more work, referrals and testimonials are the kind of gifts that they will always be willing to give you. When you have a good working relationship with your client, they refer you to their acquaintances and other business which ultimately lands more projects on your desk.

Similar is the case with testimonials. When you are at the course of pitching new businesses, your existing clients can testify for the quality of your services which adds a strong persuasive point to your profile.

The Cons

Monotony

Your existing clients are happy with your services and offer you more work avenues within their organization, however, no matter how diverse their services are, it will always be the same brand to work on which causes monotony for you and your employees.

Saturation Point

No matter how well you have been working with a client there will always be a point when you and/ or your employees reach the saturation point. The saturation point causes to exhaust your creativity. Your creative juices stop flowing making you unable to write, design or conceptualize anything for projects related to that particular client.

Your Market Reputation

Working with a client for quite some time takes you at level where you become known as a service provider only to one company. Such market repute does not allow your client list to grow. So, in order to pitch new clients you need to either adopt image rectification strategies or prove the new clients that you are ready to work with anyone.

Your Attention on the New Client

Changing your course of working with older clients and attracting new clients to your business nest is another best strategy of expanding your business horizon. We all know that the clientele of a service providing business keeps fluctuating. To compensate for this continuous erosion in the client base you must acquire new clients to fill the void, and as long as you are keeping them satisfied many of which will become your regular customers.

However, let us first go through the following pros and cons of new clients and then decide upon the point that whether they should get the bigger chunk of your attention or not.

The Pros

Work Diversity

Business is all about growing, increasing and rising above all levels. Majority of the successful businesses never limit themselves to any specification, on the contrary; they tend to bring diversity to their existence and work. Launching extensive lookout for new clients and their retention is also an attempt to diversify.

Usually new client comes with tasks different that the ones you have been doing earlier which naturally gives a fresh canvas of thought to you and your employees (who are perhaps bored from working on the same client every day). In my views, work diversity is the most integral aspect for keeping your brain cells fresh and your creativity on its toes.

Addition to Portfolio

Nowadays, you wouldn’t find anyone singing the praises of a design studio having only a few specific clients in their portfolio. Portfolios are meant to have a wide-ranging client base and projects so that they open new prospects of business for their owner. Shifting your focus to new clients gives you an opportunity to present a diverse work experience and the ability to work with numerous clients in various industries on different client service teams.

Variety in Sources of Income

The ultimate goal of a business is to have financial gains. Although there is no harm in working with a singular client that gives you enough financial benefits that cover all your business expenses and by the end of the day leaves you with a pocket full of money. However, there are only a few clients in the world who are offering you projects all year long. Therefore, sticking to one or only a specific clientele often results in ‘financial dry-spells’. Moreover, there are clients who delay your outstanding payments habitually or intentionally.

Widening the scope of your company’s client list will enable you to earn from variety of sources, so that if one source delays the payment or cuts down on the projects, you have a number of other sources to earn from.

Newer Challenges

As mentioned earlier, a company hardly can depend on limited client list. The monotonous can be overwhelming that can hamper the quality of work and ultimately affects relationship between both parties. In order to deal with it, you need to explore new horizons of creativity and more challenging venues to continue your endless journey towards success and glory. Accepting the new challenges posed by new clients, can curb the prosiness and help you grow vigorously.

The Cons

Expenditure

At this stage, it is pertinent to consider the other side of the picture by addressing the possible disadvantages of opting for new clients. Pitching new clients brings up a good expenditure of time and resources, and economically striving companies cannot really afford to spread their financial base just on the hope of clinching new client from the market or the competitors. On the contrary, for such businesses, the existing client is the company’s lifeline which should not be neglected on the cost of an unknown resource.

Acquaintance Period

One cannot just overlook the due time period which is required to earn the client’s trust. The phase in making new clients usually requires you to spend time on understanding what the client hopes to achieve, their strengths and weaknesses, whom are they competing against and the environment in which they are conducting their business. After spending time on the client and his brand, if you do land a client, it’ll mean that this time has paid you well, otherwise, all this time-spending goes wasted.

Loyalty Issues

One can buy anything but moralities. New clients come with loyalty issues. For instance, after hectic business pitching, if you do succeed in having a client aboard, there are chances that the new client may soon move to another agency or design service provider. Most marketing experts and practitioners believe that the ideal relationship between a client and its design agency hinges on mutual loyalty.

Conclusion

Growth of every organization depends on the strong client base which is usually earned at the expense of time, resources and hard work. However, the shift from existing to new is also inevitable for those who aspire to grow. Clients today look for agencies with a proven track record and the ability to make every client feel important. Therefore, the best way to deal with this is to strike a balance and try not to avoid anything which has importance for new or old clients. The mutual dependency is a key to run a successful business so, keep it as long as possible.

The post Existing vs. New Clients – Who Should Get the Bigger Share of Your Attention? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.