A comprehensive road map to guide designers through the maze of setting up a new practice while avoiding common pitfalls.
Break out of the cubicle and gain the business savvy you need to launch your own freelance web design business with Starting Your Career as a Freelance Web Designer! Written by seasoned pro Neil Tortorella, this book guides web designers step-by-step down the path to success and helps them avoid common pitfalls. Jam-packed with practical know-how, this book also contains the wisdom and advice of noted industry authorities and business leaders. Readers will learn how to draft a solid business plan, negotiate contracts, manage time and money, deal with taxes, manage projects and clients, determine rates, and create winning proposals.
Based in the Greater Fort Lauderdale, FL area, Neil Tortorella brings with him over 35 years experience as an award-winning graphic designer, writer and marketing consultant. He has operated his own design and marketing consulting practice, Tortorella Design, for over 20 years. Through Tortorella Design, Neil has worked with several Fortune 500, along with small to mid-sized companies, to develop pragmatic solutions to their communications challenges. His key strength is blending branding and marketing strategy with memorable visuals and copy to create a distinctive impression in the minds of his clients' audiences.
In addition to graphic and Web design, Tortorella provides marketing consulting for independent professionals and small businesses in the service sector, to identify their best target markets and formulate smart, low-cost strategies to reach them and win more business.
Neil is a cofounder and management team member of CreativeLatitude.com, a popular web site and resource for creatives and the clients they serve. The site provides information about the creative process, ethical business practices, marketing and promotion and a wide array of articles, links and resources. He is also associated with No!Spec.com, a site that combats the proliferation of speculative work requests.
He is also an avid writer on marketing, promotion and business topics. He authors two popular blogs, "Inside the Marketing Mind. and neiltortorella.com/blog" Neil's writing can also be found on BoDo - Business of Design online, where he's a founding team partner and author of the Marketing Minute. In addition, Tortorella is a contributing author for HOW Magazine, a leading graphic design publication.
He conducts workshops and presentations about self-promotion, sales and marketing to numerous groups, business clubs and organizations including the American Society of Media Photographers, SBA partner SCORE - Counselors to Small Business, chambers of commerce and is a frequent speaker at local colleges and universities. He was a speaker at the 2009 HOW Design Conference in Austin, TX and is a regular speaker at IndieConf, held year year in Raleigh, NC.
Tortorella is featured in the book, The Savvy Designer's Guide to Success, by Jeff Fisher, published by HOW Design Books, Cincinnati, OH and in Creatively Self Employed, by Kristen Fisher. He is also featured in, Design Matters: Portfolios, by Maura Keller, published by Rockport Publishers. His work has also been featured in Pitney Bowes' Priorities Magazine and HOW Magazine.
Neil is also a member of the Authors Guild.
