I had to get something done today, anything constructive. All this hanging around and looking for a good design job is wearing me down after 3 weeks.
I'd fired off an email from a lead on the gumtree.com website - it was a company looking for a small website for £100. I replied in a direct way saying that for a mere £100 they were not going to get anything creative. I sent a link to a small site I'd done for around £450 (direct conversion from rands)
That was a week back, I got a reply yesterday and jumped all over it, arranging a meeting today at 2pm.
This is where the time goes in London - travelling. I hopped on National rail to Earlsfield at 11.50am and hopped off at Finchley Central at 1.30pm, the journey back would take as long. Over 3 hours travelling in total. I'm getting used to it. A magazine or a discarded paper on the seat in front, or even like today, a quick preperation on the laptop for the meeting.
I've perfected the sneaky coffee table hijack "on the fly", which involves choosing a table that hasn't been cleared yet so it looks like you've just had a coffee, hauling out the laptop and doing some business without ordering anything. Don't get me wrong, I'm no skinflint beggar. I have a coffee every morning, but how much coffee can a person drink at £1.80 a cup ?
I'd rather save that toward the evening pint or three.
The meeting was great. It's a Tea company specialising in 100% organic brands, trying to make an impact on the market dominated by the tea giants, such as PG Tips, with the organic angle.
It was just like freelancing back at home and the job was something I can so easily do, I sold myself well.
Now it's the quote and a quick mockup. The price has to be low, there's more work to come from this client, so I have to be careful with the bait. I'll go in at £240 for a 4 section small site with about 15 pages, most of them similar to each other.
£240 - hmm, it's low. If I exclude travel and meetings the job will take 20 hours. Still, bar staff make under £200 for 40 hours work.
Unfortunately, it also sets a precedent for future costings. Swings and Roundabouts. Go too high, don't get the job. It's not like I have rich pickings to choose from right now.
Still need permanent employment soon however, I came here to further my career and the best way to do that is through an employer. Had another long chat with an agent today, very positive, very proactive. My afternoon phoning sessions are gathering pace. You have to let these agents know your there and sell yourself, otherwise your CV vanishes, no matter how well written.
I was direct with this call too, indicating that I know I'm an easy sale for the agency so long as I'm given interviews.
Yes, boring blog entry, but I need to record these types of things too for a potential short story at some point in the future.
