Let’s discuss...It’s crunch time - thoughts on web design as career

This week I have had the unfortunate news that I am being made redundant. Time to rethink my career. I want to become a full time web designer.
Have any of you made the transition from an employee to freelance web designer? What advice, tips, challenges can you share? Thanks

Hey there!

While my situation isn’t the exact same, I decided to become a full-time web designer/developer about 1.5 years ago. I can quickly give you my feedback, but I would be happy to chat about this if you want; just message me.

Advice
Don’t undersell yourself. I started doing websites for ~$2-3k. While my quality has improved, looking back, I think I was selling myself short now that I have come to the realization I am selling a solution to the reason someone wants a digital presence vs. just another website someone could get on Squarespace.

Tips
In the beginning, go after work that is in your wheelhouse. For me, that is tech startups because it fits my design style best. Spending time designing typically takes me much longer than developing on Webflow, so this enabled me to do good, fast work to find out if I liked doing project after project full-time.

Tricks
Use this forum non-stop when you’re stuck. So many great people willing to help you.

This was a quick and dirty response, but I hope I helped a little.

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Hey :wave: thank you for the reply. I will take you up on your offer and send you a message as I have a few more questions if you don’t mind. Thanks buddy

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No problem at all - I just hope I can help haha!

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Hey @RoseWebStudio

Glad to hear you’re thinking about making the transition! I think what a lot of freelancers forget is that when they go freelance they are in the business of sales/marketing. Web design becomes a secondary objective when you are in business full-time.

I would highly recommend the following:

  • Make sure you have a CRM in place and constantly follow up with and nurture your leads
  • Start thinking of your specialities and what you niche you could target. Build out content for this niche exclusively and share valuable info with them
  • Get a set of standardized contracts and roadmaps for your web work and try to productize your offering
  • Get a proper landing page set up for your practice and include your niche offer (For example, here’s my service page: Cameron Roe)
  • Pick one channel you really fit with (YouTube, Podcast, Written Blog, Facebook Group) and make it a weekly discipline to present your best content in this channel

If you are looking for more ideas on sales email templates, CRO tactics, content playbooks, and advertising strategies… please do jump on to my list at https://www.cameronroe.com/

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Thanks for the advice appreciate it. Some excellent tips there.