The Letterville BullBoard: Is there a need...?

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Posted by Mark M Kottwitz (Member # 293) on :

I know most if not all of you are true craftsmen of the sign industry, but I have a question that I hope someone may be able to answer. Is there a need for someone that does construction and installation drawings on AutoCAD on a free-lance basis? Where would someone "advertise" their services or get business? Thanks for any answers in advance.

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Posted by VICTORGEORGIOU (Member # 474) on :

The answer is absolutely yes. Can't tell you about the east coast, but there is a shortage of good technical people in the market around here.

I would suggest you start close to home. Go to the yellow pages and business to business yellow pages and look for samll architects and landscape architects. My suggestion would be that you just call their offices and ask if they are looking for part time Autocad help. You will get lots of "no thanks" but you only need one or two "yes".

After you have established yourself locally as a person who does good work and gets it done on time, ask your clients for permission to use them as references. Now as you expand into more distant markets, you can present yourself as established.

You need to know before you start whether you plan to work as a part time employee or an independent contractor. If the latter, you need to have your dba and tax numbers before you make the first call.

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Victor Georgiou
Bob Loves Signs Inc
Danville, CA
email blssigns@verio.com

Posted by Joe Rees (Member # 211) on :

Better be careful Mark, The first time I walked into a sign shop in my life was to offer my services as a freelance illustrator for sales presentations. They didn't need that but needed sign painters really, really bad. I ended up getting a job in their lettering dept. Life hasn't been the same since!

If you're willing to take the risk, I like Victor's advice, though I suspect shops who would have need of full blown autocad drawings would be the larger electric operations - who are also the most likely to have their own cad capabilities. I think inquiries to small engineering firms might be fruitful. An alliance a PE or two would give you the added value of being able to give 'engineer sealed' drawings.

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Joe Rees
Cape Craft Signs
(Cape Cod, MA)
http://www.capecraft.com
http://www.dave-joe-show.com
e-mail: joerees@capecraft.com

Posted by Samazon (Member # 408) on :

Mark,

You may also want to consider going through a "temp" type agency. They find the jobs for you, and you can decide if you'd like to take them or not. There are two kinds of these agencies - those that charge you a fee, and those that charge the company that uses your services the fee. One such service for graphic designers and such is www.tempart.com. I don't know that they use AutoCad temps, but it's worth a look!

Good Luck to you!
Sam

p.s. Just checked out the above site quickly, and didn't see anything about AutoCad designers. Another place to check is www.monster.com - they have listings for companies all over the place (not just the U.S.) and you can put your resume and qualifications up there, where potential employers can look for you. Oh, and a tip: add the word "consultant" to your title and you can charge more money!

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“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
- Anais Nin
www.samazon.com
sam@samazon.com

[This message has been edited by Samazon (edited April 17, 2000).]

Posted by Vern Keller (Member # 580) on :

Another great source for freelancing is www.elance.com

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Lovin' life In Roseburg, Oregon!

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