I'm Fired..
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- luckyorphan0
While I may have been one of the detractors above (and I still am), if you find someone with whom you believe this would work, go for it. Marriage isn't avoided simply because you'll have a lot of fights over stupid shit (and important shit).
Just do your homework, don't be unethical, and cover your ass.
- SteveJobs0
I realize money is an important factor here, but in my opinion, this should suade only the person looking for the leads, as it would make sense that such a position would be straight commission.
Also, I think a lot of potential problems would be worked out if the relationships were per-project-based at first. This is a period to test the waters and see what everyone is made of and whether there is any cohesion amongst members. Not too much opportunity for hostility or hurt feelings taking that approach.
- How is this different from starting your own firm/company?luckyorphan
- plash0
the money issue can be solved with a limited liability partnership.(LLP) terms of the partnership and roles. agreed upon before the business starts. therefor the company need to be paid first; and so each would get paid by the company. its how will it be split.
fyi. there is no such thing as a 50/50 split.
taxes, expenses and incidentals need to be acknowledged- llp can be formed with 200 bucks and a week for filing.plash
- johndiggity0
some resources you may want to check out. i would also look at the website of your state's comptroller or dept of business affairs and taxation and find out what's required to start a business in your state. unfortunately you usually need the help of a lawyer at some point so you might want to check out pro bono services available to new or small business owners.
http://www.score.org/index.html
http://business-law.freeadvice.c…
- SteveJobs0
@johndiggity
I have my own LLC here in Los Angeles, so I've been down that road. But to be honest, that's not the role I want to play. If it comes to that (starting a bonafide business), I'd prefer to leave that to someone else who's motivations are in line with that sort of thing.
- that is motivations, and more importantly, experience.SteveJobs
- luckyorphan0
Quick thought:
If you had a real email address available, you might benefit by hearing from people on QBN that would be interested.
- fair point, but I'm just getting some general feedback at this stage. so far, the general interest is slightly underwhelming.SteveJobs
- underwhelming.SteveJobs
- I wouldn't be so sure of that. Don't assume that QBN is a good sampling of what is out there.luckyorphan
- or that people don't want to leave incriminating messages on here that their boss can search... people are out there...identity
- < Yep. Good point.luckyorphan
- Of course, one could always...not leave incriminating messages.luckyorphan
- indeedidentity
- ukit0
The biggest issue is sales. Who brings in the clients?
I'm sure you'll find plenty of designers looking for work, but where does the work come from?
- that's the sole responsibility of the lead finder. however, any member can produce leads.SteveJobs
- I guess that's what I'm thinking, finding a Lead Finder could be tough;)ukit
- i has lead finder, need cms guruversion3
- Expression Engine guru here, show me the moneysukit
- hmmm, i've seen that stuff, looks convoluted, how's it for client editing? i like it EZversion3
- I guess WP is best for a super simple site. EE is difficult to learn but once you do you'll be gold.ukit
- i think even the word press content admin panel is too much to show clients :/ i can do that nowversion3
- plash0
the best place i have found for sales.
them crowdspring people.
they always get the design done but 90% of the time never get it built.
- doesnotexist0
i would find a quality person or 2 first, work with them for a bit. then bring it up.
- right, but you might consider this discussion a form of market research.SteveJobs
- SteveJobs0
I'd like this thread to keep going if possible. I'll bump it early tomorrow for the west coast crowd, but in the meantime, I'm going to go ahead an leave my email here.
If you like the idea, have any further feedback/questions or just wish to express interest, drop me a line. It's early, so I have no idea how I'm going to proceed, but if there's enough interest I might move on this. You can reach me at mark at thedesignersbureau dot com
(And pardon the stagnent site, it and it's corresponding email are just a placeholder for this very sort of thing.)
- that would be east coastversion3
- the EAST coast, even!SteveJobs
- incl. NJ.akrokdesign
- :-)akrokdesign
- inkpink0
I haven't read all the replies but my reaction to the initial post is that you possibly consider things too carefully and getting into freelance could be consequently disastrous.
More do, less think.
- hmm, i kind of agree, but leaping before you look could be equally disastrous. don't you think?SteveJobs
- doesnotexist0
i'm trying to do this now actually - and I'm almost at that point. I have a few freelancers I work with consistently and they have their own work and I have mine. what'd I'd love to do is bring everyone together and share the work split the hrs accordingly.
- are they open-minded to the idea? has it been brought up yet?SteveJobs
- nope not quiiiite there yet, just an idea now that we've been working together.doesnotexist
- got a good group though of 2/3 peeps.doesnotexist
- nthkl0
The pros are the fun part. Anyone care to expose the cons?
The "collective" concept has always been tempting for me btw.
- gramme0
I'm a member of a collective that's in its very small, nascent stages. So far there's a videographer, a photographer/designer, an illustration-driven designer, and me (designer/ typographer/ strategist). We're all designers of sorts, with varied overlapping skill sets. As far as I know, we don't have a web developer. The guy who started it all is traveling around the country right now. He's been working on drumming up leads on the west coast.
I'm not sure if it's going to go anywhere, but I would really love to see things take off with this group.
To me, it seems finding a good sales/lead generator is the hardest part of your scheme, besides the potential monetary pitfalls others have pointed out. There are plenty of talented designers and meticulous developers out there. A good salesperson who really understands the value of good, sensible design is a mythological creature I would love to encounter.
- monNom0
Partnership: no
Employees: yesThe point being: You can fire an employee or freelance contractor who is screwing up or misrepresented their skills and abilities to you. Try that in a partnership and you're in for a long protracted parting of ways.
- monNom0
Also, learn to sell for yourself. You're unlikely to find a quality sales person who will work such small volume, Good sales people who 'get it' tend to gravitate toward larger firms where they can maximize their earnings.
- Projectile0
Some close friends of mine formed a similar partnership for a bit. Fresh outta college, so that'd change things a fair bit.
A problem that arose out of that was that the developers were super busy all the frikkin time, and the designers had finished scanning baking trays and photographing tv screens within a day. So they sat there goofing off while the developers were stressing out to get it done.. but then asked for an equal share.
It was also the developers who got all the clients. They just seem to be more in demand. And have a much bigger role, timewise at least. There were also smaller jobs that came in the just required developers' skills.
So a few years later, a couple of them started a new, similar thing.. but they just shared studio space and did their own thing, but with a serious amount of helping each other out. So collaboration was on a project-by-project basis, and didn't always include everyone.
As long as this is what's expected by/of everyone, it should be cool.
- SteveJobs0
bump
