No Longer My Own Boss
This is probably going to come as a surprise to many – tomorrow (Friday, March 2, 2007) is my last day as a freelance designer. Come Monday morning, I’ll be falling into the ranks of a fresh start-up where I’ll assume the role of “lead designer”. Crazy, right? May-be! But let me explain why I would do such a thing.
Since I started doing freelance work just about a year ago now, I’ve been booked solid. In most cases for 2 or 3 months in advance. It probably would have been even longer, but 3 months was the farthest I would book. During a typical week I would receive anywhere from 10-20 emails requesting quotes or asking about my availability. And this was actually my biggest downfall. I never left enough time to manage leads and take care of odd jobs (software updates, small tweaks, etc.) and I have basically being working 7 days a week since I started freelancing. I did however, learn from my mistake and recently implemented a better timeline structure, but I’m afraid it’s too late. I’m beat!
Back in October I heard from a fellow Canadian designer who was looking for someone to handle his overflow as he was in the same boat as me. Totally over-booked with a slew of leads coming in every day. Obviously, I couldn’t help him out, but that’s not where our conversation ended. We kept in touch and discovered we had a lot in common. Then one day, he hit me with a massive proposition – to join a company he was forming and come on board as lead designer. After much debate and still with a little hesitation, I agreed. Once I settled on a decision, my confidence immediately started increasing and within no time I was completely stoked on the whole thing.
So here I am now, a few weeks after agreeing to change gears and join the team and about to head to bed before my last day as a freelance designer begins. I’m feeling great about things and definitely a sense of relief as I’m sure this new endeavour will allow me to spend more time offline in the real world. Something I’ve wanted for ages.
Oh, the company – right! There really isn’t much to say at this point, at least not from my perspective. I’m joining a team of designers and developers who have been hand picked to work under the Graphics.net banner. I couldn’t even tell you who I’m working with as I haven’t had the time to catch up with the new boss recently. I’m busy tieing up loose ends (and had a little family crisis recently which stirred things up pretty good) while he’s moving into a new home which is located where the office will be – Nelson BC. Obviously, I’ll be working remote, but I was asked if I would relocate. Anyway, once things get going and I’ve got my hands dirty, I’ll update you all on the company and how things are going with it.
Damn, I really think I’m incapable of writing short posts. I had intended this to be a quicky, but here I am rambling again.
Lastly, if you were hoping to have me take on a project of yours, fear not – Graphics.net will be taking on new projects all the time and there’s a good chance I could end up working on it. But I’m sure if you requested me, we could make it happen. At this point, there’s no way of contacting Graphics.net, so just sit tight. It’ll all come together in time.