Chances are that you probably have thought about quitting your current job and start your own business as a freelance web designer. What holding you back from pursuing this? What type of skills do you need in order to be a successful freelance web designer?

There are far too many people believe that they can just quit their job and start a business as freelance web site designer. Many of them failed and crawled back to their previous job in hopes that they can get their job back. This happens because they had no plans and goals, therefore they had no idea where they were going and how far they are from their goals.

Don’t make the same mistake. Before you start your freelancing journey you should be prepared for “bumps” and tough times on the road. So you need to be prepared to handle these problems, rejections, bad clients and unexpected events. If you don’t think you can, then perhaps you should stay in the your current job.

Once you have made up your mind that you want to go down the route of freelancing, it is time to go to look for work. The best place to start would be the Internet. Go to Google and search for forums that are related to web design. Make a note of all the ones you interested in and register to them. In addition to forums you should also look at directories, job boards, online classified sites. Now you have compiled a list of quality websites that you think your target audience are. You need to visit these websites once a day to check if there are jobs available. When you first starting out you will find that you will be able to get small jobs with low rate and the projects are not very interesting. This is 100% normal; I personally been through all these myself and I’m sure 8 out 10 web designers have too. When I do more work you will attract bigger projects and better clients too.

Before you approach anyone you should have created your own web site portfolio. Be sure to only include the best work you have done and leave the average ones at home. You should include a link to your portfolio web site on every promotional material you have and in your email signature too.

At some point you will be competing with less experienced web designers than you, who can offer web site design services for half of what you would normally charge. My advice is to ignore them because there will always be someone out there who can do the work cheaper than you. If possible, try to offer something that other designer are not. Ask youself this – why should the client use your web design service over your competitors?