Ahh… the life of a freelancer….
ergh…
((sounds of screaming and tufts of hair falling out))
I only know one freelancer who really seems to have the whole thing down pat (all bills paid a month in advance, no debt at all, and a healthy retirement fund at 30), she also grew up as a missionary kid and loves Target. Those of us who grew up as a Feast or Famine Hanen seem to be repeating the generational family habit…
I have dabbled in freelance artwork, design, and writing since 1992, but did not make the full break from day job or adjunct teaching until August of 2002. I am now 8 months into my full-time self-employment adventure, and am mostly on time with rent, not on time at all with minimum payments of debt, and occasionally eating strange combos of rice, dulse flakes and whatever is in the frig… But I am happy in a way that that I never was in cubicle-land of temp jobs, commercial real estate, higher ed, etc.
The Good News is that one of my main web design clients, after 7.5 months from my original proposal and 3 months after a revised proposal, gave full approval yesterday of a complete re-design of their website. Their site was originally designed in 1998, and has been updated by interns until my coming along last spring. In the year since I started working on it, I have updated and corrected code (no html, body, or title tags at all!!!!) on all the pages I have touched.
I am very excited to start the re-design, and will be doing it as a eDisciple of Zeldman, Tantek, and Champeon…. In other words, CSS layout here we come, goodbye tables.
Wish me luck. Occasionally call me in the next two weeks to see if I am still alive. It will be my goal to have the new site at testing stage by the end of next week and launched with revisions by Memorial Day.
Then I will celebrate at the OC Scottish Games!