Design Startup
Mintsauce (1004 points) | Wed, 2006-05-03 07:19Hi,
I'm in the first few months of my startup design business. A move I made after working for a boss for a couple of years. Does anyone out there know where I can find good resources that can help me with the basics? Things like dealing with clients. Setting up briefs. Dealing with non-paying clients. Basic structure and workflow planning. I have ideas, but would like some structured advice from guys who've been there and done that. As someone once said; "Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others. Experience is learning from your own." Obviously I'd like to throw some wisdom into my learning experience. Thanks.
The Construct Agency
Building Creative Brands for People
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
When you have a boss, all you have to care about is your design work. Now, that you're a freelancer you need to manage your own business. It's very important to be organized. You can use this free site: http://sidejobtrack.com/ to get organized and follow up on jobs, make quotations and invoices automatically. It's really a great tool.
You should set yourself long and short term goals and work towards them. Don't just accept any job that comes your way. Make sure to follow through your dream consistently. You can find many great advices on this podcast from Franklin: http://creativebits.org/interview_with_franklin_mcmahon This podcast is made exactly towards you the freelancing designer and will point out many things that you probably thought about, but never made a decision on.
I've just visited and registered at sidejobtrack. I'm already feeling the tension evaporate! This is a great tool. Thanks!
The Construct Agency
Building Creative Brands for People
Great book that I'm reading now. It has tons of great tips and info. Amazon
your link to your website in your profile doesn't work..
the previous posts are both great, they offer alot of info and guidance and help that all freelancers can use!
oddly the dead link and what i'm about to say go hand in hand.. it's a pain inthe ass, but keeping your online information up to date in multiple places needs to be done. people stumble across potential business like this all the time. i'm quite sure you can see where i'm headed with the rest of this, so i'll stop now..
best of luck to you in your endeavors. (sp?)
____________________________________________
Architectural Technician - Multimedia Designer
www.ArchMedia.us
I'm sadly aware of this. My site should be up and running by the end of the week. {For a sneak - try lightbulb.co.za instead of www.lightbulb.co.za} - This site has not been debugged in IE yet, so it might just behave eratically. Debugging should happen on Thursday. So... by the end of the week my "dead-link" should be alive. Thanks for the feedback.
The Construct Agency
Building Creative Brands for People
I think you've put the cart before the horse..
..Surely the time to look into how to do your business is before you embark on it, not during - working out possible problems before they might occur, while you have the time and energy to research.
Bad planning and not being prepared are surely the quickest ways to failure ??
All businesses need the same skills to be successful..
..So get out there and look up/discover/read any info about doing a business - from time management to taxes, from bookkeeping to business plans.
Best of luck !!
I have to disagree with you, synnestro. I waited around for a long time before setting off on my own, and all of the learning and planning that I did first ended up having very little to do with the real world. I recommend the "learning by doing" approach! If Mintsauce has set out on his own, then he already has the comfort level that is necessary to get started.
Arvana
arvanadesign.com
Thanks Arvana. Appreciate the good faith!
The Construct Agency
Building Creative Brands for People
i remember the first thing i learnt when working for someone else... "its not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know" then he turned around and added "oh.. and how well you know yourself"
If you know you have the skill set, the confidence, the ability to do it, and self evidently the people around you, then i see NOTHING wrong with starting your own business then asking for advice. I agree it takes alot of pre-knowledge, don't get me wrong, but he's far better of taking the leap then just constantly attempting to build his knowledge..
lets never forget, in design, if the portfolio can sell itself, the rest is then just mere details.
____________________________________________
Architectural Technician - Multimedia Designer
www.ArchMedia.us
You didn't mention anything about accounting, but since you worked for a boss before, I am assuming you were not involved in that part. For me, the biggest thing I had to learn was good bookkeeping. The following site helped immensely:
http://www.accountingcoach.com/explanations.html