Six seconds.

That’s the average time a job recruiter looks at a resume.

Six seconds! It might not seem like that’s a lot of time – because it isn’t. The old saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover certainly does not apply to resumes. People reading resumes definitely judge you based on a very small sample of what they see.

As a budding web designer, you are faced with an even more difficult task than other job seekers. Not only do you need to create a resume with text that explains who you are and what you’re about, you also need to design an eye-catching resume that shows off your design sensibilities.

So how do you create a killer web design resume that blows the socks off recruiters in just a few seconds?

In today’s post, we answer that question with a variety of tips and tricks that will help you focus on the most important aspects of creating a web design resume.

The Importance of Clear Goals

Before you sit down to create your resume, there are a number of criteria you first need to identify:

• What job do you want and where?
• Who is your ideal employer and why?
• What are your needs? Think about salary, benefits, schedule, and hours worked per week.
• What are your career goals? Do you want to be a junior designer your whole life or do you have higher aspirations?

Once you have your goals established, you can create a resume that reflects where you want to go as a professional.

The Basics: Essential Components of Your Web Design Resume

There are some must-have items to include on your resume. We’ve listed each item in terms of the positioning it should have, from top to bottom, in the document.

• Contact Information: There’s no better way to kick off your resume than to tell them who you are and how to contact you. In fact, it’s one of the few areas recruiters focus on every single time. If you include your email address, have one that looks adult and professional. Leave [email protected] for your friends and family. If possible, get your own domain so you look that much more professional. If your own domain isn’t a possibility, create a new business-only address using Gmail or another modern email service.
• Personal Statement: Many job applicants mistake the personal statement as an opportunity to talk about themselves when it should be used to convey what, specifically, you can do for the person hiring you. Don’t tell them that you aspire to be a web designer. That will be intuitively obvious since you’re applying for web design jobs. Instead, reel off a short list of the benefits you’d bring to the company.
• Experience: If you’re just starting out, this section might be a bit on the thin side. As such, it’s important for you to take on some projects to get some experience. This is particularly necessary if you didn’t go to design school because design students at least have class projects they can include. Take on a few pro bono jobs, like volunteering to design the website for a non-profit organization, to get some experience to include on your resume.
• Education: Since many web designers are self-taught, the education section for web design resumes bear less importance than for other types of jobs. If you have a degree, list it. If not, list any training, certificates, or other educational achievements that are related to the field.
• Skills: The skills section shouldn’t be a list of everything you can do. Rather, it should be a short list of your very best skills. If you’re an expert using Sketch, list it. If you’ve used Sketch once, don’t. Many new web designers have trouble resisting the urge to fudge the truth when it comes to what they can and can’t do, so be careful that the skills you list are truly your best.
• Awards/Accomplishments: If you’ve received any awards for your web design-related work, by all means, list them on your resume. It’s a great way to impress potential employers and gives you a way to differentiate yourself from other candidates for the job. If you’ve never received any awards, don’t worry! Just list some accomplishments that you’re proud of, like completing specialized training in Photoshop or being a member of a design team that helped launch a new product or service.
• References: Include 2-4 references that can vouch for you being as amazing as you say you are. Some people put “available upon request” here, and that’s fine. Just be sure that you have your references’ contact information at the ready if you’re asked to provide that information.

Stand Out From the Crowd to Increase Your Chances of Getting Hired

If you submit an application and resume for a design job, chances are you’ll be competing for that job with other highly qualified, equally unique professionals, who, just like you, are trying desperately to stand out from the crowd.

So, you might be wondering:

How do I stand out from the crowd if everyone else is trying to do the same thing?

That’s a good question, and one for which there is an abundance of answers. Let’s review a few of the most effective methods for making a memorable resume.

Tailor Your Resume to Each Job

Submitting a generic resume is about as helpful for getting a job as lighting your hair on fire. People in a position to hire workers can spot a canned resume from a mile away, so to ensure your resume makes it through to the next round, you should tailor it to each job for which you apply.

Many people – not just designers – make the mistake of creating a resume, then looking for jobs. Instead, look at job listings first. Identify what people are looking for in a designer, and then create your resume. This will help inform you as to what it is you need to include in the document to give yourself the best chance of landing a job.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t create a basic template and utilize the bulk of text over and over again. Instead, you should have a go-to form that hits all the high points, but that is easily customizable.

For example, let’s assume you’ve applied for a position as a web designer at a small firm. The job listing notes that they are looking for someone that is proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator, who is a team player, and who can meet strict deadlines. So, you tailor your resume to highlight your ability to meet these expectations. You’d expound on your experience in using Photoshop and Illustrator, and include examples of your work (or links to examples).

You’d also discuss your prior work as part of team, including your specific role in achieving team goals. You would demonstrate how you’ve met deadlines in the past as well, and how your workflow and commitment to the company’s goals help you be someone that consistently delivers products on time.

Show AND Tell: Include Metrics to Prove Your Worth

Web design isn’t just about creating pretty websites. It’s about delivering quantifiable results to your customers. When seeking a job, you must be able to demonstrate the value you bring to the table.

The best way to do this is in the experience section of your resume, like so:

What does the above example show? It lists your experience and with whom, while also explaining what you did. Most importantly, it explains the specific benefits your employer derived from your work. And all that was done in just a handful of words. Sweet!

Use Your Resume to Tell Your Story

One of the best ways to make your resume stand out is to make it personal. Tell your story, because you’re the only one with that specific experience.

Resumes are usually extremely boring to read. Now imagine that you’re hiring for a position and you have to sift through dozens of boring resumes. Then, you come to one that grabs your attention because its author takes you on a journey through his or her experiences, skills, knowledge, and goals.

Now:

How do you turn a resume into a story?

In reality, your resume is already set up like a story:

The personal statement is like an introduction. Here, tell people who you are as a web designer. But unlike writing a story, try to avoid large chunks of text. Instead, offer five or six bullet points about who you are, your communication style, your specific skillset, and anything else that is relevant to the job or that makes you unique.

The experience, education, and skills sections of your resume are like the middle chapters of a book. It’s the climax, the point at which you show people how you’re a web design hero ready to slay internet dragons. As discussed above, these sections need to go beyond merely what you did, and dive into what results you produced for previous employers.

The awards or accomplishment section and your references are not unlike the closing of a story. You’ve already explained who you are and what you can do, and in these sections you demonstrate what resulted from your hard work, along with the contact information for people that can vouch for you.

Like many good stories, your resume should close on a high note. It can be difficult to sing your own praises, but in this instance, it’s imperative that you do so. Show the hiring manager exactly what you’re made of and that you’re proud of being such a good designer. Your confidence will shine through and is a great tone for closing your resume story.

How to “Designify” Your Resume

Nothing says, “I have no web design talent” like a resume that was created in Microsoft Word and is set in Bradley Hand. You’re a designer. Don’t rely on templates and make your own resume!

Look at the resume example above. It’s stunning! It looks like it was created by a designer – the fonts are fabulous, the colors are complimentary, there’s a real aesthetic appeal to it, and it includes some snazzy icons as well. Who wouldn’t want to hire someone with that resume?!

The Basic Truth About Web Design Resumes

Someone hiring a web designer will look at the design of the resume as much as the content. To give you the most flexibility, use something like InDesign or Illustrator to create a truly one-of-a-kind resume that reflects who you are as a designer.

Once your masterpiece is created, save it and disseminate it as a PDF. PDFs retain their structure regardless of the platform on which it is opened, so you’re guaranteed that whoever opens it on whatever device will see exactly what you want them to see.

You can also opt to create a standalone website that serves as your resume. There are many out-of-the-box solutions for online resumes, like IM Creator and Wix, that can get your resume online in a jiff, and looking great to boot.

Here’s the deal:

Plain, old paper resumes are so last century. Today’s designers are creating online resumes that are interactive, bold, and innovative.

Get Interactive With Your Resume

Having an online resume gives you much more flexibility (and much more convenience for the people doing the hiring). You can easily link to your online portfolio to show off your work. You can also provide links to your LinkedIn, Dribbble, Behance, or other social media accounts.

There are all kinds of excellent online resume templates out there. Just pick one, add your information, and you’ll have a gorgeous resume and portfolio up and ready in no time!

Choose Colors Wisely

Just like in your web designs, there should be a method to your color madness on your resume. Do you do something classic, like black and white? Do you go for something vibrant and bold? Or do you tone it down and use subdued colors? Each certainly has its merits.

Free resume template by Fernando Baez.

Whatever you choose to do, keep the number of colors to a minimum, say, 2-4, and be sure that they are cohesive. The colors should also give your resume an orderly feel, and draw the viewer’s eye to the most important aspects of the document.

Don’t Go Font Crazy

We all love a good font, but using something crazy on your resume isn’t the way to go. At the end of the day, the whole point of your resume is to get a job. You can’t do that if the fonts you use make it impossible for people to read your resume.

This isn’t to say that your resume has to be in Times New Roman, 12-point font. You can find another font that is as easily legible, but yet has more pizzazz. The folks over at Canva have put together a nice list of the best and worst fonts to use on your resume. Check it out!

Free resume template by Abdullah Al Mamun.

Keep Consistent Formatting

Another aspect of your resume to keep an eye on is the formatting. Is your use of fonts, font sizes, spacing, and the like consistent from item to item? Is the styling, such as the heading and subheading fonts, consistent from one item to the next? How is the white space? What about the ease with which your eye moves across and down the page? Basically, treat your resume like you do your web designs. Make it a good experience for the user and good things will happen.

Check Grammar, Spelling, and Other Stuff

Web designers should know how to formulate grammatically correct sentences. Sure, you won’t necessarily be writing as part of your job, but your resume needs to be well written, coherent, and perfectly crafted.

What’s the bottom line?

A resume with grammatical and spelling errors makes you look ignorant and uneducated, no matter how much education you might have. You only have one chance to make a first impression. Don’t let your first impression be a misspelled word!

There are other such things to watch out for as well:

Keep It Short and Simple

You aren’t writing a dissertation. You’re writing a resume. Shoot for no more than two pages. Any more than that and you’ve got too much fluff. Focus on what’s relevant to the position for which you are applying.

Some web designers also feel as though their resume needs to be fancy and flashy in order to draw attention. This is definitely not the case. Using crazy fonts, weird colors, or odd formatting might get you noticed for all the wrong reasons. But don’t take ‘simplicity’ to mean ‘boring’ or ‘uncreative.’ By all means, flex your creative muscles; just be sure that creativity is channeled appropriately.

Don’t Plagiarize or Lie

Your web design resume needs to be your own, not a carbon copy of someone else’s. This goes for both what you say and how you make your resume look. It can be tough for anyone to get ideas for how to create their resume, but this can be a particularly difficult task for new designers that have just entered this field of work.

It’s okay to scour the internet for awesome examples of web design resumes, but just be sure that you use those examples as inspiration and nothing more. Generate your own ideas and develop excellent copy. The result will be a resume that is yours and yours alone!

When you’re just beginning your career, it might be tempting to fudge the truth on your resume. Perhaps you put down that you’re an expert in Illustrator when you really only took one basic class. Or maybe you exaggerate your role on a project to sound more experienced.

To say that lying on your resume is a no-no is a giant understatement. Lying to get a job will be something that hangs over you throughout your employment, which, if your employer finds out, might not be all that long. Why tell someone you’re highly experienced in using Joomla if you’ve used it twice?

Web design is a results-based business; if you don’t have what it takes to produce results, don’t tell people that you do.

Final Thoughts

Treat your resume like the final deliverable to a web design client. Everything –absolutely everything – needs to look, feel, and be polished. Spending a few extra minutes reviewing your resume before you send it off could mean the difference between sending a resume that is perfect and one that has errors all over it.

If you find yourself struggling with how to get going in the web design business, seek out advice from web design experts to see what they did to get things rolling. We’re fortunate to work in a highly collaborative field. Shoot an email or send out a tweet to a designer you admire and see if they will let you pick their brain.

