Is this a good route for a freelance business? Or should I look for a 9 to 5 job? Or pursue both?

It sounds like Alfred is trying to help, while making sure he is compensated for his time. It also sounds like he can take it or leave it, which is a plus for you. It's nice to have work in the pipeline, and it's nice to have a trusted individual (Alfred) making the referrals. If you can set up some sort of referral system with him (say 5-10% of the cost of the contract, which would work out to max $300 on a $3k contract) it may be reasonable. Since you would be dealing with customers anyway, it would help you polish your skills, and eventually you and Alfred could part ways. It's critical to communicate expectations (such as a referral fee) upfront. Since prospecting and closing are important (as is executing, which will be your job), it is not unreasonable to expect a referrer's fee, and Alfred will help you gain traction. But set out a timeline at the beginning - perhaps agree to work with Alfred for three months, and then reevalute the nature of the partnership. It sounds to me that Alfred isn't the real issue - it's whether or not you want to pursue freelancing versus a 9-5 job.

It doesn't have to be a terrible idea, if he's really good at hustling up clients and you trust him completely. However here's what jumped out at me: 1) Why should he get a cut for people who just find the website? I don't think he deserves anything unless he actually worked to find the client. 2) 25% is a HUGE cut. In the entertainment industry agents take 10%, manager 15%. One person taking a quarter of everything you earn seems outlandish to me.

> Oh one point to clarify -- he would not sell more than I can produce. He would not sign on clients that I don't have time for. is answered by > Furthermore, since he doesn't actually do web design, he's not going to know what's even physically possible, let alone what reasonable deadlines might be. Unless Alfred has several clients already lined up for you-- in which case you would be paying him a (remarkably large) finder's fee, rather than having him as a genuine partner (face it, you'd be the one doing the work)-- this is a not-compelling idea, on the face of it. Even with the best of intentions on Alfred's part (which, obviously, is not really a given), this could go very bad, very quickly. The fact that he's a family member could actually put all sorts of subtle pressures into play-- you'd need to get everything, everything in writing... and decide to ignore any potential familial pressures. Anyway, you might try it once-- the biggest challenge, from your perspective, is making sure Alfred sets sufficiently high prices, with sufficiently long deadlines. No sense in him lowballing, if you're the one actually doing the work. ("Do a combined and integrated clone of Orbitz, Facebook, and eBay, in three days? No problem!")

Successful businesses are built on the back of good salesmen. Period. So here's the thing - this is not a "freelance designer going through a middleman". This is you going in business together with Alfred. What you describe sounds good if: 1) Does Alfred have a solid understanding of web design work? Does he know how hard or how easy things are? Clients will ask him for outlandish things and he will be pressured to answer on the spot. Can you trust him to be your voice? 2) People are balking on the 25% cut. Hell, he could take 50% cut if his presence on the business adds a substantial premium to it that covers that overhead and adds benefits, both tangible and intangible (you can focus on what you do best, clients get better customer service, etc etc). The question is: does having him being the front of your business grows your income by at least 25%, not just by bringing in more work, but also by selling your ours at a premium price you couldn't justify before? 3) Do you trust him? Like trust-him-with-a-blank-check trust him? If the answer to all these questions are yes, by all means do it. If the answer to any of these is no, don't do it.

How much more work do I want to take on? If you're able to get X hours worth of freelance work per month on your own but you really want Y, then you've got Y-X times your hourly rate as the balance that Alfred would have to make up in order to satisfy your needs. That's your potential additional earnings. Compare that to 25% of your current income and 25% of the income you would be making if you worked Y-X more hours. How does this compare to your current situation? If it's favorable, it sounds like a good idea. However, doing a mockup based on you currently working 100 hours a month and wanting 160 hours, and billing $100/hr: Current income: 100 (current hours) x $100 = $10,000/month. Optimal: 160 hours (optimal hours) X $100/hr = $16,000/month. Alfred's take in current situation: 25% of 100 hours (current work) x $100/hr = $2500/month. You'd be earning $7,500/month, a 25% paycut. Alfred's take in optimal situation: 25% of 160 hours (optimal work) x $100/hr = $4000/month. You'd be earning $12,000/month. So, optimally, you're taking in $2,000 more per month, but wait. You're working an extra 60 hours per month to get it. So, your hourly rate for that time is $33.33/hr, which is 1/3 of the rate you charge. That's a best case scenario. Worst case is Alfred bringing in anything less than an extra $3,250 per month because you're actually losing money that way. So, to summarize, in order for this deal to be good for you, Alfred's got to be able to guarantee you at least 32.5 hours more work every month in order to not cost you money. Even after that point, you're working for a personal discount; you'd be just as good off dropping your rate and picking up cheaper work. Best of luck!

