There are thousands of reasons why you want to be a freelance web designer, three of which are economic freedom, creative freedom, and you can work anywhere you like. But I'm going to tell you now why this is a bad idea. You may have hundreds of reasons to hate your current job. Maybe you call in sick occasionally, just to take a day off and don't care about the day's salary. Or maybe you've been pushing your friend's invitation since two weeks ago? Small and simple reasons can also have a significant impact.
I can cite 100 reasons why you shouldn't be a freelance web designer, but no one will want to read such a list, right? So I'm just going to cite some of the more popular reasons here. At least, is the most popular now! Your goal is to answer No! 5 years of well-developed UI front-end framework!
1. You always hesitate
Once, a colleague invited you to lead the company's party, driving the whole atmosphere to heat up, and you did not say a pause for more than a minute, you could have simply said "Let me think about", "line" or "no" is your moment of thought. Or maybe you were just shy and didn't ask your coworkers for help? Remember, if you can't decide right away, you can say let me think about it and never pause or daze in front of the person you're talking to.
So why is this a reason why you shouldn't be a freelance web designer?
When web designers work with customers, it's about how to communicate smoothly in all aspects of the transaction. From the design of the proposal, to sign a contract or to summarize. A moment's hesitation will ruin your reputation, because customers want the service provider to really know what they're doing.
When it comes to web design, there's something like "What should we do?" "What do you think is the best" is the question raised, and you usually need to answer it quickly, because time is money. If you spend a few minutes thinking about solutions or coping with them, it's hard to keep your customers.
2. You decided to make things too hasty.
Contrary to the above view, an haste to decide things can also jeopardize your career. I'm talking mostly about people who promise every need and accept every change in demand and basically become slaves to their customers ' ideas. You should learn to say no, or at least postpone making your decision and ask for some time to think about it. If you agree or oppose things too soon, you will find yourself either overwhelmed by the task you are about to do or lose the client after completing a project.
Solutions 1 and 2
Better to make a change? Learn to think ahead. Learn from your past conversations with clients or bosses, read the questions on the Internet, and learn as many questions as you can to avoid being less than resistant. When faced with something that has never been touched, you can always ask for more time to think about it. This method will be a lot safer, right?
3. You think it's easy to make money
No, it's definitely not true. It's not easy to make money in freelancing, and it's not as "your own boss" as advertised. Do you know what makes freelance web designers more difficult to make money? They not only want to use their own design to please potential customers, but also to establish their own market. It's about how they manage their finances, how they stand out among thousands of competitors, and how to make people want to design them regardless of how much money they spend. 5 years of well-developed UI front-end framework!
Such money is not easy to earn, even harder than your current job. Your current job does not require you to be very active in finding customers. Your boss will also make sure you have enough tax, and it's likely to be a full-time job with no more than 50-70 hours a week. This is totally different from freelancing, especially when freelance web designers often need to be creative, or even more challenging, as if they need to soothe their customers ' anger.
Give you some tips, here is a friend of mine and the whole process of cooperation with customers.
1. Discuss the requirements, colors, widths and other materials.
2. Send several wireframes/sketches (in the past he usually sends 5 different designs) for the customer to select.
3. Once the scenario is selected, he starts using Photoshop to start the design based on the selected frame.
4. If the customer says he is free to choose the color scheme, he will make several different color schemes for the customer to choose.
5. Once the design is confirmed, you can begin to html+css the design manuscript.
It is worth reminding you that this conversation happened between two people, and there was no producer or manager present. and from communication to delivery is approximately from a few hours or a week time, depending on the size of the project. It's just part of the whole process. The discussion of price, contract, and other non-design related things will also follow. Is it easy to make money by measuring it? If you enter the industry with a freelance, easy-to-earn mind, you will unwittingly get into trouble and end up with a bitter failure.
4. No more than 5 of your masterpiece
I know it's hard to start a career as a web designer, but if you don't have more than 5 of your work in your portfolio, don't count on success. It doesn't matter whether your work is on the job or just to give your portfolio Tim color, it's important that it attracts people. These works can also prove that you are good at doing these things. You don't buy bad things on the Internet, do you? This is the same with web design. Customers are looking for people who can do their website projects well, not those who will only make verbal promises about how good they are.
Let them know what you can do! If you've never created a personal folio, you're still giving up the idea of becoming a freelance web designer.
Solution: Create your personal work website from now on. Take the time to build your personal website from now on, and make it popular with your great work. Start doing it now, and you will never regret it! 5 years of well-developed UI front-end framework!
