Reply To: Are disasters considered opportunities?

J.,

Now you can develop your side work without a conflict of interest. You also don’t have to rely on it for your sole source of income. I used that to allow myself to pick and choose side work to develop a portfolio of built work and develop methods and strategies that worked for me.

It helps that you do not necessarily have to charge top dollar since it is not your primary income. I found that volume of work was important to build a portfolio and to build a footprint to get more and better work. We all know our own talents and abilities, but that does not go far with potential clients. Most prospective clients are looking for a designer to remove doubt from the outcome of the project. They are most comfortable with direct referrals which comes from a large number of past clients. Second to that is a portfolio of built work which can be built much faster than a trail of referring clients. That is why I think building volume early is more important that getting top dollar.

Your price puts you in competition for work with people charging the same price. If you compete with people with a strong referral network and very good portfolios of built work it is hard to be seen by a prospect as the person removing the most doubt from the outcome of the project. Then you raise rates accordingly as your portfolio builds and clients refer you. That is the philosophy that I used, although many others disagree with it.

Andrew