FREELANCE Tools and Tips

[Nogard]

PHOOKA!

Remember the contract is an example and should be altered to each individuals needs. By all means PLEASE share this with everyone possible and in what ever language you know! I would be offended if you did not.... just kidding

Thank you so much for asking I appreciate your respect. This thread is truely here for all to benefit. I hear so many individuals selling their talents for next to nothing and it saddens me. There are so many talented people in our world that have no idea what they are worth. I wanted this thread to grow so we all have an idea that what we do is valuable.

I have freelanced in other areas for some time now. Just new to Flash design. (You can probably tell by my goofy posts). I would never have freelanced if it were not for an individual who once told me that everything I touched seemed to turn to gold. At first I laughed at his comment till he sat me down and made me realize that I was good at what I did and that I should charge for it. After that I started a professional coaching business which he assisted me in starting and have loved it ever since. It is amazing what one can do when someone believes in them
[Edited by Nogard on 03-17-2001 at 08:49 AM]

[unseen33]

I am a freelancer from russia maby a newbie freelancer but a freelancer and here in Russia the prices for web design are so low that alot of people try to get .com names and english websites and try to work with US/Canada. Like me. Just some prices.....
A internet shop : $1000
A HTML website : $200
A Flash website : $450
There is not much Flash websites in Russia.

[zacvin]

Hey unseen33, that sounds pretty good to me right now! I am in the states, but I am sure having a hard time getting business. I have a good site, plenty of programming skills, great business cards, a brochure, an ad in the paper, first page ranking on a number of search terms at goto.com, as well as listings on about all the service directories that I know of. I am even have only about two years left before I get my degree in computer engineering!

This is really frustrating!

I guess that I am going to use this time to build my portfolio, if I can't get any clients. I have been "open for business" only since the first of the year though, so maybe it just takes time.

I think that I may be going to try to offer my skills as a programmer and web developer to try to get some freelance work from web design firms. I really think that there is more development demand than design jobs right now. I ran into a local guy at the book store just the other day though that said that there was tons of work out there. His sight was not even all that impressive.

Any suggestion from anyone about better ways to solicit clients would be very welcome.
-Zach

[JabezStone]

Zac,

Have you tried taking your Flash Skills to CD Rom?
Why? Many companies that I talk to already have a website... whether it is designed well or not is another sotry, but they have them nonetheless. Actually, when the Website craze hit businesses hard four yars ago, they all had one built. Now, however, many businesses are shying away from placing much stock in their sites. They have seen too many "Dot-Bombs" and have lost their taste a little for online business plans.

On the other hand, if a company has sales reps, or caters to clients, a well made business card CD (or a full size CD for that matter) placed in their customer's hands does wonders. First of all, it lets the customer learn about the site in an interactive way without having to "Log On". Additionally, you can place a button on the movie that will launch the user's browser and connect to the company's existing website on the Internet.

See, this is a good way to garner business from companies that have already been approached by traditional web developers.

Anyway, this is an approach that has been very successful for me. Perhaps you can benefit form it as well.

Regards,

Jabez

[zacvin]

You really have a great idea there Jabez. I will have to look into in some more. I would worry still that I would have a hard time contacting business with the idea. How do you do it; do they come to you, or do you contact them?

later
-Zach

[JabezStone]

Zac,

Take just One Hour and go downtown in your nearest city. Walk into a mid-size corporation and ask to speak to the owner. Ask them to pop in your "Demo CD" and stand back as they are "wow"d by your awesome abilities and talents. After the presentation, tell him you'll modify the CD he's looking at with his own text and pictures for $250-$400 or you can create him a custom CD master for a quoted price.

What'll they do with the master? Well, you can tell them you'll put them in touch with a low-cost replicator (that pays you a comission for the sale) or he can take that fancy little CD and burn it on his computer at home.

Bottom line is this, Zac... we can sit in these forums and talk about getting business, or we can get off our butt and go get it. Unless you have a huge list of past clients with big mouths, the business is not going to come to you.

Regards,

Jabez

[zacvin]

Good point. I have done some real live person to person contacting, but I think that it works against me almost. At about 20, people just look at you like you don't know what you are doing. That is the nice thing about getting business vie the internet from people in different locals. But I suppose that if you visit enough business you will find at least one sucker

No, really my biggest problem is just seeming like a kid. That plus I don't have a very strong (aggressive) sales persona.

[JabezStone]

Please refer to the last paragraph of my post above...

You said you don't have the sales persona? It's only what you make it, fella. You are doing a pretty good job of selling me on the idea that you're going to sit in this forum and complain about not being able to get business.
Why not turn your efforts around and spend some time convincing a client that you can get some business.

I think I have exhausted my efforts in trying to sell you on the fact that there is indeed a market out there. Imagine that.

Good luck.

Jabez
[Edited by JabezStone on 03-24-2001 at 05:04 PM]

[Agent_Coop]

This is a link to one of the better resources out there for Web Deveoper / Web Designer contracts & project worksheets.

http://www.proposalkit.com/proversion.htm

It helps you accurately quote the price that multiplies your profitability and efficiency, it also includes tools which help brands you as a top professional and help close the sale.

I have literally increased my bottom line 200% by just being able to acurately predict costs better.

It includes contracts, spreadsheets, client interview sheets, and stronger contracts to help you when a client decides to kill a job, or try to.

WAY..early in the thread I said I would post more info (my wife's the Intellectual Propert Paralegal)..but the above link is the absolutely best resource out there.

I kept running into "Here's a sample contract, but DON'T copy it or else" sites...

hmm..

[unseen33]

Hey zac i have a business offer for you if your interested email me : unseen33@yahoo.com

[Nogard]

JabezStone

This CD idea is good Have any additional information you could share?

I have read a few threads a time back that had information on where to get duplicated cd's, cd business card size, and rewriteable cd's. If you know this information please repost it here.

I believe the rewriteable cd business cards were expensive. Around $4.00 each. They could be updates from a clients website though. Very interesting idea!

[Agent_Coop]

Our company produces them for between 1.50 - 2.00 US a piece.