The Free Creatives

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Crystal

Here we are already, the second post for out series: Starting a Web Design Business. It’s been a long and confusing month, both mixed with hard work dedicated to the business, and a bit of slacking due to some unrelated factors. (Life got in the way a few times.)

If you’ve missed my first post for this series, you can check it out here: Starting a Web Design Business: Month One. Also. you can check out the business I’ll be referring to throughout this post at the XHTML Shop.

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Crystal

FreelanceFolder recent came out with a post called What it Really Costs to Be a Freelancer. It shows the harsh reality to the common misinterpretation that freelancing is free to start up and maintain. Like said in the post, that is far from the truth. Many startup costs for freelancers are low compared to other businesses, but freelancing has plenty of expenses to deal with. Among these include computers, software, books, apps, business supplies, business cards, and more.

In fact, some of the most successful freelance businesses can spend hundreds a month just on maintenance. Check out the post more for other examples of how freelancers usually have to spend money. In this post, though, I wanted to look into some free or cheaper alternatives. Sometimes running a freelance business can live up to it’s original expectations of being maintained cheaply.

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Crystal

The great power of freelancing in this industry is that we can do it completely online. This is great for the many of us that like to work in our PJ’s, sleep in, and work when we want to. For others, online interaction can be a lot less stressful than face-to-face interaction.

So if we’re able to, why not base our entire business online? Seems like a valid choice, but this can be how many freelancers fail. It can also be the one cause as to why many freelance web designers don’t ever really get a good start in the first place. In this post, let’s discuss the pros and cons of offline clients, and of online clients.

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Crystal

Once one gets going, freelancing can be a very profitable and successful career choice. It can make you just as much of a yearly income as a payroll job, if not more. Yet, while some freelancers flop, others practically live in poverty. It seems only the few ‘luckiest’ of freelancers actually make it to true, stable success.

The fact that luck is involved is pure bull. Anyone can be a successful self-employed individual when they set their mind to it. Yet, that seems to be the biggest problem: how many freelancers consistently do set their mind to it? How many actually try and work hard to succeed? In this post we’re going to discuss how one can finally take freelancing more seriously, and get the motivation they need to succeed.