It’s been a whole year! WOW! I mean seriously who would have thought that time could fly so quickly. It’s definitely been an interesting ride so far. Lots of ups and downs, learning experiences, and life changing events. I don’t think I would have changed a single thing.

In my last post, I opened up about my concerns about being a new parent, government taxes and my poor MacBook Pro. Thankfully that’s all behind me now. I can look back at that time and reflect about what choices I’ve made since then to make sure that I continue to move in a positive direction. It’s been hard and I would like to say I won’t ever get back to that sort of low again but there are no absolutes in this business. Since that post my son has been born and he immediately became my shining light to continue to do better. He’s brought so much joy into the lives of my wife and I, even if we aren’t getting any sleep, that I can’t imagine the life we had without him. Do I still question whether or not I will be a good parent? Absolutely but all I can do is continue to learn and be as strong, reasonable and share as much as I can with my son to help teach him how to be a great man. That’s the best I can do and I can live with that.

Over the past year, I’ve been extremely fortunate with client work that it’s been a fairly steady growth pattern of work and opportunities. I’ve made many bids on projects that I never got. I’ve had others I got that surprised me based on the competition I was up against. I’ve even had clients come to me from referrals that I never thought would happen. Each one though has helped shaped my business and client relationships. I’m proud to say that I don’t just consider my clients to be clients but they are friends too. I’m happy to send them a quick hello or share a link to an article or bit of news that might be relevant and helpful to their business. The projects that I’ve been able to work on with them keep me inspired and help get me up in the morning. Little do they know I usually do our skype calls in my underwear. Shh! Don’t tell them.

I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to run a business and grow it from nothing to something that I’m proud to talk about at dinner party or events. However, I do notice most people I talk to have no clue what I’m actually talking about. I’m starting to wonder if they think I’m a drug dealer or something. I find business side of the freelance life to be the hardest thing. I think if I ever scaled up I would need an employee to manage that part of it for me. It’s not the part I love but I find it to be something that really helps to keep me on my toes. One thing that I have found here is to be confident in your pricing. If you seem unsure potential clients will pick up on that and use it to abuse or uncut you to get the price down. I’ve found standing firm or finding new ways to get the rate you deserve while still giving your clients a bit of a “deal” can help deepen the relationship you have with them. In fact, one of my clients went from trying to negotiate every cent to being a full time retainer client. Most of the time clients will try to barter for every penny because they don’t understand what you are bringing to the table. Help them understand. Being open and honest about why I charge for project the way I do has been one of my best tactics when starting new projects with new clients. Treat your clients with respect and they’ll do the same for you.

Working with rates is difficult. Reading through freelance blogs will give you a variety of answers. Some say to work with hourly rates. Others tell you to only work with per project pricing. I’ve found that it actually works to use both. I only quote projects now on a per project amount but offer a line item breakdown of what each price includes. Like I’ve said before transparency and understanding is one of the biggest battles when it comes to winning work. Then in my contract, I include my hourly rate on the small things that usually go above and beyond the agreed scope. Sometimes clients have needed to include these small pieces but for the most part if you’ve done your job correctly upfront with the discovery phase and figuring out the scope properly then these extras become negligible.

When it comes to gaining more work, I’ve really struggled over the past year with having to eventually say “NO” to certain projects. It’s scary to say those two letters to clients, new or old. You never know how they might take it. One of my goals for going out on my own was being more present at home for my wife and now my son. There have been times throughout the year I lost track of that goal. I would take on too much for too many people and then start to feel myself fall. The quality of the work went down and the way I was treating my clients…well, let’s just say it wasn’t to the level of quality that they or I had come to expect. I had to learn to step back and to evaluate each project and the future opportunity that was associated with it. As well, the joy of accomplishing it. Was it going to be a project that I was going to be proud of and want to show off to the world? Could I offer a unique insight or help make the idea even better through the skills I was bringing to the table? Whenever the answers to these questions were no or I’m not sure, then I would really have to consider if it was worth taking on. Like I mentioned above, right now I’m in a place where every project I’m currently working on is meaningful and exciting. I can’t help or wait to spend time on it but my clients have also learned to respect that I don’t always answer emails right away or respond at 11pm on a Tuesday night. They know that I’m not going to let anything fall through the cracks. If I do I own up to it and fix it straight away. Building boundaries and trust even when you consider your clients to be your friends as well can go a long way to creating better relationships and lead to deeper conversations around project scope.

Finally, finding time to work on personal projects that benefit my growth as a designer and entrepreneur have continued to something I strongly believe in. When work does dry up a bit or is in a holding pattern, learning a new skill or improving on an existing one has lead to me being able to offer more to my clients in the end. Having the opportunity to write articles for leading web publications or working on Wirefy has lead to some incredible insights about workflow and helped make me a better frontend developer. Also working on Arrtistic and the Shopify themes that I’m hoping to launch in the next month has given me a better view on the potentials of ecommerce and the best interactions for the greatest return on engagement.

I’m excited to see where the next year goes. I know it won’t all be rainbows and unicorns. It will be a continuos learning curve that I hope I can only continue to get better at.