Preston's Recent Articles Page 5
What freelancing is not.
There are a lot of stigmas about what freelancing is like. Blogs like this one tell you about how to start a freelance business, how to find more freelance clients, and how to get paid more as a freel...
How NOT to act when your client asks for revisions
I’m a freelancer and entrepreneur. And many of you know that just a few years ago, I also took a desk job. So I have a unique perspective on working with clients. Half the day, I work for client...
Where will I see you in 6 months?
If you’re anything like me, you probably set a lot of goals. If you’re running your own business, you simply have to. But it seems like the more I talk with people, the more I learn that t...
What to do when you can’t finish a project on time
Freelancers and entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature. If we weren’t, we’d do the bare minimum in life to get by. We wouldn’t be running our own businesses. We’d be working at...
A freelance designer’s target audience: how do you find it?
“Who’s your target audience?” Lately, I’ve been asking a lot of designers that question because I’ve been offering 5 business critiques per month lately and that means d...
Is it okay to use templates and themes as a freelance designer?
Have you ever used a theme or a template on one of your freelance web design projects? I have. And I’m (in my humble opinion) a good designer and coder. I’ve built tons of websites both fo...
25 ways designers can make money without dealing with design clients
This is not one of those posts that rants and raves about how great designers are and how horrible design clients are. In fact, I hate all the bad karma floating around the design community when it co...
How long should a designer fight a client about a poor design decision?
If you’ve been designing for long, you’ve experienced a scenario like I am going through right now: You’ve met with your client, discussed the details of the project, signed a contra...
When should you bill your design clients?
Designing great-looking logos or websites (or whatever your passion is) can be one of the most exhilarating experiences for designers like us. But after a while, you start to realize it’s not ju...
What job title should a freelance designer use?
Have you ever wondered what title you should give yourself? If you’ve been a freelance designer for long, it’s likely you have encountered a situation where you need to have a title. Perha...
How many design revisions do your clients get?
One of my favorite pieces of design business advice comes from talented and successful designer, Christ Spooner. You can read about his advice (and some of mine) in detail by skimming through “A...
How to find your design niche: 70 ideas to get you started
There’s a continuous debate in the design community about whether or not a designer should specialize in one specific area or strive to be a jack-of-all trades. For designers who think it would...
Why some freelance designers become rich while others don't
Take a moment and scan the web for successful freelance designers. I mean financially successful freelance designers. I’m not talking about designers who have a great following on their blog, I&...
Set milestones and eliminate stress in the design process
When I first started working for myself, one of the hardest things for me to do was finish a design project in the amount of time that I had anticipated. Projects that I hoped to finish in a week, too...
What to do when a client wants you to copy other designs
In the graphic and web design industry, we like to think of ourselves as “creatives” who constantly keep the creative juices flowing and come up with original, well-thought out ideas. So w...