From Freelancer to Firm
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- scrap_paper0
Thinking about what everyone is saying here I think the sales part is something I am totally missing. With someone around to hunt down new work it leaves me to focuss on getting the work done or managing freelancers to pull it off.
So, exador1, your friend is basically outsoucing his sales and project management eh? Interesting prospect. Again, anything to offset hard costs helps.
- exador10
one of my best buds from college is in the exact same situation...he pretty much has followed the advice given out here, and it's done him a world of good...he landed a few big name clients first, (such as Harley Davidson) which made him enough money to hire a junior designer. He also established a good working relationship with someone in sales, but doesn't have to pay her...she's an independent project manager type that has her own business, but needed a solid design firm to hand the work off too...now he's bought a house and converted one floor in to a studio...
- Dancer0
"I don't know how you can't find someone who doesn't want to work with you in your outhouse though!"
hahaha...
is that a piss take
- jamble0
Freecycle is good. I work from home with the wife and I opted to go to the timber yard up the road and built my own desks from MDF and fence posts .. that saved a few hundred quid!
I don't know how you can't find someone who doesn't want to work with you in your outhouse though!
I guess in terms of finding a partner, it's tough, I don't think you need an account handler if there's only a couple of you. It's not rocket science handling accounts. It's just something most creatives don't tend to want to take up lots of time to do. I have to do it as well as design and build, and accounting, chasing bills etc but it's not really that hard if you're organised.
Are you "rebranding yourself" Dancer? I mean in terms of setting up a new company name etc? If so, you should be fine to increase your rates to reflect the fact that you're no longer a one man band.
Sounds fun, I do miss having someone to bounce ideas off when I'm designing but the wife has enough creative experience in the industry to be more than helpful and she works from home with me so it's good to have the company but we both do different work so we don't need to worry so much about covering two salaries.
- Dancer0
I suppose if you are buying all new machines and furniture.
This is how I am doing it:
When I bought my house it had a derelict outhouse which I have converted into a studio, this will hold 3 to 4 people (at a squeeze)Freecycle has loads of, heaven forbid, free stuff: desks, chairs filing cabinets etc... this has been very useful indeed.
http://www.freecycle.org/groups/…The only thing I am paying ££££ for is a new Mac.
Other than that all I need is a business partner, I have yet to decide if that will be another designer or an account handler (probably the latter).
so I will spend around £2.5k to start out with, and grow outwards from there the only thing I worry about is upping the fees to cover for 2 peoples salary but this will be progressive.
now where's that business partner gone....?
- jamble0
I'd have thought the money side could be taken care of with a business startup loan of some sort. Providing you've got a good business plan (which you should have if you're thinking of setting up) then you should be in a good position to borrow some money to get you going.
Two of my friends went into business themselves a few years back with little more than £10k (I think) but they weren't hiring staff and lived frugally until it took off but I think it's an indication that you don't needs hundreds of thousands to get going as a company.
- scrap_paper0
The bottom line is always the issue. If you have the money to float you for a few months and you have a solid plan you can make things work.
I did some rough calculations for a 5 person firm for a year and the numbers really freaked me out. Once my breathing returned to normal and I talked to a couple of people that seem to know better I realized that to start up I don't need to have float for a whole year for five people. I only need to account for 1-2 salaries outside of my own for about 3-4 months and have the money to cover rent and comm bills.
Equipment can be leased. Space can be shared. Freelancers can be hired on a job to job basis. Seems like there are common sense ways to do this thing.
- so when we say "f you have the money to float you for a few months " are we talking 50K+roundabout
- Dancer0
disagree – see notes above
- You have some nice work there Dancerroundabout
- thanks roundaboutDancer
- CheDouglas0
Agree with univers – it is a really well thought out and executed book
- univers0
Actually my post earlier was kind of serious. Read the book; "How to be a graphic designer with out losing your soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy, he talks about how to establish a fully functional company and how to cope with growth losses and maintaining float through the first years. In the mean time seriously, don't let it consume your life.
