My job hunt has forced me to cast my freelancing net far and wide. I’ve been contacting potential clients in different cities, states and countries.
Working long distance isn’t as big a deal as it used to be. We have the technology for near-constant and instant communication, however there are still some major considerations one must make when working with clients that are far away.
Reviewing design work over the phone
About a year ago I was working a logo design job during my final months at Purdue, I had just sent a PDF to the client with 10 different starting points for logos and let me tell you, there is nothing more confusing than brainstorming design changes over the phone.
What if this little line is thicker?
Which line? the one on the middle left, or the one on the far far left?
You know, I just don’t like this font, I’ve got a postcard around here with a great font on it.
As you can see (or hear), it’s difficult to point out specific aspects of a design over the phone.
In my experience, a design review by phone takes twice as long as a review in person. Maybe not such a big deal if you’re getting paid by the hour!
You miss out on a chunk of the clients emotional reaction by working long distance. I like to get the clients emotional reaction when I present different logo options, and thats more difficult to do when you can’t see the clients face. Video Conferencing has the potential to solve this problem, but I’ve never used it with clients before.
Keeping similar hours
My work day starts at 10am and the first thing that I have to do – even before I shower – is check and respond to the emails that i’ve received in the first two hours of the working day. I sleep with my phone just in case there is an emergency that needs my attention. My work day then goes late at night and on the weekends and its frustrating to be stuck on a project because you need some info from a nine to fiver.
Its even more of a stress for people working overseas. At the company I used to work for, we had a web developer that worked in Spain, while we were based in Chicago. That situation caused us a lot of stress because he was available for just a few hours out of our working day.
There are other issues to deal with when working long distance, building a reputation, legal troubles, and getting paid! These issues will be addressed in the upcoming posts!