Comments on: Self Employment Advice

By: Musham

Musham — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:04:42 +0000

Always trust GOD :)

You´re now a bussiness man and as that u have to let yourself be guided by:

1) Knowledge: u cant work on something you dont know or understand completely -which is not your case-

2)Passion: know that this is not a desicion you will drop down upon the first shake or adverse situation that may come up -they always come up- so always have a savings account with enough $$,$$$ to protect yourself.

3)Vision: always strive grouth dont never place yourself as second scrap, always have a position of power.

4)FAITH: you have to believe in things that has not happened yet but that you will reach sooner or later -sooner preferibly- because this is something very that god provided all of us -but not everyone uses it-.

Stick to your gut always keep your gaurd up and pray -there´s no better bussiness relationship than the one you will have with GOD- HE will save ur bu** when you need it.

And last LOT´s and lots of luck and success to yourself.

By: MonaAlexandra

MonaAlexandra — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:53:36 +0000

Just read this blog entry and really like it. I admire people who have the guts to do freelancing.
Some of the best designers (in my opinion) are freelancers.

I would recommend this book or eBook to you!

“How to be a rockstar freelancer” -> http://freelanceswitch.com/book/

I wish you good luck and many many clients ;)

By: Ryan Wheale

Ryan Wheale — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:22 +0000

I second Kevin Barbee – always take the high road… but ALWAYS PROTECT YOURSELF! I was independent the first 4 years of my web career… and people are going to try and jerk you around like you are some charity for web design.

Always leave yourself in a position of power. I always hid a little php script that I could pull up in a browser that would delete all of the site files. As soon as the client paid, I would remove the script from the server. For those that didn’t pay and changed the FTP info… well I was already one step ahead of them. I only had to use my script once, but I got a $2000 check in the mail the next week, and I dutifully uploaded the site back to server.

You can also create a SQL dump file in the same manner. Pull up the php file in a browser, dump the database to a SQL script, and DROP all the tables. You don’t have to tell your clients about your scripts… just keep them there to protect yourself. And be sure to remove them upon payment… heaven forbid a robot or spider stumble upon it.

And lastly… Freshbooks – I don’t use it anymore, but it is a God send for invoicing.

By: Lukes Beard

Lukes Beard — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:48:15 +0000

So helpful, this will be a good guide over the next few months

By: Kevin Barbee

Kevin Barbee — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:03:57 +0000

Treat your clients with courtesy and respect, no matter how they treat you. It’s always better to take the high road.

By: holeycoww

holeycoww — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:44:27 +0000

I love the amount of advice that floats around the design community. Some excellent tips there that I’m going to be sure to adopt!

By: Daniel Heramb

Daniel Heramb — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:42:18 +0000

Thanks from those of us feeling out the waters. There are a lot of good tips in there that a lot of us would have overlooked.

By: Pyrameda

Pyrameda — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:17:03 +0000

Great list! My 2 cents:

Without the customer, the best product/service in the world will be absolutely useless. So focus on getting the customer!

By: Paul Anthony Webb

Paul Anthony Webb — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:17:50 +0000

These are all very good tips that I am now applying for myself as well.

I wish you good luck and be sure to keep us posted on the inevitable triumphs and pitfalls so we all can learn. ;)

BTW, anything new with RobotCobra?

By: Chris Kenison

Chris Kenison — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:46:15 +0000

Good Advice. I have to agree with Adam, I like Ed’s comment. Typical. :P Good luck man!