Starting out as self employed

[LynxGrr]

Hi all,

Im currently considering the prospect of going solo as a website developer/designer. I was hoping that some people here could share some of their experiences with me. This idea is not just an overnight fancy, it's something ive been considering for well over two years now, but im stuck between being excited over the idea of being my own boss, and daunted by the extra work it may incur.

Im also a it stuck with promoting myself. Other than my personal homepage, I dont have much to show, as I spend a lot of time helping with my companies intranet systems. Is it wrong to send letters to companies offering to redevelop their sites "at a discount price" while i establish myself? Could this be seen as poaching someone elses customers or some annoying spam letter in their mailbox?

Any help you guys and girls can give is appreciated.

Ian

[chilipie]

I've done this :p . The best idea is probably to approach a non-profit organisation (school, church etc.) and offer to build them a site or rebuild their old one for free. It could be considered as Spam, but it depends how you put it.

[JamieR]

just advertise yourself as a freelance web developer, thats what I do, and then target old, out dated designs and offer cheap or free re designs.....as chillipie says..

[mlseim]

One thing I often do is to provide the client with a few possible layouts
and examples ... using my own webspace. If they like what they see,
I then put everything in writing. What I will do for them, every piece,
every step, every web page ... and what they will do for me, exact money
amounts, providing graphics if needed. I then put in writing exactly how
much time is allotted, and how many months of adjustments, corrections,
and editting will be provided for the cost. I also put in writing if the
client needs to provide their own webhost, and they will handle the
webhost subscription and domain name registration.

After the client and I BOTH are satisfied with the agreement, we both
sign/date a copy and mail it to the other. THEN, I begin their web page.

Someone on this forum (sorry I don't remember who it was), provided a great tool for working as a freelance.
I have seen this before in other places too:
Draw a triangle.
Write the following words, one in each corner: TIME, COST, QUALITY.
Now, you let your client pick TWO of the corners, and YOU get the other.

If they want good QUALITY work for low COST, then you get to determine
how much TIME it will take ... etc.

The important thing about this whole thing is to have everything in
writing BEFORE you deliver any web page content to the client.

I know it sounds 'stuffy' and pretentious, but this has saved me a
lot of headaches in the past. Clients that have called me a year after I
have finished their site, and demand that I add some pages for free.
Well, look at the agreement we signed, my adjustments to your site
have expired a few months ago. They can agree to draw up another
written agreement, or hire someone else.

--- Hope this helps ---

[LynxGrr]

Thanks to all three of you!

Your concept of the triangle is a useful one mlseim. Just to confirm something from what youve written, dooes your initial charge take into account X number of months worth of updates? Do you base that on an average or do you judge it on a job by job basis?

[chilipie]

Why not charge them for the site, and then set a price per annum for monthly updates separately?

[tsguitar2004]

The triangle idea is one I first saw from BradyJ. Yeah, it's a good idea.

I've never added monthly updates into my cost. That's something that I take up with clients as months go by (not that I've done this a lot). In fact, what I've created are sites that don't need updating. The sole exception is the Silver Creek High School site, which I update quite often, but I'm a teacher and want the site to be useful for the school. I don't charge for that, mostly because I don't have anyone breathing down my neck asking for updates to the site. Whatever is updated there is because I thought of it.

I personally think it's wrong to charge less while you establish yourself. You should charge what your services are worth. At the beginning, you may not charge much, but you should not get people used to the idea that you work cheap. That reputation will travel with you. The price you charge says something about your professionalism. Yeah, designing some non-prof sites for free could be a good thing. But don't offer your services to a company and purposefully charge less just to get the job.

Boy, if only I could follow my own advice when working with family and friends...
-ts

[Willy Duitt]

Contracts, Contracts, Contracts....
Firstly, be precise and make sure you put everything into writing so that there are no misunderstandings and that you protect yourself.... However, please understand that if a dispute needs to be resolved in Court, you, as the the party which wrote the contract will be held to a higher standard than the client whom signed the contract.... Anything considered ambiguous will be decided against you along with anything that lies outside the scope of common law.... Therefore, either have an Attorney draw up your contracts or have one review your contracts prior to use.... In the event of international clients, be sure your contract clearly states which Court holds jurisdiction (unless of course you do not mind traveling the globe to defend yourself)....

