5 Lessons from first year of freelancing
The title is a bit long, but I felt like sharing the things I’ve learned after freelancing for a year. Since graduating college, I’ve been freelancing on the side, with my full-time job, as a photographer and web developer
Have a Contract My first couple freelance jobs had no formal contracts, and while i generally got paid, that led to me not getting paid twice after finishing the job. This may be obvious to people, but I was new and stupid (and still am).
Make a Schedule Like the last one, this should be obvious, but was a step I missed. For web development and other freelance work that are full project (rather than a one time thing like photography), I’ve learned it’s best to have not only a schedule, but a detailed schedule with due dates for every step. This helps keep both you and your client on task. This is especially useful when you need assets, copy, and media from your client in order to finish the project.
To Do list for clients I didn’t learn this until I finished a couple of projects, but make sure your client understands what they need to provide and by when. This goes hand in hand with a schedule.
A way to pay This hasn’t been a big issue, but using a service like PayPal or something else is a good thing to have. I’ve gotten bad checks before, which would cost money from my end and I hate receiving a lot of money in cash.
Charge differently for different services This was my first major lesson. I started a website for a client at an awful $10/hour rate because they needed both photography and web development. I assumed that it would somehow work, but I undercharged greatly, especially when it came to photos. I should have charged them as multiple services so I would have gotten paid what it was worth. To fix most of these issues, I use https://app.and.co/. It’s a free to use website to keep track and create contracts, invoices, receive payment and more. This wasn’t sponsored in any way, i just love the software.