The Business Side Of Freelancing - How Nick Prices, Gets Paid, and Builds A Buffer
Watch & Listen:
Nick's first freelance invoice was for six hundred euros, quoted with a straight face, even though he half expected the client to talk him down.
In this episode of The Design Table Podcast, Tyler and Nick dedicate the full conversation to the business side of freelancing, the part that never makes it into a portfolio case study. Nick walks through how he landed his first clients without ever doing cold outreach, why he said yes to everything for two years before niching down, and the pricing structures he actually uses: fifty-fifty splits, milestone billing, and prepaid hour packages.
They also get into the financial mechanics most new freelancers never think about, like paying yourself a fixed monthly salary regardless of what comes in, setting aside fifty percent for taxes, and building a six-to-eight-month buffer before you can call yourself safe. Nick closes out with the exact tech stack he runs his business on, and why he's kept it deliberately boring.
Key takeaways
"I set aside 50%. It's on the high side, but I'd rather have something left over at the end of the year instead of having to pay extra because I didn't set aside enough. From the 50% that remains, I put it all to the side in a savings account and once a month, I pay myself a salary from the savings account, so regardless of what comes in, when you have a good month, that salary buffer grows and gives you a buffer for the poor months."
"I set aside 50%. It's on the high side, but I'd rather have something left over at the end of the year instead of having to pay extra because I didn't set aside enough. From the 50% that remains, I put it all to the side in a savings account and once a month, I pay myself a salary from the savings account. So regardless of what comes in, when you have a good month, that salary buffer grows."
Watch it on YouTube
Hosts
Tyler White
Tyler White is a Principal Product Designer with 15 years of experience in B2B SaaS and fintech, helping teams scope, frame, and connect design work to real business outcomes.
Nick Groeneveld
Nick Groeneveld is a freelance UX and product designers from the Netherlands. He started his design career in 2015 and has since then worked for startups, government agencies, and corporations.
