Hi from West Yorkshire

[JonHC]

Hi everyone. My name is Jon and I've been working as a Mac Operator (or Digital Technician as my title states!) in large format digital printing for the last 18 years. I'm 40 now and for the last few years I've felt like I've been banging my head against a brick wall as I no longer get any real satisfaction from my job and there is no real career ladder to climb in my profession. The only thing I could really do is start my own print company but the financial requirements for that are way out of my reach.

Besides printing clients artwork, I'm occasionally required to do design work which I do enjoy doing, sometimes it can be a real challenge to get some inspiration and other times I can get an idea straight away. I went to college when I was 16 and did a 2 year BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design so I feel I do have some talent, albeit not anything amazing.

I have my own office at home complete with 2 Macs (old G4 Quicksilver and MacBook) Adobe CS Suite and Softpress Freeway for web design so I'm pretty much setup for freelance work. The only problem is, I can't just quit my job and start doing freelance, I'd have to start by doing it evenings and weekends and hopefully build up enough work to then take it full time.

Anyway, to cut a (very) long story short, the reason I'm here is I'm hoping to get some advice on how to get regular work, how to charge (hourly or by the job), how much and pretty much anything else I should know. So guys, bring on your knowledge and expertise!

Thanks for listening... well, reading!

Jon.

[Boss Hog]

Hey

Jon a warm welcome to the GDF

Cheers

Damon