So You Want To Be A Freelance Designer?

October 7th, 2008

Working as a freelance designer is a goal that many designers strive for. Personally, until earlier this year, I freelanced full-time for 3 years. It’s a great feeling to be your own boss and make your own hours, however, it isn’t all fun and games. It takes a special personality to juggle the responsibilities of freelance design. Below are some tips on how to be successful if you choose to give it a go.

Commit and be organized

If you want to be successful at freelance design, it needs to be your main focus. The easiest way to commit to your new found freedom is to quit your day job. I know it might sound scary but if you aren’t comfortable quitting your job, you probably shouldn’t be freelancing. Another crucial aspect to freelancing is to be organized. You are now in charge of not just design but accounting, sales, marketing and other various small business responsibilities. A good way to keep your projects organized is to use a project management service like Basecamp. Also, it would be a good idea to pick up a copy of Open Office to keep your accounting organized. There are a number of other personal accounting systems out there so search around for the best fit for you. A final exercise that is a good way to keep your business growing is to dedicate a set amount of time each week for marketing your business. Whether it be through google ads, social media websites like Twitter, or simply checking in with your clients from time to time to see if they need a hand with any projects.

Don’t sell yourself short

Do not, I repeat do not ever work for free! If you are a qualified designer, you have spent several years building your skills and it isn’t fair to be expected to work for nothing. Aside from the personal aspect, it cheapens the design industry and helps to spread the notion that design isn’t a valid trade. If you are fresh out of school or only have a small amount of experience, you should be charging $25/hr minimum for your services. If you are an experienced designer, you should be charging $50-$100/hr. It comes down to what you think you are worth – I understand that working for free or cheap when you are starting out may sound like a good idea to get your feet wet. However, if you start working at a rate of $10/hr, you will always be working at that rate. Why would your client pay anymore once you have established that rate with them? As well, any referral work they throw your way will be expecting the same discounted rate. “I know this great designer that works for peanuts! You should really give them a call.” Believe me, that is a headache you don’t want. Most of the time, clients that offer low-ball pricing are not businesses you want to work with in the first place. They generally will push you the hardest and pay you the least. Remember the following quote as it has helped me immensely:

Fast, Cheap, Good. You can have two of those terms but it will cost you the third. For example, if you want it fast and cheap, it isn’t going to be good.

Keep it legal

One of the great advantages of freelance design is the ability to register your own business. This is allows you to take advantage of business expenses that you can write off against your income. Therefore, paying less tax at the end of the year. I’m not going to pretend I’m an accountant so I would recommend you find yourself a good accountant to do your taxes for you. You should also look into registering your business as a sole proprietor.

Now that you are an official business person, it is time to start acting professional. What does that mean? NO PIRATED SOFTWARE. This is your full-time business and you should invest in it. If you are using pirated software and your client(s) find out this could negatively impact your company. As well, we are trying to be professional here and pro’s don’t steal software. This also holds true for fonts, vector artwork, and photography. If you expect to be paid $50/hr for your services, don’t ask a photographer to do a photo shoot for free. One of the most important things you can do as a freelancer is act professional and provide excellent customer service to your clients. If you hope to one day work with the nikes of the world, you need to project an image of success and professionalism.

This is just a start. Freelancing is a continuing learning experience and experiment. In the near future, I’ll plan to write more about freelancing. If you are interested in the specific details of registering your business in Canada, please leave your questions below in the comments.

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21 Comments on “So You Want To Be A Freelance Designer?”

Adrian

I was just looking into the legalities of design work and taxing it and things.

I was just wondering what you charged tax on while freelancing, and did you do work from home or an office.
I am looking to get a business liscense, and found in my municipality that i can get a rather cheap ‘at home’ business lisence. Also were you doing business as Cardeo, or your name or something else?

Thanks!

