(Part 3) Top products from r/freelance

Hello dear friend and welcome to the club! Hopefully this reply will help you out.


First, and solely based on what you've asked, you're not ready.

But that doesn't mean you can't be ready sooner than later. I am assuming that by freelance you desire to make a full-time income, grow you income over time, and possibly even leave a legacy for loved ones. My answers reflect that assumption and are not geared towards somebody interested in freelancing as a side-gig or just for some extra cash.

1. How do I know I am ready?

I'm not going to say "you'll just know." Anybody who made the full-time jump into freelancing as their main source of income never felt ready. Frankly, it's pretty scary to think about getting off your employers teet and being responsible for your own income. At a conference table a multi-millionaire business owner once said that regardless of his time owning his business, the processes in place, the great employees, and his confidence, sometimes the scary thought would still enter his mind that it could all just come crashing down. Being responsible for yourself, your own income, your quality of life and possibly of others is no small task. It takes guts, confidence, patience, and thoughtfullness. You can do it if you believe in yourself though.

Here's some advice...

Being ready has nothing to do with your skillset in design, development, writing or whatever craft you're involved in. Absolutely zero. Calvin Coolidge said "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Here's a few reason why your skillset is not a significant factor in your preparedness to freelance:

a) Our industry changes faster than we can learn. By the time you start feeling confident in a specific skill, you've already got 10 other things on your radar that you would like to learn. It never stops. You just accept it and choose which skills are the most important to focus on. Anywhere you decide to draw a line in the sand and say "that's what I need to do to be ready" is just arbitrary. You made it up and there is no logic or metric to base it on. It is actually an avoidance technique. It reflects a lack of confidence. You will soon find out though that this too is just in your head. Every single job in freelancing is a new challenge. You don't need confidence in your ability - you need confidence in yourself.

b) Success in freelancing or running an agency boils down to people skills. Communication, soft skills, time management, and networking are the factors that determine your success as a freelancer. There are freelancers with skillsets that haven't been updated in a decade who are very successful because of people skills. There are also extremely talented people on the cutting edge of their skillsets but lack people skills and therefore never become successful freelancers. Some people can sell water to a whale while others could't sell water to a millionaire dying of dehydration in a desert.

If there is a catalyst for feeling prepared to jump into the world of freelancing, it's improving your people skills. This should be practiced as much, if not more, than learning your tools.

Here are some resources to get you going and I'll keep it short because actually using these resources is more important than just collecting them:

Books:
How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie and
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Steven Covey
These two books cover what makes people trust and how you can change the lens through which you see life plus much, much more.
The Game of Numbers: Professional Prospecting for Financial Advisors - Nick Murray The title says financial advisors but the content applies to anybody who is prospecting for clients. Nick Murray is very candid and direct. There is zero sugar coating and he will instill confidence in you to get past rejection and to embrace what prospecting really is - a game of numbers. Murray also covers avoidance techniques - like thinking that just one more javascript course is what you need to feel confident to start prospecting.

Team Treehouse (I am not affiliated in any way):
These courses provide some of the highest value I've ever received for each dollar spent. The section you should look at is the "Business" section. Don't get sidetracked by all the other "skillset/tools" content just yet. In the business section, take the courses on "Soft Skills," "How to Freelance, "How to Run a Web Design Business," and "How to Market Your Business." These courses will provide enough information for you to assimilate the big picture of what freelancing is and will help instill confidence in you.

That's it for the resources. It's not much and if you dedicate some time and focus on these resources you will know where to go to continue building your people and business skills. Once you are engaged and truly understand that this business is about people, you will have the confidence to carve out a path towards full-time freelancing.

2. When you submit a project to a client what files do you give them?

There is absolutely no hard and fast rule to answer this question. This is between you and the client and will often be handled on a case by case basis.

It is common for contracts to stipulate that the client owns the rights to everything you have created but they do not own the unique design you created. To wit, they cannot turn around and sell your design to other people. But again, this is not a hard and fast rule.