5. You have to pay a lot of bills, but no savings
Stepping into the world of freelancing is a big adventure. Without skilled skills, tools, and guides, you will probably not find a client for months. If you spend your monthly paycheck paying for those financial expenses that are exhausting, you don't even want to be in a freelance job. If you happen to be in touch with a good customer, your project may be well done. But the same kind of adventure, because customers are not a constant stream.
We assume that you already have enough skills to have a portfolio, and everything is ready, except for the source. Do you have a plan for someone who needs a web designer? Moreover, there is a problem, not every day people want to build a station. The good news is that web designers can fight this cul-de-sac in a number of ways, one of the best ways is to convert customers into passive revenue streams. We'll explain this in more detail in our updated 1WD articles later, so make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, or follow our Facebook or Twitter updates.
In a word, entering a free-professional world is a big adventure. Be sure to believe what I said, if your bank doesn't have enough money to live for at least three months, don't be a freelancer.
6. You think Photoshop is all about web design
If you define a Web page design as simply using Photoshop to design a Web page template, then you should reconsider your title, as this can only be called graphic design (expanding terminology).
Being a web designer means three things:
1. You should be good at using phtotoshop to turn ideas into reality. (or use a different image editing tool)
2. You should be good at html+css the design drawings for reconstruction.
3. You also want to be a web developer.
OK, let's talk about 2 and 3. If you want to enter the world of free web design now, you should have quite good html+css technology, because this is the current standard. If HTML+CSS technology is unfamiliar to you now, I strongly suggest you start learning it now. Many web designers are limited by themselves because they focus only on photoshop,html, CSS, because they don't encode things that cause them to be functional, but coding can help their career go better.
Of course, this is a personal wish, but if you want to be a web developer, there will be a bright future ahead of you.
7. You hate to modify
You think being a freelancer doesn't have a boss, does it? Unfortunately, this is a completely wrong understanding. If someone pays you to work for them, they are your boss. No one page design work, is the design of the first draft can meet the customer. They are often required to be modified or even modified several times. 5 years of well-developed UI front-end framework!
Let me tell you this: customers like to change. They feel they are in control of the situation as if they knew what they were doing. Do you have to obey? Of course, if their intentions are contrary to what you think is better, then be bold enough to tell them, but if you can't, then you can only obey, because they pay you money.
8. You don't want to talk to people
As a freelance web designer, in many ways it's different from freelance writers and web developers. Freelance web developers and writers work in a more systematic way, while freelance web designers work on half of the subjective factors and the objective factors of the other half.
They did not go the following process:
1. The customer sends the demand to you
2. You start to work
3. You submit a proposal
4. The customer changes through your proposal or request.
The reality is cruel:
1. Receiving customer's needs
2. You discuss the exchange with the customer
3. You start to work
4. You submit a proposal
5. Customer Request Modification
6. You begin to modify
7. Customers propose new requirements for modification
8. You're starting to change
9. The customer decides to change the other way
10. You're tired of his farce.
11. But you're still going to do it because you've started
12. You endure and complete the project until the customer is satisfied
This is the reality, every change requires conversation, negotiation, and even the idea of attempted suicide! 5 years of well-developed UI front-end framework!
9. You don't think ahead
If your work does not impress the customer, then they will not give you a favorable service. Big customers usually look at your previous customer's comments. Without these reviews, it's hard to get a big project. The pursuit of perfection is a self-defining way for web designers. Your work should reflect your ability, so if your work is excellent and has a lot of praise, then your new client will think you can work with confidence. If you often put the words "probably done" or "This is good enough", then you are not fit to be a freelance web designer. Web design is an art, every one of your works should be carefully carved. What can people expect of you if you have a mindset that's probably about the same?
10. You did not peruse what I have listed
If you have not finished reading every word here, you will be: indecisive-you open this article for reading, not a few eyes to go. Don't want to learn-okay, is that so? Don't think ahead-you spend up to 10 minutes reading this post. Feel free to work easily-do you think you know everything about freelancing? If you're serious about becoming a freelance web designer, and if you're here to learn this, why did you jump to the end? If you are very few able to read and carefully consider these points, very good! This is a good attitude!
Question: Do you still want to be a freelance web designer?
If every one of the articles I have listed here is "no", then please start freelancing now! However, if your answer is "yes", then you should at least solve these problems before you start doing the other!
10 reasons why you shouldn't be a freelance web designer