Resourceful Designer: Strategies for running a graphic design business

Are you looking for opportunities to grow your business? [sc name="pod_ad"]It's a given, you want your design business to succeed. To accomplish that, you need to find opportunities to grow. Some of those opportunities take time and money and are well worth the effort. But some opportunities to grow are so small and simple that they are often overlooked. On this episode of the podcast, I share fiv...

How do you retain your design clients? As a designer, you know how much work goes into acquiring new design clients. However, you also need to put some effort into retaining your existing design clients, or they may be taken away from you. The design industry is not like the retail market where people walk into a store, browse around and then decide if they want to make a purchase. Nor are we like...

Do you have the 3Cs required to run a successful design business? There's a lot more to running a successful design business than just being a good designer. In fact, being a good designer may be the least important thing for your design business. Don't get me wrong. If you're a bad designer chances are your business won't succeed. However, I know many great designers who don't have what it takes...

Celebrating 100 episodes of Resourceful Designer. [sc name="pod_ad"]To celebrate this 100 episodes milestone, I want to do something a bit different and share with you what being a graphic designer means to me. Please listen to the episode to get the full story. But before I do that, I want to take a quick moment to thank everyone who has helped Resourceful Designer become what it is. Wayne Hender...

Does your community promote "Shop Local"? A "Shop Local" campaign is quite common in smaller communities. Especially those near large metropolitan areas. The purpose of these campaigns is to encourage people to support local businesses by shopping in their hometown. The city of Cornwall Ontario where I'm from is 1 hour from Ottawa Ontario, Canada's capital, and 1 hour from Montreal Quebec, one of...

How good are your Touchpoints? You know the saying you're only as strong as your weakest link? When it comes to the success of your design business, you're only As Strong As Your Weakest Touchpoint. What is a touchpoint? Touchpoints happen every time someone interacts directly with your brand . Touchpoints are the pivotal gateways when a potential client decides whether they want to take the next...

Do your clients understand who their target markets are? As a designer, you need to know what target markets you are going after if you want your design campaigns to succeed. Every design campaign should have a type or group of people to target. Maybe you're designing for women between the ages of 25-35 with a toddler at home. Maybe it's balding men over the age of 50. It could be weekend warriors...

Are you leveraging trade shows to your advantage? One of the most asked questions I receive here at Resourceful Designer is "how do I find design clients?" I want to share one way with you today and that's trade shows. Below is the general outline of the episode but I go into greater details in the podcast so be sure to listen. For the purpose of this topic, I'm using "Trade Shows" as an all-encom...

NDA and how it affects your design business NDA stands for non-disclosure agreement, a legal contract between at least two parties outlining information that is shared between the parties that must remain confidential. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) can also be called a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy ag...

Do you practice Just In Time Learning? I first talked about Just In Time Learning in episode 8 of the podcast . If you haven't heard that episode I suggest you listen to it before continuing with this one. In case you're not familiar with the term, Just In Time Learning essentially means you only learn things that you will need for your next task at hand. Learning things you don't need right now i...

Do you service a design niche? According to Lynda Falkenstein, author of Nichecraft: Using Your Specialness to Focus Your Business, Corner Your Market and Make Customers Seek You Out.  "Many people talk about 'finding' a niche as if it were something under a rock or at the end of the rainbow, ready-made. That's nonsense," she says "Good niches don't just fall into your lap; they must be carefully...

Is your design life and personal life balanced? Face it, being a home-based graphic designer is challenging enough without having your design life interrupted by the personal life that surrounds you each and every day. Not only do you have to deal with clients and deadlines but you also have to deal with family and friends who for some reason think that since you work from home, you must be availa...

Have you heard of the Zeigarnik Effect? I read an article recently about the Zeigarnik Effect. The article I read was aimed at writers and not graphic designers but I found a lot of it relates to what we do as designers. Here's a quick background on the Zeigarnik Effect in case you've never heard of it before. Back in the 1920's Psychologist Kurt Lewin noticed that a waiter at a local restaurant r...

What peripherals do you use for your design business? Peripherals, often forgotten until they are needed, are an essential addition to any graphic design business. In episode 88 of the Resourceful Designer podcast, titled A Designer's Home Office Essentials , I covered some items you should have in your home office. This is kind of a sequel to that episode with a few more things to consider. I go...

Do you use checklists in your design business? What does your morning routine look like? Do you follow mental checklists to prepare yourself for the day? Do you get out of bed and immediately take a shower? Do you head to the kitchen for your morning coffee? Do you turn on the TV or pull out your phone, tablet or computer to get caught up on the news from around the world? Whatever your morning ro...

What's in your home office? A home office is essential if you plan on running your graphic design business for any length of time. Sure the kitchen table can make due in a pinch, but if you're serious about your business, you will want to carve out a bit of that home real estate and claim it as your own. But once you've planted your flag and claimed the space in the name of your graphic design bus...

What is Emotional Intelligence? According to Psychology Today ; Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It's the capacity to be aware of, control, and express your emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. In other words, Emotional intelligence impacts your thinking and behaviour when deali...

How do you handle criticism? As a designer, you will receive criticism on your work. How you deal with that criticism will determine what kind of designer you are. In this episode of Resourceful Designer, I discuss why criticism is essential to your growth as a designer. Listen to the podcast for the full story. One of the advantages of attending a design school is the opportunity to experience cr...

Turn all clients into repeat clients. Your goal as a designer is to turn all your clients into repeat clients. But you can't do that unless you build a relationship with them. Many new designers worry too much about the designs they create than they do about the relationships they build with their clients. Don't get me wrong, good design skills are a key element in building a strong graphic design...

Have you ever heard the term "Yes Man" or "Yes Woman"? A Yes Man or Woman is someone who follows orders without questioning them. Whatever is asked of them is what they do. A good designer can't be a Yes Man or Woman. As a designer, you are also a problem solver. Your job is not to do what the client asks without question, but to question what the client asks. Your job is not to do what the client...

What's your hourly design rate? What you should charge as your hourly design rate is an often debated topic amongst designers. Everybody seems to have their own opinion as to how to calculate what you should charge. I guess I'm no different because on this episode of the Resourceful Designer podcast I do just that. I give you my opinion of how you may want to choose your hourly design rate. One of...

Legacy Plans help build client loyalty What are Legacy Plans you ask? Legacy Plans are when someone continues to pay a certain price when everyone else is paying more for the same service. Physical fitness gyms do this best. When you join a gym chances are your monthly fee is fixed for life. As long as you remain a member your fee will never go up. But if you let your membership expire and then de...

Have you ever been burned due to proofing errors? Proofing errors are the bane of all graphic designers. Anyone who has been in this business long enough knows that clients will almost always try to blame you when they find errors on their project. You can't really blame them, it's human instinct to try and pass the blame. We've been doing it since we were young. Even a toddler who sneaks a cookie...

Do you explain why you took the direction you did when presenting designs to your clients? If you belong to any graphic design groups on Facebook or Linkedin you've seen people post their work for critique. Why not, it's a great place to get the opinion of fellow designers. However, one problem that happens over and over when people explain their work is they usually explain how they designed it w...

Do you get word of mouth referrals for your design business? Growing your design business takes a lot of hard work. Especially when first starting out. Word of mouth referrals are and always will be the most effective way of achieving this growth. Back in episode 67  of the podcast, I shared a proven strategy for getting design referrals. That episode was more geared to designers working in a spec...