Freelance graphic design

oldat31

Hi im in need of some advice.

I thinking of starting my own freelance design company but i have never done anything like this.

Can anyone post some pointers and advice?. Like what should be my frist step and who i need to see first and formost?

AndyJB

oldat31 wrote: »

Hi im in need of some advice.

I thinking of starting my own freelance design company but i have never done anything like this.

Can anyone post some pointers and advice?. Like what should be my frist step and who i need to see first and formost?

Hi,
I'm sure some people will tell you to speak with an accountant about setting up a company and then the Revenue about VAT numbers etc. All useful, but I believe your primary issue really should be where are you going to get the business and paying clients from in the first place?

I presume you're working in that field at the moment. Where's the current business coming from? Are you currently involved in getting business or are you solely involved in the art/graphics end of the process?

If it's the later, get yourself more involved in the earlier stages of the client facing process.

Before you do anything else get down on paper what you want to do and the prices you'll conservatively make from your various services. Then a list of costs you'll have to cover while getting yourself established eg pc/mac, software, colour printer, broadband, telephone/mobile, web site.

It's fantastic to see and hear about people wanting and setting up for themselves. God knows this country needs it, but having a plan in place before you jump will help avoid some potentially silly/costly mistakes. A prime example of poor planning is a client that I had many years ago in the UK, before I was involved they bought a v-v-v-expensive computer system. They built top of the range clean room, network services but failed to plan for the fact that they'd actually need software to run on their expensive toy!!

Love him of hate him, Roy Keane says "Fail to plan, plan to fail"

Be sure to let us all know when you start up.

You could always put an advert in Adverts.ie and use it as a fact finding mission. You'd never know.

Best of luck.

Flimbos

If you haven't run a business before I would recommend as a first step doing a business start up course, such as the one provided by the County/ City Enterprise Boards. This will help you assess your ideas and put together a business plan.

Good luck!

http://www.enterpriseboards.ie/Business_supports/TRAINING/Start_Your_own_Business.aspx

oldat31

Thanx guys.