Freelance web designer- temporary residents?

Hi,

I just moved to Canada and I am here on a spousal work permit. I wanted to know if I could start my own freelance web designing on this work permit or do I need to be a permanent resident or citizen of Canada in order to start Freelance web designing? Please advice. Thanks.

Suna

until you start getting ~ $30 000/ year you can do w/e you want i think.

after $30G taxes start playing a factor and this might affect your operation.

Suna, I'm sure you wanted to see if there would be a quick answer from one of us but I would highly recommend speaking with a lawyer or some type of authority figure on this topic as you don't want to risk losing that spousal work permit based on bad information. Good luck with the freelance business though if you do pursue it!

I'd agree with sednasolutions,

If you can't track down a suitable lawyer try a local enterprise company, or the council for your area. They should be able to provide you with a good consultation.

Best of luck!

Try asking on the forums at www.britishexpats.com - plenty of knowledgable people on there. I found it most useful when moving to America from England and got some fairly good advice regarding visa options and work-permits.

Good luck.

Thankyou everybody for the insight. I just consulted a lawyer, and she said that I can start my own work. So, now that I can start my freelancing please could you tell me how to go about it? Any tips, advice you may wanna share?

Thanks,

Suna

i'll give you the advice i was given when i made the descision to go from community type website (like tf here) to a flat out web production company.

. . . as far as getting started w/a design company, well create a really nice site for your company offering as much as you can. get some proffesional business cards, litter your town and the nearest city with them. do some really tight layouts/sites for cheap in as many different industries as you can for the first year. find a good bulk mailing system/software/service and spam the **** out of companies. and the rest is up to word of mouth . . . oh and if you have the resources, have a launch party or get a booth @ an expo whenever possible

sometimes i think wtf? when i read this, but this guy makes me very jealous over his sucess, so if he says it's good, i'm going to follow through w/ it now that i've got the resources to pull it off. i'd reccomend you do the same.

That sure was a nice advice. Thanks! I have a few basic questions.

Does starting a freelance website design service means one has to start a new company or can it be individually done? I don't have any business cards and stuff.
Initially, I was thinking of sending out bulk mails to companies, posting flyers in local shops and see how it goes. But I have zero knowledge of how to begin with "writing a good email to reach out to customers" and how much to charge?
Please can anybody advice me on this matter.

Cheers,

Suna

Also, I would like to add one more thing. I haven't created any portfolio as yet..is it a must? Any good sites that you know of that allows me to host my portfolio site for free?

not a problem, ask away;
first, no, you don't need to register yourself as a company to begin selling freelance services, that was simply the path i chose to take - even if you chose the same, you can run an incorpoated business as a sole employee. a thing to note is that if you're not going to operate under your own name, (exmple: dan smith website design) then you probably *should* register your name as a company (example Vectorthis LLC [limited liability Corp]) just as a security/comfort factor for larger scale clients.

your mail/flyer idea will work just fine. the business cards were just another marketing medium to litter the town with.

pricing should generally be done by the hour. it's up to you to determine how much your time is worth. you need to factor in expenses, you should be using legit software, and you're going to have internet access, you'll most likely spend time on the phone with clients, even gas money to drive out and have a meeting with them can be factored into your pricing.

by portfolio do you mean list of works or a website. A website isn't an abolute *must*, but since you're after the web market it doesn't make much sense not to have one, since people will want to see the quality of your web work in both your own site and the work it features.
if you mean list of works, yes, it should be manditory. if you don't have example work to display your capabilities (not just in design/quality but how youw ork as a person etc, grade 10 tech class stuff really shouldn't be in there) then you're going to have a hell of a time convincing people you're fit for the job.