What web design resume tips would you offer new web designers? Give us your thoughts by leaving a comment!

 

Photo Credits:
Life Goals by O5com via Flickr Creative Commons
Stand Out From the Crowd by Steven Depolo via Flickr Creative Commons
Guernsey Grammar School by BenLaParole (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We’ve discussed before that there are a number of things you don’t learn in design school. Yet, there are many skills you need to have in order to have a successful business.

What’s one of the most important pieces of information you didn’t learn in design school?

How to write a freelance web design contract!

It might seem easy enough to throw some legal jargon together and call it a contract but, believe it or not, it can actually be a fairly complex process with many different moving parts.

In this article, we review a few simple tips for creating an effective contract. There are even a few templates thrown in for good measure.

Let’s begin!

Basic Essentials of a Web Design Contract

Before you get too deep into creating your contracts, let’s cover the basics first. Any contract must have the following to ensure you’re protected:

• Basic contact information – including your name, address, telephone number, and email address. The same information is needed from your client.
• Conditions of work – including who your point of contact will be, who handles making decisions regarding the design, and who handles paying you. These should be your “must-haves” before you commence working.
• Scope of work – including what will be done, when, and by whom.
• Terms of payment – including your fees as well as any expenses you might incur that the client is responsible for repaying.
• Disputes – including arbitration details and the conditions of termination.
• Protection of property – including terms and conditions that govern intellectual property. A non-disclosure agreement is often part of a contract as well.

Everything you put in your contract needs to be detailed. For example, don’t write in your contract that you’re going to design a website. Clarify what’s included in the website, from the features to the number of pages to the number of revisions included in the base price. The more specific you are, the better.

Now that we have a better understanding of the essential features of a contract let’s take a look at each component in more depth.

The Importance of Contact Information

While this section might seem intuitively obvious, there are a couple of things of which you should be aware. If you’re a freelancer working from home, do you really want all your clients to know your home phone number and home address? If not, you’ll need to rectify that situation so you have an alternative to listing your personal information on all your contracts.

Instead, consider opting for a Google Voice account. You can get a local number for free that will forward all business calls to your mobile device. It works just like a regular phone and has a separate voicemail from your cellular line. Clients will have a means to contact you, and they can do so without having your personal number.

If you’d prefer not to use your home address as your business address, get a post office box specifically for your business. A small box runs just a few dollars per year, and gives you a professional address while also giving you some peace of mind that you won’t have clients knocking on your door to ask you questions about their project.

Also be sure to include your email address on your contract, as that will often be the method by which your clients will contact you. Just like when you write a resume, it is imperative that your email address reflects your professionalism as a web designer. If you’re still using your college email that has sequences of numbers or odd words, you need to ditch it. If you don’t have your own domain or email available, set up a Gmail address with your business name (or your own name, if you operate under it) as the handle.

Don’t Forget:

You need your clients’ contact information to include on the contract. That way if there is a problem or issue, you know exactly where and how to reach them.

Make It Easy: Specifically Outline Your Conditions of Work

The conditions section of your contract will be personalized to reflect your needs and the unique working situation you have with each client. However, there are several features common to most conditions sections.

Primary Point of Contact

The primary point of contact is the person you will go to with any questions about the project, from getting approval on mockups to getting payment for services rendered. Having a primary contact person can be a lifesaver when (not if) issues arise.

Not only does this give you a consistent point of contact, it forces the client to determine who’s in charge of the project on their end. This is especially useful if you’re working for a business or organization with a lot of stakeholders. There is little worse than working on a design and getting conflicting feedback from multiple people involved in the project. The contact clause will protect against that occurrence.

Terms of Communication

It is also advantageous to include a clause about the expected communication between you and your client. Sometimes clients get busy and don’t respond to calls or emails for quite some time. In the event this occurs, you need to be able to protect yourself against claims that you aren’t meeting deadlines when the delays are caused by poor communication from your client.

Your communications conditions also need to include a clause that any and all requests for revisions are delivered to you immediately. This will help you avoid having to spend hours of stressful time trying to meet last-minute demands from a client.

Likewise, your communications conditions need to stipulate that any changes to your client’s contact information, ability to pay, or changes to their operations be disseminated to you immediately. These occurrences can cost you a lot of time and energy if not communicated to you in a timely fashion.

Additions or Deletions

Agreeing to work for a client to perform a specific function, only to have the client change those terms later on by adding or taking away tasks, is the worst. To avoid this situation, include an additions or deletions clause in your contract that requires your approval before anything can be added to or taken from the project. Anything that changes the terms of your contract should be done in writing and attached to the original contract.

Don’t forget:

Verbally agreeing to do something is a major no-no in business, because unfortunately sometimes people will try to take advantage of you. Be sure to get everything in writing!

Scope of Work – Set Limits to Protect Yourself

Perhaps the most important aspect of a web design contract is the section dealing with the scope of work. You must clearly define exactly what it is you will do, for what price, and by what deadline. Without this, you run the risk of doing a whole lot more work without getting paid for it.

Number of Revisions

If you’ve been a web designer long enough, you know that sometimes clients will change their mind. This is their prerogative, and you should honor their right to want things done differently.

However, you need to stipulate how many revisions are included in the base price. A good rule of thumb is to offer 2-3 revisions as part of the initial deal, with subsequent revisions coming at an additional price.

Having a set number of revisions serves two functions. First, it protects you from doing a bunch of work for which you don’t get paid, and second, it discourages clients from changing their mind dozens of times. If they still change their mind, at least you get paid for it!

Don’t Forget:

Establish your fee for extra revisions in your contract. Like everything else involved in doing contractual work, revision fees need to be specifically outlined before any work commences.

Deadlines

Sometimes clients will have a hard-and-fast deadline by which they need you to complete the work. Other times, projects will be more casual and open-ended, and the client will allow you to dictate when the project can be completed. Either way, you need to have a deadline for the project, and it needs to be part of the contract.

Without a deadline, you run the risk of loitering on a project too long. Additionally, you will need to have deadlines set for your projects so you can schedule future projects with other clients accordingly.

Naturally, your ability to meet deadlines depends in large part on your client’s ability to promptly provide you with assets, feedback, and payment, among other things. Sometimes clients get busy and lose track of the timeline, but that doesn’t mean you should continue working on their project. Send reminder emails, make phone calls, and attempt to get what you need from the client. But if you’re unable to get what you need, inform them that their project is on hold and will be moved to the back of your queue until they can give the project the attention it needs.

Don’t Forget:

Include a stipulation that if your client does not reject your deliverables within a specific timeframe (i.e. three business days) that it will be considered accepted. This can be extremely helpful to protect yourself from clients that have trouble meeting deadlines.

Everything You Need to Know About Getting Paid

Getting paid is why you work, so naturally it should be an integral component of your contracts. In addition to describing your preferred method of work – by the hour or by the project – your contract should also stipulate the terms by which you are paid, when payments are due, and what happens if payment is not made on time.

How to You Charge Clients

In a previous article, we discussed how to charge for web design projects and reviewed the pros and cons of hourly vs. fixed rate pricing. Whichever method you prefer, be sure to make it absolutely clear in the contract how the client will be charged. This prevents any confusion down the road.

Here’s something many web designers don’t consider:

If you charge by the hour, add a clause that outlines a minimum and maximum number of hours of work you will complete as part of the project.

Setting a minimum number of hours is a way to protect yourself and ensure that you will get paid a certain amount, even if you finish the project ahead of schedule. Setting a ceiling for hours worked gives the client peace of mind because anything above that limit is not billable.

Payment Schedule

Of equal importance is defining the schedule by which you are paid. If working on an hourly basis, do you get paid by the week? Every two weeks? Once a month? On fixed price projects, do you get half up front and half when the project is completed? Or do you split it into three payments, with one up front, one at the halfway point, and one upon completion?

However you set up your payment schedule will vary depending on your needs and wants, and to a degree, it will also depend on the client. Usually, clients will agree straightaway to your payment schedule, but sometimes you will need to adjust it to meet their needs.

But keep this in mind:

Whatever payment arrangement you come up with, never, ever begin work without some sort of payment up front.

Whether you call it a retainer, a deposit, or something else, your client needs to provide some kind of proof of funding before you start work so you know they are ready for the project to begin and have the money to pay you.

How Payments are Made

Your clients will need to know how to pay you. This can be particularly tricky if you work remotely. Some clients have PayPal and prefer to handle payments via that platform. Others will prefer to mail you a check. Still others might insist on using direct deposit or some other means to pay you.

Whatever payment methods you accept, be sure to quantify a grace period. Not all clients will always pay on time, so they need to know how long they have before you take action. Remember to provide enough time to receive payment such that various parties, like the post office, your client’s accounting department, and others involved in the chain of payment, have time to send, receive, and issue payment back to you. These details need to be agreed upon and signed off on before you do any work.

When Things Go Wrong: How to Resolve Disputes

Sometimes you will run into situations in which you and your client cannot come to terms, and a disagreement turns into a full-blown dispute. Do you rely on arbitration or litigation? Do you utilize a mediator or terminate the project and collect the kill fee? These decisions need to be made before you start work and like everything else listed here, must be in your contract.

Terminating a Client

There will come a time in your career as a freelance web designer that you will need to let a client go. Maybe they are uncommunicative. Perhaps they miss deadlines. Or worse, maybe they don’t pay you for services rendered.

Your decision to part ways with a client cannot be one you make on a whim. You’ll need to outline in your contract exactly what you will do when you no longer desire to work with them, including what you will do to try to avoid terminating them, the timeframe in which you will work to resolve any disputes, and what money they owe you upon their termination.

Kill Fee

Every once and awhile you will have a client that stops a project after you’ve done a work on it. This is why you need to have language in your project about a kill fee. Essentially, a kill fee protects you from working for nothing. Some designers make the kill fee as little as 20-25% of the total project cost. Others require much more – upwards of 50%. Still others require payment for work done up to that point. Do what you’re comfortable with, but make sure you’ve got a kill fee specified.

Protect Their Ideas (and Yours!)

Once you’ve completed the work you’ve been hired to do, who owns it? How can the product you’ve created be used? How do you protect yourself and how do your clients protect themselves if confidential information has been exchanged? These topics should be covered in your contract with statements about intellectual property and non-disclosure agreements.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property rights can be a sticky situation for freelance web designers. There are a number of scenarios in which you might retain full rights to your work, partial rights or none at all. Most web designers will retain the right to use their work in their portfolio or for advertising purposes and nothing more. Other designers retain full license over their creations or require clients to give them credit whenever the product that was designed is used.

For example, assume that you’ve been hired to design a website, and as part of that job, the client asks you to create some icons and buttons for the site. Your contract needs to account for a variety of situations:

• Can the client use the icons and buttons on another one of their websites?
• Is the client required to give you credit whenever they use the icons and buttons you’ve designed?
• Can the client modify the icons and buttons?
• Does the client have a license for the icons and buttons? If so, is it exclusive or can you license the icons and buttons to other clients as well?
• When does the copyright transfer to the client? Upon final payment, once the design is complete, or after a specified timeframe?

These are questions that might come up, and, as a result, should be explicitly addressed in your contract.

Non-Disclosure Agreement

Maybe you will be sharing confidential information with your client or perhaps they will be sharing secret information with you. Either way, having a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as part of your contract will often be necessary. Essentially, an NDA protects your client by ensuring that you won’t reveal any confidential information that is disclosed to you during the course of your contractual employment. Confidential information can entail just about anything, from the purpose of your work to the nature of your relationship with the client to trade secrets.

Don’t Forget:

Include language in your contract that you reserve the right to use anything you create in your portfolio and for marketing purposes. You’ll need to be able to populate your portfolio (and refresh it from time to time) with current work samples.