Also, in regards to Contracts... Site Design and Site Maintenance should be two seperate contracts so that there can never be any misunderstandings that one is related or dependant upon the other.... In respect to site maintenance... Be specific regarding what content you will be responsible for updating and the time allotted per month for these updates and if any unused time can be carried over to be used later in the event that no updates were needed in any specific month.... The same goes for Billable Hours for going over the agreed upon time allotment... Additionally, most clients will be agast at an annual contract which is billable at (2 hours@month for $120.00US and $120.00@hr over 2 hr's) and there may be times you would like to get out from under a disagreeable arraingement so I would advise Quarterly over Annual length of contracts....

Get Legal!!....
Here in the US you can register your business any number of ways.... for startup operations such as you described, the easiest method would be to apply for an EIN (employer identification number) as a sole propreiter (although I highly recommend that you incorporate limited liability to better protect your personal assests).... Anyway, even sole propreiter offers you many advantages such as tax breaks for your equipment, software costs, telephone, attorney fees, car allowance, ect... as well as the ability to apply for small business health insurance for yourself and family but most importantly, allows you to acquire liability insurance which will serve you in the event of a dispute or a catostrophy which prevents or delays you from timely honoring your agreements...

Decide what you are worth...
Decide what you are worth and what is the minimumn you are willing to be paid for your time.... Offer noone a break, be it your relatives, friends or because she is cute... Trust me, it will come back and byte you on the a$$... Self-Employment is not like working for a company where you can expect raises or at least remain at the same payscale you are at.... You set the bar and if you design a site for someone where you only charged $15.00US pre hour and you try to charge someone else $115.00US there will be hard feelings when it is found out.... and it will be found out!! Hackers are not the only ones adept at social engineering, clients often do this themselves by contacting your former clients... Therefore, have everyone, no matter who they are, sign a standard contract and if you feel compelled to do that someone a favor you can always provide additional services off paper....

Lastly, designing free sites for non-profit entities is an excellent way to build your portfolio but you should also take that oppurtunity to perfect your contract writing and negotiation skills by requiring them to sign a contract for your standard fees but waive those fees (of course you would check that they do indeed have tax-exempt, non-profit status by asking for and checking their EIN which the first two numbers will place them in different status).... An additional benifit of this is it would allow you to write off your services as a charitable contribution....

Good Luck;
.....Willy

[mlseim]

I always create my sites with either PHP and Perl included, which handles
not only the online forms, but lets the client update things themselves...
such as graphics, text, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Because the sites are dynamic, and not static pages, I include one year's
worth of tweaking, changes to scripts, and troubleshooting ... because
sometimes there is a bug with a script I make. :o

After the 12 months is up, a new contract would need to be written to
handle another year's worth of changes. The contract specifically defines
what I mean by changes. A whole new site design is not a small change.

Everyone agrees about the contract in writing ... that IS important.

[LynxGrr]

Willy, thanks for your advice. You sound like a man of wisdom. :D

The legal side of things is something im looking into in detail as well. Ideally it would be nice to write my own but i prefer the idea of having some assistance with it. Ill be careful not to offer anyone a break... though if she IS cute well... ahem.

tsguitar, I agree. My charges are not fixed as yet but they take into account as much detail as possible (time, overheads, equipment etc).

Thanks for all your replies guys.

[rswyatt]

These are all excellent ideas.

I'm wondering if it is a standard practice (I do it - not sure if others do) to charge a deposit to start the work... Something like a percentage of the total estimate.

I also offer clients a total cost cap. I provide them an estimate - then based on the estimate I cap off at a dollar amount above that - in case the project runs over. Something could take an additional 2 or 3 hours and if several pieces of the project go that far over - it could be a significant cost increase. So I cap it off so they can expect to pay no more than $xxxx dollars.

