I started offering freelance Graphic Design services over ten years ago, and when I started, I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. It took me ages just to land my first paying clients, and when I did, not all of them were winners. I must have made every possible mistake in the book at least two or three times, so in an effort to “pay it forward”, I thought I’d put together a post that aggregates the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in freelancing over the years.
Make sure you have a “single point of contact” clause.
This was a particularly frustrating lesson to learn, especially when working on fixed-rate projects. Sometimes, when you’re working with a team of people at your client company, a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario will arise.
In example, maybe you’re working directly with Jim on revisions to a design. You’ve already gone through several rounds of changes and you’re on the cusp of a final product that he’s happy with. But all of a sudden, Michael chimes in. He’s been tied up with meetings all week, hasn’t seen the original design, and guess what–he says it’s all wrong and has a ton of revisions that directly contradict everything you’ve gone back and forth with Jim on.
You see, Michael has seniority over Jim and Jim was just speaking out of turn because he’s a pushy sales guy.. Now, you’ve got more revisions to make. Best-scenario, you’re working hourly and just bill them for the extra hours (or you were smart enough to include a clause regarding extra revisions). Worst-case scenario is you’re on a fixed-rate contract and you’re now in the red making the changes that Michael wants.
Moral of the story is that you need a “single point of contact” clause in your contracts. This means that the team at your client company elects a single person through whom all revisions are funneled. This person, let’s call her Pam, is the only person you accept revisions from. If Jim wants to chime in, well then that’s all well and good, but it needs to come through Pam.
It’s worth it to fire bad clients early-on.
I’m sure that I’ve taken years of my lifespan via elevated stress by sticking with bad clients for too long. Every request is an emergency, they message you frantically on weekends, they talk down to you… need I go on? When I first started freelancing, I was so paranoid that a bad review would ruin me on the platform I was using, that I stuck with some truly terrible clients for far too long. It took me hitting a breaking point to finally fire my first client. I was in Macedonia, sick as I had ever been from drinking the tap water, and I just couldn’t handle all of the negative remarks this one client was throwing at me. So I fired them and got some much needed rest.
In retrospect, it would have been quicker to create a new profile and go through the process of building my reputation from scratch rather than dealing with the strain this client was causing. As is the case with a traditional job, a client’s not worth it if they're consistently having a negative impact on your mental health. Don’t be afraid to cut the cord as soon as you start to see those red flags.
Hold out for the larger projects, even if it’s difficult.
Another trap that first-time freelancers fall into is going too quickly for the low-hanging fruit. I mean the small gigs, low-paying clients, and stuff that you’re just not all that enthusiastic about. Sure, if you’re trying to get some initial testimonials, then by all means, take on a few small projects that you can quickly knock out of the park.
But if you do this too often, then eventually you’re going to be in the red from spending more time on client acquisition than the contracts are worth, or you’re going to end up with the aforementioned bad clients.
It’s worth it to hold out for the long-term, high-paying gigs that you’re passionate about, even if it means sweating a bit more in the process. You’ll be happier, your wallet will be happier, and even your client will be happier… because they’re getting a freelancer who’s really fired up about the project.
Don’t offer employee-level commitment for contractor prices.
Hiring an employee is expensive, and that’s not lost on employers. More and more people are hiring freelancers and expecting employee-level commitment without needing to pay for those pesky benefits. You should familiarize yourself with basic employment law so that you understand what a client should and should not be asking of you.
In example, clients don’t set deadlines, you instead provide an estimate. Clients don’t define your work hours; as a freelancer, you set your own schedule. One client should not be your sole source of income–that would make you a “faux freelancer”. And so forth.
One caveat I’ll add is that you’re allowed to offer whatever level of customer service you deem appropriate, but it’s your decision where to draw the line. At times, I have marketed “employee-level response times” as a differentiator because my life at the time could accommodate that promise, and I knew that many other freelancers couldn’t match that.
The clients I work with now are ones I’m passionate about, and so I’ll put my all into those projects. But also, if I want to go have a mid-afternoon glass of wine on a sunny Friday, you can best believe that that’s what I’m going to do.
Be sure to under-promise and over-deliver.
As a former people-pleaser, it took me far too long to get this through my noggin. What I mean is that when providing clients with an estimate, I’d tell them what I thought they wanted to hear at that moment, offer them a wildly unrealistic ETA, and then I’d be either stressed out to get it done, or worse, I’d end up dropping the ball.
What you want to do is set a realistic timeline in your head, add some wiggle room to that, and then aim to deliver ahead of time. If you deliver early, you’re golden and your client loves you. If something comes up, then you deliver on time and you’re still good.
Over-promising is a one-way ticket to strain and pain, so delay the client's enthusiasm for when you deliver tangible results and everyone will be happier for it.
The more lucrative the industry, the better the pay.
This one may seem obvious, but perhaps not. The amount of money funneling into the industry in which you’re designing is usually indicative of how much you can reliably bill. Think healthcare, insurance, tech, blockchain… all cash cow industries. The companies therein will most likely have deeper pockets and thus it’s going to be a much lighter lift to sell them on the rates you want.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t throw in a branding project for the local coffee shop every once in a while (those projects tend to be a lot of fun), but just know that you want to be buying the good eggs at the grocery store, it’s going to be easier to occupy the industries that have large influxes of cash.
Know the value you provide.
This last point is more of a feel-good romp than anything else, but it holds true. Know your value as a designer. Oftentimes, it feels like designers get the short end of the stick and end up standing in the shadow of engineers and developers (I mean, this is the reason I learned how to code in the first place).
But it shouldn’t be that way! We literally create something from nothing. We can create a brand and website and all of a sudden, the company has life! Our packaging sells products, our reels earn subscriptions, and our interfaces create user experiences that convert.
So know the value you bring as a designer when going into any client relationship. If you’re a good designer, you’re worth every penny.