Seems I’ve all of a sudden got too much to focus on and need to scale back. Mark and I have decided upon a plan for the online business. The programmer will be coming December 12 to Houston to start working on building some of it. My job? Start developing some prototypes.

We’ve decided to concentrate on one market right now and need some raw materials to help us build our “machine.” We need some actual examples, albeit however abbreviated, to show industry execs….hopefully getting some support and resources and maybe even a partnership of sorts.

But that is all a long ways off. Or so it seems. Right now, I am trying to put together some timeline based prototypes to show some schools. We would like to partner with a few of them starting in January…thereby acquiring that raw material I just spoke of. I realize this post is not very informative, but it’s really all I can say at this point.

So other things have to go to the back burner for now – unfortunately one of those things is working on my freelance business and website. I can’t put it off too long because, did I mention many time in previous posts?? I need some income actually coming IN. Gotta focus and get serious…too much to do but it’s also very exciting.

Well the nibble from the recruiter last week fizzled. I suppose since she described the client as “frugal” was a big clue to me that it really wasn’t going to work out. I hate people like that…people who want a website for around $200. I can only guess that when she told them what it would probably cost (with the recruiter’s fee tacked on top) they balked. Anyway, she was interested so into my database her name will go. I’m glad she called too, even though it didn’t work out. Because it got my brain churning about what ARE my rates?? It made me really think hard about that.

Doing research about what other designers charge can give one a headache. The gap between the average low and average high is something like $25 to $200 per hour. That’s helpful!

Trying to narrow it down to the services I can offer,  and looking companies versus one-person operation, it seems like the rates are somewhere between $25 to $75 per hour for someone with my skill-set and experience. But that is still a HUGE difference.

One suggestion that many sites give is to figure out your salary, cost of doing business, etc. and then divide it appropriately to get to your hourly rate. All well and good. But I don’t think anyone will pay me $500 an hour {ha ha, kidding really}. But still, the truth is, just because I NEED and want to make a certain amount doesn’t mean I’ll get it.

I think the difficult part of this is going back to the point where I stated in a previous post that I have a hard time tooting my own horn. I also sometimes think that what I do isn’t good enough or that hard to do. Which is really ridiculous. Just because something comes relatively easy to me doesn’t mean it’s worthless  or worth LESS. It just comes easy to me!! Hurray. Celebrate it and market it…but it’s easier at first for me to devalue it. Deep breaths. I’ll figure this out somehow.

Got a call from a recruiter who has a client that needs a website redesign. I thought the call went well but it really got me thinking. I’ve got to figure out my pricing. What am I going to charge? As I stated previously, working with a recruiter will mean I need to ask for a lower hourly rate as opposed to when I find the client myself. This is good. It’s really got me wondering “what am I worth.”

Still trying to figure out some ways to bring some money into my accounts. Freelancing is tough simply because clients are just lining the streets. But I’m still brainstorming ways that I could do this and am considering several options:

• Recruitment agencies – basically you work for the agency and they find you temporary and contract work. Problem is, you have to take a cut in hourly rate because the have to tack on I guess about 20% over and above your going rate.
• Obviously, my greatest strength right now is as a web designer. However, I don’t know that I want to market myself as a designer who creates custom, unique websites for each client. But there are other alternatives, like marketing website packages that I have already developed, “canned” so to speak;  and marketing/selling them to small businesses, artists and individuals. That way, the prices for the sites can be lower (because they aren’t 100% unique) so the time is also cut down on the customization – a win-win for me and the potential client. It would be sort of like buying a website “off the rack” as opposed to haute couture (made to order).
• Selling illustrations to stock photography sites