Hello all.

My wife was a designer in a print studio firm. And I used to work in an engineering lab as a researcher. We both just quit jobs and become freelancers.

Whether you're a host, a web designer, or a web developer, you can always outsource the extra works to us.

We cater for the followings:
- Web Design
- Banners/ Logos/ Web Graphics
- Web Programming
- Site Redesign


Our charge is per project basis. You can always inquire for whole set quotation in prior to project initiation. Once there is an agreement about the pricing, we can gurantee that there won't be any extra charge incurred. We always evaluate the pricing carefully.

Although a long term relationship is good, however we have no desire to work for permanent job basis. Therefore, sorry we don't send resumes.

And since we're in the process of building up our portfolio on the net, thus, we would receive pay after work(s) demonstrated to the clients. After demonstration done and clients satisfied with it, 50% of the agreed payment must be made before the work(s) being delivered to the clients. The balance 50% will be made right after the clients started to use the work.

Any inquiries and offers are welcome, please PM (only).

Thank you.

Do you have any work to show us?

I know you said that you were building your portfolio but you must have some prior work to show?

Let us know. I think everyone will want to see first.

I suspect eventually this will happen.

To explain:
1. We're just starting out. Our previous works definitely can't be used as reference, it's copyrighted by the private firms. I guess you would understand our situations.

2. For now clients only pay after seeing the works. We suppose this is fair to both parties, clients won't have to pay until they're satisfied. So that the client-side won't lose nothing.



Whatsoever, after 2nd thought we feel that GWDGuy's saying has some valid points there. Therefore I'd include 2 jpegs (plain commercial look) done last time. I must mention in advance, these are very "informal" works, just to let people have an idea at least what we can do. Definitely not a serious one.

Thank you.

This one too.

My advice - other than the obvious one that quitting your jobs both at the same time is insane - would be to create a portfolio of some sort based on material you have created in the past, or to offer some designs for free or at a discount to build that portfolio.

Sometimes is pretty hard to have a portfolio. I have already done some projects (programming) but copyright does not allow me to add them to portfolio.

What i do is to send to prospective customers, current customers emails so they can pick some opinions, references and so on.

My $0.02

Thanks.

Just some friendly advice from someone who went through the painful building period......don't do any work for free unless it is for yourself. If you need to build something to show other people you have ability, build a site with a great design, great logo, great functionality, and have it be something you are truly interested in and proud of. When we first started out, we did two big projects that I now painfully regret.

1. We did the "build it first" you can pay later theory for someone. We're still waiting for that "later" because he decided it wasn't a very good idea and he decided he did not want to go through with it (after weeks of our work).

2. We built a huge site (2-3 months of work) for someone who promised us TONS of work down the road if we just did this one site cheap for them because their client was on a small budget (outsourcing to us). To this day, nothing from them.

Take some money up front, at least a little so your clients have something vested. If you don't, they might not pay and they probably will get away with not paying. There is a reason lawyers charge up front to new clients..........they know people don't pay and get away with it.

Finally, unless you signed some kind of crazy contract, I don't see why you can not at least say, "I contributed to this project X, but it was done while I was working at company Y so I can not claim it as my own." People will understand this, at least when you are starting out.

Excellent advice, bjseiler

Hello,

Do you have MSN/AIM/ICQ?

Regards,
edude

Originally posted by kyun
Hello all.

My wife was a designer in a print studio firm. And I used to work in an engineering lab as a researcher. We both just quit jobs and become freelancers.

Whether you're a host, a web designer, or a web developer, you can always outsource the extra works to us.

We cater for the followings:
- Web Design
- Banners/ Logos/ Web Graphics
- Web Programming
- Site Redesign


Our charge is per project basis. You can always inquire for whole set quotation in prior to project initiation. Once there is an agreement about the pricing, we can gurantee that there won't be any extra charge incurred. We always evaluate the pricing carefully.

Although a long term relationship is good, however we have no desire to work for permanent job basis. Therefore, sorry we don't send resumes.

And since we're in the process of building up our portfolio on the net, thus, we would receive pay after work(s) demonstrated to the clients. After demonstration done and clients satisfied with it, 50% of the agreed payment must be made before the work(s) being delivered to the clients. The balance 50% will be made right after the clients started to use the work.

Any inquiries and offers are welcome, please PM (only).

Thank you.

Hi edude,
I can be contacted easily via email at ideocom@hotmail.com
ICQ: 168767078

Thanks for the input and advice.

Maybe our deeds are insane, but it took us more than few years to realize the ugliness truth behind. That, rather than squeezing few juicy drops from our body daily for others, why not we work something for ourselves in a more self-satisfaction way? We have talents, skills, experiences, and willing to put in efforts. We don't need to generate tonnes of money for those already richy-boss.

If this is insane, then I've seen more insane cases from people who are much braver than us. :)

After many years we've come to realize some simple theories, that:
1. Happiness is more important than money.
2. You should work for yourself not for others.

Regarding the portfolio, well.
Say, if it's a design which involved of many designers, you surely don't want to claim that "it's your work", while the "I've contributed part of this design" may not sound nice. Not to mention other designers won't let you take the credits from them.

And even if they let, we still feel it's not something we "own". So we're building a portfolio where we are the 100% original designers.
I'm sorry because until now we have no single piece of work like that. We've been working for others all the while.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice. I'm sure you will support our decision.