Freelancing as a UX Designer has some differences compared to working for a big company with an established Design team.
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Working for a company within its design department assures you a stable income, predefined responsibilities, and projects developed in greater or lesser depth.
On the other hand, being a freelancer allows you to work on your own time, make your own decisions and have a great responsibility over your project. Although you will always be accountable to your client, the professional decisions you will make, most of the time, will be at your own discretion.
Showcasing your experience
One of the problems you encounter as a freelancer is being able to show your experience as a freelancer. It may sound silly. But hear me out.
Putting on your resume that you've been working for several months in an established company is something everyone knows, but putting that you've been freelancing for several months doesn't carry the same weight when it comes to creating value. People will have to go to your portfolio to see that freelance experience
The solutions
Some freelancing websites offer a solution to this problem by letting the user creating or adding projects to their profile, but I personally think that in most cases, you’re just copying and pasting your already existing portfolio projects into your freelancing site’s profile.
Contra's take
When I first started creating my Contra profile, I thought:
Please don’t ask me to just dump my already beautifully done portfolio projects on here
And to my surprise, the first thing Contra does when you are creating a new project for your profile, is to ask for a link of the project you are going to publish, keeping in mind this problem I mentioned before, recognizing that no one is going to build their entire portfolio here and offering you facilities to be able to publish your projects within their ecosystem.
My thoughts
I would highly consider publishing projects I got on Contra, on my Contra profile. It can be highly beneficial to our clients to be able to see our projects and contract us on the same webpage!
Another thing to keep in mind when publishing projects on Contra is your content creation tool. It allows you to add different types of files, and something that has caught my attention, code!
Payment methods
Another important issue for us freelancers when it comes to whether or not to use a contracting service such as Contra, is how the client-freelancer payment methods are handled.
My experience
In my case I have used a PayPal business account to create invoices and receive payments, even though PayPal had fees, I felt secure when using it with clients.
One thing that has surprised me about Contra is how they use payment methods that until now I had only seen on second hand sales sites, such as Eneba.
This method seeks security for both the seller and the buyer, withholding payment until the person, who buys an object, receives and accepts it.
Contra's refreshing payment method
Contra uses this same methodology, even accepting upfront payments on projects, this, along with their project tracking process, and no fees on payments, puts Contra in a very competitive position when it comes to benefiting Freelancers.
Freelancing industry is a highly competitive one, in my experience staying up to date with new tools and services is crucial to success, that’s why I joined contra.
