Let's get real.

I'm always asked how much a freelance web designer can earn, so I'd like to clarify that here.

Honestly, personally, I'd rather people dream about the motivation to create good things than about the monetary amount, but certainly, the form of motivation varies from person to person. So, here it is.

To be honest, it overwhelmingly depends on your skills and your proficiency in website creation. If you're a creator whose work is slow or quality is poor, you won't earn that much; it's probably around the level of a regular salaried employee. In my case, my skill level wasn't very high in the early stages, so I compensated with sheer volume of work.

Oh, by the way, my areas of expertise are mainly design, coding, direction, the part called front-end, and director duties. For back-end programmers, the situation is different.

I became independent when I was 25. In my first year of independence, I literally worked around the clock. I slept an average of 4 to 5 hours when I got sleepy. As soon as I woke up, I started working, and I was almost always working or having meetings during my waking hours. Even with average technical skills, you can somehow create good things if you invest time, so it's all about investing time.

As a result, I think I earned between 6 million and 8 million yen in my first year of independence. However, with taxes, transportation costs, and other expenses deducted, I don't feel like I had that much freedom with the money. But since I did little else but work, I managed to save a decent amount.

However, if you thoroughly invest your time and become proficient in your skills, and to some extent, become able to meet client expectations while reducing the time spent, the situation will change dramatically.

From the second year, I got the hang of it and exceeded 10 million yen. And in the third year, I reached 10 million yen, while still having the capacity to earn even more. In the third year, I decided it was time to invest in something new, so I launched my own educational business while keeping my work in check.

Web designers are overwhelmingly influenced by their technical skills and speed, so it's crucial to put in an immense amount of practice and gain experience. Also, if you become capable of handling sales and direction yourself, the unit price per project received from clients will increase, and your workload will decrease.

Furthermore, as you gain practice and experience, patterns like 'do this in this situation' will increasingly form in your mind, allowing you to respond quickly to any situation. However, getting to that point is quite tough.

Anyway, I worked day and night, and thoroughly researched new technologies, ways of thinking, and design trends. Thanks to that massive investment of time back then, I am where I am today, and I'm truly glad I pushed through it. Time spent persevering truly doesn't lie.

Now, I can complete tasks in about a third of the time it took when I first became independent, so I have a fair amount of leeway. If I were to have the opportunity to take on work at full capacity, I believe I could approach 20 million yen.

So, the answer to the question of whether a web designer can earn money in the first place is: 'It depends on your effort, but you can earn quite a bit.' However, the amount one 'can earn' also depends on individual values, so I wonder about that. What do you think? Was it an amount that allows you to dream a little?

By the way, I even think that all creators who only think about making money and don't consider technology or quality should perish, and they will definitely be eliminated somewhere, so it's better for them to thoroughly focus on skill improvement.

Even now that I've acquired the weapons of entrepreneurship and marketing, I'm still researching various things, and every day I regret my lack of technical skill, thinking I need to improve it more. The world is moving so fast that if I don't constantly refine myself, I will undoubtedly become a fossil in the blink of an eye.

So, to all of you who want to become web designers, please do your best. If you want to be taught, I can teach you, though it's a paid service.