Here's what is more important regarding your question - WHEN do you give the client whatever files you agreed to give them? The answer: After the final payment. It doesn't matter what the contract says, who said what, how much has been paid, if the client is your own mother or if you have a check in your hand already - you do not give the client the final product until there is money in your bank account or hard cash in your hand. This is a simple concept observed and accepted in almost all other businesses but people get screwed all the time in freelancing. Even a drive-thru worker holds the food until they have your cash. There is not logical reason for doing it any other way. Any client who is proposing otherwise is not a professional business-person.

3. Can I start freelancing as a front-end developer without knowing backend? (I have recently started learning Rails)

This is very similar to number one in that it doesn't matter. If you don't know the backend, then you say you're a front-end designer. If you also know the back-end then you do both. If you can write a sentence you can call yourself a copywriter. If you can build a site in Wix or Weebly you can call yourself a developer. If you can draw a box in MS Paint you can call yourself a designer. There is no line in the sand that you cross over to be an "official" freelancer, developer, designer, or copywriter. Anybody telling you otherwise is mean, ignorant, not a professional business-person or some combination thereof.

From Wikipedia, "A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a person who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long-term." If you're not committed to a particular employer long-term and you make money through short-term contracts scooping up dog poop at corporate campuses, guess what? You're a freelancer.

What matters for obtaining clients is that you can sell yourself. What matters for keeping clients is doing a good job.

4. Should I freelance under my real name? Or incorporate?

Your business name is a matter of personal preference. The only question to ask yourself is "if I grow a lot and hire employees, do I want the business to still be my own name?" It's your call whether you'd want employees working for Joe Smith LLC or whatever it might be. But keep in mind that it can be a real pain and very costly to change business names several years down the road.

What's important here is regardless of name, what business entity are you set up as? You can read about those by Googling "business entity." Sole proprietor, LLC, C-Corp etc. There are no hard and fast rules. The implications of your choice affect how taxes are paid, what happens in a lawsuit, etc.

If you aren't comfortable digesting that sort of information then a couple hundred bucks spent on an attorney is in order. Depending on which entity you choose, you might be able to fill out and submit the registration paperwork yourself.

First of all, you need to invest in a copy of the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook.

The section for illustrators is very small, but contains excellent advice. It also contains a comprehensive list, with contact details, of all UK press and broadcast media. This is it's real strength.

It also contains advice regarding getting an agent (a good idea if you want to make a living out of illustration), what you can expect from them etc. It is the bible for self-employed or freelance commercial artists and writers. Well worth £15 or so.

I can't recommend an industry body to you, as I'm not an illustrator. But I can give you an example of a similar organisation to which I belong, which is the Society of Authors. I don't know if you'd be eligible for membership as an illustrator, but if you can find a similar, respectable organisation, I'd recommend it.

The W&A Yearbook should also contain a list of stock image libraries, although you can search for these online easily. Consider the type of work they do and perhaps, when you have little commissioned work on, maybe create images for a stock library. Most do not pay up front, but you will receive usage fees should they be licensed by a client.

Also, there is a W&A yearbook for children's publications. You shouldn't ignore this market. Children's publications consume a lot of illustration, as I'm sure you can imagine.

ReWork is a good read, but I'm not sure it's what OP is asking for...

I'd look into Michael Port's Book Yourself Solid.

He talks about a "Red Velvet Rope Policy". It's basically:

• Determine what inspires you >
  
• You’ll love what you do >
  
• You’ll do a better job at it >
  
• You’ll create more customer value and satisfaction >
  
• You’ll build a foundation of more loyal and profitable customers

Well, it just so happens that I have a list prepared to tweet out—figured I'd share here as well :)

How to Win Friends & influence People

Never Eat Alone

The E-Myth Revisited

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Tribes

Linchpin

A Whole New Mind

The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing

The millionaire Next Door

Cashflow Quadrant

Why We Want you to be Rich

Drive

Rework

The 4 Hour Work Week

Entreleadership

Thou Shalt Prosper

Driven

How to Get Ideas

The Go-Giver

I totally understand. But try to look at it from a new angle. It's not about how much you're worth. It's not about how much you value your work. It's about where your quality of work and expertise fit in the wider market.

I would suggest that you take about an hour and pretend that you are trying to hire a UI Designer. Find out what they need and value. Then research your competitors. Who are the people in your field who are doing really well? How much do they charge? What are they offering?

Just by glancing at your work, I can tell that you definitely have enough skill to increase your price.

