Yay for Being Self Employed!

[arienette]

Well, hopefully...

I basically just stopped showing up at my work place because I could not take being treated like utter fucking garbage while I busted my ass doing the bulk of the work expected of everyone else. So technically they fired me, so I can still collect and while I do that, I'm focusing all of my attention on getting some web design gigs.

I just finished my portfolio, which can be found by clicking here, and I am quite happy with how it came out. Now to go whore it on Myspace and Monster... If anyone else has any ideas on how I can make an actual living doing this, that would be appreciated. And of course, if anyone needs any websites done or knows someone who does, you know what to do.

 

[S-Des]

You might want to put an add in your local musician's monthly. Bands are always looking for a good Web site design and new ones start all the time, so there's a lot of work (I did it for quite a while). The downside is it doesn't pay squat. However, you could probably crank out a really good one in half a day, so might be able to charge based on what they need from you (similar to what I do with the sound company). I used to also help people secure domain names and recommend a good hosting site. It helped me earn more business. Now that everyone is computer literate (and the software is stupidly easy to operate), it might be harder to find people looking, but it's still an option.

You can also contact booking agencies for bands. I did a favor for one here and he recommended me to every band that he talked to for a year. Cheapest advertising ever.

Good luck.

 

[arienette]

You might want to put an add in your local musician's monthly. Bands are always looking for a good Web site design and new ones start all the time, so there's a lot of work (I did it for quite a while). The downside is it doesn't pay squat. However, you could probably crank out a really good one in half a day, so might be able to charge based on what they need from you (similar to what I do with the sound company). I used to also help people secure domain names and recommend a good hosting site. It helped me earn more business. Now that everyone is computer literate (and the software is stupidly easy to operate), it might be harder to find people looking, but it's still an option.

You can also contact booking agencies for bands. I did a favor for one here and he recommended me to every band that he talked to for a year. Cheapest advertising ever.

Good luck.

Well the boy is in a band, so there's some promotion there. Thank you tons, I'm going to do up some business cards and start putting them everywhere, too.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Well, hopefully...

I basically just stopped showing up at my work place because I could not take being treated like utter fucking garbage while I busted my ass doing the bulk of the work expected of everyone else. So technically they fired me, so I can still collect and while I do that, I'm focusing all of my attention on getting some web design gigs.

I just finished my portfolio, which can be found by clicking here, and I am quite happy with how it came out. Now to go whore it on Myspace and Monster... If anyone else has any ideas on how I can make an actual living doing this, that would be appreciated. And of course, if anyone needs any websites done or knows someone who does, you know what to do.

Awesome! Best of luck with the fledgling business!
My only advice would be to keep good records on anything and everything you spend so that you can keep your taxes low. Any company that pays you more than $600 in a year will have to file a 1099 form with the IRS. There's a lot of 'cash economy' that flies under the radar, but when you start getting better gigs it will have to get legit to protect the people that hire you. One option might be to barter services with people where there's a mutually beneficial relationship. Maybe look to find freelance graphics design people who don't know how to code, or find someone with tax skills who needs a website. Also write out a three-sentence statement for yourself that says who you are and the benefits of working with you - then whenever you meet anyone and they ask you "What do you do?", you've got a good, positive reply. Don't say you left your previous job because they were dicks, say that you realized that you have really good skills and you want to work with a more interesting type of project, or something like that. You never know where business might come from.

 

[Liar]

Yeah, self employment is grand, if you can make it work.

Ari, I checked out your portfolio, and I have one or two things for you that might help get you the last step from "interrrested people" to "actual customers".

* Who are you targeting? What is your expertise? Wy should someolne chose to hire you instead of a truckload of other similar freelancing designers? That's stuff to think about. Do you have experience in some other field, that you can combine with your design skills? I have a friend who is a freelancing web- and print designer, and unlike most others, he gets work all the time. Not because he is better than most, but because he specialzes in design for hotels and restaurants. He's worked in bars and restaurants for ten years, and knows the business. So hotels and restaurants hire him, because they speak the same language. So ask yourself, "What am I better at, than most other designers? What 'scene' do I know better than most?" and make sure your portfolio presents that.

