Jake’s Life

The eco-friendly janitorial site I finished was published today. The other day I received a signed contract for a larger project, and yesterday I began speaking with a new potential client over another larger project. I also switched car insurers, which saves me about $70 per month on my policy. If anyone else has any money they’d like to drop in my lap, I won’t turn you away. Seriously.

I’ve found some really good community sites out there pertaining to freelancing and working in the web field contract-based, and have been listening to the podcasts at Freelance Switch lately. Here’s some more interesting articles and sites relating to web working:

Legalese for Freelancers: Creating a Contract

Nine Factors to Consider When Determining Your Price

Building Credibility: 11 Ways to Show You’re a Professional

Web Worker Daily — The Why & How of Firing Clients

Web Worker Daily — Get Organized: Keep All Your Work in One Place

…Evernote is my choice… (see above link)

12 Breeds of Client and How to Work With Them

Yesterday I finished one of the web design contracts I was working on, but the client hasn’t uploaded it yet. They needed a really basic site, or as they put it, “a glorified brochure.” See the entire review site here.

I set up payment arrangements for my big contract today, so that will be nice to have a steady flow of extra income for a while, even after the projects done and running.

Sorry about not blogging in a while! Things have been definitely hectic. I had to fill some larger boots at work for a few weeks with my supervisor being gone, and picked up some overtime shifts in the process. The new 4/4 shifts are going great so far, but I am concerned over Sandro for my shift rotation on weekdays off. He insists he’ll be fine with it and we’re working out a system where he’ll still spend the night at my house during the week when I’m off. Mostly he’s happy that dinner will be made, his laundry will be done, and everything else will be taken care of while he’s at work and school.

Now that we’re on the topic of domestication, we’re officially looking for a place together. We’re both saving up and remotely checking apartments out. I’m on the lease here until next Summer so when we decide it’s time I’ll have to find someone to take the lease over, but if worse comes to worse he can cover the new place for a month or two while I do that.

In saving money I decided to get back into some freelance web design gigs. Within the last week I’ve set up three different gigs totaling $2500. One I am 95% percent done with and the only thing left to do is hand over the files, but I worked too quickly on it and am still waiting for the deposit check. The other begins in a few days, and the third client I am meeting with next weekend (my ex introduced us). Also, if any readers out there are interested in web design work definitely let me know and I’ll give you a good price. My largest contract, bid at $4000 by another freelance designer in the area, I signed her for $1500. I’m trying to keep the mind set of charging what the work is worth, not how much I think I can get for it. Oh, and if you hook me up with someone who needs a web site I’ll give you 10% of the total cost on it as a commission.

The other night Sandro and I went to see Eartha Kitt live at a jazz club in downtown. We got down there early to avoid the Saturday night pilgrimage to downtown and got parking. We stopped by Gameworks and played some video games, grabbed a beer at their bar, then walked to get our tickets. We had reservations and it was still another hour to go, so we went to the Westin and grabbed a drink at their bar before heading back over to the jazz club and stood in line. I was not a fan of hers and was going mainly for Sandro, but I have to say she put on a hell of a show. We sat at the first table in the very front center of the stage.

I’ll try to keep you guys updated more often! I have plenty of pics on my Blackberry that I still need to post too.