Better to "look" big or small?

Hi all,

I have been a web designer for over 10 years now, and have been working for companies for all these years.

I have made the descision to attempt to migrate to the full time freelance market, and was wondering what you think would be the best way to approach it.

I can easily make my "portfolio" site seem like a giant multi million dollar corp, or I can keep it real, and make it a little smaller to portray the fact that it is only me.

Which do you think would be better?

Obviously no matter what, they will ultimately find out that I am working by myself, but I am wondering if making myself look like a well established corp would draw in more potential clients?

I plan on mostly doing the simple 5 page deals, with a pre-designed template from monstertemplates or something. Not that I suck at design, I would just prefer to keep it simple, and knock them out as quickly as possible, while still giving them exactly what they want.

Your portfolio should simply present your past work, or a representative sample of that work. Why force yourself to hide (or play down) the 10 years experience that you've built up?

If it's a one-man show that's nothing to be concerned about, just don't pretend to be something you're not.

I have to agree with Salathe, don't pretend to be bigger than you are. Being real is all about honesty and trust, getting business online is all about honesty and trust too. Once you lose that you lose credibility and clients.

It's all how you market yourself and who your target clients are. I target small-medium businesses and present myself as a "one man bad" of sorts, no overhead so i can price myself a bit less than an agency but a higher level of service and a solid designer-client relationship.

When they talk to me they're talking to the person working with them on their site. Not a salesperson or manager or senior designer who's not going to do the actual work. My repeat clients (especially ones with previous dealings with agencies) really seem to appreciate this.

If you have 10 years experience you already have a name you can trade on, i think trading on your own name gives a more personal experience to the client. Like Salathe and julian said, why pretend to be something your not?

A professional looking site is a professional looking site regardless of what name is on the header

I don't see any problem with using the word "we" as opposed to "I." You can always have a "partner" than is completely fictional and say you're a two person company if anyone ever asks. Sure it's not completely honest but no one would ever know, and if it brings you a boat load more clients, why not go "big."