A few months ago I did something crazy: I QUIT MY JOB. I had noticed a growing trend in my attitude towards my work in general. I was more excited about what I was working on before and after the hours of 9-5. So I took a bit of a leap of faith and decided to strike out on my own.

If you follow me on twitter, I’m sure you know how things are going for me since I’ve been doing the freelance dance. This blog post is a bit of ‘status update’ that is more than 140 characters. I’ll talk a bit about running a business, organization, income, friends, sanity and the future.

(Awesome illustration of me by my friend Jimmynotjim)

Business Stuff

At my last job I was surprised by the amount of meetings and phone calls my boss had scheduled on a daily basis. It seemed as if he was always running from meeting to meeting. Well guess what?!?! This is happening to me, but I’m keeping things in check.

I am keeping in person meetings to a minimum. While they may be helpful for some clients, most times an email, phone call or skype screen sharing session with an agenda will suffice. Point here is that I always ask or set an agenda before a call.

I’m also surprised by the amount of time I spent writing estimates, tweaking contracts and attempting to get invoices paid. Not that I have had any huge problems, but this is stuff that just takes time. Probably more than you realize. This is why I’ve accounted for some ‘admin hours’ in my estimates. Just a bit of padding to cover this time.

Organization

At the core of all this business stuff is organization. I’m not a hugely organized person by nature so I have to work hard at staying organized. Emails, invoices, contracts, multiple versions of designs, coded templates, wordpress installs, version control, OH MY! Luckily I’ve found some super awesome web apps that help save my ass on a daily basis:

• CurdBee – Invoicing & Time Tracking
• Basecamp – Collaboration, Client Corralling
• Git & Github – Saving my ass, Collaboration, Version control
• Mint – Keeping track of finances
• Kodery – Saving all those wordpress code snippets I can never remember!
• Gather Content – Getting specific content from clients

Income

One of my biggest fears after making the jump was income. I had a pretty decent salary at my last job, so my goal was to try to make at least the same wages. As you all know freelancing income tends to come in waves. $2,000 here $6,000 here $500 there. This is all fine and dandy, but my expenses are regular and need to be paid. This freaked me out a bit so I was on the lookout for a steady gig.

Luckily a friend recommended that I inquire about a part time teaching job at a local school. (CDIABU). I’ve done some public speaking in the past and survived (and rather enjoyed it!) so I gave it a try!

I managed to impress someone (or convince them I was sane) and now I’m teaching a few classes on nights and weekends. (HTML & CSS, WordPress, Illustrator). This part time job (~6-10 hours a week) allows me to chill a bit about money and at least pay my rent and buy beer. This has been great for me so far! Teaching is awesome and incredibly rewarding.

Friends

One of the reasons I was able to make the jump to full-time freelance was because of my awesome designer / developer friends out there. You know who you are! There seems to be no shortage of web work out there and every web designer and developer tends to be busy. Luckily my friends are all busy and have passed on several clients and project leads to me. I can’t tell you guys how thankful I am for this. Seriously! If you are looking to make the jump to freelance I would recommend having a network of awesome friends that do what you do.

That being said I hope to return the favor or pass work along in the future to my friends. Right now I am so busy and its the best thing in the world!

Happiness and Sanity

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed since making the jump is that I am much much happier! Not that I was unhappy when I had a job, but now I’m in control of my own schedule. If I want to work from 2pm-10pm I can! If I want to get up and drink coffee and write a blog post before working – I CAN! And thats what I’m doing right now!

Freelancing has provided me the freedom to control my own schedule and control which projects I work on. I can’t emphasize how enjoyable (or sometimes scary) this is. No more working on powerpoint slides because someone ‘told me so’.

Aside from the work side of things I’ve been able to spend more time on myself. I’m one of those crazy runners – so when I get the urge to run I run! No matter what time of day it is!

The Future

So now that I’ve been on my own for a bit I’d like to plan where I see my business going. I have been working on a variety of things here and there and I’m getting a good idea of what I like best. I’ve worked on a few iPhone apps as well as with a few startups. These tend to be my favorite projects because entrepreneurs are just so damn excited about what they do! That enthusiasm tends to rub off. I love hearing people pitch their biz and try to excite others.

Besides my ‘ideal’ client, I’m planning on doing some of my own ‘non-client’ work. Here’s a few things I have in the works:

• posters / prints
• writing a small ebook
• custom wordpress themes? themeforest?

So this is my ‘state of things’ post a few months in to freelancing. I’ll do another post at the 6 month mark and hopefully I’ll be doing some of the things I mentioned and business will be good!

Listen to the audioboo and then share your thoughts!

And @107designs awesome audioboo reply:

Would love to hear what you guys think!

Leave a comment and chime in!

So my question to you is this: Do you give your clients source files? Do you charge for that? Why? Why not?

Here’s what some of my twitter friends has to say:

None of my clients would know what to do with source files
@travis_king

Thanks to everyone who tweeted back at me! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

I’m sure we have all had experiences with P.I.T.A. clients before. These types of clients require lots of meetings, phone calls, emails, special attention and hand holding. If you aren’t prepared for the time commitment, these clients can blow through the alloted hours in a design budget faster than I can down a Red Bull. I’ve had some interesting experiences with these types of clients and have some tips and suggestions that will make the client designer relationship much smoother.