Free Web Design Contract Templates

Developing your contracts can seem like an unbelievably long, complex, and boring task – because it is. So why re-invent the wheel when there are all kinds of free web design contract templates out there ready for you to customize to your needs?

AIGA’s Standard Agreement

AIGA, the professional association for design, has devised a customizable design contract template to create a freelance web design contract. Rather than being of the cut-and-paste variety, this template’s language is broad enough that you don’t have to rewrite it for every project while also being specific enough to ensure you’re protected. The template, which includes basic terms and conditions and intellectual property provisions, allows you to fill in the specifics online and send the document immediately to your client.

Bidsketch Contract

The web design contract template offered by Bidsketch is similar to the one available through AIGA in that the language is broad, yet you have the ability to customize it to your needs. The contract stipulates the scope of the project, criteria for development and acceptance of the work, procedures for payment, project management guidelines, and much more.

Documents From Web Design Law

Another great resource for contract samples and other documents is Web Design Law. Like the other contract templates mentioned above, Web Design Law gives you the ability to customize the documents to suit your needs. The site has two contract versions – one with full terms and conditions and one that is condensed. Additionally, Web Design Law has other paperwork for freelance web design, including:

• Letter of Agreement
• Project Proposal
• Invoices
• Past Due Reminder
• Collections Letter

Each of the documents listed above can come in handy, and should be part of the documentation you have on hand when starting any new project.

Final Thoughts

Although it sounds like freelance work is a scary undertaking in which client after client will try to take advantage of you, that couldn’t be further from the truth. You will find that the vast majority of your customers are amazing people that are fun to work with, who pay on time, and who come back to you time and again with project after project.

But just like in life, you have to have rules because of a few bad apples. The one client out of 100 takes advantage of you is why you need a clear and explicit contract and why you have to have that contract in place and signed before you do one minute of work.

What tips do you have for developing web design contracts? Leave a comment below and let us know what clauses you include in your documents. For more great businesses tips and information on design resources, be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter too!

Photo Credits:
Email by Sean MacEntee via Flickr Creative Commons
Contract by 24oranges.nl via Flickr Creative Commons
Working by Travis Isaacs via Flickr Creative Commons
Payments by GotCredit via Flickr Creative Commons
Wake Up Call by Petras Gagilas via Flickr Creative Commons
Ideas by Sean MacEntee via Flickr Creative Commons

Should designers know how to code?

This debate has raged for years. Should a web designer focus solely on design, leaving all the other business of coding to someone else, or should they tackle coding and backend development issues themselves?

As with many arguments, there are merits to both sides. On the one hand, a designer that knows how to code might be able to offer a wider array of services to clients. On the other hand, a designer that focuses on design can utilize their specialized expertise to create products that are more engaging and creative.

But take our word for it – if you’re a designer, forget about coding!

In today’s post, we dive into this age-old argument and present some of the primary reasons why web designers should not code.

But First, Some Definitions

Before we explain our stance on this argument, some definitions are required.

The term web designer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For our purposes, a web designer is someone who is involved purely with design.

Perhaps they are knowledgeable about SEO, coding HTML, and Javascript, but their duty is to actually design the website. They are the right-brained creative force driving how a website looks and feels.

A web developer, which again, means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, is someone that handles the backend aspect of a website.

A developer works with code, builds and maintains databases, and all the other highly technical stuff that makes a website work out there on the World Wide Web. Developers take what designers give them and bring a designer’s vision to reality.

Now, with definitions set, we would like to argue this:

Designers should focus on design.

There are a number of reasons for this, but at the heart of it is that designers do not need to code given the current climate of digital creative professions. At this stage of the game, there are far too many resources out there that can be utilized by designers to take care of all the backend needs of a site’s development.

Think of it like this: an architect can design an incredible building without personally knowing how to run electrical lines or how to install an elevator car. Just like an architect relies on experts in various disciplines to build his or her creation, web designers can (and should!) rely on outside resources to make their designs become reality.

Give Yourself More Time and Minimize Risk by Choosing Not to Code

The tools and resources at your disposal today make it vastly easier to focus on design than it was just ten years ago. Specializing in design means you don’t have to go against your natural tendencies and talents to try and take on the development side of things, which, let’s face it, is not something most designers are adept at doing.

It also means that you will save yourself a lot of time (and pain, and money) in the long-run by sticking to what you know.

Your Brain Isn’t Cut Out For Development

The vast majority of people are either right-brained or left-brained. Right-brained people are creative. Left-brained people are analytical. While some people possess both abilities, rarely do you find someone that is good at both types of tasks.

Thus, the basis for the argument that designers should stick to design:

Creative people have difficulty mastering technical tasks.

It’s just the way it is. Just like you wouldn’t expect a PHP developer to take a client’s wish list and design a stunning website all on their own, you shouldn’t be expected to mark up the code to make your site design come to life.

Yet this is a double-standard that has existed for a long, long time. The time you would spend trying to code is essentially money flushed down the toilet because you are just wasting time trying to do something you probably aren’t well equipped to do in the first place.

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that the research we cited regarding the skills and attributes of the left and right hemispheres of the brain is not only outdated, but is in fact altogether incorrect.

In a study at the University of Utah, researchers examined brain scans that show no evidence that some people are left-brained and others are right-brained. Instead, the study revealed that, while some functions are indeed lateralized (i.e. language skills tend to be on the left, attention tends to be on the right), there is no evidence that individuals “preferentially use their left-brain network or right-brain network more often.”

As a result, our assertion that “the vast majority of people are either right-brained or left-brained” is totally inaccurate, and for that we deeply apologize. We were wrong, and we didn’t conduct our research for this article in the manner that we should have. Many thanks to our readers for bringing this issue to our attention.

We’d also like to note that although our main argument in this article stands – that designers shouldn’t code – our assertion isn’t that designers shouldn’t learn how to do it. On the contrary, having knowledge of basic HTML and CSS is certainly handy, but as we discuss later in this article, trying to split one’s attention between design and development can tax your time, leaving you without the time you need to do your job to the best of your abilities.

There are certainly those with the opposite opinion – that freelancers should know how to do it all, including jQuery, Javascript, and backend coding. We recognize the merits of that argument but simply believe it is best if designers specialize instead. Specialization, as we discuss below, allows designers to become experts in their craft and manage their time more effectively. Furthermore, specialization for designers ensures that their capacity to produce a stellar product isn’t diminished because of trying to overextend and be the do-all, be-all that designs and codes.

Time is Precious

Web design (and development, for that matter) grows, changes, and expands at an astonishing rate. It’s difficult enough as it is to keep up with the latest trends in design without also having to worry about staying reasonably educated in the realm of website development at the same time.

Rather than desperately trying to keep up with advances in design and development, web designers that stick to design are freed up hone their artistic craft.

Many web designers have crashed and burned over the years after trying to get their artistic mind to wrap around the highly analytical development side of things.

Instead, you should stick with design, save yourself some time, and utilize someone or something else to handle all the backend requirements of your websites.

Minimize Risk by Not Coding

How many times have you or a colleague attempted to code a website, only to screw it up and have to spend hours and hours trying to fix it or hire someone to fix it for you?

If you’ve been there, you know it’s an incredibly stressful situation, and one that you shouldn’t be in to begin with. It is an easier and smarter choice to let a developer take on the backend part of the website so when – not if – there is a problem, they and their left-brain can handle the situation.

Expertise and Specialization are Good Things – And They Will Get You More Business

As mentioned earlier, design trends and principles are ever changing. By sticking to the design side of web design, you are better equipped to further your skills, study up on new and exciting methodologies, and put that learning into practice than you would be if you try to tackle coding as well. Most digital creative professions have compartmentalized into specializations anyway, so why not hop on the bandwagon and become a specialist yourself?!

Become an Expert

One of the primary criteria people use to select a web designer is the designer’s level of expertise. Focusing solely on design promotes the development of those much sought after expert-level skills, which all customers will appreciate.

Whether you acquire a keener design eye or develop a better understanding of color theory, the expertise you gain by focusing on design will make your designs much better and your list of clients much longer. After all, there is a lot of value in being master of your domain rather than being an okay designer who also happens to have okay coding skills.

You’ll also have more time to actually leveraging your expertise and promote yourself as a web design expert.

The bottom line is this:

If it comes down to being really good at one thing or being marginal at two things, the choice is obvious, right?

Web-Related Jobs Are Increasingly Specialized Anyway

A decade ago it might have been acceptable to say that there were webmasters, web designers, web developers, and little else. Today, that list has expanded to include SEO specialists, social media managers, digital content strategists, and so on.

There are even multiple specializations in design and development, with some designers working specifically with WordPress or developers working exclusively with PHP, Ruby, or Python.

The point is:

The trend is for creative professionals to move into areas of specialization, not continue to try to be a jack of all trades. If everyone else can specialize, why can’t you?

You Don’t Need to Code Because Help Has Arrived!

Perhaps the best reason why designers should stick to design is because there are an abundance of resources designers can utilize that will take care of all the backend mumbo-jumbo for them. Some resources require reliance on other people while others let you do everything on your own without any coding knowledge necessary!

Hire a Developer

While not all freelance web designers have the funds to hire a developer whenever they please, it is still a viable option for lots of designers. There are a variety of excellent outsourcing platforms, including Elance and Presto Experts, which can connect you with expert professionals that can handle all the backend details of a site design, from jQuery and Javascript creation to working with C++ or developing WordPress databases.

When you’re just beginning your design business, explore the option of working with a developer because it could be a match made in heaven. Building a nice working relationship with a developer could lead to a long-term arrangement whereby you offer them business, and they offer you business in return.

After all, developers should stick to development, just like you should stick to design. And the best part?

The potential is there to double your business by forging a strong working relationship with a developer.

Website Builders

Perhaps an even better option for a web designer is to utilize a website builder like IM Creator to create his or her designs. Website builders offer all kinds of amazing tools and support features that allow you to keep your focus on the design, but also negate the need for you to hire out development work.

Because website builders utilize slick features like drag-and-drop editing, built-in SEO, and hosting, domain, and email services, designers can take care of everything from design concept to deploying the website online, without needing to know anything about HTML, CSS, or other development-related issues. You can then market yourself as a website creator rather than merely a website designer, and offer your customers complete out-of-the-box website solutions. But that’s relevant to just specific, usually small, projects.

Conclusion

The intent here is not to say that designers shouldn’t know how to code. To the contrary, knowing how things work on the backend can make you a better and more effective designer. But knowing how to code doesn’t mean that you should.

What is your opinion on the great coding debate? Should designers take on that task or not? Leave your thoughts by commenting below.

 

Photo Credits:
Bootcamp Business Model… by Sebastiaan ter Burg via Flickr Creative Commons
Media UK Code by James Cridland via Flickr Creative Commons
Time by Sean MacEntee via Flickr Creative Commons
How to be an Expert by Alan Cleaver via Flickr Creative Commons
Help! by GotCredit via Flickr Creative Commons

Twitter is an immensely powerful tool for people in the digital creative industry. It allows you to connect with customers and other digital professionals while also providing you with opportunities to promote your business. It’s a great tool for designers to hone their craft, from both a design and a business standpoint as well.

Some of the experts listed here have made a name for themselves as SEO gurus while others are known for their insights into cutting-edge design. Still others are known as authorities in the realm of best practices while others are experts in business topics relevant to being a designer. Here’s the deal:

Regardless of their area of expertise, the designers and agencies on our list are here because they are well-established as authorities in the design world.

The purpose of establishing oneself as a design expert isn’t just to gain accolades or huge social media followings. Rather, your expertise can translate into more business. Customers are looking for a designer with a keen eye, but also one that knows what they are doing. Achieving that balance can be easier said than done. Establishing yourself as a design expert gives you and your business credibility, and with credibility comes trust, another critical component of building your business.

