👋 Welcome to my Freelancing Guide, a place where all resources for our freelancers live. 👋
Here you'll find documents, advice, discussions on topics important to freelance web developers who are part of our Discord community.
This resource will be updated on a regular basis.
New resources can be sent to me at stephan@scopeweb.nyc.
Huge thanks to our ever-growing community and the community of @donthedeveloper for sharing all of these resources.
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Everything I wish I knew running a sole proprietorship business: a great post from instructor Wes Bos on first steps you should take. Read the comments too!
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Learn to expense. You can reduce your taxable income by claiming expenses. This includes but isn't limited to office supplies, online subscriptions, continuing education, conference and more!
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Time Tracking Template - Nothing is more valuable than your time. Whether you want an easier way to track it for billing reasons, or just want to keep tabs on your workflow, the versatile Time Tracking Template can get it done. A must-have if you get paid hourly.
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Personal Budget - Straight from Microsoft, this budgeting template is extremely useful when you want to see your income, expenses and savings. There are two graphs to help you visualize the difference between your income and expenses. This one is simple, but invaluable.
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Project Budget Template - If you’re looking to budget a project rather than your personal finances, this template will do the trick. All but the largest projects can be tracked in a spreadsheet like this one. There are a few extra templates here, suitable for real-world projects, monthly tracking or for a multitude of other tasks.
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Free Invoice Template - If you’re a freelancer who works online, you’re probably going to need an invoice template. These function as a record of your services and the money collected. It’s crucial that invoices look professional, as your clients will be seeing them.
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Gantt Chart Template - A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that spans the start and end times for individual pieces of a project. Gantt charts can be easily created in Excel, and this template can help you learn how to take advantage of this useful graph. Just set the tasks and add their start and end times, and you’ll have a visual plan for your next project.
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Wave: a free bookkeeping service.
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Freshbooks: free trial, approx. $20 per month
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Xero: approx. $30 per month
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Contract Killer by Andy Clark: a great template to build a contract on for web developers & designers.
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Fork of Contract Killer by Anna Debenham: an expanded fork of the above contract.
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The Pause Clause by NGen Works: something you can add to your contract.
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Hellosign: an online tool for electronically signing documents.
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Bonsai: a contract-building tool that integrates invoicing and e-signing.
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Use your own personal network. <- 🔥 My personal favorite 🔥
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Work with other creatives.
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Go to meetups and conferences.
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Mentor at Ladies Learning Code workshops.
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Recruitment agencies like Creative Niche and Vitamin Talent.
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The Art of Crafting Accurate Estimates from the folks at A List Apart, a great resource
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From Inquiry to Project Start: How to set up a process & impress clients: a long but helpful article from The Freedom to Freelance Project.
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Pricing Models: A guide on hourly pricing vs. daily pricing vs. project pricing vs. value pricing.
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Remote Job Boards: A list of companies or job boards advertising Remote Jobs.
Before you spend too much time on the project, figure out the following:
- Find out the budget and timeline.
- Figure out the scope.
- Do they currently have a website? How was it built?
- What is the prospective client's objective with the new site?
- How will the client measure success?
- Do they need design alongside development?
- 100+ questions to ask when developing a site
If you're developing a WordPress site, you should also consider the following:
- It's not about pages, it's about custom templates and features.
- Will they be using this theme for a long time, or potentially changing it in six months?
- When writing a proposal, tailor the amount of technical jargon you use.
- Consider quoting a price range instead of a fixed amount. Another option would be quoting different versions of the project -- one with just the basics, one with some enhancements and a third option with all the bells and whistles.
- It's standard to require a 50% deposit before starting work.
- Write up a contract and be sure to be clear about what is and is not included in the deliverables.
- Get EVERYTHING in writing.
Similar to brand or style guides, accessibility guides are becoming more popular and commonplace for larger companies. They're a great resource!
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Take the amount of time you think a project will take and double OR triple it.
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Don't agree to start work on a site until the client has their content together.
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As soon as you start a project, get the communication OUT of your inbox and into a project management tool like Trello, Basecamp or Jumpchart.
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Use version control like Github or Bitbucket.
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Make extra money with an affiliate program like Bluehost or WPEngine.
Does not have to be hard in fact it can be a lot easyer in todays terms with the tools people have made for developers.
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Free hosting through Heroku which can be very useful for personal projects or portfolio items.
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Automated Full-stack preview & test enviroments with Buddy Works