Resources for freelance designers

Posted on 15th September 2007 by James Young | There are 9 comments so far

There are plenty of things a freelancer needs to do and be aware of when they’re working for themselves that would normally be taken care of by their employer if they were working full time. Hopefully this small list of time tracking, contract, scoping and invoicing sites will prove helpful to those of you who are working for yourselves.

Contract and scope documents

Here is a generic design project I usually use for most clients and it’s always proved adequate for my needs, feel free to download it and use it for your work, just be sure to update the information to reflect your personal details.

Generic web design contract download

It’s important that you also take the time to outline the scope of the work you’re going to as it’s so easy for “project creep” to become an issue towards the end of the project. I’ve experienced it in the past where clients have tried the “I’ll pay you once you’ve done these last couple of things” line. With a simple project scope document, you can outline what constitutes part of the project and what doesn’t.

Generic project scope document download

The last document download for this post is a simple but hopefully comprehensive “client requirements” document. This is something that you should be sending to client as early as possible after they’ve made contact with you to get a quote for work. It will help the client firm up many of the things they’re looking for in a site and at the same time will provide you with a lot of information in order to quote both cost and timescales for the project.

Generic client requirements document download

Project management resources

Don’t forget that once you’ve won the client and secured their signature on the contract, the work is only just beginning for you. They will be expecting that now they’ve taken the time to fill in all the documents above you will have a strong idea of what they want and how long it will take to provide it. Here are a couple of simple resources that will help you stay organised and make your workflow more efficient Rainlendar todo lists and calendar Basecamp HQ – Project collaboration software

Invoicing

I am making only one recommendation for invoicing, I’ve been using it for a year and for freelancers, it’s ideal. You can try blinksale for free, sending up to 3 invoices a month but I highly recommend the value of upgrading your account on this site for those of you who invoice more than 3 times a month. Blinksale – the easiest way to invoice online I hope this small list proves useful, I’ll be adding further resources over time so be sure to come back regularly.