Just Another Dang Blog » Freelance

My Home Office

lopau — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:42:24 +0000

If you are going to freelance and want to work at home, you really need a private space so you can work efficiently. Early this year we had our room renovated, I was using our room for several years as an office and along with that are the irks that easily takes away your focus on you work like the TV, the kids, people coming in and out of the room, your stuffs keeps getting unorganize no matter how hard you try to keep them organize, always looking for something that you need but can never find it.

So when we had our room renovated, we have this closet room which is also the entrance to the bathroom which I also had renovated to be my office. I had the large built in cabinet removed and made space for my stuffs. Bought a USB wireless LAN so less cables and wires. Now all my things are a little bit more organized, I know where to find stuffs I need.

This is where I do all my works

Designers Salaries Survey

lopau — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:58:47 +0000

The 8th Coroflot’s Designer Salaries is out. Check out how the current economic crisis is effecting overall designer salaries worldwide.

More details here.

My observation: I’m still amazed on how the design industry salary in the Philippines and neighboring asian countries is about 1/8-1/4 from the global normal salary trend.

No related posts.

How to quote your hourly rate

lopau — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:33:19 +0000

Just got back from accident I blogged on my other personal finance blogsite. Anyway I was browsing through my emails, someone shared me a link to this site which offers a tool for quoting how much you should charge your clients.

It allows you to properly quote efficiently your rate when working on projects for clients. Fill out the form with details about your rent, hardware maintenance, utilties, software and upgrades etc.. With all these factors you can come up with a good figure on how much you should charge your clients.

Download it over at FEAT(Freelance Estimation Assistance Tool).

The application was built on Adobe Flex and runs on Adobe Air.

So you need to have Adobe Air installed on your system which is free. Then install the FEAT application.

Thinking about being a freelancer

Freelance drought and surge

lopau — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:37:57 +0000

Before jumping into the freelance bandwagon, it is a fact to know that the income is not stable. Better be prepared to have some cash laid away maybe good for 1 or 2 months always. Sometimes you can find yourself in a drought for projects. Some projects doesn’t materialize due to many different factors like, client changes mind, no budget, etc. Occasionally on these periods you learn to adjust your rates to bag a project and end up getting a gig that you could have been paid better. Over quoting may loose the project on the other hand, most often times it is better to be sure to get the project. That is one drawback but think of it as a survival instinct to keep afloat of the unstable freelance times.

On the positive side, at times you are bombarded with projects that some you have to decline. The more projects though the fatter your wallet gets, you may get more projects than you can handle. Learn to balance on how many projects you are capable of simultaneously before your work starts to suffer. Learn from that experience.

Here are some great tips from another freelancer on how to keep up with times and how to keep the gigs rolling.

How To Float Alive On A Freelance Life

Thinking about being a freelancer

lopau — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:37:32 +0000

I already tried working for corporate then went freelance, then a short gig in government and now I’m back to freelancing.

I find freelancing more fruitful and there is always room for improvement. You don’t stop learning. It’s having your own business and how you promote it.

If your graphics designer, web designer or web developer, writer or consultant, you need to have some tools in your gear to bag clients and have continuous projects.

Here are some personal tips if you want to start a career in freelance.

The most important tool to your arsenal is a pool of referrals. I got most of my gigs from referral. Word of mouth gets you clients.
Always have a contract ready and be cautious on picking clients that you are not on the lower deal.
Always have a business card ready in all social clubs, events or seminars you attend to.
Keep a list of other peers in different fields so you can refer them some of your clients, eg, SEO experts, software and mobile programmers and other web developer specializing in different language other than the one you know. If you refer them clients they will refer some of their clients back to you.

So before you jump into freelancing, take in some of these tips. I’ll post more soon.