* The bio page is a little...apologetic. That you are self taught is not something the customer care about. That is a covert "not" (as in "not schooled"), and it's never good to let people know what you are not. Instead, focus on what you are and what you can. Also, your list or programs and skills mixes stuff that is impressive with stuff that is not, like FTP and EditPad. Focus on the good stuff, like Photoshop and Illustrator expertise (and don't mention version numbers - they are old, and you could just as easily learn and work the newer versions, so it's irrelevant), digital imaging (and maybe also digital photography?), HTML, CSS and SQL (mySQL is just an SQL program, and it's knowledge of SQL in general that is interresting). By the way, if you know SQL, don't you know a web programming language to access the database with too, like PHP or ASP?

* The contact info. If you want to look like you mean business, you might want to get som proper means of contacting you. A phone number (not your private one, of course) and a postal adress (a PO box is quite common). Or at the very least, get an email adress from somewhere other than a free web mail account. Can you get a forward address from anti-beauty.net? That's a seriously cool domain name.

Hope that makes sense, and best of luck from one self employer to antother.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Good thoughts, Liar!

I've been recently thrust into 'job-search' mode, and the company sprung for some work with an 'outplacement' agency, and the things you say are teh sorts of things they advise in the 'resume development' phase. Don't give them a reason to say 'no'.

Ari, please let us know some of your successes or hard lessons. I'm mulling the idea of freelancing while I go back to school to learn something new. I think I told you about my freelancing experience way back when I was a character actor and did some commercial and still photo work - it was an exciting time, and my ugly mug is far less useful than your skills, so it's possible and you probably don't have many obligations, like mortgages or kids, so it's a perfect time to dip your foot in the water.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Ari, you might want to consider taking your age off your bio. While I find it highly admirable that you've got 5 years of experience under your belt at your age, there are people who might be put off by having someone so young work on, say, their business page? (I wouldn't, your work is amazing, but I'm just pointing it out )

The web affords you anonymity in a lot of ways--in this case, I'd say take advantage of that. You can still list your 5 years experience, of course...

just a thought...

 

[Liar]

Ari, please let us know some of your successes or hard lessons. I'm mulling the idea of freelancing while I go back to school to learn something new.

Exactly what I'm doing now. Then of course I had it easy. I quit my job as an in-house employed writer/editor for a magazine and started freelancing for the same rag. But that's how it is. In reatil they chant "location, location, location". Here it's "connections, connections, connections". The first gigs are always the hardest ones to get.

 

[R. Richard]

To summarize:
1) You never leave a job for any reason other than an incredible opportunity for your many talents.
2) You list what you know and why you are good at it. Everything else falls off the edge of the world.
3) If you do not have a lot of visiblity, you might consider doing a free gig for some highly visible charity or local government. It is cheap advertising.

 

[Aurora Black]

Your portfolio is gorgeous, sweetie. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Good luck and much much more....

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's beautiful design- I would hire you in a heartbeat if you knew how to incorporate your HTML into a php-driven website
And if you knew PHP...
Myself, I answered a few ads from the services section of craigslist.com. So far, I've had two responses- one saying "This is over my head" and the other saying "we need more information" blech...

 

[arienette]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm fixing the bio page now - took my age down, left the location to purely Pennsylvania and have dedicated the day to learning PHP. I'm a little familiar with it, but I need to really get into it. I give it a few hours before I have the knowledge I need for it.

Thanks, everyone.

As for what "scene" am I mostly promoting to...I have no idea. I haven't done that much and the one business site I did was a free design I did for a friend who has seen me through the years get better with my web skills. It was for a Consulting group, which I don't know anything about - I just took his company logo and he gave me free reign to do whatever I pleased with it.

