3 days ago, I started my new career as a full time Web design professional freelancer…
Well, it’s actually not a new career because I’ve been doing it for over 12 years now. But for a while in the mid 90′s, it did play second fiddle to music and working a production job in a screen printing company. But as it became clear I would not succeed professionally playing in my band, I put more and more time into working and learning the Web design craft. When the band ended in early 2000, I put all my “free” time into the Web work and built my clients base and kept on learning new skills.
In 2001, I got promoted at the screen printing job into a multi tasking position. I worked as a Customer Representative but also worked in the design and drawing of membrane switch keyboard circuits. I spent a lot of time in Illustrator which I’d started learning in 1996. I will keep doing that on a contract basis for the foreseeable future. I’m now realizing how much the customer rep work taught me even if it was truly challenging for me. I learned how to interact with clients, be there for them and support them and realized how much easier it is in a service industry like Web and new media design than it is in a commodities B2B market like industrial screen printing.
I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback on my service and attitude from my Web design clients and it makes me happy I didn’t rush into going into it full time until now. My basic work skills never worried me but I feel like it’s not until recently I developed the business skills that now makes interacting with my clients easy and fun.
I feel very excited about this new chapter of my life that is just starting and, although I’m the kind of guy that tends to worry about a lot of stuff, this decision and move just feel right and I have very little worries about the future. For now, I have a lot of work on my plate for clients I love to deal with and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I feel like I just took back control of my life and it feels very empowering…
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations Stéphane!
I wish you all the very best and hope that the music continues to play a part in your life.
Hi Stéphane,
I wish you all the best for your new career
Nice template , what is the name of tamplate you used in your site