Twitter is an easy yet effective way for you to become an expert. You can tweet out helpful information for other designers or provide pointers for consumers. You can offer up concrete results that your customers have experienced as a consequence of your services. You can even tweet about your ever-growing skillset to show your followers that your level of expertise is constantly growing.

In order to establish your own niche of expertise in design, watch and learn from the experts we’ve listed below. Each designer and agency we’ve listed has found massive success in the design world, as well as success on Twitter.

So what is their secret?

In this article, we highlight ten web designers and agencies who have huge followings on Twitter and explain how they go to the top of the heap.

Chris Anderson

Timing REALLY matters! Terrific short talk from @Bill_Gross on what it takes for a start up to succeed. http://t.co/w43vDccnU9

— Chris Anderson (@TEDchris) June 1, 2015

Head of TED Talks, Chris Anderson has amassed more than 1.71 million followers on Twitter, making his the most followed design-related account. His feed features lots of design-related material, as well as information about cutting-edge technologies.

Chris has not gained such a robust following because he tweets a lot. To the contrary, he has just over 4,000 tweets in nearly seven years of being on Twitter. However, when he does tweet, it’s about something of extreme value or interest to his followers. Being head of TED helps too, as he is a well-known authority on all things technology and design.

Web Designer Depot

50+ incredible #freebies for web #designers, May 2015 http://t.co/2VSUaGHKNp

— Webdesigner Depot (@DesignerDepot) June 1, 2015

Web Designer Depot has been disseminating web design information via Twitter for more than six years. In that time, they have gained a following of more than 732,000 people and tweeted over 27,000 times.

One of the primary reasons for Web Designer Depot’s incredible Twitter success is that they tweet often and tweet about things that are of interest and value to web designers. Many of their tweets link readers to articles on hot design trends, tips and tricks for streamlining your workflow, and tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, and other essential software. They periodically provide links to awesome how-to articles as well.

Jeffrey Zeldman

♛ Hot tips for designers and developers, free in your inbox. Sign up @AnEventApart Digest. June issue out next week! http://t.co/9QE9EZngjx

— zeldman ✺ Heroes wear masks. (@zeldman) June 2, 2015

Jeffrey Zeldman is a designer who also writes and publishes on design-related topics. He’s founder of Happy Cog Studios and is involved with A List Apart, one of our top design blog choices to follow in 2015. With 342,000 followers on Twitter, he has a huge audience that appreciates his focus on the latest web design trends.

Jeffrey’s success is due in large part to his prodigious tweeting. Among the more active posters on our list, he’s put together over 41,000 tweets in his more than eight years on Twitter. But because his tweets center on such design topics as responsive design, typography, and usability, his followers have a constant stream of awesome design-related information and inspiration.

InspireFirst

https://twitter.com/inspirefirst/status/605777422605099008

Started a little over four years ago, the InspireFirst Twitter account has grown to include over 207,000 followers. One of the most prodigious tweeters on the list, InspireFirst has posted more than 71,000 tweets on all matters of design.

The strength of InspireFirst’s activity on Twitter is in their multi-modal approach. Although much of their content is related to web design, they also highlight news, events, and trends in digital art, architecture, illustration, painting, and product design. The engagement of their followers gives InspireFirst the second highest social authority ranking (a score based on retweets, time of decay, follower counts, and other metrics) of anyone on this list.

Veerle Pieters

Here it is! My biggest @Illustrator tutorial so far. Learn how to create a cityscape. http://t.co/EkJVyC4Aio

RT=?? pic.twitter.com/yWXU1woWe5

— Veerle Pieters (@vpieters) June 2, 2015

Hailing from Belgium, Veerle Pieters is an established web and graphic designer. Her Twitter feed is well established too, with 194,000 followers and well over 13,000 tweets. Her tweets feature a variety of information, from links to inspiring designs to tips for site layouts to CSS tips and tricks.

Veerle Pieters’ Twitter feed is reflective of her jack-of-all-trades nature. What draws followers to her Twitter account is the sheer volume of quality information about design-related topics. There’s content related to frontend development, backend development, photography, typography, and graphic design as well. Her periodic reminders of what good design is all about, as well as links to great how-to articles for beginning designers, make her a great choice for a follow for those new to the web design field.

Inspiration Feed

Be: Increase your Productivity Level as a Web Designer http://t.co/Nfjhy00K09

— Inspirationfeed.com (@Inspirationf) June 1, 2015

Inspiration Feed does just what it says – it offers all kinds of information about design, including free goodies to get your creative juices flowing. With 183,000 followers and nearly 48,000 tweets, Inspiration Feed is busy providing great tips and tricks to its followers on Twitter.

What draws people to Inspiration Feed is all the free resources they provide, both that they have made and that other designers have put up on the Internet as well. In that regard, Inspiration Feed’s Twitter success has been all about building a fun little community in which people share what they know and what they do in order to motivate and assist their fellow creative professionals.

Red Web Design

SEO Basics: How To Structure A Perfectly Optimised Web Page – http://t.co/ksEMbuhSVu #Bizitalk #KPRS pic.twitter.com/yJDnJnDRoQ

— Red Website Design (@Red_Web_Design) June 2, 2015

With 167,000 followers, Red Web Design is among the more popular design-related Twitter feeds today. Their emphasis is clearly on the business side of things, with a lot of links to articles about improving social media presence and engagement.

Red Web Design’s focus on disseminating up-to-date design and business-related news is what draws many of their followers to their Twitter feed. Whether you need information about the do’s and don’ts of SEO, tips for growing your online business, or how to incorporate infographics and engaging content into a site design, Red Web Design has a wide variety of native content and content reposted from all over the web.

Berrie Pelser

3 Key Steps To Using Video As Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy http://t.co/nWGPWYHqFE via @martinjonesaz

— Berrie Pelser (@BerriePelser) June 2, 2015

A web designer and social media strategist, among other things, Berrie Pelser provides his followers with excellent nuggets of information related to design, social media, WordPress, SEO, and business-related topics. He tweets a lot, with more than 103,000 tweets in the past six years, which has garnered him a following of over 112,000 people.

His years of tweeting have established Berrie as a trusted authority on many matters related to design. The wide variety of information he provides is a primary reason why so many people are drawn to his Twitter account. He posts links to highly engaging and interesting articles, including how to keep your community engaged in what you’re doing, how to create amazing infographics, and how to leverage the power of social media to advance your brand.

Rory Martin

"Feedback, reviews, and approval from other people who have tried your product or service are all forms of social proof." @JeffBullas

— RoryMartin.com (@rorymartin) May 20, 2015

Rory Martin is a web designer, SEO specialist, and social media marketing expert. Since joining Twitter in 2008, nearly 92,000 people have elected to follow him. His daily tweets offer his followers insights into using social media for building brands, popular trends in mobile web design, and new, fantastic ideas in web design.

The strength of Rory Martin’s Twitter feed is in his honest delivery of valuable information. There’s no pressure to participate in surveys or click on links to sponsors, just good information that can help his followers grow and develop their craft and their business all at the same time. With a particular interest in the power of social media, many of Rory’s followers are seeking advice on how to utilize their social media channels to market their products and services.

Kerry Butters

17 Formulas Every Webshop Owner Should Know: http://t.co/4Ojd7HwgQj #ECommerce

— Martin Butters – Tech Marketing (@MartinAButters) June 2, 2015

Kerry Butters is among the most popular web designers on Twitter. She specializes in a variety of areas, including web design, SEO, and social media marketing. Nearly 137,000 people follow Kerry for her focus on the latest design trends, designing for safety and usability, and business tools to improve your workflow.

What makes Kerry Butters a great designer to follow is her earnest effort to provide her followers with high-value business-related information. Most of her numerous daily tweets will link to articles, how-tos, and tutorials that make conducting business more streamlined and easy. There’s also a great deal of information related specifically to web design, graphic design, Photoshop, and WordPress.

Conclusion

There are thousands and thousands of web designers on Twitter who provide excellent industry information, inspiration, links to fantastic design articles, and free stuff. Those listed here are but a few of those designers who have taken to Twitter to promote their craft and help others out along the way.

Who are your favorite designers and agencies to follow on Twitter? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Photo Credit: Twitter Profile by Rosaura Ochoa via Flickr Creative Commons

If you’ve been a freelance web designer for any length of time, you’ve likely discovered that the old adage “the customer is always right” is most definitely not true. Sure, there are amazing clients out there, and you probably enjoy working with the vast majority of people that hire you. However, you also know that:

There are some customers that drive you crazy.

Though, while dealing with difficult customers is a common problem, not all problematic clients are built the same. In fact, there are all kinds of difficult customers that are difficult for all kinds of reasons.

But it is important to remember that as a freelancer, part of your job is to try and prevent difficult situations from arising in the first place. To help you do that, let’s review how to deal with difficult clients. We’ll go over some of the most common types of problematic customers, as well as how to address their complaints and demands in a professional manner.

Difficult Client #1: They Haggle Over Money and Time

Money and time are two things none of us ever have enough of. But that doesn’t mean that your clients have a right to take advantage of you to save themselves some money and capitalize on your time. This seems to be a common occurrence nonetheless.

Some Difficult Clients are Hyper-Focused on Money

It would be great if all web design clients hired us with an unlimited budget, but that’s just not reality. Talking about money isn’t really a comfortable discussion to have anyway, but some clients make the task that much more difficult by trying to wrestle as much out of you as they possibly can for the lowest possible price.

Money issues can arise at the front or back end of a project. Some clients fuss about your initial price estimate and seem to worry more about getting you down in price than they are about your ideas for their website. If this is the case, it may be best to pass on the job opportunity. If a client comes right out of the gate haggling over the price, it’s usually a good indicator that price will be a sticking point throughout the project. In these situations, it just isn’t worth it.

Other clients wait until the end of the job to dissect every detail of the invoice, asking for an explanation for each hour of your time spent on the project. They may accuse you of overcharging them or adding in tasks that they didn’t want. Still other clients may lollygag and take forever to pay you, forcing you to chase them around and beg for payment for services rendered.

The Solution: If money has become a sticking point, there are several ways you can deal with difficult clients. First, you should invest some time and energy into developing a detailed pricing structure for your services. Whether you charge by the hour or by the task doesn’t matter – just make it abundantly clear what your prices are so the client is well aware up front.

Second, find a suitable system to track your time and create invoices so there is no question as to how much time you spent on what aspect of the website design process. There are many resources out there for freelancers to handle these tasks, some of which are completely free to use.

Lastly, if late-paying clients have become an issue, consider changing your payment structure. A good system might look like this:

Require 50 percent payment on day one before you ever begin any work, with the remaining 50 percent due upon delivery.

Or, if you charge by the hour, think about sending weekly invoices, with continued work contingent upon previous invoices being paid in full. If all else fails, hire someone to collect the debt. Sometimes a well-placed call from a debt collector is the kick in the pants a late-paying client needs.

Some Difficult Clients Have No Concept of Time

Another type of difficult client is the one who seems to believe that their project is the only one you’ve got on your schedule. These clients want everything done yesterday and might even pester you with inquiries about why it’s taking so long, even if you’re well within your agreed-upon deadline. These clients are usually in such a rush because of their own inability to get organized and get things done in a timely fashion.

These difficult clients might also not respect time boundaries and call you or email you after business hours or on weekends. Some clients mistake “freelancing” for being on-call 24/7, and this simply is not the case.

These clients drive freelancers crazy on two fronts:

One, they don’t respect your time, and two, they don’t respect boundaries and try to contact you whenever they please.

The Solution: To avoid falling into a situation in which you’re fielding off-hour calls and working frantically to meet a client’s unrealistic time demands, it’s important to have a frank discussion with the client about how long it takes you to complete a project. Always provide an estimated timeline for completion before you ever begin any work. And emphasize that it is only an estimated timetable to account for unforeseen circumstances.

Additionally, be abundantly clear about your office hours. If you work 8-5 Monday-Friday, tell your clients that. Include it in the contract, on your invoices, and on your website so there is no confusion about when you are and aren’t available.