I've also done a rough draft layout for a band over in the Netherlands called I-Reject, but they didn't end up using the design and the previews I had of it got lost on my old hard drive that the boy ended up clearing out so he could use in his computer. I like the idea of working with bands, since I'm very much into music but I designed the portfolio to be kind of sterile - open for basically anyone, as not to completely target just one genre or scene. I guess that was a mistake, but it's soooo pretty. I like it. Haha.

Thanks again, folks.

 

[arienette]

And I am also using an email right from anti-beauty, so it's now femme@anti-beauty.net, yay! And put a phone number.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

As a director of operations at a business property (the guy that would make a decision about whether or not to contract labor from you for such things, for their company), I would most likely pass.

That isn't to say you're not talented, or that you've no quality work--but if your employment history implies (or outright says) that you just stopped showing to work one day, I have absolutely no reason to trust you'll conduct yourself professionally. People who quit jobs with reason? Willing to hear it. People who get fired? I've rarely heard a good reason.

You might want to pad your resume with instances, and specific ones, of your ability to go the distance and endure even difficult employment situations (deadlines, workloads, etc.) and get away from ones that show an unreliable nature.

 

[kendo1]

A lot of good advice for you ari.

Good luck, as always, to you.

Ken

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

As for what "scene" am I mostly promoting to...I have no idea. I haven't done that much and the one business site I did was a free design I did for a friend who has seen me through the years get better with my web skills. It was for a Consulting group, which I don't know anything about - I just took his company logo and he gave me free reign to do whatever I pleased with it.

I've also done a rough draft layout for a band over in the Netherlands called I-Reject, but they didn't end up using the design and the previews I had of it got lost on my old hard drive that the boy ended up clearing out so he could use in his computer. I like the idea of working with bands, since I'm very much into music but I designed the portfolio to be kind of sterile - open for basically anyone, as not to completely target just one genre or scene. I guess that was a mistake, but it's soooo pretty. I like it. Haha.

Thanks again, folks.

Hey, how about having more than one portfolio (assuming the cost is little or none) targeting different markets? One might target bands, and be more "out there."

Also, how 'bout coming up with some products targeted at Litizens? What products? I dunno - use your imagination! Maybe others here might have some idears. Others . . ?

 

[arienette]

As a director of operations at a business property (the guy that would make a decision about whether or not to contract labor from you for such things, for their company), I would most likely pass.

That isn't to say you're not talented, or that you've no quality work--but if your employment history implies (or outright says) that you just stopped showing to work one day, I have absolutely no reason to trust you'll conduct yourself professionally. People who quit jobs with reason? Willing to hear it. People who get fired? I've rarely heard a good reason.

You might want to pad your resume with instances, and specific ones, of your ability to go the distance and endure even difficult employment situations (deadlines, workloads, etc.) and get away from ones that show an unreliable nature.

Well I had good enough reason to leave that job, I just did it in a fashion where I wouldn't completely fuck myself and be able to collect unemployment until I got myself out and started bringing in some money with gigs doing web design.

If you were to contact me and tell me that, in a professional atmosphere and asked for a more extended explaination of my ability to be reliable and complete deadlines, then you would get the full story along with a list of references.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Well I had good enough reason to leave that job, I just did it in a fashion where I wouldn't completely fuck myself and be able to collect unemployment until I got myself out and started bringing in some money with gigs doing web design.

If you were to contact me and tell me that, in a professional atmosphere and asked for a more extended explaination of my ability to be reliable and complete deadlines, then you would get the full story along with a list of references.

Then, as a point of advice, you might want to include that very recommendation or the facts you would have offered up (maybe an annotated version of it) in the section you call "resume". As an example of a potential client, the lack of that information at the get go makes me want to pass.

 

[arienette]

Then, as a point of advice, you might want to include that very recommendation or the facts you would have offered up (maybe an annotated version of it) in the section you call "resume". As an example of a potential client, the lack of that information at the get go makes me want to pass.

Got it, thanks.