Today we started to learn about freelancing, writing tenders and proposals but what do all these actually mean?
A freelancer works independently rather than with an agency or for a company. Freelancers can be found in many industries including tutors, photographers, lawyers, writers and designers. A freelance designer may work for clients in a variety of media including digital design, logos, brochures, books or websites. Freelancing offers the advantage of flexibility, as a freelancer can determine what clients or projects to take on and how many jobs to work on at a time as well as large financial reward if they are successful and the feeling of accomplishment. However freelancing does come with the uncertainty of work and income is unpredictable which results in a lack of structure and planning for the future.
A Tender is an invitation to bid on working for a project. Tendering usually refers to the process whereby governments and financial institutions invite bids for large projects that must be submitted within a deadline. Freelancers or agencies submit competitive bids to supply raw materials, products, or services in the hope their tender gets chosen. Putting a tender forward for many jobs can become repetitive but the advantage of them is that they pay more and normally pay with a retainer so the income is monthly.
The proposal is what you submit it is normally submitted in the form of a PDF in the following structure:
The Title Page
Project Overview
What needs to be done and what you will want to put forward.
Project Approach
How it is going to be done, the research, the design process and essentially what they will be paying for
Scope of Work
Who will be involved
Assumptions
What you will need to start the job such as the archival materials
Deliverables
What you will be producing (a website, brand or app etc.)
Ownership & Rights
For hire or licencing
Additional Cost/ fee
Expenses (cost and materials needed)
Price & Payment Schedule
Your quote and the detailed breakdown of the cost describing the effort as this will allow less client argument. It will also involve the payment plan.
Acknowledgment & Sign Off
This is when you can legally start as designers charge based on the time it will take.
We should charge about £25-£30 an hour minimum as this covers us for the £10 minimum wage and the rest to help cover taxes. We can work out our freelance quote by:
£30 X estimated number of hours = the quote