Amanda Vlahakis

Oooo you should never ask a lady her age! 36 this summer, grimace ;)

Truly Ace

http://www.trulyace.com

Birmingham, England

Logo design, layout design for print, front end web design and vector illustration.

Adobe Illustrator

7 years approx

So that I could work from home whilst looking after my young children. They are both at school since October just gone, but it's been great to have found a way to combine the best of both worlds for the last 6 years.

I have a dedicated office in my home, but I'm about to upgrade to a swank 'garden studio' so I can have client visits if I want because it will mean I have external access to the studio rather than clients having to come into my home, which I would not like and thus have never invited clients to visit before.

About 45hrs/50hrs approx depending on workload.

About 4/5 weeks usually.

Online only, using online business networking, search engine optimisation for search engine traffic customers, and other online marketing tactics such as article marketing, blogging (part of seo as well really), tools like Twitter and so on.

I deduced how many hours I spend actually designing each week (only about 50% of my working time) and then how much I would like to be paid each week for those hours to work out an hourly rate.

I then quote for projects based on my estimation of how long it will take to carry out said task and x that by my hourly rate before quoting. How long it takes to complete certain tasks is something you learn from experience.

I only spend about 50% of my time designing because the rest of the time is taken up by marketing, administration and client communications. Therefore the hourly rate is set quite high (double that than if I were an employee just designing all day long only for instance) to take that into account.

When setting rates of 'how much one wants to earn' for design time put in each week, and then calculating quotations based on a 'per project' basis, one has to also consider the competition and their level of skill/experience.

Designers setting rates need to take into account competitor pricing and ensure their prices are competitive for their particular level of skill and experience otherwise they will not win projects. We can all want to be paid a lot but you have to access what level of skill you are at and what sort of pricing you think this can command by comparing yourself to your competitors.

It's a very much 'first in', 'first out' system. I have an internal 'turnaround time' for every single project type. Once a project has been won and the deposit paid the clock starts and I know I have to complete the project within a certain timeframe.

All projects adhere to their set time frames ... which are not client set, they are set by me and clients are advised of expected turnaround times if they request to know them.

If a new project comes through the door that claims to be urgent this does not get put at the front of the pile if it means it would interrupt the turnaround time of another project. It only gets put to the front if it does not disturb the turnaround time of any other projects running. I'm very strict about this and it ensures all customers get their project within a timely manner and it's consistent and predictable for regular customers.

For day to day management of my administration and projects I simply write myself lists of what needs to be done at what time, using Outlook diary management, and these usually do not expand to much more than 48hrs in advance for most items. So each day is usually planned the day beforehand with a knowledge of which projects need to be dealt with first and leaving spacing around those for administration and marketing.

Administration is worked into every single day using my daily diary management. So rather than administration piling up each week or month it's deal with daily. Invoices and quotes go out on a daily basis and emails (which also contain client requests for support/files/design revisions) are responded to on a daily basis.

This is why only 50% of the day is spent designing, because I know the other 50% of the day needs to be left free for the inevitable admin tasks that are just as important for a smooth operation as turning out good design work in a timely manner. Thus I wold never fill my diary with design for the day, I'd only fill 50% of it.

I follow a few blogs but to be honest I don't keep much up to date with the latest news in the industry because I don't have enough time for that.

THE BLOGS OF:
David Airey » graphic designer, logo designer
Logo, Identity, Brand Design Served up by ImJustCreative
Dot Design - Logo Design and Print Design, Plymouth, Devon
eightyone design / graphic design for print and web / torquay paignton brixham devon
Logo Design Love

That's about it to be honest, I don't follow any other blogs, podcasts, magazines and what not. I don't follow much industry stuff! :)

Flexibility, work life balance, job satisfaction, income.

Being accountable for everything.
Being soley responsible for bringing in the work month in month out.

No never again :)

Yes, lots, visit my blog at Truly Ace Graphic Design Blog and look to the top right under 'pages'. There are I think three articles dedicated to helping out new freelancers and also a few blogs on the matter as well.

No, I think you've been very thorough.

Logo Design, Logo Designer, Print Design and More