Starting a Learning Design Business

Hi- We are looking to hire a Storyline freelancer.  This could help you get started.  Please email me at: mailto:suehanen@gmail.com.  

Hi Chad

Good luck for when you decide to make the jump. Often it is best to start whilst you are working and take on a few small projects be honest with the client that you are doing outside work hours, build up a client base that way.

Participate in the community and on LinkedIn as work opportunities will come from there. Share examples, enter the challenges the key thing is to build a presence. 

I have to be brutally honest I don't think your current portfolio will do the job you want. My site is out of date so not a great example but I have rebuilt it and just trying to find time to finish it off.

Things that standout for me as needing to change, most clients will expect you to have a design eye. I would add more white space, change the font it is really hard to read and dates the site. The left hand image is poor quality and pixellated. I would visit your site and leave without clicking anything.

Really interesting thread — I’m glad I found it.

I work as a consultant, trainer, and writer in the field of sustainability, quality, and health and safety. I regularly publish articles, support companies in technical and cultural change, and design learning experiences — including e-learning — as part of that journey. Rise is a solid part of my toolkit, though I still feel its limits when trying to showcase more interactive approaches beyond linear content.

Most of my work so far has been client-focused or shared through LinkedIn and industry magazines. I’m now thinking about creating a public portfolio — still figuring out the best way to make it relevant and engaging. You can get a glimpse of my work at antoniopedna.com.

If anyone here has found smart ways to present Rise projects or mix in other media, I’d love to connect and share ideas.

Since I mentioned "website coming soon" in the original post, I thought I'd update now that the website is actually up and running.  Here it is:  Erin Parks Learning Design | Creative Learning, Designed with Empathy.

Constructive feedback welcome!  

I'm also working on business and services pages on LinkedIn, creating content for a regular blog called "The Learning Log", working on samples to add to my portfolio and investigating options on websites like Upworks.  Again, any advice on other steps to take would be welcome. 

I'll share what's successful for me as I (hopefully) build a business. 

Oh I am VERY interested in this conversation!  I have been looking to get into the freelancing side for a bit now (I still need to add my collections to my portfolio) and would also love to find out more and network with others!

Portfolio
LinkedIn

Tagging in a few folks who I know have done this— 

rachelatkaiser I bet is going to have some really strong insight for you since she's been running her own business for 10+ years at this point. 

JodiSansone has also been doing independent work for quite some time. 

And, I'm sure there are others I haven't tagged here, who I hope will chime in too. 

I've personally done some consulting in the community space and not the e-learning space, but my guess is that for freelancers folks are going to fall into two categories:

1) people who are building their businesses through lots of smaller projects and clients who use consistent outbound marketing (email, website, partnerships, communities, etc) 
2) people who have a small client roster who keeps them on retainer, who probably operate almost exclusively through referrals 

^I'd be interested to see if that impression squares with the folks I've tagged in, and others.