See Following Email Exchange:
Hello,
I'm the manager of a website design company here in Ireland (www.nuatech.com), and I like your work. Your own website is the most impressive, showing a good grasp of the effectiveness of simplicity in catching and holding attention. I was wondering if you could pop us over a list of your rates, and what sort of timescale you would need to put something together for us. Oh, and I just thought I'd mention, the links to your web design portolio on your site aren't working.
Cheers,
Ronan Burke.
Hi there!
I almost didn't open this email - I get so much spam lately that says "hi," but I'm glad I took the chance!
I normally work at $30CDN/hour, with 5-10 hours for an initial design (including client feedback) and then 1-2 hours after that for each page required, with an hour or so for hosting setup if required.
What sort of "put something together" are you proposing? I do like to work from home, and this sounds like a fun deal so far! However, I need some more details - your website isn't much more forthcoming. Are you suggesting I work with you doing site designs for your clients, or that I design your site, or something entirely different?
My links aren't working? Argh. Like they say - the cobbler's children go barefoot, and the webdesigner's site goes unfinished. I think what happened is I was relying on outside links instead of internal screenshots. My new design, when finished, will be entirely internal. Assuming I ever get the time to finish it, that is :)
Hope to hear from you soon,
Gayle
Hiya Gayle,
The first thing I should tell you is the recent company history. I was working as the head of design for a printing company for a year, but that went under; not entirely unfortunately, as I inherited the office and most of the equipment. With this, I opened up Nuatech, and went into the web design business. As you probably picked up, we do a bit more than web design, but that is the most profitable sector for the company right now, to the extent that we're taking on more sales reps this week.
We're having a little trouble finding good graphic designers though, so I thought I'd look further abroad. The work would involve design for both the web and print, though print-quality files tend to get rather large, so we'll probably have to put up a dedicated FTP server for non-local designers. You'd be working on a contract basis for our clients, job-by-job. Thats about the size of it, really...
What I'm doing is putting together a pool of designers we can call on if demand outstrips production here, so I'd drop you the job details in an email, with any associated files, and we'd work out payment details via direct debit or bank draft.
By the way, I use SpamAssasin (zip format for a windows machine) to take care of incoming mails for me, so that should cut down on the spam factor ;-)!
Hope to talk to you soon!
Ronan Burke.
Hey Ronan, thanks for the quick reply!
It all sounds pretty good to me. I'm always looking for part-time design work. I do have a 40-hour workweek, however, so I'll only have weekends and some evenings free to work for you - although now and then extra time can be alotted for certain projects if necessary.
Have anything in mind for right now, or are you still just recruiting? I've only got one small project on the side at the moment, so time is pretty good for the next little while.
As far as any payment, I think a bank draft would be preferable, because I'd rather not just hand off any of my bank details willy-nilly to a complete stranger. Not that I don't think you're legit, but no point in being reckless! :D There's also the option of emailing money, which I think is super-nifty - you send an email through your bank, give the recipient a password, they get an email notification, put in the password, and have their money! Too exciting, and starting to take hold across Canadian banks at least. Just a thought.
And my server has SpamAssassin as well - but lately I've been getting 3-4 a day slipping through and they almost all say "Hi." :)
Gayle
Posted by nightingayle at November 5, 2003 12:52 PM