Are you considering going freelance? Or maybe are you already contracting but trying to land a better deal? Let me show you an insightful table of general UX/UI day rates as a freelancer based in the UK:

As shown above, the day rate for UX/UI contractors jumped by a whopping 28.5% within the last 6 months.

This is a great opportunity to enter into freelancing and establish your day rates when the market for contractors is currently at an ATH (all-time high).

As everything goes, rates are depending on your seniority. The more you market yourself as a Senior/Lead Designer, the higher the rates will be.

Key steps to take

What are then the key actions and steps you can take to find a £500+ UX/UI contract?

1. Take on more senior responsibilities

Put yourself into uncomfortable shows. Meaning, try to take on added responsibilities that usually don’t fall within your role description.

What usually happens is that the more time you spend in a specific role, the more likely you are to learn how to handle senior responsibilities. This means that lines start getting blurred between titles, roles, and duties.

I remember the sweet times as a Junior when all I had to care about was creating good designs. Client calls were handled by Senior people or PMs. Billability was handled by the Resourcing team and the Client partners.

Now instead it is a constant fight for getting off calls so that I can do “actual” work. I have people belonging to different teams (PMs, Devs, Clients, etc) constantly reaching out and asking for support. And don’t get me wrong. That’s great. It shows that you are a trusted member of the team. Sometimes, 30 minutes of your time might save days worth of other people’s time. And that does not go unnoticed.

2. Welcome challenges

On a similar note to what was said above, try to rely less on ready-made solutions and instead welcome challenges. If something is not going the way you planned, it is okay. Take a step back and try to address the problem from a different angle.

A key insight here is that challenges help you grow. I started taking notes when things don’t go according to plan. I then pencil down solutions or approaches I might want to take to address those challenges. After a series of trials and errors, I can guarantee you that you will eventually overcome your problems.

But if you followed what I suggested above, you will now have a “database” of challenges you have faced, solutions you tried to adopt, and documentation of what worked and what didn’t (I keep mine on Notion). This is invaluable knowledge. Not only it will help you grow much faster, but also any new business or new contract will be able to leverage your knowledge in case they might face similar problems. This contributes to justify why you should get paid top money to join their team!

3. Have a strong portfolio ready

This almost goes without saying: a strong portfolio is a MUST to land good contracts. How else are people supposed to pay you high rates if they can’t justify them?

Weblow, Squarespace, Wix, Notion + Super, or similar platforms are all good alternatives where you can build a portfolio in less than 30 minutes. My suggestion would be to not spend ages designing your Landing page, your About or any other of the pages you might want to include.

The key to a strong portfolio is focus and structure on the projects. Those are the key items you should spend most of your time on.

• Define a narrative for the projects. All projects should follow the same narrative and structure. This way it will be much easier to digest your work.
• Make sure to highlight which contributions were yours and which were not. Most projects are a team effort. And recruiters are not only after your craft but also your team-working skills.
• Talk about the entire design process. Don’t just focus on the pretty images at the end. Start with the problem and how you came up with your solution. Did you conduct user research? Did you run workshops? Use pictures of those as well. Talk about the good and the bad.
• Have a final takeaway section. Something I started liking on recent portfolios I have been reviewing are takeaway sections. Lots of people skim through your projects. I’m also guilty of that. A final takeaways section helps me summarise the project. And if the learnings are interesting I might decide to give the page a full-focus read.

4. Always answer to LinkedIn recruiters: draft a message

The market is going nuts (lucky for us) and the need for designers is skyrocketing. This might also be due to the several layoffs that happened in 2020. Companies now find that they need more designers (UX/UI/product) than they anticipated.

That results in LinkedIn recruiters reaching out left and right for new talent. My LinkedIn DMs are constantly full of new job specs and roles. I used to ignore most of them. But then I realised that I had this huge traffic coming in and I’m not taking advantage of it.

I created a Draft message which I use to reply to ALL recruiters that contact me. The message changes according to my status (open to work or not). Right now I have a default message which says that I’m not looking for a full-time job but that I am open to gigs on the side billable at hourly rates and where I can work flexible hours and weekends.

Recruiters have their list and databases of people. They have to. It helps them keep track and stay on top of things. And they also tend to share them if they work for the same recruiting agency. Replying to their message explaining what you are looking for, helps you to get more accurate job specs. In my case, for example, I’m able to land side-gigs without having to maintain a Fiverr or Upwork account.

5. Negotiate your own terms

To build on top of the previous point, always be upfront in terms of what you are looking for. Are you only going to consider contracts with £500+ rates? Do you want the flexibility to work from home? Are you looking to get into a specific industry? Just share what you are after with as many recruiters as they reach out.

On top of that, understand that at the start of your new engagement you are in the driving seat. If a company is looking to hire someone with a £500+ day-rate budget, chances are that they need someone very good very soon. Company bureaucracy can be a nightmare. If you want to hire someone new, you first need to make a business case for it. It needs to be reviewed by resourcing team who then judges if the task you are hiring for could also be picked up by someone internally that has some time capacity. If after this review process they agree that new resources are needed, then a permanent job role is being posted. People start applying. When a candidate is successful, they then need to give a notice period (1–3 months). You get where I am going with this. Hiring new resources permanently is unfortunately a long-winded process.

If a company likes you, you can push negotiations to be in your favour. They might bend some rules (Work from home, daily budget, software licenses, etc). Especially if the contract is only 3–6 months long.

6. Keep a database of recruiters, roles, and day rates offered.

I mentioned how most of the recruiters keep a database of candidates and their interests. Learn from them. You should do the same. Again, I keep mine on Notion. I am committed to the company I’m working for right now. But this does not stop recruiters to flood my DMs with super interesting offers. Some of which are even better than my current role.

If there is anything that tickles your interest (could be because of salary, day rates, company culture, design team structure, industry, etc) just note it down. Make a note of the recruiter's name, their contacts, and the job specs. You will find that extremely valuable at the end of your current role. Even though you think this is it. Even though you love the company you are working for and you would never go somewhere else. Even then, there is no guarantee in life. Having a backup plan is all you need right now. Being safe is better than being sorry.

7. Make sure you sort out the unknowns first

As a closing thought, make sure to know what you are getting into.

Remember, £500+ a month sounds a lot, but things are never as nice as they look. There are no benefits. There are no Friday drinks on the company. There is no health, dental or optical insurance. There is no pension.

Do the math. For most people, it still makes sense to at least try. As a tip, there are third-party companies that focus on freelancers. you can buy a sort of “membership” from them and in return, you will get most of the perks mentioned above. Research will tell you if the hassle of freelancing will still make sense given the current situation you are in. Each individual is different. So they are their needs and their expectations.

Good luck! 🤞

💙 https://twitter.com/lobellucci