[thelist] A question for freelancers....

[Ben Henick]

On Sun, 11 Feb 2001, Mr Sirio wrote:

> I'm quite young & i've just finished school... now i've decided to try the
> hard way of a freelancer, or better i spend some time in a company to make

The timeless question...  :-)

You probably want to wade through the archives at

http://www.alistapart.com/

which contain a lot of articles that pertain to your question.  I also a
found a site called

http://www.1099.com/

which looks pretty solid, but is geared specifically toward an American
audience (sigh).

> pratice & then i work with my own, now i'd like to know if you have any

Since you are newly out of school, this is highly recommended.

Of course, the primary consideration here is one of experience.  In any
trade there are a lot of problems that are 100x easier to solve when
you're a member of team.  In such an environment, you have the opportunity
to learn all the minor details that can complicate projects when they're
not attended to.

Given too that you're just out of school, you need to have a steady
(if not ironclad) source of income - be it another job, or a savings
account.

> suggestion how to find customers... do you have someone who did it for you

...By networking.  Talking to people, lots of people.  It doesn't cost
much at all, but it is awfully time-consuming.

> by a fee?... do you spend money on advertising?... what do you do?

The other thing I can tell you is that you'd need to learn quickly how to
handle the financial side of things - taxes, expenses, etc.  I was
somewhat lucky in this regard, as many of my relatives have owned their
own businesses (and a couple of them still do), so I've got instant
sources of adivce when I need it...


Good luck,
-- 
Ben Henick
Web Author At-Large
http://www.io.com/persist1/
persist1 at io.com

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"
"I think so, Brain, but... (snort) no, no, it's too stupid."
"We will disguise ourselves as a cow."
"Oh!" (giggles) "That was it exactly!"