At just 27, Morgan Porter is a thriving freelance designer. Focusing mostly on websites, the Richmond, Virginia native worked in the corporate world for a while before branching out on his own.

But success hasn’t been a piece of cake. While Morgan has improved his innate design talents, he’s also had to learn by trial and error how to make his business work.

That’s why I was eager to feature Morgan on FreelanceSwitch.com. He’s out there making it happen, proving that age isn’t really a factor in the freelance world.

Tell us a little about how you got started in the website design industry.

I’ve been an artist as long as I can remember. Coloring books when I was very young grew into painting and drawing in the middle and high school years. I found myself in the design industry towards the end of high school after taking a computer science class. That class had me create my first web site and I enjoyed it so much I kept designing websites on my own time, teaching myself more than what was required for the class.

When I graduated high school I searched everywhere for a college that had a web design degree but the closest program at the time was general graphic design. So I went to Virginia Commonwealth University to study graphic design. During my time in college I worked part time in an IT department at a chemical company. I was never a full-time employee of the chemical company because they hired me though a contracting agency. They allowed the rare opportunity to set my own hours so that gave me plenty of time to pursue my own clients on the side.

By 2002 and 2003 I had built up a decent amount of side business. So when I graduated from college in 2003 I kept working part time at the chemical company while freelancing with the rest of my time. I think it was 2005 when I left the chemical company and went full time on my own. Luckily, I kept getting contract work from the chemical company.

What’s your specialty?

My specialty has been web design since that’s what got me started. It continues to be the bulk of the work I receive. Though I prefer to take on clients who will allow me to design and develop their branding from all angles—online, print, signage etc. I’ve also gradually learned more Flash and have recently received a lot of Flash-based projects.

What’s your typical day like?

My typical day starts between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. My fiancée will wake me up when she leaves for work. I crawl out of bed, grab some breakfast and head into my office. I’ll usually work until 5:00 or 6:30 on a normal day. The workload fluctuates so if I don’t have much work I’ll head to the pool or the gym during the day. If business is good and I have tons of work I probably won’t leave the house at all.

A typical workweek will also have a couple client meetings. Usually if I’m trying to get business from a new client I’ll go meet with them in person and spend one or two hours talking about a specific project or their general design needs.

For most of my existing clients I won’t meet with them in person unless they request it. Most of my day-to-day client interaction is over the phone or via email.

You managed to get some real-world experience before you graduated. Do you think ad agency experience, for example, is vital for freelance designers?

I don’t think its necessary to have ad agency experience specifically, but when you first start out in the design/ad world - fresh from school - you need to get as much ‘real world’ experience as possible before you try to go out on your own full time. A more experienced designer once told me some good advice. He said when you finish school you should not work at any one place or agency for more than nine to 24 months. Don’t spend more than 2 years in any one place.

If you want to work on your own and become completely independent you’ll need to wear many different hats. The more skills you have under your belt the better. That spans everything from design and general artistic abilities to business knowledge and experience.

What was the biggest client-building activity you used to secure customers? How can freelancers boost their client relations?

The #1 way I’ve secured new and existing clients is word-of-mouth and just meeting people in person. If you do good work people will tell others. If you do bad work people will tell others. I’ve tried many other ways to bring in new business, but nothing has come close to simply doing the absolute best job I can for each client and then letting them spread the word.

Beyond that, I always try to tell people what I do and see if they or anyone they might know needs any graphic or web design work done. Of course, I never want to come off as a pushy sales person, but you don’t want to keep your talents a secret either. Self promotion is always a balancing act of trying to simply let people know what you do without coming off like you’re always trying to make a sales pitch.

I’ve also tried many different networking things like joining technical groups in my area (AIGA, Flash User Group). I also joined the local chamber of commerce last year but that didn’t lead to any new clients directly. However, just attending the chamber of commerce events and trying to talk to different people did help get my name out a bit.

Another thing I’ve tried over the past year was craigslist. I add short posts with links to my website every month or so. Most of the requests I’ve seen from craigslist have not led to much work but I did end up with 1 or 2 new clients who have turned out great. Not a bad result considering I didn’t spend any money or much time on it.

Many people don’t realize that freelancing also means running a business. Did you struggle with the administrative tasks of freelancing?