The Bottom Line: The more you’re able to explain up front, and the more detailed your invoices can be, the less leeway clients have in arguing about the expenses or the timeline. The same goes for establishing boundaries with regard to your time and when you will and will not be available to work.

Difficult Client #2: They Don’t Know What They Want

Sometimes clients will come to you with a varying degree of uncertainty about exactly what it is they want. Fortunately, for most clients, the design process helps answer many (if not all) their questions. Unfortunately, some clients persist in having no clue what they want or need. This kind of indecisiveness can cripple the design process.

Some Difficult Clients Always Need a Second Opinion

It could be that your client wants to compare your prices with another freelancer. Perhaps they want their wife or sister or dad to chime in on the draft design you’ve submitted. Or maybe your client just wants to be sure you’re the right designer for their project. Whatever the case, some clients will want a second, third, fourth, and twentieth opinion before they commit to making a decision.

The Solution: Provide your clients with as much information as you possibly can up front, in writing. Pricing, timing, your policy about revisions, your commitment to timely communication…give them as much information as you can about anything that might help clients make up their minds.

Some Difficult Clients Hate Your Design But Don’t Know Why

Some clients express their indecisiveness by telling you that your draft designs aren’t what they want. The problem arises when they can’t tell you why your design doesn’t fit their vision. Working with these kinds of clients is like taking random stabs in the dark, hoping to hit your target. It can turn a simple, short-term project into one that drags on and on, seemingly forever.

The Solution: Again, the key to working with this type of client is to provide as much information upfront as you can. Your contract should stipulate exactly how many revisions are included in the price, and how much additional revisions cost. Also clearly define the parameters of what you will do – narrowing the focus of your duties will help streamline the process and give your client fewer things to be indecisive about.

Some Difficult Clients Keep Adding to Your To-Do List

Most freelance web designers have encountered the client that hires you to do a “website refresh,” who then continually adds more and more work until you’re doing a full-blown site redesign. While the additional work is welcome, the ramifications it has on your schedule to have constant additions to the project can be tiresome.

While most clients might have a change here or an addition there, it is the clients who keep piling on and piling on that cause most freelancers the most headaches. It can be a particularly bad situation if the client believes that the additions shouldn’t cost them anything extra.

The Solution: Although it may be tempting to agree to the first or second or even third addition, there has to be a line drawn at some point. Reminding your client of the parameters of your contract can help reign in their requests for additions. If they still insist on making changes, inform them in a calm and professional manner that additions to the design require additional funds. Remember:

It is your job – not your client’s – to establish what you will and will not do for the agreed-upon price and to share that pricing structure with clients from the get-go.

The Bottom Line: Indecisive clients can be the most frustrating of all. Be patient with them, but also do what you can to focus their attention and get the feedback you need to move forward. Limiting their choices can be a good option, so rather than presenting them with three alternative designs, only give them two. Also get everything in writing – absolutely everything. From the timeline to the price to the tasks you will complete. Never, ever rely on a verbal contract so you aren’t caught in a situation where you can’t prove what work you agreed to in the original contract.

Difficult Client #3: They Disappear

Little is as frustrating as being hired to do a job, only for your client to disappear into thin air. Waiting for responses to emails or phone calls can severely disrupt your timeline, which, if your client is also the type that wants the work done yesterday, can create a really ugly situation.

The problem is especially acute if you’ve gotten initial feedback and a go-ahead to commence work, only to wait for days (or weeks) for feedback once your initial designs are complete. With work partially done, but no direction to continue, you find yourself between a rock and a hard place. Movement forward is impossible without client feedback, but continuing work is not in your best interest, lest the client flakes out on you and you end up working without receiving payment.

The Solution: All you can do is to continue trying to touch base with your client. While phone calls might easier, a good rule of thumb is to use email first, that way there is a record of what you said and when you said it. Also try other means of contacting your client. Send them a tweet, message them on Facebook, or call them at their office.

The Bottom Line: Under no circumstances should you continue working on a project if a client has disappeared! The quickest way to wasting your time and getting stiffed on your fees is to continue working for someone that has become uncommunicative.

Difficult Client #4: They Know Too Much or Too Little

Our clients are seldom ideal. Sometimes they know a lot about technology and design (or think they do…) and try to micromanage your work because they feel they know best. Other times, clients are frustratingly in the dark about anything related to technology and design, which makes explaining what you’re doing and why that much more difficult.

Some Clients are High-Tech

Sometimes, someone that knows a lot about design and technology will hire you. While this might seem like a blessing at first, it can also turn into a nightmare. Sure, you don’t have to explain every little detail to them like you might to other clients (see below), but by the same token, high-tech clients might try to insert themselves into the process, which is not someplace they should be. These clients can quickly become a micromanager and be far too involved in the process for your comfort.

The Solution: If you’ve got a micromanager on your hands, it is important to set boundaries for what is and is not okay in your business relationship. Boundaries should be well defined and professional from moment one. Establish how often you will provide updates on the progress of the project.

And like mentioned above, outline specifically what you will do as part of your contractual obligations. It might even be a good idea to amend your contracts to include a clause about clients getting too involved in the minutiae of the project and exactly what recourse you will take should that happen.

Some Clients are Low-Tech

Even though we are well into the 21st century, there are still some people out there that don’t have a clue when it comes to technology. While it’s admirable that analog people are trying to get into the digital age, it can also be a bit of a curse for you.

Low-tech clients often need their hand held throughout the entire process. They may ask for something in the design that is impossible for you to do, and then not understand why it’s impossible. They might pepper you with questions each step of the way, causing you delays on their project and other projects as well. Other times, they may feel as though you’re secretive or uncommunicative when it is their ignorance about the process that is keeping them in the dark.

The Solution: There are several ways to overcome the difficulties of a low-tech client. First and foremost, be patient. Not everyone understands web design as well as you do. Secondly, start collecting common questions that clients have about your services, prices, and the technology you use. Providing a Q&A list to a low-tech client gives them something to refer to when questions arise, rather than hounding you with dozens of emails or phone calls seeking clarification.

But perhaps the best solution to this problem is to not exacerbate it. If someone hires you to design a website, give them something that is easy to use. The Mom and Pop shop in your town doesn’t need a custom-built HTML5 website. Instead, try using WordPress or a website builder like IM Creator. Sites built on those platforms make it much easier for Mom and Pop to take the reigns and make changes to their site when the time comes.

The Bottom Line: A healthy dose of patience, clearly defined boundaries, and a rock-solid contract will help you effectively deal with clients of all types, while also protecting you from backlash from an angry or dissatisfied client.

Be Willing to Fire a Client to Save Your Sanity

Fire a client? Yes! Sometimes there are occasions when you have to let a client go. Usually, it’s the individuals that don’t pay you that go first, but soon you’ll realize that for some clients, there is no pleasing them.

It can be excruciatingly difficult to turn away work, especially if you’ve already begun a project. But what is important to bear in mind is this:

The more involved you get with a difficult client, the less time you have to work with the clients with whom you have a good working relationship.

Sure, it may be tempting to exhaust several hours trying to explain something to a difficult client, but wouldn’t those several hours be more useful working on another client’s project or pursuing additional work elsewhere?

Firing clients isn’t easy, but it is sometimes necessary. In order to protect yourself, include a clause in your contract that says something like:

I have the right to terminate the project, for any reason I deem fit, at any time.

Guarantee that payments received to that point for work that is unfinished or unfulfilled will be returned to the client. That way you can have a clean break if you need to give a client the boot.

Conclusion

Problems will always arise with clients, and most of the time you’ll be able to address their concerns. However, difficult clients will come along, and as much as you strive to avoid them, sometimes you just can’t escape their clutches.

Dealing with difficult clients is just part of the business, and how you deal with them will, in part, define your reputation as a small business owner. In reality, some clients that prove to be difficult at the outset end up being among your most loyal customers because once they see that you are working in their best interest, they don’t want to let you go.

Just keep in mind that it is important to go with your instincts when talking to clients for the first time. If something inside you says that the client won’t be a good situation for you, don’t take the work. It’s surprising how many times designers get into sticky situations with difficult clients, only to say later on, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken that job.” If the client is fussy, indecisive, bossy, demanding, or otherwise unpleasant, just walk away!

What have your experiences been with difficult clients? How would you recommend handling them? Leave a comment to get the conversation going!

Photo Credits:
Angry-Ann by Josh Janssen via Flickr Creative Commons
Money by Tax Credits via Flickr Creative Commons
Time by János Balázs via Flickr Creative Commons
Untitled by Financial Times via Flickr Creative Commons
5/4/2010: To-Do List by john.schultz via Flickr Creative Commons
Hold My Calls by Matt Reinbold via Flickr Creative Commons
Thingamagoop 2 From Bleep Labs by Kevin Dooley via Flickr Creative Commons
Fired by Sean MacEntee via Flickr Creative Commons

There are a lot of people out there with degrees in graphic design, writing, interior design, and other creative arts that have graduated from college and are looking for employment. Many of those graduates need a quick, easy, inexpensive, and professional-looking website to show off what they can do to attract potential employers.

But after years of paying for tuition and fees, room and board, and books, not many graduates are keen on hiring someone to design a website. What many people might not know is that they can create a website that will fit their needs and help them land the job they covet, all on their own!

How can this be done, you ask?

With an easy to use website builder.

In today’s post, we highlight one of our customers’ experiences working with IM Creator. We also address some myths regarding website builders and offer up some insight about what you can accomplish by taking the bull by the horns and designing your own website.

Website Builder Success Story: Alice

We recently got some amazing feedback from a customer that highlights exactly what it is that we seek to do here at IM Creator – help individuals and businesses get a fantastic website up and running quickly, without spending a ton of money, in order to meet their business and career goals.

One such success story is Alice. After attending college, Alice needed a professional looking website fit for a budding graphic designer. Here is her experience, in her own words:

“Here’s my story I want to share with everyone at IM Creator, which may not be far off from many people out there.

Upon graduating with a BA in Graphic Design, I was faced with the task of building a website. What I struggled with was not owning the full versions of Dreamweaver, and not having 100% knowledge on what I was doing with it. When I took a class on it, it was Adobe CS2. By the time I was ready to start building this site, it had upgraded to CS4, and let’s say things change a lot in software.

I needed to build a site to showcase my portfolio. I needed to get an entry-level position. I thought to myself, ‘wow it’s the middle of the recession, how in the world am I going to compete with every other grad out there?!’

So, I thought, ‘okay I will look online for a service I can use to help me build a website.’ Let me tell you from the outside looking in, it is completely cumbersome to think it’s that easy.

Then I found IM Creator. I read and researched reviews as best as I could. I loved the fact that I could build the site, THEN decide if I wanted to put my money into it. It makes complete sense from a consumer standpoint.

The quality of support since day one from IM Creator has been awesome. They’ve helped me connect to Google analytics, and have responded to every email I’ve sent. Shortly thereafter setting up this site and monitoring Google analytics, I got a call. After 3 years post-graduation, I finally got my graphic design job. The torment of living with a tremendous amount of student loan debt and not having a job to show for it was over!

I want to thank IM Creator and their staff for helping me get a career in my field. Since then, I have referred your service to several other graphic designers, and I will continue to do so. Thanks again and keep up the good work!”

-Alice

What Alice’s story demonstrates is that people of all levels of web design ability, from the novice to the expert, can utilize a website builder to create a website that is truly impressive. Some people, like Alice, need a place to highlight their work. For that, there are a variety of templates specifically for portfolio usage, like this one:

Other people might need to build a website for their small business, that’s branded with their business name, and features multiple pages to highlight their company’s products, services, and people, like this template:

Point being, website builders aren’t big and scary! There are a ton of options for you to create an amazing website and do so without spending loads of money.

