Thinking about freelance work as a designer and technical designer
Anyone have tips or leads on where to find remote tech designer or design freelance customer/work?
Any online preferences between upwork or Fiverr?
What are the rates customers pay, project or hourly?
Any tips would be helpful
I haven’t done freelance work myself, but I follow this podcast/ website and there is good information on it. Successful Fashion Freelancer on Apple Podcasts
Maybe working through an agency would be a easy way to test the freelance waters? I recommend Solomon Page over 24Seven. They place a lot of people in temp/freelance/contract work and are great people to deal with.
hi! Are you currently FT working as a designer or TD and thinking to make the switch?
I decided to go freelance to make more money & have control over location. Making under 100k in NYC or LA just doesn’t make sense anymore, I was barely scraping by. It took a while to build up clients… honestly, a lot of it was me just cold-emailing places (or LinkedIn messages) and offering my help. Eventually you make enough contacts (and contacts with other colleagues) I feel like I have more freelance than I want. I saw it like planting seeds. Sometimes I would email and hear back a full year later!
In the end, I’m really happy with that decision. I started freelancing in 2019 while I still had a FT job, slowly made the transition (and for a while worked INSANE hours, like everyday, all the time during the pandemic), but I was able to save money, move to a cheaper place to live, AND eventually it got me to a job I actually like where I’m learning and on a path I want to be (and I’m remote! bc I proved I can do this remotely).
I actually recently stopped doing freelance (I do a teeny bit here and there just so I can continue to write off some expenses) now that I have a job I like, but I don’t think I would have gotten here without that experience. Freelance also allowed me to write off expenses so I could get the software, hardware & education I needed to propel myself forward.
It’s nice knowing I have it in my back pocket, though. I’ve already figured out the finance parts and logistics, and if I ever need to quit or get laid off, I’m not really that worried.
I think the podcast someone referenced is helpful (I forget the name now), I listened and watched some of her webinars/ YT channel. Mostly it’s about having confidence, charging what you’re worth and practicing cold- emails.
Following. I’ve had the pleasure of having people to contact me for freelance work. I’m looking for more remote freelance work in fashion design as well.
When it hasn’t been a word-of-mouth connection, I’ve had some decent success just watching for random linkedin posts looking for design and development help. I usually email or message the poster directly with my background and ask if they’d like to set up time to chat about their needs and if I can be of help.
Hellobonsai.com is a great freelancing/consulting operational platform that helps with project proposals and writing legal contracts, tracking hours and expenses that’s been super helpful for keeping my projects organized and also makes doing taxes way less scary.