October 8, 2008 » 1:38 am

admin

Hi Adrian, are you located in Canada? The laws are going to vary from province to province, as well as, the registration processes. I’m located in BC and here are some answers for you:

1. I worked from home

2. Charge GST on everything

3. Only charge PST if you are providing your client with a tangible product. For example, you design a business card and get it printed for them – then you have to charge PST on the whole job. If you provide them with a disk with the business card artwork on it, you don’t charge PST.

4. My registered business name is CARDEO CREATIVE. I can explain how to register your name and business in detail if you are located in BC – just let me know.

Hope that helps

October 8, 2008 » 10:29 am

Adrian

Yes I’m in coquitlam. and what you said about pst and gst is the same as what i’ve found out so far, so thats calming! haha. Thanks alot for your answers.

And if you woudnt mind going into detail about regestering your name, my email is hello{at}staydecent.ca

Thanks.

October 8, 2008 » 11:47 am

admin

for anyone else that is interested, you can find all that you need to know at the below website for registering a business in British Columbia:

http://www.bcbusinessregistry.ca/introduction/index.htm

October 8, 2008 » 12:10 pm

Devon

Thanks for the post and business registry link – it was very helpful. I’m starting up freelancing and it’s hard to find info specific to where you live :)

March 26, 2009 » 9:27 am

admin

No problemo, if you have any more questions, feel free to leave them here and I’ll do my best to answer them.

March 27, 2009 » 12:39 pm

Gustavo

Hey!! I was checking your website and how to become a freelance designer, I find it very useful and interesting, pretty inspiring. I’m in Canada, at Montreal, I wondered if you know how it works here, I guess there’s not much of a difference. I would like to start as a freelance designer, I have some experience freelancing but I was doing it in another country. Your tips are AMAZING! I was having my doubts about if I should be a freelance or find a job in an agency. I’ve always loved the idea about being your own boss, with responsibility of course. I have just a couple questions, what are the gst and pst, and how much would I have to have as an initial investment to achieve being a freelance?
thanks a lot for everything. I invite you to check my website, is still need improvements but, I’m still working on it.

Thanks!

Gustavo

April 8, 2009 » 10:44 am

admin

Hi Gustavo, I’m glad you found this post useful, here’s some answers for you.

GST (Goods and Services Tax) is a country wide tax. The rate is 5% and would apply to any design job you do. You need to apply for a GST number. You can do that at:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/bn-ne/bro-ide/menu-eng.html

PST (provincial sales tax) is a second tax that is specific to the province you are in. The amount of the tax and details around what is taxable is different for each province. I believe PST is actually called QST in Quebec – you can find more info about QST and how to apply at:

http://www.revenu.gouv.qc.ca/eng/entreprise/taxes/tvq_tps/inscription.asp

As far as how much you need to start your business, here’s a list of stuff you’ll need:

1. business registration, tax numbers = $100 (estimate)
2. Computer = $1000-2500 depending on what you want
3. Software = $1500 assuming you use the Adobe Creative Suite

other things that aren’t totally necessary but nice to have

1. business cards = $150
2. AdWords Campaign = $100-500

All these prices are ballpark. The cost of starting up a freelance design business is actually pretty low assuming you work from home. It’s a good type of business, as your overhead is pretty low month to month. I’d recommend also having $5000-10000 in the bank when you start up. This is safety net to fall back on if you have a slow month, need to get a new computer, miscellaneous expenses that come up.

Nice website – did you design the theme you are using?

Hope that helps :)

April 8, 2009 » 11:00 am

Gustavo

Hey, thanks a lot for your quick answer, it’s very helpful!! I’m gonna check a couple things and see if I have more questions, nevertheless, I think that’s all I needed to know, seriously, thanks a lot.

My website, if we talk about graphics It was 100% designed by me. The “building” or the scheme was based on a free wordpress theme, it was my first wordpress work, and my knowledge in php and xhml is not that advanced.

April 8, 2009 » 5:05 pm

admin

nice work regardless – looks like you did a pretty good job of customizing the base theme.