Also - Just from reading your comments, I get the impression that you need to change the way that you think about money. This book "You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth" really kicked my ass. Made me realize I totally undervalued myself. It also helped me clear up some subconscious beliefs about money. I 100% recommend it.

Not all web dev work is making websites from scratch. Plenty of companies have websites already that they would like to add functionality to.

If you do have clients that want you to handle design you can subcontract without cutting into your costs too much. Designer hours are cheaper than programmer hours. If you really want to do it yourself, I'd recommend Don't Make Me Think for usability and The principles of Beautiful Web Design for making it pretty.

Other suggestions here are good. Use bootstrap and Kuler.

Don't learn flash.

Niiiiice! Glad you put the jerk in his place. Upped your confidence, huh? :)

That reminds me of James Altucher's bestselling book The Power of No (http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-No-Abundance-Happiness/dp/1401945872). Definitely worth the read! Sounds like folks are waking up to the power of unconventional wisdom.

I always liked Strategic Selling.

Really helpful framework for looking at complex, long-cycle sales.

Teaches you to consider a buying decision from multiple angles. Who stands to benefit from buying what you're selling? Are they the same person as who's in charge of the decision-making? How can you enlist the former to help influence the latter?

etc, etc.

Good stuff!

You could check out Illustration Age who have lots of professional resources for illustrators! Unfortunately I only have a link to a UK specific book that you can buy with templates etc. in! But if you're interested, it's called 'The Illustrator's Guide To Law & Business Practice'. I'm sure there are similar books for other countries but this is what I use as i'm based in the UK (:

I would really suggest you look at joining your illustrator's union or association as they are really helpful for this sort of stuff. I am a member of mine and it's worth the annual membership fee purely for the pricing information/copyright advice and contracts they provide me with!

I'm currently reading Design for Hackers (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956).

I'm a web developer also, and was always curious why designers choose certain fonts for certain mediums - for e.g. I learned Garamond is the most readable typeface for printed media and is also 400 years old, Georgia is the most readable serif font for the web, Arial is nearly the same as Helvetica and is the most readable sans serif on screen, and everyone hates Comic Sans and the book explains why (kerning between letter combinations is not optimized for example).

These are probably common knowledge to practiced designers, but from someone that looks at if else statements all day long, it was a wow moment.

The book goes on in depth by "reverse engineering Impressionist painting, Renaissance sculpture, the Mac OS X Aqua interface, Twitter's web interface, and much more" and goes on to "color theory, typography, proportions, and design principles", which really speaks an engineer's language.

I like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Freelance-Illustrator-Graphic-Designer/dp/1581151993/ref=cm_lmf_img_2

annnnnd

http://www.amazon.com/2013-Artists-Graphic-Designers-Market/dp/159963614X/ref=pd_sim_b_6

That series (they put out a new one every year) is pretty valuable.

"Creative Truth" by Brad Weaver . He had a successful agency, lost nearly everything and built his business back up again with lessons learned. This was the first book that explained how to determine your break even and hourly rates that I truly understood.

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102123

This book is super informative and cheap. I asked a buddy the same question and he directed me towards this. It starts by giving you the usual rates, proposal writing and etc.

Honestly...I don't.

Until I'm at the point where I have a consistent stream of referrals and organic leads from search engines, my free time (within reason) becomes prospecting time.

In many ways, prospecting is more important than client work. If you end up finishing with a fantastic project, but then are left with a barren period of time afterwards, you run the risk of screwing with your finances (and subsequently your mental health).

Just got done reading Zero to One by Peter Thiel, and there was a really fantastic quote in there that rings true for freelancing:

> If you've invented something new but you haven't invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad business - no matter how good the product.

I've heard good things about The Boron Letters.

Copywriting is a skill that can be useful to anyone.

While it's no substitute for talking to a lawyer, this book has been very helpful for me. It has lots of example contracts and explains what things to be aware of.

From Serf to Surfer

The Artist's Survival Manual. Pure gold, imo. It's not only motivational, it gives artists instructions on how to build a portfolio plus a directory of agents and publishers.

You should really read this book https://www.amazon.com.br/Clean-Coder-Conduct-Professional-Programmers/dp/0137081073