Considerations When Starting A Graphic Design Business-RD007

10/21/15 • 55 min

Resourceful Designer: Strategies for running a graphic design business

Considerations When Starting A Graphic Design Business.

Starting a graphic design business is a big step in your design career and not one to take lightly. There are many things to consider before jumping in with both feet. In this episode of Resourceful Designer I go over several topics that you may want to consider before, during and after you've started your graphic design business.

Things to Consider... Before Starting A Graphic Design Business

Do you want to work in a specific niche of graphic design?
Do you want to work from home or have an office away from the house?
What type of business do you want to start (Incorporated, Sole proprietor)?
Do you have enough savings to invest in a new business?
How will you deal with friends and family looking for designs from you?
How will you name your business?

While Starting A Graphic Design Business

What type of computer will you use?
Will you use your home address for your business?
What will your working hours be?
What will your rates be?
What phone number will you use for your business?
How will you communicate with your graphic design clients?
How will you accept payment from your graphic design clients?
You need to acquaint yourself with your bank, accountant and layer.
How will you handle requests for pro-bono work?

After Starting A Graphic Design Business

You will need to market your business any way you can.
You must join clubs and business groups in your area. Including your Chamber of Commerce.
Contact other local designers for possible partnerships and work trade.
Contact local printers and suppliers and try to work out discounts for bringing them work.
You must continue your education and grow as a graphic designer.
You must take care of yourself both physically and mentally so you don't burn out.

There are many more aspects involved when starting a graphic design business. These are just a few that I came up with that I thought I would share with you. If you can think of more that I missed, add them to the comment section at resourcefuldesigner.com/episode7

Four Week Marketing Boost - FREE GUIDE

Download my FREE guide, the Four Week Marketing Boost to help improve your business' image and create the best first impression possible to attract more clients.

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Design Resource

This week I shared three great resources for selecting and managing colours for your clients. I've only recently discovered them but have found them a big help already.

ColorSnapper 2

Spectrum

Colors Pallete Generator

I want to help you.

Running a graphic design or web design business all by yourself isn't easy. If there are any struggles you face running your design business please reach out to me. I'll do my best to help you by addressing your issues in a future blog post or podcast episode here at Resourceful Designer. You can reach me at [email protected]

Considerations When Starting A Graphic Design Business.

Things to Consider... Before Starting A Graphic Design Business

Do you want to work in a specific niche of graphic design?
Do you want to work from home or have an office away from the house?
What type of business do you want to start (Incorporated, Sole proprietor)?
Do you have enough savings to invest in a new business?
How will you deal with friends and family looking for designs from you?
How will you name your business?

While Starting A Graphic Design Business

What type of computer will you use?
Will you use your home address for your business?
What will your working hours be?
What will your rates be?
What phone number will you use for your business?
How will you communicate with your graphic design clients?
How will you accept payment from your graphic design clients?
You need to acquaint yourself with your bank, accountant and layer.
How will you handle requests for pro-bono work?

After Starting A Graphic Design Business

You will need to market your business any way you can.
You must join clubs and business groups in your area. Including your Chamber of Commerce.
Contact other local designers for possible partnerships and work trade.
Contact local printers and suppliers and try to work out discounts for bringing them work.
You must continue your education and grow as a graphic designer.
You must take care of yourself both physically and mentally so you don't burn out.

Four Week Marketing Boost - FREE GUIDE

Download my FREE guide, the Four Week Marketing Boost to help improve your business' image and create the best first impression possible to attract more clients.

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe on iTunesSubscribe on Stitcher

Contact me

Send me feedback

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook

Design Resource

This week I shared three great resources for selecting and managing colours for your clients. I've only recently discovered them but have found them a big help already.

ColorSnapper 2

Spectrum

Colors Pallete Generator

I want to help you.