Don't know how weird that is... But it is working for me. (helps me to stay focused on the project also so I DON'T run over hours. :-)

[chilipie]

Do any of the pros here have a sample contract that I could look at/change/use?

[Willy Duitt]

These are all excellent ideas.

I'm wondering if it is a standard practice (I do it - not sure if others do) to charge a deposit to start the work... Something like a percentage of the total estimate.

I also offer clients a total cost cap. I provide them an estimate - then based on the estimate I cap off at a dollar amount above that - in case the project runs over. Something could take an additional 2 or 3 hours and if several pieces of the project go that far over - it could be a significant cost increase. So I cap it off so they can expect to pay no more than $xxxx dollars.

Don't know how weird that is... But it is working for me. (helps me to stay focused on the project also so I DON'T run over hours. :-)

I expect 30% deposit upon signing the contract...
Another 30% when the layout is complete and I can provided screen shots (please note: images not code are released at this time)
Another 30% when I have the scripts running (serverside/clientside)...

Once, I recieve these monies I will release code to the client.... The remaining 10% is due upon install at the host and any debugging or changes are made.... Depending upon the changes, there may be additional charges... However, I never heard of cap money.... Seems awfully like a shady auto mechanics trick to extort more money before they put your vehicle back together.... The purpose of a contract is also to protect the client and provide ease of mind that they are aware of the costs involved... If I underestimate my time line or misjudge my abilities and perhaps have to contract out, I eat these costs and learn from them... But a good rule of thumb is to add at least 20% to your time line from what you estimate it to be....

.....Willy

[rswyatt]

But a good rule of thumb is to add at least 20% to your time line from what you estimate it to be....

.....Willy

That is what I'm doing to come up with the contract cap... I estimate the hours - then cap it at an additional 10-20% and absolutely if I go over that by understimating my abilities or farming out work - that is tough for me - great for the client. I also, in my contract and am kept to it very strictly by my controller, refund estimate underages. If I estimate 10 hours and it takes me 8 - they get a 2 hour break. Keeps me honest.

[Willy Duitt]

That is what I'm doing to come up with the contract cap... I estimate the hours - then cap it at an additional 10-20% and absolutely if I go over that by understimating my abilities or farming out work - that is tough for me - great for the client. I also, in my contract and am kept to it very strictly by my controller, refund estimate underages. If I estimate 10 hours and it takes me 8 - they get a 2 hour break. Keeps me honest.

Integrity is all that should matter.... And there is such a thing as too much honesty.... You should only reveal what is necassary....

This cap fee would seem to only confuse the client... I would advise to just quitely add the 20% and if you feel so inclined you can always credit the client or offer an additional service for free... But saying if you go over so many hours it will cost extra, but the extra will not exceed so many hours implies that the client will be made aware of the hours you put into their project....

Doing contract work, this is never a good thing (accounting for each and every hour).... As this not only opens yourself to accounting for your time but will place you in an unevitable position to continue to account for your time and you may find that simular projects may greatly differ in time spent due to unforeseen problems and the client only sees the simularities, not the problems.... Besides, explaining yourself takes time from other things you can be doing and the client may question why you only spent 15 hours to do something but it took 2 weeks for them to recieve the results....

However, time and materials is a completely different matter.... But in such a case, there really is no cap, just an estimate of the time barring any problems. And they are essentially hiring you by the hour and thus you are accountable to them for the hours while under their employ but they bear the responsibility of working thru the problems.... Contract work is much different... You are taking the chance that you can complete the project in the time you estimated.... If you come in under, good for you... over, shame on you and you just got bit and there is not a client in the world whom will show pity and offer to up the ante....

JMHO;
.....Willy

[Graft-Creative]

Hone your sales skills.

Don't do cheapo sites for business'.

Do free sites for deserving non-profit orgs to build your folio up.

Start a marketing campaign - don't be shy about treading on anyones toes.

Hone your sales skills - read up on sales techniques, talk to the sales people where you work, go out on appointments with them if possible, see how they operate. Without this there's no point in even beginning to think about contracts etc. Always think of how what you can do will benefit the client, and explain it to them in simple terms i.e. ' We can do this on your site, which will increase sales conversions. Site 'x' have a similar thing and their sales went up by x% in three months.' ALWAYS relate features to benefits.