I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve struggled with the business side of things. However, I’ve definitely stumbled through it all. My degree was in graphic design, not business. So, there were many things I had to learn simply by talking to other business owners. I’ve asked small business owners to let me take them to lunch just to get an hour of their time and pick their brains. I get great advice that way.

What has been your most satisfying project? Why?

I would have a hard time picking one project as the most satisfying. I think whatever project I’m working on at the moment is the most satisfying because I’m always trying to make the one I’m working on now better than anything I’ve done before it.

Very diplomatic answer! So what advice do you have for freelancers starting out?

I have a ton of advice for freelancers starting out:

1) Start in the shallow end instead of jumping in the deep end first. If you can go freelance gradually rather than just totally quitting a full-time job, then do it. A lot of people think that is impossible, and for some jobs it might be. But it never hurts to ask. Go to your boss and be honest with them—tell them you want to go freelance and work for yourself. Ask if you could work 3 days a week on a contract basis instead of working full-time. You might have to give up some important benefits (health insurance, 401k match, etc) but you could point these things out as benefits to your boss. Let them know why this move will benefit them, don’t just tell them you want to do it for yourself.

If they go for it, you have your first major client and technically you’ve gone freelance already. If they don’t go for it, at least you tried.

If you can land that type of situation, you can spend your extra time working for other clients and pounding the pavement looking for more freelance projects. It’s a much safer way of going out on your own.

2) Save as much money as possible before going freelance full time. Particularly if you can’t go in the shallow end first, you need to have plenty of savings before you jump ship. I’d say at least 6 months worth of expenses, but preferably a year or more. Beyond that, be sure to leave on good terms. You’re taking a huge risk and you might want that job back one day. If anything you’ll want referrals from your previous employers too so be sure not to step on any toes on your way out the door.

3) Make at least two times as much money as you need for daily expenses. If I had to give one main tip for the business side it’s this: Only depend on 50% (or less) of the income from every check you take in. Here’s why: 1) taxes and 2) work load fluctuations. You should save about one-third of all your income for the quarterly taxes you’ll pay to Uncle Sam. Beyond that, save as much as you can for the times where you’re work-load is low and you’re not making much money. It will happen eventually so you need to have some money in the bank to float you through the thin times.

4) Keep your overhead low. The next business tip I hear from all business owners: Keep your overhead as low as possible. I work from my home office but at the beginning of this year I set up an office outside my home in an effort to try and be more professional and hopefully grow my business. About that same time business slowed to a crawl. So I was hit from both sides—higher expenses and lower income. After three months I moved back into the home office and things turned around quickly. I spent more time working and less time worrying if I’d be able to pay my bills. It was more or less dumb luck that the new office didn’t work out, but it was a valuable lesson. If you don’t absolutely need the extra business expense then you should avoid it.

Name at least three websites you visit regularly, and tell us why.

Stock photo sites like iStockphoto.com and Dreamstime.com. Many of my clients don’t have a big enough budget to hire a photographer so stock photos become the next best thing.

Cssremix.com is one I visit fairly frequently. It’s regularly updated with links to websites with nice clean design. There is usually plenty of inspiration there.

k10k.net is one I used to visit all the time. It was one of the first design-based sites I frequented. It’s loaded with links and has some good content within the site as well.

You’re a relatively young freelancer. Do you think this helps you? Have you been met with any opposition because of your age?

Great question. I also look younger than I am and I do think it has hurt me in some situations. As a freelancer you have to gain people’s trust from the start. Many times when I meet with business owners who are “more experienced” I feel like some of them are skeptical of my abilities. For this reason I always try to make the most of my first impression with people.

I think a few times I’ve lost on bids, in part because on my age. On the other hand, I’ve also been told that “By the time you have 10 years of experience under your belt, the (advertising) industry sees you as good as you’ll ever be.” Ten years isn’t long in my opinion. So I think it helps to be young and have a fresh new perspective on things. While other ‘more experienced’ designers have gotten into a formula and may experiment less, I’m still learning and developing which allows me to come up with new ideas and try new things more often. And that’s what I try to point out to any potential client who questions my age (although most never openly question my age).

Kristen Fischer is the author of Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs. Learn more at www.kristenfischer.com.