Don’t Be Afraid: How a Website Builder Can Help You

Alice makes several great points in her testimonial that highlight how anyone can utilize website builders to get a job or promote their business. Briefly, let’s review some common concerns that Alice was able to overcome during her website builder experience:

• Lack of Training – A lot of people are overwhelmed at the thought of designing and deploying a website on their own, but as Alice demonstrated, she was able to create a website that fit her needs and helped her achieve her career goals.
• Lack of Assets – Web design software goes out of style quickly, as Alice found out. But with website builders, users don’t need any design software because all design tasks are taken care of in the browser. That means you don’t have to worry about buying or downloading software, ever!
• Lack of Support – Tackling a website design without any training is one thing, but doing so without any support is another thing entirely. Fortunately, website builders offer excellent customer support, so if there is an issue, a resolution is only an email away.

Now that we’ve outlined how other people have learned how to design a website using a website builder, let’s debunk a few myths.

Fact vs. Fiction: What Website Builders REALLY Do

In some circles, website builders get a bad wrap. Some say that the sites created with website builders look cheap, have no features, aren’t customizable, and are expensive. That may be true for some website builders, but it is not the case for all of them!

Lookin’ Good: Websites Made With a Website Builder Look Great!

Myth: Website builder websites look cheap and unprofessional.

Fact: To be sure, some website builders do, in fact, give customers a product that looks terrible. However, other website builders, like IM Creator, offer all kinds of professionally designed templates from which customers can choose.

Have a look at the template below, which is currently available on IM Creator. Does it look cheap and unprofessional?!

The above template is just one of many available for a wide variety of needs, including:

• Fashion and talents
• Business, consulting, and services
• Weddings and events
• Real estate and architecture

There are even one-page and five-minute site templates for a person in a hurry to get their site published, but who also want something that looks slick and has a lot of features.

The Bottom Line: Website builders are not all built the same. Choosing one that offers clean, modern, and feature-rich templates will give you a website that you can be proud of, and that you can build yourself!

This is No Bargain Bin: Website Builders Offer Tons of Features

Myth: Website builders give customers little in the way of features or benefits.

Fact: Website builders provide a wide range of features and benefits that not only make creating websites easy, it allows for creating a good-looking website that will provide a strong foundation upon which you can build your business or get a job.

Look at a few features offered by IM Creator:

• Dozens of vivid template designs created by top web designers
• Real drag-and-drop editing – no need to know HTML, CSS, or any other coding
• Simple, straightforward editing interface

What’s more, website builders include supplementary features like SEO built right in, standards compliant templates, unlimited hosting, bandwidth, and storage, and custom domain names and email. Top-notch customer support is a hallmark of website builders as well, with how-to forums, online communities, phone and email support, and printable manuals to help you get your site off the ground without any headaches.

The Bottom Line: Just because website builders make creating your own website easy, doesn’t mean corners are cut. There are features galore that help make your website beautiful and functional.

Custom Built: Website Builder Templates are Highly Customizable to Meet Your Needs

Myth: Website builders only offer canned templates without much ability to make a custom website.

Fact: Part of the beauty of website builders is that they offer pre-made templates for a variety of applications. Often, these templates meet the needs of customers as they are. However, sometimes users of website builders want to put their own stamp on a template and make it more reflective of who they are as a person or as a business. For those individuals, website builders offer full branding and white label options. This means that you have a website with your name, your branding, your URL, and your email.

The Bottom Line: Website builders like IM Creator allow users to fully customize any pre-made template. Users also have the ability to create brand new designs from scratch. Both options can result in a completely customized website just for you.

Get Instant Bang for the Buck: Website Builders are Cost Effective

Myth: Website builders are expensive for what you get.

Fact: While some website builders might charge an arm and a leg for their services, IM Creator allows you to create your website for free. Find a template or create a new one, explore the easy-to-use editing tools, and place your text, photos, and videos wherever you please, all without paying a dime. Only when you decide it’s time to launch your website do you have to pay anything.

The Bottom Line: Website builders like IM Creator allow you to fully design your website without paying any money up front. You can take as long as you like to perfect your design and work without the worry of paying for design services, hosting, and the like.

Final Thoughts

Building a website on your own sounds scary, particularly if you don’t have any training as a web designer. But website builders are built just for people like you – that want a professional online presence without dealing with all the fuss of designing and coding from scratch.

By taking advantage of all the features we’ve highlighted above, anyone can create a custom website. Whether you create a website to show off your portfolio in the hopes of getting hired by a company or you make a website to promote your freelance web design business, website builders like IM Creator can make your career and business dreams a reality.

With easy-to-use editing tools, excellent customer support, and a wide variety of services like hosting and email, you can get a professional-looking, feature rich, highly customized website for a fraction of the price. That’s not a bad deal at all, and definitely not something to be scared of!

What is your favorite website builder feature? How have you used a website builder to meet your website needs? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Increasing rates without losing customers can be tricky. If you’re like most freelance web designers, you probably started out by offering ridiculously low rates in order to get your first jobs. That’s a good strategy in the short-term because, without any experience, you have to rely on being cheap in order to entice those first clients to hire you.

However, in the long-term, working for peanuts isn’t the way to go. As you build up your credibility with clients and create a portfolio full of amazing work, you can – and should – command a higher fee for your services. Doing so allows you to cull the number of clients you have while making more money and reducing stress for you. Sounds great, right?!

But there’s a problem:

Many freelancers don’t know how to go about raising their prices.

The fear of losing current clients or driving new clients away with increased rates is enough for some freelancers to continue to toil away for pennies on the dollar. The good news is that there are a number of strategies to use to increase web design prices without losing a single client.

To help you achieve your financial goals now rather than later, give one or more of these strategies a try!

Do Some Legwork First

Before you go about raising your rates, you need to be sure you’ve thought the process through. This involves various steps, including developing a clear and easy-to-understand pricing strategy. It also involves some evaluation of your client base to determine the best way to handle a rate increase with each client.

Your Pricing Strategy

When you’re just starting out, you may not have much of a pricing strategy other than “I’ll take any job for any pay.” Now that you’re in a position to increase your rates, you need to establish how and what you will charge for your web design services.

Specifically, you need to decide on the fees you will charge for your services. Whether you work by the hour or by the project, these fees need to be crystal clear to the client. For example, present clients with your pricing plan in writing. A table of services and fees makes for logical organization and is easy for clients to follow. Along with your explanation of your new rates, include a statement along the lines of:

“Prices are not static and are subject to change from time to time as per my company’s long-range financial plan.”

You need not dive into a dissertation on why you reserve the right to change your rates. If clients ask, let them know that rates need to change to reflect increasing business expenses like additional training or improved equipment, to account for your expanding set of skills, inflation, and other factors. However, it is important to let them know that:

Rate increases are part of your strategic plan for financial success and are not the result of waking up one day and simply wanting more money.

By establishing a precedent for rate increases from the outset, you make it easier on yourself to initiate that dreaded “I’m raising my rates” discussion with your client. It also sets the expectation in their mind that at some point, your rates will go up.

Having a written pricing strategy will also help you initiate a conversation with existing clients. Simply email them your new pricing structure and invite them to have a conversation with you about the new rates, should they have any. The real shocker is this:

You will be amazed at how few clients actually raise any questions about your new rates!

Part of your pricing strategy should include an advanced warning to existing clients about the impending rate increase. Dropping a notice the day before you increase your web design fees by 20% is definitely not advisable. Instead, give your clients at least one or two months’ notice. Send them an email, include a message on their invoice, or mail them a copy of your new pricing structure, complete with the date your new rates will go into effect. Given some forewarning, the likelihood that a client will fuss over your new rates will be diminished.

Determine Each Client’s Value

Before raising your web design rates, it is important that you determine the value of each of your clients. How often do they offer you work? Do they pay on time? Do you enjoy working with them or are they driving you crazy? Asking these kinds of questions can inform you as to which of the approaches discussed below is best when raising your prices or dealing with possible difficulties concerning your proposed rate increases.

Evaluating your clients can also help you determine which clients you might consider keeping at a lower rate. For example, assume you have a client that pays on time, who gives you consistent work, communicates well, and sends fun projects your way. Let’s also assume that this client doesn’t have the means right now to pay you a higher rate.

While it’s nice to make more money, there is something to be said for hanging onto clients that provide you consistent business and who are pleasant to work with. There are a lot of things clients do that can be off-putting and aggravating, so rewarding some of your best clients by keeping them at a lower fee or increasing their rates more slowly can still be worth it to you. Plus, by demonstrating your willingness to work with them on price, you keep them happy and keep the work coming in.

The Slow Approach to Raising Web Design Rates

Some freelancers subscribe to this notion about increasing their web design prices:

Slow and steady rate increases are the best way to go.

The prevailing thought is that by taking a slow approach you can ease your clients into your higher rates and reduce the likelihood that they will raise objections to it. If your business is growing rapidly, you can probably get away with more frequent rate increases, say, three or four a year. But if your business is growing at an average rate, one or two rate increases per year is more advisable.

The question then becomes, by how much do you raise your rates each time? Obviously, a 50% rate increase twice a year will likely result in questions (and complaints!) from your clients. Likewise, small monthly increases in your fees will leave a bad taste in your clients’ mouths.

Here’s the deal:

A good rule of thumb is to raise your rates by no more than 20% each time.

An increase in June and again in December will provide enough time between rate increases and ease the blow to your clients’ pocketbooks. Again, if business is booming, you can probably get away with a larger rate increase, but you should still keep it to 25% or below each time.

Charge Higher Rates to New Clients, Immediately Increase Your Income

Another method for raising your rates is to do so only with new clients. Now that you’ve built up your reputation as a knowledgeable designer and you can command higher rates, start out new clients at your higher asking price. For example, if you charge existing clients $30 per hour, take on new jobs at $45 per hour or $50 per hour, or whatever the market will support.

The advantage of this method of rate increases is that it is immediate for your new clients – no easing them in over the course of several months or a year. You instantly begin earning a higher rate, which could be a substantially larger amount than what you charge existing clients.

Tackling rate increases in this manner is also good practice for broaching the subject with your current clients. Part of the hesitation about raising rates is the fear of losing customers, but if you can still get new clients at your higher rates, this will give you the confidence to start the conversation with your existing clients about raising your web design fees.

Prove Your Worth to Justify Higher Prices

An essential component of your price-raising strategy should be to demonstrate to your clients that you are worth what you intend to charge. What is really surprising to a lot of freelancers is:

Many of your clients already feel like you undercharge them!

So for the vast majority of people you work for, raising your rates won’t be an issue. However, there may be some that question why your rates are going up.

For these clients, it is important to remind them exactly what you’ve done for them. This doesn’t mean that you should fire off a snippy email to them that includes a bulleted list of everything you’ve ever done for them. But, providing data that backs up your value as a web designer can go a long way in legitimizing your new rates. As discussed in a previous article about demonstrating tangible results in your portfolio, the same holds true for this situation. Remind your clients what you can do in order to justify raising your web design prices.

In order to accomplish this, you’ll need to do two things: provide your clients with a market comparison of what other web designers charge and offer your clients services that go above and beyond their expectations.

Provide a Market Comparison

When informing your clients of your new rates, include a market analysis to show them where your rates stand in relation to other web designers in your area. If that data isn’t readily available, do some online research and find the average rate web designers charge (which is anywhere from $40-$100, on average). Hopefully, you aren’t the most expensive designer out there because if you are, that could be a problem. Keeping your rates competitive is crucial to convincing clients that your services are a good value.

Over-Perform

What better way to prove your worth than to over-perform for a client? In the weeks and months leading up to a rate increase, go the extra mile for your client. Be helpful. Offer insight. Provide excellent deliverables. Doing so will help remind your client how indispensable you are. Additionally, they will see your true value and forget that they will soon be paying you more. Besides, being awesome and providing excellent services should be something you’re already doing anyway!

