Designing Your Freelance Business
4.9 (29)
4 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Learn how to start and sustain a successful and fulfilling freelance practice.
Designing Your Freelance Business
4.9 (29)
4 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Learn how to start and sustain a successful and fulfilling freelance practice.
Previously at
Course overview
Does the thought of freelancing both excite and terrify you?
I get it. You're a talented creative professional. You've designed amazing products, crafted beautiful user experiences, and maybe even shipped a few apps to the App Store. But the leap to freelancing? That feels like a whole different ball of wax.
Perhaps you've tried to figure it out on your own. Late nights spent scouring blogs, devouring books, and binge-watching YouTube videos. You've taken guesses on different pricing structures and paid for way too many project management tools. Yet still, things aren’t quite clicking into place. The advice is often conflicting and either too generic or so niche that it doesn't meet you where you're at.
That’s because freelancing isn't one-size-fits-all. You need education, adaptable frameworks, and support to learn how to make freelancing work for YOU. In 2016 I quit my corporate job as a product design director and left behind what wasn’t working for me, and I’ve been creating a new way of working, for myself, ever since. And you can too.
The top 3 things freelancers worry about most involve:
(1) finding work to make money
(2) keeping organized with operations, and
(3) setting boundaries and attaining balance
You no longer have to worry whether you're doing it right. After our time together, you'll not only have foundational systems to help you run your business but you will be inspired to redesign your work life by:
✦ Creating a flexible schedule that works for you
✦ Building a sustainable income on your own terms
✦ Choosing projects that ignite your passion
✦ Making a real impact with your work
✦ Going from in-house employee to successful freelancer – even if you're afraid of giving up that steady paycheck
✦ Finding fulfillment in being a business owner
This course is designed for
01
Aspiring freelancers who want the confidence to quit their 9-to-5 (or 9-to-9!) job even if they don’t have a solid game plan (yet)
02
Active solopreneurs struggling with inefficient systems and overwhelm who want to design more intentional processes that lead to growth
03
Design/Tech industry creatives who worry about finding consistent, high-quality clients and want to become magnets for dream projects
04
Creative business owners who are ready to attract better clients, and achieve the harmony in their work AND life they’ve been looking for
In Designing Your Freelance Business you'll...
Transform your mindset from employee to entrepreneur. In our foundational module, you'll:
- Define your core values to help guide your future business decisions
- Identify your unique service offerings that set you apart in the market
- Figure out your ideal client, setting the stage for targeted marketing
Turn your freelance dream into a legitimate business. In week 2, we cover how to:
- Set up your business logistics, from registration to insurance (we’ll face these all head on!)
- Establish concrete fit-for-you financial goals that motivate and guide you
- Master the art of pricing your services for profitability
Create systems that attract and retain dream clients. In week 3, you'll:
- Develop a strategy for finding and landing clients
- Craft compelling proposals that close deals
- Get templates for running a project from start to finish with the support of tools like Notion
- Design seamless and thoughtful client onboarding and handoff experiences
Design a sustainable freelance lifestyle that prevents burnout. You'll learn to:
- Establish daily practices and SOPs so you can spend more time on what matters
- Create a calendar and task planning system best for your brain
- Design personal rituals that fuel your creativity and well-being
- Maintain healthy boundaries to manage stress and prevent burnout
This course includes
Interactive live sessions
Lifetime access to course materials
17 in-depth lessons
Direct access to instructor
12 projects to apply learnings
Guided feedback & reflection
Private community of peers
Course certificate upon completion
Maven Satisfaction Guarantee
This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.
Designing Your Freelance Business
Course syllabus
4.9 (29 ratings)
What students are saying
If you feel the call to reinvent yourself and intentionally redesign your work and your life, you can. Making your own way may feel much more amorphous and uncertain, but you just need the tools to ask the questions, to experiment, and to discover what is meaningful — for you.
Teaching from experience
Sarah Jutras
Solopreneur and design director
Over the past 15 years in the tech industry, I've:
- Worn many hats – design director, educator, mentor, business coach
- Designed over 20 apps that shipped to the App Store
- Held leadership roles at PayPal, Modcloth, Detour, and Chairish
- Consulted for agencies like IDEO, Industry Global, and Deloitte
- Worked with over 100 clients, constantly refining my approach
In the fall of 2016, the universe conspired to push me off the edge and into the unknown world of freelancing. I needed a system, a roadmap, a way to navigate these uncharted waters.
So, I did what any designer would do – I applied human-centered design thinking to create my own freelance framework.
All my various experiences were influential in founding my own company, Huzzah Studio, where I now offer creative strategy and experience design expertise to a diverse client base. These days I’m lit up by not only building my own business but helping others navigate the exciting, sometimes scary, but ultimately rewarding world of freelancing with all things Freelance for Life.
When I’m not in my studio, I’m enjoying recreating Fabrique’s famous Swedish cardamom buns or dining at San Francisco's tastiest restaurants, or traveling the world (sometimes by motorcycle).
Get a Notion workbook to run your business
You'll receive an exclusive Notion templates with checklists, scripts, project management and more.
Your Business Setup Checklist
Ready to go freelance but not sure where to start?
This free template is designed to help you plan for both necessary (and ideal) steps in setting up and launching a successful freelance practice.
Get a better holistic view into what to expect with:
- Registration
- Launching
- Pricing
- Routine business practices
And join the next class cohort to dig into this in even more detail!
Get your free checklist