Resourceful Designer: Strategies for running a graphic design business

Do you have a business plan for your design business? Did you make a business plan when you started your design business? If you did, then you are in the minority. Most designers who freelance or run their own design business don't bother creating a business plan unless they are required to do so by a bank or such. I'm lucky; my bank asked for one when I first approached them for a business accoun...

Designing for family and friends is the bane of many designers. Opinions vary amongst designers regarding designing for family and friends. Some are firmly against it and for others, it's no problem. I fall into this latter group. A couple of weeks ago I released an episode on starting a design business from scratch . My second step in the process involved reaching out to family and friends to hel...

Don't ruin your design business, avoid the following. [sc name="pod_ad"]Think of your design business like climbing a mountain. To climb a mountain, you require willpower, perseverance, skill, knowledge, stamina, patience and concentration. All these traits come together to allow a mountain climber to make their way up a mountain. You need these same traits to run a design business. Sure, you use...

Micro Goals are the key to achieving your goals. [sc name="pod_ad"]For your design business to succeed, you must set goals for yourself, and for those goals to be reached you need to break them down into micro goals.  I've talked on a previous podcast episode about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for your design business, goals that are  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Related. But ev...

Here are nine steps I would follow if I were starting a design business from scratch today. Since launching Resourceful Designer in 2015, one of the biggest struggles I've seen from my audience is starting a design business and finding clients. I realise that I've never actually said what I would do if I had to start a design business from scratch. Until now. Over the past 148 podcast episodes and...

You can't get worse by practising [sc name="pod_ad"]Every skill you try to learn has a learning curve to it. Sometimes that curve is small, and sometimes it's very long. And in some cases, that learning curve is never-ending. Such as with design skills. The title of this episode is Progress Over Perfection . That's because perfection is an unattainable goal, which is a good thing. Think about it....

Are you taking measure of your design business? Whether you are running your design business full-time or part-time, you probably started it with a vision of how your ideal business should look.  How does it measure up? Are you exceeding your expectations or are you falling short? If you are exceeding your expectations, do you know how you're doing it? What is contributing to your success and can...

A look back at 2018 and a look ahead to 2019. I want you to take a look back at what you accomplished and at what you failed to achieve in 2018. With that in mind, what are you going to do to make 2019 even better? I don't know your situation. I don't know your family dynamics. I don't know your level of education. I don't know your current work situation. Maybe you're a student still learning des...

Try this pricing strategy for your design business. I learned of the three-tier pricing strategy many years ago, but I never gave it much thought in regards to the design industry. Until recently that is. A few months ago I came across it again while reading a business book. A day or two later I was watching a YouTube video, and a designer mentioned using a three-tier pricing strategy in his desig...

Avoid these common mistakes freelancers make. To the uninitiated, running a design business sounds easy. You find clients, create designs for them, they pay you, repeat. Freelancers, however, know there is so much more to it than merely designing. And yet, even armed with that knowledge there are still several mistakes freelancers make when it comes to running their business. 1) Not using downtime...

10 Money Saving Tips For Freelancers Freelance designers rarely know when they'll get their next paycheque. That's why it's wise for us to hold on to the money we do have for those times when income slows down. To help you, I have 10 money saving tips for freelancers you should consider adopting. Have you ever heard the saying a penny saved is a penny earned ? It means that any money you save by n...

Do you have any gift ideas for Christmas? It's November, and that means the holidays are just around the corner and everyone is looking for gift ideas for friends and family. I don't know about you, but every year I dread the question "what do you want for Christmas?" I don't know what to say when someone asks me that question. Are you like that too? In case you are, I've come up with ten things y...

Design Business + Chamber of Commerce = Success [sc name="pod_ad"]One of the best marketing tools available to your design business is your local Chamber of Commerce. If you are not taking advantage of how this organisation can help you grow, you are missing out. Big time. What is a Chamber of Commerce? A Chamber of Commerce sometimes called a "board of trade", is an association or a network of bu...

What if you looked at design from a different perspective? Sometimes, all it takes to improve your designs or to break out of a creative slump is to alter your perspective on how you go about designing. For the past fourteen years, I've vacuumed the house starting at the South end and working my way North. A couple of weeks ago I took out the vacuum as I usually do only to discover that my wife ha...

Are you freelancing as a side gig? I created Resourceful Designer to help designers run their full-time home-based design business. However, a large number of you are not full-time freelancers. Many of you have another job and freelance as a side gig. Maybe you work for a design agency, or you're an in-house designer dreaming of going at it alone. Perhaps you're like Jose, one of my listeners. Jos...

Design Contract Failure In this week's episode of Resourceful Designer, I share a case study where a poorly written design contract cost a web designer her fee for the client site she built. Be sure to listen to the podcast for the full story as I go into much more detail in the episode than I will here. Earlier this week a long-standing client of mine called about a bind she was in. Convinced by...

How do you motivate yourself to avoid burnout? Running a home-based design business is stressful work. It takes motivation and dedication to avoid burnout. But what do you do when that motivation and dedication is waning? As a solopreneur, you are probably a very busy person. You're either spending a good amount of your time trying to get new clients or spending it trying to please the clients you...

How much should you charge for your design services? How many times have you asked yourself that question? It doesn't matter if you are new to the design life or a veteran designer, that nagging question is always around. How much should you charge for your design services? There are many things to take into consideration when you ask yourself that question. Such as what pricing strategy you want...

Failure Is Always An Option I love that line " Failure is always and options ". I first saw it on a T-Shirt worn by Adam Savage of Mythbusters . In his case, it applied to science and engineering, but it applies just as easily to the world of design. Failure is what lets us learn. Failure allows us to improve, to expand, and to grow. If you fail badly enough at something, you probably won't repeat...

How to politely turn away clients Are you afraid to be stuck with a client from hell? If so, knowing how to turn away clients politely is a skill you better learn. In the last episode of the Resourceful Designer podcast, I shared 12 red flags for spotting bad design clients .  You should be familiar with them before continuing to read.  Unfortunately, spotting a bad client is only half the battle....

12 Red Flags For Spotting Bad Design Clients Bad Design Clients can ruin a business and destroy your love of design. Luckily there are certain Red Flags to help you spot bad clients before things go too far. In past episodes of the Resourceful Designer podcast, I talked about reasons for passing on design projects from both existing clients  as well as from new clients . This time I focus on the c...

When clients view design as an investment, you win. Whether or not a potential client decides to work with you relies heavily on your pitch to them. If they like the presentation but view the cost of hiring you as an expense, they may choose to look for more affordable options. However, if they consider the cost of hiring you as an investment, there's a good chance they'll decide to work with you....

Do you focus on the Features or the Benefits of working with you? I love visiting graphic and web designers' websites. I love looking at their portfolio of projects to see the work they produce. But even more than looking at portfolios, I love studying how these designers promote themselves to potential clients. One of the things I've noticed while visiting these sites is the different focuses pre...

Have you tried downselling to win over design clients? Building client relationships is one of, if not the most important thing you can do as a designer. One of the best ways to build relationships is by downselling to your design clients. In a previous episode of the Resourceful Designer podcast, I talked about Upselling to increase your design revenue . In it, I mentioned how upselling is an exc...

Nine Situations when you should say No to your clients. How does that old joke go? "Business would be so much easier if I didn't have to deal with clients." It's funny but unrealistic. Without clients, you wouldn't have a business. So thank you to all the design clients out there that keep designers like you and me in business. Yes, clients are great. However, some of them can be difficult to work...