Compromise or Play Hardball

Different clients may require a different approach to raising your web design rates. Some may try to negotiate with you to cut your rate increase while others may straight up refuse to go along with any increases in your fees. Clearly, these clients require different strategies when trying to resolve the conflict.

Compromise

Let’s say that you’ve notified your clients of an impending rate increase of 20%. Let’s also assume that one of your clients is not pleased with this development. To address this conflict, you can offer a compromised rate – higher than what you currently receive but less than what you originally proposed.

For example, rather than a 20% increase in fees, suggest a 15% increase instead. By demonstrating your willingness to compromise and reduce the amount of your proposed rate increase, you can alleviate your client’s anger about paying more while still making more money than you used to.

Play Hardball

Sometimes a client might not be willing to compromise, and in those situations it may prove beneficial to you to inform them that you can no longer work for them. Clearly, this strategy can easily backfire, so it isn’t advisable to play hardball with your biggest or most lucrative clients. However, some clients may give in to such tactics, so long as you’ve proven your worth to them on past projects.

Playing hardball is not about being a jerk, it’s about being firm and standing your ground. It’s never easy to tell a client that you can no longer work for them, but a lot of times just the threat of walking away is enough to bring them around to paying your higher rates, or compromising with you at the very least.

How to Handle Losing Clients

Most freelancers that worry about raising their fees end up finding out that the vast majority of clients not only stay on but wonder why the rate increase didn’t happen sooner. However, freelancers will also find that sometimes clients aren’t prepared to foot a higher bill and seek out the services of another web designer.

While it may hurt your feelings (and your pocketbook, at least initially) to lose a client, in actuality, it could prove to be beneficial to you in the long run. The clients that refuse to accept a rate increase are probably the cheapskates that you wouldn’t be able to hang onto as your business grows anyway. Likewise, having fewer clients on which to focus means that they will experience even better value than before, and appreciate what you do for them that much more as well. The bottom line is this:

Would you rather have 50 clients who pay you a low rate, or 25 clients that pay you at a higher rate?

The key to dealing with losing clients is to end your working relationship on as good of terms as possible, so as not to squash an opportunity for work with the client in the future. Also look at it through a positive lens: It presents you with more opportunities to find new clients, get experience with new kinds of projects, and expand the footprint of your business that much more. Besides, taking on new clients means there’s no hassle about your higher rates because you can start them out at your new rates from day one!

Conclusion

Springing a fee increase on your clients can lead to some conflict and stress. But holding your ground and insisting on making a rate that reflects your level of quality and expertise is necessary as you build your brand and your business. While compromise might be necessary with some clients, it’s also important to stand up for yourself. If you’re a pushover and cave to every client’s demands, you will soon have a slate of clients that take advantage of you. Instead, bid them adieu, move on, and get other clients that are willing to pay for what you provide them.

What methods have you used to increase your rates? Get in on the conversation by leaving a comment below! And for more great insights into developing your web design business, be sure to join our mailing list to receive our monthly newsletter.

 

Photo Credits:
Exchange Money Conversion by epSos.de via Flickr Creative Commons
Value by GotCredit via Flickr Creative Commons
Arrows Showing Up by FutUndBeitl via Flickr Creative Commons
Handshake Man-Woman by Flazingo Photos via Flickr Creative Commons
Wave by Hobvias Sudoneighm via Flickr Creative Commons

Now for the fun part of starting your web design business – Getting Paid!

At least, you thought it was fun, until you realized the costs and complexity involved in taking payments from your clients.

There are many considerations when deciding how to take payment like costs, security, and simplicity for your clients.

Electronic or Old School

I couldn’t find any reliable data on whether web designers accept electronic payments or rely on cash/check transactions exclusively. Most larger design firms appear to accept electronic payment options, but if you browse many smaller web designers’ websites, you often won’t find any mention of electronic payment.

If you do, it’s usually a generic Paypal button where clients can enter an amount to pay. It’s more convenient for sure, but still a little rudimentary.

My take on this question – There’s a reason that the largest and most successful companies take electronic payments and make it as seamless as possible. Doing so increases sales and improves the customer experience overall. In my opinion, web designers should take the same approach.

 

Cash for Crepes?

I recently traveled to Paris and made purchases at 30+ locations while there and used Visa/Mastercard at every one. One night we went to eat on the famous street with all the creperies. After handing the waiter my credit card and hearing him say “sorry, cash only,” it was a 10 minute walk to the nearest ATM machine to get some cash I needed to pay for our meal. Not super convenient – and we probably wouldn’t have eaten there in the first place if we knew it was cash only.

Don’t give your clients this experience by NOT providing easy credit card payment options. It will definitely cost you clients in the long run which is more more expensive than the fees involved in processing credit cards.

There are reasons to take checks and cash like when you have local clients or clients who prefer to pay by check for accounting purposes. But overall, I’ve found that most of my clients prefer the convenience of paying by credit card.

Not only is it convenient for your clients – it’s also a time saver for you – the web designer. I just received an email from a fellow web designer the other day and she asked me about my method for accepting payments. Her method is to manually send out an invoice every month and then accept payment by check or Paypal. She spends a lot of time creating invoices, cashing checks, and following up on late payments.

I encouraged her to consider recurring billing on credit cards so she doesn’t have to generate invoices each month and wait for the client to pay. This saves time for both parties and increases the chance that the payment ends up in your bank account.

So what’s the cost of this convenience you ask.

 

Cost of Convenience

It’s not cheap to accept credit card payments. Typically, you’ll pay about 3% on all your credit card transactions. That’s a large chunk of your revenue but the convenience of the payment option will lead to more clients that should cover your costs.

Keep in mind the costs of other options as well. There are fees involved with doing bank transfers even though they are typically much lower than credit card processing.

And even though checks are free to process, there is the cost of the check itself, the envelope and postage, and the time it takes to write and mail the check.

Measuring the cost is all about percentages. If you’re doing a $10,000 transaction, it’s probably worth the extra time to process a check in order to save fees. But if you’re doing a $30/month transaction, the convenience of an automatic recurring credit card transaction is well worth it when you consider the time savings over the long term.

 

Popular Options for Accepting Payments

Paypal – Paypal is super popular and many people already have accounts, so web designers often add buy now buttons on their site so people can pay set rates through Paypal or enter a manual amount to pay. A standard Paypal account is free and the cost of processing is around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Stripe – Stripe is a newer payment processor that’s designed for developers but also has as an easy to use Checkout feature that allows you to create slick checkout popups right on your page. It’s the same cost as Paypal but may be a good option for developers or people who just don’t want to use Paypal.

Recurly – When you get into processing recurring payments, it starts to get more complicated and costly. Most payment processors will charge extra when you want to automate monthly payments, or you’ll need to use a Gateway that administrates the monthly billing and links up with your payment processor. Recurly is one of those gateways. They charge a monthly fee + a $0.10 + 1.25% transaction fee. Pretty pricey! I warned you it would be costly.

My Setup – FirstData + KickStartCart

I am currently using FirstData to process my credit card charges. You can read more about my journey to land on a merchant account/payment processor. I’ve been using a payment gateway called KickStartCart.com (an affiilate of 1ShoppingCart.com) which links up to FirstData and also provides the functionality to process recurring payments. KickstartCart also provides the ability to have integrated autoresponders, one time payments, coupons, and more. It works for me but it isn’t free. I pay about $90/month + 3.2% to process all my payments when all is said and done.

You’re gonna pay the 3% no matter how you process credit card payments, but it’s the monthly fee that can change. For me, it’s worth spending the money make it as convenient as I can for my clients to send me money.

Is the expense of constantly having to update your web design software getting you down? Are you sick of waiting for massive updates to download, interrupting your workflow and causing you delays?

You aren’t alone! This is a common problem for web designers.

Fortunately, for the modern web designer these constant time and money wasters no longer have to be part of everyday life. There are scores of excellent, free web design programs, which negate the expense of updating your software. There are also many web-based tools you can use in lieu of programs you must download to your computer, which eliminates the frustrating wait for updates to download and install.

Today’s post features a few examples of free web design software and web-based applications that will help you make your creativity a reality and do so without money out of your pocket or time spent waiting for those endless software updates to download.

Let’s get started!

Never Pay for Image Editing Software Again

For 25 years, Photoshop has been the standard bearer of image editing quality. However, as we discussed in a previous post, there are a lot of great Photoshop alternatives out there, many of which are free. Now that Photoshop is a cloud-based, monthly subscription service, free software is an especially good deal.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a great option for web designers that just need to occasionally fine-tune photos and graphics for their designs. There are iOS and Android versions for on-the-go editing convenience. With intuitive tools, vast editing capabilities, and a layout that is similar to Photoshop, it is an excellent program to try. Want to know the best part?

Pixlr is free and web-based, so it offers the best of both worlds!

Cost: Free
Compare to: Adobe Photoshop
Format: Web-based, iOS, and Android

Sumopaint

An incredibly lightweight and fast browser-based program, Sumopaint is highly versatile for painting as well as image editing. There are a variety of tools and adjustments available, from colors and gradients to brushes and pencils to shapes and text. It is an excellent option for editing images for web use, as its only output is RGB. The option to save your work to the cloud is a handy feature as well.

Cost: Free for the basic version
Compare to: Adobe Photoshop
Format: Web-based, but requires Flash

GIMP

Most designers would identify GIMP as their go-to Photoshop alternative. While you have to download it to your machine, and thus deal with updates from time to time, it is a free program, which is nice. GIMP is offered in multiple platforms (Mac, Windows, and Linux) as well, and offers all the essential tools you need to edit photos and graphics for your website.

Cost: Free
Compare to: Adobe Photoshop
Format: Mac, Windows, and Linux

Make Amazing Graphics for Free

Just like with image editing, there are dozens of excellent, free web design programs and web-based apps out there to help you make graphics for your website designs, from buttons and icons to header images and infographics. But it gets better:

These programs can easily replace standard (and expensive) graphics programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Canva

Canva is a web-based application with many free features. You can create various sized graphics, from those perfect for the square-shaped world of Instagram to images flawlessly sized for a Facebook cover photo. There are thousands of free photos, graphics, icons, and fonts for you to use in creating your designs. Thousands more fee-based elements are available as well. The best part about Canva is that in addition to being free, it is web-based. No pesky updates or expensive software to purchase here!

Cost: Free (with other fee-based features)
Compare to: Adobe InDesign
Format: Web-based

Inkscape

Free to download on Windows and Linux, Inkscape is an excellent alternative to expensive web design software like Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape offers some advanced tools that other free graphics design software lacks, such as cloning, markers, and alpha blending. It also includes full support for different color modes, traceable bitmaps, and native support for Illustrator files. The simple and straightforward interface is a nice touch as well.

Cost: Free
Compare to: Adobe Illustrator
Format: Windows and Linux

Blender

If creating 3-D graphics is your specialty, consider the free, open-source program Blender. This powerful program allows you to create 3-D components from start to finish, including modeling, rigging, simulation, animation, and motion editing. Ultra realistic rendering makes your graphics photo-quality. It’s intuitive, and fast modeling tools make the workflow a breeze as well. You can even use Blender create games and videos!

Cost: Free
Compare to: Adobe Illustrator
Format: Mac, Windows, and Linux

Coding Has Never Been This Easy

Hopefully you haven’t been sucked into the idea that as a web designer you have to also code. There are many reasons why designers shouldn’t code, not the least of which is that it seems like every time you open your text editor there is some massive update that must be downloaded. But if you weren’t able to escape having to code, there is good news:

There are many free and/or web-based tools you can use instead of cluttering your desktop with a bunch of programs or waiting for endless updates to download and install.

CodeAnywhere

A slick online platform for coding and development, CodeAnywhere offers a number of valuable features, including the ability to share your work with others and collaborate on projects. Their integrated code editor is a nice touch, even for the designer that only periodically needs to mess around with coding. CodeAnywhere also syncs with Dropbox and Google Drive, so all your files are right there at your fingertips, no matter where you are in the world.

