Danbee Shin - Web Designer & Copywriter
This Freelance Insights interview features web designer and copywriter Danbee Shin.
When Danbee and I chatted for this interview, I really identified with her international outlook - she’s South Korean, she lives in Singapore, and her partner is British-Swiss. We ended up having a great discussion after we finished the interview about our common experiences of living outside our home country.
Danbee is offering readers a free checklist of five questions you should be answering on your homepage to appeal to your dream clients. Get access to it by clicking the button further down this page.
How do you describe what you do for work?
I’m a web designer and a copywriter. I help online coaches get more clients for their online businesses through their websites so that they can make a bigger impact and empower more people doing the work they love. I got into it because I found that so many business owners were wasting time on their websites and weren’t able to focus on helping people. I aim to make things easy for my customers.
What's your favourite thing about working freelance?
I love getting to choose the people I work with. One of the main reasons I left my corporate job was because I realised how much time I was spending with people I didn’t want to. Now, I get to choose my clients and feel as though I have the luxury of working only with clients I could be friends with, which is how it should be! I also think being able to choose how I spend my time is pretty awesome.
Where do you usually work from?
I’m based in Singapore and originally thought I’d be working from at least four different countries in 2020. I was hoping to spend time with family in South Korea and go to Hawaii, New Zealand and Switzerland as well. I had so many travel plans, and not having to be in any one place was a big motivating factor for me freelancing. We have a great home office, though, so I can’t complain.
What does a normal working day look like for you?
I usually get up between 7am and 8am. Since working for myself, I’ve discovered that I like sleeping for nine hours a night, which I’d never done before! I’ll do a quick workout; I like swimming, doing a bit of running or weights at the gym. I tend to work from 10am to a little after dinner, around 7pm or 8pm. I’m still figuring out what my routine looks like, but I’m very happy with this at the moment.
What one tip would you give other freelancers about running a freelance business?
My biggest tip is to make it EASY. Throughout my life, I’ve been conditioned to think that if you want to achieve anything worthwhile, you have to work really hard for it. The amount of effort you put in almost seems to be considered a virtue in itself. But I have found that making money can be just a tonne of fun, and you can be successful doing things that come really easily to you.
Free resource
Danbee is providing readers with a checklist containing five questions you should be answering on your homepage to make sure people stay on your website and get to know you and your business. Click on the button below to access it.