Previous Episode

8 Myths About Starting A Home Based Design Business-RD006

8 Myths About Starting A Home Based Design Business.

If doesn't matter if you're a graphic designer or a web designer, it's all the same when it comes to starting a home based design business. To some, the thought of starting their own home based design business can seem quite daunting. In this episode of Resourceful Designer I cover 8 myths that often holds people back from taking the leap in their entrepreneurial journey.

The 8 Myths

You need a lot of clients to make your home based design business viable.
It's hard to give up a steady pay cheque. How will I make ends meat with a home based design business?
It's complicated to set up a home based design business.
It's expensive to purchase the hardware required to run a home based design business.
I can't afford all the software needed to successfully run a home based design business.
I'll be able to work on whatever projects I want once I'm running my own home based design business.
I'll make a tone of money running my own home based design business.
Once I'm running my own home based design business I'll have plenty of time to relax and enjoy life.

I'm sure there are many other myths I could have covered but these are the ones I hear most often.

Links mentioned in this episode.

Adobe Creative Cloud QuarkXpress

Adobe Photoshop Alternatives

Gimp (Free, Windows, Linux, Mac) Affinity Photo ($57.99, Mac) Sketch ($99, Mac) Pixelmator ($29.99, Mac, IOS) Acorn ($29.99, Mac) Corel PaintShop Pro ($79.99, Windows)

Adobe Illustrator Alternatives

Affinity Designer ($45.99, Mac) SVG-Edit (Free, web browser) Inkscape (Free, Windows, Linux, Mac) Serif DrawPlus (Free, or £39.99 paid version, Windows) Sketch ($99, Mac)

Four Week Marketing Boost - FREE GUIDE

Download my FREE guide, the Four Week Marketing Boost to help improve your business' image and create the best first impression possible to attract more clients.

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe on iTunesSubscribe on Stitcher

Contact me

Send me feedback

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook

Design Resource

If you are involved in Wordpress web design in any way you need to check out Elegant Themes. With 87 themes plus 6 very useful Wordpress plugins all for a low price. You can't go wrong. I've been using Elegant Themes for a few years now and can't say enough good things about their products and Customer service. Don't forget to sign up for their newsletter to receive 10% off your order.

I want to help you.

Next Episode

Just In Time Learning And Your Ongoing Design Education-RD008

Just In Time Learning And Your Ongoing Design Education!

We work in a profession that is constantly changing. If we don't keep up with our ongoing design education we can quickly fall behind and become obsolete. In this episode of Resourceful Designer I talk about the concept of Just In Time Learning.

Just In Time Learning is something I first heard about a couple of years ago and it drastically changed the way I look at courses, tutorials, guides and everything else involved in my ongoing design education as both a graphic designer and web designer.

The principal behind Just In Time Learning is to only learn what you need to know for the next task you are undertaking.

We all suffer from F.O.M.O. or the Fear Of Missing Out. Whenever we come across a new feature is something or a new tutorial on how to do something we immediately want to dive right into it and expand our knowledge. The problem is, many of these things we spend time learning are not, and may never be important or useful to us. So why are we waisting our time learning them?

In this week's episode I give some examples of how Just In Time Learning has helped me and I share ways to create a learning toolbox where you can save all the tutorials and courses for future reference should you ever need them.

Links mentioned in this episode.

Evernote Essentials, The only Evernote guide you'll need.

Four Week Marketing Boost - FREE GUIDE

Download my FREE guide, the Four Week Marketing Boost to help improve your business' image and create the best first impression possible to attract more clients.

Subscribe to the podcast

Subscribe on iTunesSubscribe on StitcherSubscribe on Android

Contact me

Send me feedback

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook

Design Resource

This week's Design Resource is Lynda.com. This is a great resource to learn software, skills and techniques to better yourself. I learned HTML and CSS by taking courses at Lynda.com. I wouldn't be the web designer I am today if not for them. You can try Lynda.com free for 10 days with access to every one of their courses.

I want to help you.