Web development patterns and workflow

Financing and Maximizing Profit

Finance? Isn’t that word belong to accountants? Don’t we web designers? As we were working as web designer, without financing part, designers unable to work. With maximizing the profit, it also covers web designer parts as well.

Especially when working as an individual rather than as part of a team, many freelancers get caught up in focusing on the web sites that they create rather than the necessary practices surrounding each project. These practices can aid in a number of ways, such as stress-relieving organization, more efficient time management, a better understanding of costs and pricing, and ultimately how your freelance work fits into your overall annual income.

Our income as web designers is relatively straight forward we get paid for a web project according to a price predetermined in project planning and client interaction. However, it’s a good practice to develop a more detailed invoice than just the overall project cost.

Common lines on your invoice can include administrative time spent documenting and organizing the project, overhead for managing contractors or project management, materials such as stock photography/fonts and any special software requirements, and conference calls, travel, and meetings. It can feel a little uncomfortable at first billing for things like administration or cost per kilometer for travel, but these are generally accepted practices that most clients engage in themselves.

There are literally hundreds of web apps, online tools, and open source downloads that can assist you in time management, invoicing, document templates, process mapping, and all sorts of tasks that occur throughout the design and development process as well as overall finances. Pick a few of these, but not all of them, and work them into your business model.

Pen and paper, or sporadic spreadsheets and documents, can only take you so far before they begin wasting your time rather than saving it. I find web tools particularly useful for time tracking, project management, invoicing, and streamlining communications.

Be sure to develop a process or work flow to save time and prevent yourself from re-inventing the wheel with every project. There are some great web design process guides in the resources section, check them out! Other streamlining time-saving activities can involve drafting common emails, to-do lists, and leveraging collaboration tools.