Marketing Help: Freelance or Business?

eoge

Hi,

I'm a self-employed web developer working under my own name. I've come to realise that I may be losing potential business because of my independent, freelancer image. It would be very easy for me to set up a new company, web site, et cetera and trade under that name, but I don't ever want to pretend I'm anything I'm not (i.e. simply a one-man studio). There's loads of guys around calling themselves the CEO of their one-man firm and using the term "we" when talking about their companies and I think it's so fake.

I would love to hear what you think about this and which option you feel is the most advantageous.

As a freelancer, I think I can sell advantages such as cutting out the middleman (sales people and so on) and working with reduced overheads. As well as transparency and honesty (you know exactly who's working on your site). Have I got it wrong? Would I do better as a company?

Many thanks for any feedback.

theedee

My opinion is that you should stay a one man band... I hire freelance programmers and desginer all the time but i stay clear of the "teams" and "we" for the simple reason i am subbing the work out and when freelancers refer to the we & team means that its being subbed out again and again and again...

My only suggestion would be to create a site say out right your a freelancer and state what areas you specialise in and have a uptodate portfolio... As i have passed up many many freelancer cuz there own site was poo and it wasnt uptodate...

Dont make it complicated simple is key and price is king :-)

eoge

Thanks for your advice. It's great to hear that from the type of people I hope to sell to. Cheers. I'll stick as a freelancer for now and strengthen my portfolio, etc.

TheWaterboy

From experience some businesses are fine with freelancers and others want bigger web design companies to do their work. Some are afraid that one man band free lancers will not provide a good standard site and more importantly the after support that the site could need.

If I was you I would put up a company business site with a list of sites you have done and services you offer. I think your current site is ta little too much towards the free lancing option.

In my opinion, you have to think of what you want in the longterm - do you want your own web company or are you happy to free lance for the rest of your life.

eoge

TheWaterboy wrote:

Some are afraid that one man band free lancers will not provide ... the after support that the site could need.

Hey. Thanks for your feedback.

It's interesting you say this because some of my bigger clients have had this exact concern. Not sure how to address that through the freelancing option. But I think it's important to think about what type of people I want to sell to: the end client or sub-contracting for a design firm? The freelancing option would probably work best for the latter.

You're right about my site: it's very personal and needs updating/refreshing/redoing. I'm working on that.

Cheers.

boomer_ie

Have you thought of creating two different websites for two different audiences?

One would be for people who prefer freelancers, other would be for those that prefer companies and "teams"

This is assuming of course you decide to register as a business.

Shane