Case studies : Self-employed website designer: Katherine Cory

Katherine is a self-employed website designer who combines working for her own private clients and working freelance for a design agency. She offers website design and development, brand identity and print design. She graduated in 2008 with a first class BA (Hons) degree in Graphic Communication at the University of Northampton.

Being told on the first day of university that only one in ten of us could expect to get a graduate design job encouraged me to get as much work experience as I could. I was chosen by my lecturers to do live briefs with companies and then during the second year vacation I freelanced, doing website design and branding. This experience combined with winning a D&AD student in-book award and best portfolio at university helped me secure my graduate job in Derby as a trainee web designer at a small graphic agency. A year later, I was made redundant.

Jobs were hard to come by and so in a mix of necessity and economic situation I googled 'start your own business in Derby' and was accepted on a business incubation course for students/graduates. I gained knowledge, skills and confidence and also ended up designing many of my fellow participants' websites, which kick-started the company.

I had already taught myself website design before going to university but my degree taught me the graphic design fundamentals and developed my creativity. People say I am unusual because you don't normally get a creative person who can code and build websites.

My working day starts and ends with checking emails, doing admin work and setting to do lists. I can work up to 12 hours. Other than that there really is no pattern. Last week I spent 12 hours a day doing HTML coding, this week I am in lots of meetings. It depends on what projects I am juggling. I ensure I keep up to date with people and new developments in my field through social media.

Having my own business makes me feel I am beyond just a web designer because you have to learn so many other skills, such as client management, finance, time management, etc.

I want to get my own studio, land bigger clients and get better known in the industry. I also want to give back to education by lecturing.

Self-employment gives me freedom and control. The best thing is seeing a project through from start to finish. However the level of responsibility can be daunting as the buck stops with me and handling clients' expectations can be challenging. Working from home can be isolating and the lack of financial security can be worrying.

The creative sector is a very exciting place to be at the moment particularly in website development, as technology is moving so quickly. I enjoy the support of my fellow local creatives; we all want each other to succeed.

If someone wants to get into website design they must have their own website; mine is available at Katherine Cory . I would also advise them to be commenting on blogs and be using social media. They need work experience. Many website design jobs now ask for dual skills, so people need to make sure they know something about the creative and the technical sides to developing a site.