Comments on: What’s it like being a self employed web designer?

By: Colin Hall

Colin Hall — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:08:24 +0000

I have 10 years now as a full time, self employed web designer, so I guess that the honeymoon is well and truly over. It’s been very tough to be honest. We work in a small city, which holds its own problems (i.e. lots of competition and too few high quality projects). Sadly the industry is always filled with start-ups who virtually give away their designing skills in return for a start on the ladder. I would estimate that a web design freelancer, working from home, will last for 1-2 years until the lure of sub-contracted work starts looking attractive. The main problem that I’ve found being an individual is that your skills are judged on your designs, but budgets are so low that you cannot employ all of your skills for each project.

Don’t get me wrong though, I would never stop

By: Grafx

Grafx — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:15:23 +0000

i think the biggest fear is that i wont get any jobs!!! *looks forlorn*

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:49:06 +0000

Hi Mark – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Funny you should mention the financial crisis – I have just published a new post on the topic sharing my views.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:29:03 +0000

Aaron,

Interesting read – I know that feeling of soul searching and unsure if quitting the comfortable, regular salary was the right decision. I still feel it was though, even with the current financial crisis in the world.

Mark.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:50:00 +0000

Vivien – Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and I look forward to reading more about your experience soon. Ha ha, I know two posts in two days is unheard of! If I can settle in to a pattern of one a week I’d be very happy.

By: inspirationbit

inspirationbit — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:48:00 +0000

I can definitely empathise with you on all of your points above, except that I don’t really feel that lonely thanks to Skype, Twitter and of course, having my family around.

I went on vacation for 11 days, and afterward was greeted with a pile of work that I’m still catching up with. The fact that with freelancing I still don’t get much free time as I hoped I would after quitting my day job (and having to freelance after work) particularly struck the chord. I’m planning on writing a post about my experience/thoughts in going solo, so stay tuned on that @ iBit

P.S. Can’t believe this is my 2nd comment on your blog today, and both were for two different posts. I hope you won’t be posting twice a day on a regular basis, Aaron, otherwise I’ll go bankrupt