1. Explain your work process

Often times P.I.T.A. clients have never worked with designers. They are likely to be unfamiliar with the typical design workflow. Take the time to write out your work process and explain what happens when, so nothing comes out of the blue. This also helps preempt the millions of questions that are surely going to be flung at you at some point.

2. Set and Assign Project Milestones

Along with explaining your work process – its good to have project ‘milestones’. This way the client has some expectation of what will happen when, and who is responsible for it. These dates do not have to be set in stone. Having a plan for when things are going to happen is a good idea and reassures the client. Also assign responsibility for milestones so it is clear who is responsible for what.

Side-note: I use Basecamp for project management and setting project milestones are a great way to represent these deadlines visually.

Added bonus: Basecamp emails the person responsible for said milestones 48 hours before they are due. Just a handy little tool to nudge your client into getting that elusive web copy finished!

Common milestones (and responsibility) for my web design projects are:

• Client survey – client
• Initial call – designer
• Site-mapping & wireframing – designer
• Content creation – client/copywriter
• First Round Design – designer
• Initial Design Feedback – client
• Endless Rounds of Revisions – designer
• Coding – designer
• Testing – designer
• Soft Launch – designer
• Post Launch bug reporting/fixing – client & designer

3. Add Additional Hours to Your Budget

Time spent in meetings, talking on the phone and writing emails is time working on a project and should be billed for accordingly. I usually budget a certain amount of hours in a project to account for this. However, P.I.T.A. clients require more personal attention, more explanation and face to face meeting time.

Include these hours in your initial project estimate and be honest about what they are for. Explain to the client that these hours will only be billed for if the time is used. This lets the client know that your time is important and they are less likely to take advantage of it knowing that they are paying for it. Now this isn’t to say that you need to bill for every second talking to the client – I usually let small things slide, but I try to bill for planned meetings, conference calls etc.

4. Explain Technical Details in Writing

Often times clients are much less technical than designers and developers and thus have a hard time understanding the jargon we throw around. Its always a good idea to explain any technical details in writing. This can be an excellent reference for the client after your initial discussion. This should also prevent having to explain things over and over again because you can simply reference your written documentation.

5. Remember to Breathe

Dealing with P.I.T.A. clients can be REALLY frustrating at times. Its always good to step back from time to time and take a deep breath and take a break from the project. The same goes for the client. Sometimes postponing things for a day or two can help you perspective and clarity on a project.

6. Last Resort: Fire The Client

If things get REALLY bad there’s always the option of ending the project early and severing the client/designer business relationship.

This comes at a price. The client will probably want a part or all of their deposit back (depending on how much of the work has been done). It’s always good to be honest with clients when doing this. Let them know this isn’t working out, the project is requiring more hours than you have available or budgeted for, or the business relationship isn’t working. Nothing personal – wish them the best and recommend them to another designer or developer. Try to end things on a good note and avoid burning bridges.

*P.I.T.A. stands for pain in the ass. Don’t get me wrong – designers need clients and clients need designers. I respect all my clients, but sometimes you just have to have a funny term for annoying clients

How do you deal with P.I.T.A. clients?

Share your tips, suggestions, and/or horror stories in the comments or follow me on twitter and discuss!

Design from different perspectives is a series of short video interviews detailing the different kinds of jobs and environments that are available to designers and the pros and cons of each situation. In this video I chat with interview Steven Olmstead about his experiences working as an in house designer and freelancing on the side. Stay tuned and grab the RSS feed for more interviews with other freelancers, creative directors, in house designers & more!

A Bit More About Stephen…

Twitter: @sonatacreative
Website: Sonatacreative.com

Check out the other videos in this series

Design From Different Perspectives Part 1: Kevin M. Scarbrough – Freelance Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 2 – Stephen Olmstead – In House Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 3 – Chad Engle – Agency Designer

Design from different perspectives is a series of short video interviews detailing the different kinds of jobs and environments that are available to designers and the pros and cons of each situation. In this video interview Kevin from Robot Monster Ghost shares his experiences on the the good, the bad an the ugly of freelancing and running a small studio. Stay tuned and grab the RSS feed for more interviews with other freelancers, creative directors, in house designers & more!

A bit more about Kevin…

Twitter: @RMGco
Website:RobotMonsterGhost.com

Kevin’s Scarbrough in 2 paragraphs or less:

I’ve designed for a steady diet of unusual clients (a fashion designer in Italy, a Bolivian wine bar, a New Zealand boat manufacturer, a Russian hosting company, etc.). I’ve learned project management the hard/best way.

I’ve hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon, I briefly owned a snarky t-shirt company based on mad science, I helped set up a rave to raise money for Unicef, as a kid I used to try to improve ads on the radio and TV, and on vacation I make up wild stories about who I am.

What do YOU think?

Do you freelance full time or run a small design studio? Wish you could? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to chime! I’d love to hear your take on some of the same questions I asked Kevin!

Check out the other videos in this series

Design From Different Perspectives Part 1: Kevin M. Scarbrough – Freelance Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 2 – Stephen Olmstead – In House Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 3 – Chad Engle – Agency Designer

In the wake of the popularity of the Clients From Hell site I thought it would be appropriate to talk about good experiences with clients. I had a chance to have a chat with Liz Andrade from CmdShiftDesign and discuss the topic.

What do you think?

Have you had good (or bad) experiences with clients? What was it like? What did you do to foster the client/designer relationship? Leave a comment and join the discussion.