You seem to already be pretty sold on the partnership, based on your replies to various people in the thread. If you've already made your decision, make sure you get everything in writing and work really hard on your communication with him, realizing that there will be a sharp learning curve. If you're still open to feedback- everything I read from you screams NO! Recognize that web design is a fairly specialized artform. Even if he has been around computers as much as you, and he's a young, web-savvy dude, he likely knows just enough about web design to get him - and you - into touble. This is what I envision: you put a LOT of time into helping him get up to speed with what your capabilities, etc are. He either finds you a client that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise (yay!) or skims one that contacted you via your website (not yay), and begins negotiations with them. At this point, he is on the phone with you constantly, forwards you the email for your input (taking up as much or more of your time than you would have otherwise spent) or charges ahead, possibly promising skills and timelines that you can't deliver. Chaos ensues. Here's an alternate suggestion: tell him you'd like to pay him a consultant's fee to amp up your sales skills and techniques. That way he is getting paid for his useful expertise, and he shows you what YOU need to know to turn your web design business into a full-time job. Maybe even pay him a flat fee for X hours of instruction, and offer him a percentage of any increased profits you get for the next 3, 6, or 12 months (definitely have this in writing, and don't make it unlimited). Everyone's happy, and in the long run, these will be marketable skills that you can take to any future career. If you stay in independent web design, these are going to be skills that you'd like to have, anyway. So take a leap, learn something new- and stay independent.

No, no, no, no and no. If he doesn't GROK web design in the fiber of his bones, he is going to fuck you over -- unintentionally. Seriously, never hire a salesman that doesn't understand exactly what he is selling. Go to http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com and read a few pages about how normally intelligent people can be totally clueless about web design, now imagine that the "clueless noob" in this case is Alfred, who has already promised stuff to the real client and now you have to deliver that "just blow it up, you can photoshop that right" or "translate it in an hour or two" or "my teenage son says you need to use the JAVASCRIPTS" or "it's great but..." bullshit because it has already been promised to the customer .... NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO god no.

OP, I’m going to try to give you some things to think about from a few perspectives. First, I have a very similar personality (some of what you describe) and second, I’ve been a freelancer for a year, and struggled with all the things you mention (finding clients, negotiating, etc.). I have also entertained the idea of just paying someone to find clients (I still do). 9 to 5 versus freelance. From your post it sounds like you were never in a 9 to 5 job for your specialty? If this is the case, I highly, highly suggest that you do this. Why? You are more likely to do work with big name clients (and those samples will land you big name clients when you are a freelancer). You will learn what is “hot” in your field/new ways of doing things. If you do have a problem with shyness etc., just by proximity with your co-workers - some of them will grow to like you, respect your work, and ....be your clients in the future. Finally, pay attention to the work environment: How do they find their clients? How much do they charge? You don’t have to be at a 9 to 5 job forever, just a year or two to get could samples, get to know people, etc. Re: things to think about if you do this with someone. I have had people approach me (who have contacts in the industry plus agencies). I have seen people take cuts ranging from 35% to 50%. However, they do everything – conversations with client, project management, collect the money (this is a big one), etc. One big thing (if you work with your relative) I would caution is to have an agreement that he gets this for the first project, not later ones. Many of your clients will continue to work with you, so you don’t want to give up this money for the next several years. I think arnica has a solution if you do decide to do this (pay him to work with you, give you advice for a fixed time period). Believe it or not, clients will find you...from linkedin, contacts, your webpage – why are you going to pay him for this? I also think you can and will learn these skills. Even in the last year, I’ve done things that I would not do before (negotiation, call people on the phone, etc.). You need to learn these skills for yourself if you are going to have a successful business. Finally, I never would have thought this before, but some of the companies hire you because their teams are dysfunctional – you need to communicate with them to find out what they want (and even then....) Anyway, you need to be part of the conversations to have them define what they want, check in with them, etc. I really believe you have to go beyond your relative to learn how to do this well. For example, learn more about contracts (what should go on there, what should be taken off). I noticed you are the states. I would highly recommend that you go to http://www.score.org/index.htmla few times – they have people that can help you for free for all aspects of running a business.

It can't hurt to do a test run with him. Make it very clear that this is a one-time arrangement and if you like working with him on it you will consider future possibilities with no guarantees. I would NEVER EVER EVER in a million years give him a cut of stuff that comes through the website. If he in essence wants to be your salesman, ONLY give him a cut of what he himself brings in--otherwise he's just skimming money for nothing. Beyond that, you sound like you don't have a ton of business experience when it comes to this stuff--I don't mean that in a negative way, just stating an observation. I advise you to go with the 9-5 if you don't have the design business to fully support yourself currently. Relying on him to bring in enough revenue to keep you both paid well enough to do this full time is a MASSIVE gamble when he has zero experience selling design. The fact that he is all in this for the money and seems to think that $10k website projects are just waiting to be grabbed is another huge red flag. I do freelance web design when the situation arises and the simple fact is that clients willing to pay that much are likely going to want someone with a lot more experience than you have and are probably going to want to work with a more established, physical company. Just my .02. Now websites for $1-2k is a lot more reasonable, but again, he's all about the money. What if you were to rely on him for sales and he realizes in short order that this isn't the get rich scheme he thought he signed up for? Would you be screwed if he decided to drop it? These are all things to think about.