Cost: Free (with a basic membership)
Compare to: Adobe Dreamweaver, Komodo Edit, TextWrangler, Notepad ++
Format: Web-based

JSFiddle

If you long to create CSS, HTML, or JavaScript and then be immediately able to see the results, JSFiddle is the application for you. You can easily write and execute code, debug, and collaborate with others. Sharing your work is super easy, making it less of a hassle to get help when you encounter errors. And since it’s web-based, there’s no worry about updating any software!

Cost: Free
Compare to: Dreamweaver, Komodo Edit, TextWrangler, Notepad ++
Format: Web-based

Do It All: Design, Develop, and Deploy Websites With Ease

In recent years, browser-based website design has become more and more prevalent. Applications like Macaw, and Adobe Edge are recent additions to the genre, but all require a one-time or monthly fee to use their services. Old standards like WordPress continue to be popular web design programs, as do website builders like IM Creator, Wix, and SquareSpace.

WordPress

WordPress began as a few lines of code, evolved into a self-hosting blogging platform, and is now the most widely used Content Management System in the world. It made website design much more accessible to average people, in addition to giving trained web designers greater flexibility in the services they offer their clients.

With thousands of pre-made templates that can be relatively easily customized and thousands more plug-ins available to take care of tasks from SEO to spellchecking, building a website with WordPress is a great choice for web designers of all skill levels to create beautiful, functional websites. Created to be intuitive and design-friendly, WordPress is also much easier for web designers to use than Drupal or Joomla, both of which are far more development-oriented.

Cost: Free to download; themes, plugins, and other expenses may be incurred
Compare to: Drupal, Joomla
Format: Web-based

Website Builders

The beauty of website builders like IM Creator is this:

They are all-in-one website creation platforms!

Everything you need to create a gorgeous, image-rich website is right at your fingertips. There’s no need to download text editors to edit HTML or CSS. Likewise, there is no need for FTP programs to transfer files back and forth. Using web-based apps to check standards compliance or figure out how to add Google fonts is totally unnecessary as well because IM Creator takes care of that too.

There are a host of other handy features built right in. IM Creator has a huge catalogue of pre-made site templates that can be pre-populated for fast publishing. If you want to create your own template you can do that as well. With a drag and drop editor built right into the interface, you can easily add images, text, and menus and move them wherever you want on the screen.

Likely the best feature of website builders is that there is no need to purchase software and no need to wait for programs to download. There are no annoying updates that interrupt your creative workflow either. Additionally, unlike WordPress, which requires constant updates to the framework, themes, and plugins, website creators handle that all on their own, which by itself demonstrates that website builders are a better choice than WordPress. Everything you need to create a website, from design and development to e-mail, hosting, and deploying the site, is all encapsulated within the website builder. You can just focus on design!

Cost: Free to try
Compare to: Wix, Squarespace
Format: Web-based

Conclusion

Starting your own web design business is difficult enough. There’s no need for you to waste your precious time and money buying and downloading programs to your computer when you can utilize the free web design resources and web-based applications available to you on the Web. Each program and application listed here has distinct advantages for website designers of all experience levels and offer great value above and beyond traditional website design tools.

What are your favorite free web design resources or web-based applications? Let us know by leaving a comment below. And for more great tips and insights on how to make your web design business thrive, be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter!

 

Image Credits:

Chumby, Downloading Software 2 by Andreas Pizsa via Flickr Creative Commons

It’s pretty much a no-brainer that the more you keep in touch with your web design clients, the more likely they are to come back to you to give you repeat business. But one secret many web designers many not know is this:

By increasing your customer retention by just 5%, you can increase your profits by at least 25%, and by as much as 95%!

Yep, you read that right. Keep a tiny fraction of your clients coming back for more business, and you can experience huge financial gains.

So how does one go about retaining customers?

It’s pretty simple, really. Just keep in touch!

First Things First: Communication Isn’t a One-Time Deal

Before we dive into how you can stay in contact with your customers, we first need to go over exactly what it means to “stay in touch.”

In marketing lingo, connecting with a customer is called a “touch”. Studies show that one touch is nowhere near sufficient for retaining clients. In fact, it’s more like seven touches that need to occur to keep clients coming back to hire you time and time again. Some of these touches can be marketing related, such as a quarterly promotional newsletter that you send to clients via email or snail mail.

But it’s important to resist the temptation to schmooze a client with your latest and greatest products and services because that can be extremely off-putting, especially if they just shelled out a couple of thousand dollars for a new website from you. Instead, your focus should be on more personal communications.

This personalized approach to keeping in touch is necessary to continue building trust and loyalty with your clients. It can also be highly effective in establishing a long-term relationship with your clients because periodic communications show you put as much work into the customer experience as you put into their web design projects. In that respect, keeping in touch with your clients facilitates a feeling that you are partners with your clients in their business endeavor, not just someone that they pay to do web design tasks.

Let’s review a few easy and effective methods you can use in order to stay in touch with your customers and keep your client base strong.

Online Tools Make Communication With Clients a Breeze

If you want to stay in touch with clients, online tools can make the process smooth and efficient. We’re talking about harnessing the power of email and social media to keep tabs on how your clients are doing with the products or services you’ve provided to them. It’s also an easy and immediate way to get in a few of those seven required marketing touches without having to spend a whole lot of time doing it.

Social Media

Not much is easier than sending out a tweet or a Facebook message, and even better, it’s free! These factors alone make social media an incredibly valuable option for staying in touch with your web design clients.

In previous posts, we’ve sung the praises of social media as a tool for gaining new customers and growing your business. But it’s also an excellent medium for maintaining contact with past customers. Not only can you quickly inquire about how a client is doing, you can also easily offer assistance with any questions or problems they are having with your product or service.

Even better, you can gain some exposure for your business at the same time. For example, you can send a tweet to a customer for whom you created a couple of banner ads. Ask them something like this:

Hey Jane, just checking to see how the banner ads I designed are working out. I trust you’re getting the increased traffic you were after!

The structure and tone of the tweet are both extremely important. You’ve conveyed to the client that you are thinking about them and are interested in their success as a result of your work, well after you’ve completed that work. Also note that the tweet isn’t a sales pitch, yet you’ve identified a service that you provide – banner ad design – so people that see your tweet on your client’s feed know what it is that you do. What’s more, you’ve identified the positive results of your banner ad designs – increased site traffic.

If you’ve done your job correctly, your client will have nothing but good things to say about your services and tweet you back accordingly. This process might remind them of how fantastic you are and generate more business from them, or it could catch the eye of one of their followers who needs some web design work done. As a result, you’re able to kill two birds with one stone – stay in touch with your client in a genuine manner and get a little marketing at the same time. And it only takes a few seconds of typing!

Email

Email communications with your past clients are nearly as easy to undertake as those done on social media. But since email is a little more formal, your communications have to be done right if you’re going to accomplish your mission of establishing a long-lasting working relationship with your client.

Here’s the deal:

There are two types of emails you can send to clients – personal or newsletter.

Personal emails are much like the tweets we discussed above, but obviously more in-depth. Whereas tweets might be more appropriate for an individual client or a small company, a well-written email may be more appropriate for larger clients, such as corporations or non-profit organizations.

While emails should be personalized to each client, you can easily set up a form letter and change the names, job details, and inquiries you pose to the clients. Doing so means you don’t have to spend hours and hours writing emails to each client, but you’re still able to give them the personal touch that reminds them what a great designer you are. It also helps to show them that you’re a professional who cares about the client experience.

Newsletters are an effective way to stay in contact with a large number of clients without having to write something personal to each and every person. While you can certainly include information about sales, new products, or new services you offer, as with other communications we’ve discussed thus far, the purpose of the “let’s stay in touch” newsletter should be more along the lines of:

“Our client appreciation BBQ is coming up and you’re invited!”

Think of these newsletters like the holiday cards your mom wrote when you were growing up. There are lots of updates, lots of wishes for happiness and health, and an overall tone of appreciation and friendship. That’s what you should strive for in your “keep in touch” emails whether they take a personalized or newsletter form.

But be sure to remember this:

Keep emails short, sweet, and to the point.

Everyone’s inbox is already clogged. Your clients don’t need (or want) to spend 15 minutes reading a really long email from anyone, not even you!

Make a Call or Mail a Gift to Show Your Client You Care

It might seem so 20th century to pick up the phone and call someone. It’s even more old school to send a letter or a gift through the mail. Yet both methods of keeping in touch are still powerful ways to maintain connections with your client.

Phone Calls

While email is convenient, nothing says, “I care about you” to your clients like a well-timed phone call. Hearing a voice on the other end, checking in to see how the website is doing after a month of usage is a great way to establish continued rapport with your client. Likewise, checking in on clients after three months, then six months, and so on keeps you up-to-date on what’s happening with their business, and keeps the client in the loop about what’s happening on your end as well.

These phone calls don’t have to be a giant sales pitch, nor should they be, especially in the beginning. After completing a job, give the client time to experience the product or service you provided, then check in and see if everything is running smoothly. Ending the call with, “I’ll check in on you again in three months” establishes a continued effort on your part to keep in touch, while also letting the client know that you care enough to keep tabs on how they’re doing.

Phone calls are great, but what can you do for an even more personalized touch?

Call your client on Skype so you can get some valuable face-to-face discussion going.

Even better for clients than hearing your voice is seeing your face. If you’re not able to pop in and see your client in person, Skype is the next best thing. However, be wary of overusing Skype (or the regular phone for that matter). People are busy these days and may not have the time to take your call. Your efforts to stay in touch with your client can quickly turn into an annoyance for them if they constantly see your phone number or Skype ID popping up.

Gifts

Who doesn’t like to get a surprise gift now and then? Keeping in touch with your clients doesn’t mean you need to send them something extravagant. But a surprise thanks for hiring you a few weeks after the job is done can be a special way to forge a long-lasting bond with a client. If they are into tech, send them a flash drive. If your client likes coffee, send them a $5 Starbucks gift card. The point is, sending something small, yet personalized, shows that you care, and it’s a nice way to set up future communications with your client.

Get Some Face Time, Take Advantage of Social Capital

When we say to get some face time, we aren’t referring to the Apple application FaceTime (although it would work!). Rather, we mean converse with your client in person in order to build some social capital with them.

Perhaps more than any other form of communication, this demonstrates your continued commitment to your customer to ensure they have had a good experience. Think of it this way:

If you hired a programmer to do some work for you, would you be more likely to hire the guy that dropped by your office to check in on how you’re doing after a month or so? Or would you go back to the guy you never heard from again after your payment cleared?

Obviously, you’d re-hire the first guy…

If you have some spare time and have local clients, visit them at their place of business. It will give you a chance to have a genuine conversation about the product or services you provided, and will go a long way towards establishing that coveted long-term business relationship. These “house calls” can generate a ton of extra business, as a casual conversation can quickly turn into your client saying, “Hey, I was thinking that I also need…” Again, you’re able to kill two birds with one stone – you’re staying in touch with your client, and you’re generating that much-needed continued business.

Conclusion

Remember that establishing a client base that lasts year in and year out requires you to treat your customers properly before, during, and after your work is completed. Clients like to feel as though they are the most important customer you have, and communicating with them on a regular basis in a genuine manner will help you make them feel as though that is the case. Communication is one of the must have skills you need to be successful, and is guaranteed to bring you increased profits over the course of your career.

What methods of keeping in touch with clients have you had the most success with? Start the conversation by leaving a comment below!

 

Photo Credits:
Communication Matters by the Communications Network via Flickr Creative Commons
You Can Etch It… by Alan Reeves via Flickr Creative Commons
Mail Box Ghetto by Jonny Hughes via Flickr Creative Commons
Small Talk by David Goehring via Flickr Creative Commons