On Freelance, and Not Being a Jerk
John Gruber @ Daring Fireball linked this entry for a designer relating his horror story of a freelance job. The traffic appears to have killed his webhost, but you can still find a Google Cache if you're creative.
Look.
There's a basic rule in life: Don't be a jerk. It doesn't matter if the other person is paying you or not, whether it's a job, or a traffic accident: being a jerk to the other person will get you nowhere. Who populates design message boards? Bored, frustrated, angry designers. I know, because I'm one of them (I haunt NewsToday). Would I take advice from me on a board like that? Hell no! I'm on there because I'm bored, angry, frustrated, and anonymous. The worst case is you find me email in my profile and I get a mean note. Then I blacklist your domain and don't get any emails from you, ever.
Here's how I start working on a freelance job. I send a thank you email, and give a general overview of how I like to work:
Agree on costs & scope of work
Show Concepts
Refine Concepts
Finalize Concept
Design Everything
Build
Test
As a part of that email, I also start pumping them for any and all information I need to do the job, whether it's company fonts or their life history.
Part of being a freelancer is making the people you work with comfortable that you're not going to run off with their deposit. Doing this helps. Be specific, be honest. And give yourself a little room in case things run long.
And last, if it would get you fired from your day job, don't do it on your night job.
When it comes to giving an estimate, be sure to break down your hours/costs by task. Not only does it help you give an accurate estimate, it helps them understand where the money is coming from. For example, I'm starting on a logo & website for a new company, who has never had a professional site made. Ever. For anything. There were shocked to find an estimate for what they wanted to cost a couple thousand dollars. But, with a little bit of talking, and a detailed estimate of where they could cut costs, the price dropped to something they were comfortable with.