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-De…
One of the best books I have read in regards to business in design.
- As said above – pretty basic stuff and common sense in my eyes. not as great as everyone harks on aboutDancer
- +1 DancerDoubleKing
- arseni0
I think the biggest challenge here is money. If you have it, then everything becomes pretty easy. If you don't, you'll be struggling a lot and it will take you forever. Finding a partner is great, but it's very tricky to find one. If you're specifically looking for a partner, it may be even dangerous as there's not enough time to learn each other well enough before someone fucks you over. I'm in the same boat, trying to make it happen. Start with a business plan. Figure out what you're going to be doing, how you're different from the rest, where your clients are, how much money you need, etc... The more i learn about it the more it amases me to see succesful firms who pull it off. Freaking hard business. Imagine how much money per month you need to generate if you have even 5 people working full time in house. Unless they're your friends/partners who all agreed to work their asses of not expecting much. But then, who owns the firm?
- scrap_paper0
MindFuse, that makes a lot of sense to me. In general I don't think I want to duplicate my skill set at this stage. Whether its working with a business/sales person or a hardcore developer I may as well work with people that can fill in the corners of my knowledge.
Not to say that I'm one of those creatives that seem to be afraid of anything that is not purely art/design. In fact I pride myself in having understanding of a broad range of technology and business related topics as well as design.
The thing is there is a big difference between understanding and expertise. And there are only so many hours in the day.
- univers0
Dont die
- best advice so farscrap_paper
- agreed. this is very important on the road to success.effort
- CheDouglas0
1. get a space agreed
2. bookkeeper to manage all finances + invoicing and debt collecting
3. contract graduates from universites/colleges
4. when you find a good graduate who you can trust and works well with your clients (ask clients for feedback), put them on full-time (obviously ask bookeeper and accountant if you can afford this first)
5. project management software
6. when you can afford it an account manager (this is my next stage)
7. interview people whenever you get the chance, you never know when a relevant job might pop up and you can bring people in...
8. never undersell yourself
9. always be in 9-5pm – or at least have someone in to answer calls etc.. when you can't be there.- I notice that you have acct manager further down the line. Did you have someone getting new work on your team or did you do this yourself?scrap_paper
- you work on this yourself?scrap_paper
- luckily i've never had to go out and "find new work" i've built a strong network and found new work comes from these relationships + doing good work on time etc. etc. an account manager would be more to make sure all jobs are under control and on budgetCheDouglas
- MindFuse0
partner with a non-creative person. one with the left brain thing going on. you need to fine someone with complimentary skill sets. the last thing you need is two creatives fighting over who gets to design the logo.
- effort0
i agree with everything said already. another path i've seen taken is to work as a vendor for bigger agencies (see shops like Code and Theory, KNI, EVB and others) . everyone outsources everything all the way down the line, so instead of being the one getting the work to outsource, you become the person bigger shops come to when they need help (then of course you can always outsource whatever you want down the chain). this will gain you access to a broader range of clients (i.e. you don't have to do the sales part) for your book and, hopefully, you can form relationships with those clients directly down the road.
- i should point out that i haven't been successful with this approach, but it's kind of the path i'm on... ;hope it works.effort
- As I understand it this is the way a lot of bigger firms get their huge clients. An ad agency will get the account...scrap_paper
- which in turn gets outsourced to the firm to implement.scrap_paper
- Amen0
find a partner... a good one.
- Daro0
outsource till you have a steady income to pay salaries.
- blastofv0
the most critical ingredient is landing or cultivating a client or two that can anchor your business. you can plan like crazy, line everything up, and dive in any time, but you need a few fat clients with real steady work and real budgets to make the leap.
- +1, this has been my biggest problem.DoubleKing
- True. But then there's a big danger if this client leaves. You can't rely on one client.arseni
- tbgd0
what about someone on here? you don't have to live in the same country/town. Isn't that what Universal everything does?
- ive been freelance for a year now, just starting to think about finding a business partner.doesnotexist