I’ve slowly climbed the ranks of freelancer. I used to take on every scrap of side-job meat thrown my way to padd my portfolio and get experience. Lord knows it wasn’t for the money at the rates I was charging.
And good experience it was. I would consider the things I’ve been through a freelancer’s rite of passage. Here’s a few notches in the belt that really have to come from real-world experience.
- drastically underbidding a project just to get it. you pay the price ultimately.
- letting the creative lead out of your hands and turning into your clients production artist. “move the logo over, change that to blue, etc.” a dangerous road to go down.
- saying “I can do it” when you cant. Sometimes this can be a great way to learn, just make sure it’s something you want to learn. If learning how to write coldfusion doesn’t interest you or add to the skillset your trying to develop. skip it.
- poor project radar. there are some projects that just smell a little funny. tight deadlines are sometimes the problem, other times it’s a client who wants something for nothing.
I’ve been turning down work left and right lately. It took me a while to get used to it, but once I did, it felt great.
It’s important to know when you’ve become better than the projects your working on. Don’t feel guilty, that small low-pay design gig will get done by some low-rate basement dweller. Believe me, I used to be that guy.
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