Web Design For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 16. Ten Tips for Managing Your Web Design Business

In This Chapter

• Assembling an online and offline portfolio

• Talking about your work with clients and employers

• Assembling a proposal

• Determining your hourly consulting rate

• Understanding how Web agencies charge for work

• Managing a client's expectations

• Setting and enforcing a client's responsibilities

• Managing a Web project

• Hiring and managing subcontractors

My favorite saying that sums up almost any professional's life is "You go to work for a company for the illusion of security, and you go to work for yourself for the illusion of freedom." Nothing could be truer. When you start your own Web design business, you spend more time than you realize doing non-design-oriented stuff like assembling presentations, billing, collecting, and marketing your services. All your free time goes out the nearest open window.

On the flip side, when you work for a company — especially in the design services arena — you never know how the company will shrink and expand with the changing market forces and when you might be laid off. For these reasons, it's good to be proficient working in both settings: as an independent consultant working for yourself, and as a designer working with a team in a larger organization.

In this chapter, I offer tips on how to do the ten tasks that I've found most crucial for your Web design career, either when you're on your ...