Reflections on design self-employment
If you’re thinking of quitting your salaried job to start your own design business, here are a few designers who’ve reflected on their time in self-employment.
- Guy Moorhouse of Futurefabric shared 10 lessons learnt after one year in business.
- Nathan Barry reflected on his first year after quitting his job as a software designer.
- Tina Roth-Eisenberg published what she learned after one year of Tattly.
- Adrian Pelletier learned these lessons after 4 months in self-employment.
- Shauna Haider of Nubby Twiglet on what she learned during her first year freelancing.
- Ben Barry and Frank Chimero gave opinions on working for free when starting out.
- Cole Henley lost his job in February 2011, and reported on his two years since.
- Tim Cull is a software consultant, but his advice after three years running his own business is just as applicable.
- Paul Jarvis rounded up advice on working for yourself after 12 years in business.
I penned a few self-employment pros and cons over on Peachpit.com (a 2-page post excerpted from my book) as well as advice after five years of self-employment (written back in 2010).
Photo via Slim 69
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Excited to read through all of these links, thanks!
Thanks for making this list David. Perfect timing for me as I am planning to jump into self employment in a couple of months.
Great links, David, thanks a bunch.
Thanks David. There’s a load of interviews with freelancers here as well:
http://www.freelanceunleashed.com/category/interviews/
Great! Thank you for compiling this list, David. Very useful indeed.
Very helpful article, I’m just starting to work freelance at the minute so great timing too. Thanks!
A little off topic: is the photo in this post just a stock image? I’m planning an office facelift and I love the wall treatment and desk set up in this image. I’d love more info about it if it happens to be yours.
Good luck with the blog, Chris. Quite a few new interviews this week I see.
Lauren, the photo’s from slim69.com.
Thanks David. It’s building up into a really useful resource now for creatives. We’d LOVE for you to be involved if you have the time for an interview, or even a podcast episode?
I need to gratefully decline while I focus on client work and a backlog of things I’ve said yes to. Sorry I can’t help right now.
Being self employed has as many benefits as drawbacks. On telling a lot of people you’re self employed you get “Ohh, I couldn’t do that. Not knowing where your next pay is going to come from”. Firm believer that if you just do a little money and bank management, you’ll know exactly where your next pay is coming from.
There are some drawbacks. Some awfully long days, some days where you worry your work isn’t up to scratch. But surely you get them in any other job too?
Great collection of links. I guess I have learned that it really doesn’t happen overnight and it helps to be outgoing as well as a good salesman!