Free site for non profit orgs. IMHO the best way to build an impressive folio. It will give you time to really get your sites spot on, without some irate Boss breathing down your neck. The non profit orgs are getting it for free, so they certainly aren't gonna expect it to be done yesterday - its also a good arena in which to market your sales skills, without too much pressure.

Start a marketing campaign - don't be shy. Research your competition, look at their folios, go through them with an analytical mind - where could you have done things better, how would you have done things differently.This kind of critical examination of the competition will really give you an idea of where you fit into the big picture and make you aware of your 'angle'.

Don't worry about poaching anyones clients, if they have genuinely been sold a mis-service then they have every right to know about it and to know about the options for improving what they have. All you are doing is giving the client a choice.

Make potential clients an 100% offer, then let them decide.

Then start thinking about contracts :)

And a holiday in the Seychelles

[Graft-Creative]

No sales people in this thread then?

You can be a hobbyist and hope the work magically comes to you, because of your knowledge of PHP, XHTML, CSS, Chinese whispers, whatever.

Or

You get out and start talking to prospects about how you can increase their turnover.

I know which has been more effective for me.

[Graft-Creative]

Hrm, startin to feel like I'm talkin to myself?

If you can't do sales, get someone who can, and give them 20-30% commission.

[Jalenack]

hey...heres a related ALA article (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/invoices/) that talks about creating invoices...as others have said i'd love to see a sample contract that one of you veterans use when working independently with a client...

[Graft-Creative]

This is a good read, you can download sample chapters in PDF:

http://www.sitepoint.com/books/freelance1/

[J&J]

I also do hosting - and those are at a fixed price. I may give a discount to those who want we to develop/design their site AND use my hosting services, but other than that - hosting's fixed simply because I know how much it costs me annually.

Now as for web design, if I'm dealing with a bigger company, I tend to charge more than a smaller company who wants the exact same thing... It's a little hard to figure out cuz' you don't want to undervalue your services. I have a friendly competitor who charges by the page, and well... they're letting their domain name expire & are getting out of the business cuz' a million dollar company rips you off at $50 a page, but a smaller company would balk at paying anything more than that. Screwy huh?

One thing I don't do is charge by the hour, except maybe for maintenance stuff. After all, if you're a slow typist -- your clients shouldn't have to pay for it... Or if you bought/used new software & are learning how to use it while making their site, they shouldn't have to pay for how fast/slow you are to learning things.

I quote a total price based on the OVERALL project, and if it's something they want but can't pay at once, I try to work with them and do the project in phases, that way I don't lose them as a customer because I'm a bit flexible. If you're confident that your prices are competitive, you can include a statement that shows how many hours you put into it, and what the hourly wage is IF you were to charge by such -- and that alone is usually enough to prevent people haggling over the overall cost you quoted them. (You can get a guesstimate on hourly wages from places like salary.com)

Honestly, I never include maintenance with my web design contracts. I need residual income ($$ that keeps coming in), which is why I host sites, and is also why maintenance falls under a separate agreement. But I do include a guarantee on my web design work. After all, if you've asked all the questions, placed all the stipulations onto your agreement, and you keep the client involved and have them sign off on the end-result, they can't come back a week later and say, "You know, I think I want to do this with that page" or "I want to add these photos and remove those photos", etc. They signed off on the final product, so anything after that falls under a new agreement.

In other words, you should have a form that goes into great detail, reminding you what questions to ask so that your agreement/contract is as complete as possible and contains no loopholes. Then have all this info written into a contract, especially a clause that covers you in case they don't pay or are slow to pay -- such as having the right to take the site down, or not releasing copyrights until paid in full, or whatever you choose to do.


Here's a few books you can search for to help you get started:

"How to start a home-based web design business" (Jim Smith? - less than $20)
and
"The Web Design Business Kit" (Brandon Sinclair from Sitepoint.com, roughly $197)