7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Become a Freelance Web Designer

Thinking of taking your love of web design to the next level and creating your own freelance business? Maybe you should think again. Before you register your domain and start handing out receipts, here are seven reasons why you shouldn’t become a freelance web designer.

Online tools will make it too easy

It used to be that this type of profession requires endless efforts and hard labour just to make a real live, responsive website out of your sketches. Nowadays tools like Webydo help you do it quickly and intuitively, without even needing to write code, and with hardly any effort needed. Now where’s the fun in that?!

 You’ll get too much variation

As a hired web designer, working for just one company, you get to do the same things over and over again. As a freelancer, on the other hand, you’ll be dealing with clients from so many different content worlds and will be forced to be introduced to new topics all the time.

You’ll have to be creative

As a web designer, you keep having to come up with new ideas, visions and fresh takes on familiar subjects for the benefit of your clients. That means that every day when you sit down on your chair and open your laptop you’ll need to think a bunch and exercise that creative bone again and again. Sounds exhausting!

You’ll have too much freedom

Working for a boss, you always have someone to tell you what to do and make decisions for you. As a freelancer you have to decide for yourself which projects to take on, what time and where to do your work, and how to handle yourself in front of the clients. You’ll also have to do all the work yourself and have some serious creative freedom. Take it slow: too many options can drive a person crazy.

You’ll always be learning

Every new project that comes along to a freelance web designer requires him or her to learn about the site’s target audience, the client, and maybe even learn something about the specific market in question. Not to mention everything you’ll be learning about marketing yourself and running a business. If you’re not careful, you might accidently broaden your horizons.

You’ll constantly be challenged

There’s no single aspect of running a freelance business that doesn’t hide a challenge. You’ll need to find your designer voice, learn how to sell yourself and your work and how to price projects, acquaint yourself with the world of income tax, come up with innovative designs for your clients and so much more. This means a lot of thinking and brain use.

You’ll have to work with other professionals

As a web designer, the service you provide is only one piece of the puzzle from your client’s point of view. That probably means you’ll have to cooperate with programmers, content writers, marketing specialists and who know what else. Do you really want to surround yourself with a bunch of professional people who found a way to make money out of their passion? Be honest.

Author bio:

Nir Barlev is the product manager at Webydo, a cloud-based platform that allows designers to create professional websites.