April 8, 2009 » 5:07 pm

Liam

Hi Matt,

I just found your blog while searching for freelancing in bc online and was super impressed with the volumes of information you provide. It’s pretty rad of you to post all of this stuff – and super helpful. I’m currently taking a small business course to start up a design business for the entertainment industry and was wondering if you wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for an assignment I have to do on entrepreneurs like yourself. If you do have time, would you please email me back and I can send you the questions privately? Much appreciated!

Liam

April 17, 2009 » 12:58 pm

Gustavo

Thanks!

I really enjoyed designing it.
I have one question for you, I hope I’m not being too annoying. :P
I know that you work from Canada, and that as a freelance designer, nowadays’ technology offers the possibility to develop projects to almost anywhere in the world (if not everywhere) my question is, have you worked with international customers?, and how do you handle the pay/tax thing?

I’m asking you because I recently got an offer from the UK, to work from here of course (that’s what internet is for) and I’m really excited about it, however I don’t want to have any problems or issues with the governmet for tax evasion or something like that. I know that probably I should call a gouvernametal office to ask them, but since you seem to have a lot of experience, and I’m positive you have customers from many other countries, I thought I’d ask you first (sensei :P )

Thanks a lot in advance!

April 22, 2009 » 8:30 am

admin

I have worked with a couple of international clients in the past. From a sales tax stand point, it actually makes things easier. Anyone from outside Canada, is exempt from paying sales tax (GST & PST). So you don’t have to charge them any tax. However, the payment from that international job still counts against your gross income and you’ll have to pay your income tax on it – like any other job, international or not.

You might want to check with the Quebec PST office to be sure but I think you would be in the clear. PST only applies to customers in that province. For example, if I did a job for a client in Ontario, I would only charge them GST. Since they are out of my province (BC), PST would not apply.

I think the only thing you’ll have to worry about is just the regular reporting of your income when you do your 2009 taxes and any income tax you have to pay.

April 22, 2009 » 10:44 am

admin

Looks like this has been a fairly popular post. Feel free to Digg it and share it with some other peeps. thanks

April 22, 2009 » 10:44 am

Jo

Hi Matt, I came across to your site and wonder if you know the answer of my question here:

i am located in Toronto, Canada, wanted to know if it’s legal for a freelance designer to charge a late payment fee if a client did not pay the outstanding balance upon the due date of the payment.

i did have my own company set up and registered in Ontario.

thanks in advance!

Jo

March 8, 2010 » 2:45 pm

admin

Hi Jo, this is more of an ethical question than a legal one. Some freelancers include a line in their invoice or contract that says something like: “Invoice due 30 days, overdue accounts are subject to a X% penalty, per month.” If you do this up front, I think it’s a good way to speed up payment. However, there is no legal action to be taken if the client doesn’t pay the penalty. The best practice is to get a 50% deposit up front always, and try to work only with good clients. I know in reality this can be hard to do, but always make sure you get your deposit. If the amount of the invoice is large, you can always go the small claims court route. However, it would have to be a big enough amount to make it worth your while. hope that helps

March 8, 2010 » 3:23 pm

Jo

thanks Matt. this is certainly very helpful!

March 9, 2010 » 7:31 am

Kirk

Hey This is really helpful man but i only one question though. What software do you use to make your websites? Thanks for this post :D

May 25, 2010 » 7:41 pm

admin

Hey no problem, thanks for reading! As for software, I mainly use Adobe Photoshop, but sometimes Illustrator too. I do all my coding using an Taco HTML Editor, or right on the server using Terminal and the command line.

May 25, 2010 » 10:08 pm

Kirk

Sweet man im trying to decide on getting a mac or staying with vista. Also can i add you on msn if you have one?

May 26, 2010 » 12:31 pm

admin

I’d recommend going with a MAC. That’s what I use. I’m not on MSN but you can follow me on Twitter if you like at: http://twitter.com/cardeo

May 26, 2010 » 1:08 pm

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