Freelancing for success
It was about 8 years ago that I fell in love with web design. High school taught me many things, but the one thing that stuck with me was my ambition to learn and my passion for creativity. I decided to pursue college in 2011 as a major in Communication design print/web at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA. I made great connections in college and had great professors. But I was stuck fighting a personal battle. I knew college wasn’t for me because of it’s limitations. College could only teach me so much as learning the basic principles and standards in web design. I wasn’t satisfied and so I decided to take things in a different direction.
I dropped out of college and decided to teach myself by learning from the very best. I began to dive into html5 & CSS. My inspiration came from awwwards and others. I began to create animated logos using html5, css3 animation and some jquery. I then began to imitate complex site transitions and effects from top digital agencies. I became obsessed with the idea of hacking around in code and making something work. After understanding how transitions work and applying my ability to manipulate code, I began to create my own solutions. At this point I became aware of my talent and decided to make a career out of it.
I began to seek information about becoming a professional freelancer and I started to sell my services. My expertise is slightly broad, since I already had advanced knowledge in design. I was able to provide design and web development services to my clients from the very beginning. After 2 years of success working as a freelancer, I became a registered business in 2014.This was my dream and ultimate goal. I wasn’t the best at running a business since that wasn’t my major or focus. Although, just like many I failed and learned from my mistakes. I was now running a small digital agency from a co-working space for a year and my business began to grow. I began to land larger projects and my yearly calendar was booked. I became niche due to the amount of work I had coming in. I had then decided to only work with start-ups.
As a result of becoming a niche digital agency working with start-ups my focus became very clear. I started to apply my expertise by furthering my knowledge in business strategy, UX/UI, and branding. I knew that in order to stay afloat in a competitive field I had to provide value to my clients. I became an expert as a strategic business partner in several start-ups. Since then I’ve been committed to working with 3 start-ups full time. I learned to manage my time wisely and gained a lot of flexibility.
I now have better availability to work on projects I love. I have also decided to expand my services to a greater network by connecting and offering my services to online communities such as Toptal UX Designers Network and other freelance platforms in order to generate more revenue as a business and keep me busy. I think toptal has the clientele market I’m seeking to deliver my services to. As the top 3% UX/UI designers in the industry. I believe I now have the resources and talent to be part of that network based on my personal experience and expertise. There’s a lot of opportunity for freelancers to grow but ultimately it depends on the individual's dreams and goals. For myself I knew I wanted to own a digital agency.
Growing as a freelancer has many obstacles but ultimately things do pay off. In order to make it you need to put the work effort and passion behind it. I believe we are all good at something and that there’s probably a niche market for it. At the end of the day your goal is to be happy. My advice would be to do what you love and work hard to reach your dreams and goals. I think passion and ambition goes a long way and with that anything is possible.
Best of luck,
Johan Letelier / Owner & Digital Strategist
