Start & Run a Graphic Design Business. Michael Huggins
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a business is one of the most expensive and exhausting things you’ll do in your life.
Many small-business experts recommend setting aside anywhere from three to six months of income to help carry you through the first stages of your business. Getting clients takes time and patience.
Even when you do have paying clients, you won’t always be able to expect prompt payment once you finish a project. Some companies have payment policies in place that prevent their suppliers from receiving payment after a project is done for up to 90 days. Even getting work right away would mean you could have a delay until you see some actual money.
3.1 The need to make money and be profitable
As a solo entrepreneur you need to start with the mind-set of being profitable in all that you do. This is a business and you need to approach it like one. Yes, it will be fun, creative, and exciting, but it’s a business. The obvious truth is you need to be profitable or your business experience will be short lived. Making money is not optional so don’t be shy about charging good money for your services.
You may have started your business out of a love for design, but as a solo entrepreneur it’s up to you to make sure that you find people who are in need of your specific skill set and that you charge them for the full value for your services. Funnily enough, I’m preaching to the choir here. I used to “give” my services away to clients at very cheap rates. In hindsight, I probably felt like I wasn’t good enough to charge premium prices, but we’ll leave that discussion for Chapter 19! I’ve seen the same trend among hundreds of other designers through my years of coaching.
You need to be diligent about profitability. You need to create a process for designing that is efficient and maximizes the time you spend on each project. As a designer, you sell solutions to problems by applying your expertise, and time is always a factor. You’ll need to assess the value of each project and apply your expertise in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible. Essentially, you’ll have to ensure you always make more than the time you spend on the project. That way your business not only stays healthy, but so will you.
4. Dealing with Insecurity
Along with the new mind-set of becoming an entrepreneur (and a profitable one at that) you’re going to have to constantly battle an old mind-set — your own insecurity. You’ll discover that one of your biggest business challenges could be you. Days will come when you don’t think you have what it takes to make it, so get ready for them. When those days come your insecurity will raise its ugly head. There will be multiple challenges ahead, but take heart, you can get over them all and you can come out on top. Starting your business with this little piece of knowledge could make all the difference, and help you overcome your fears.
Fear immobilizes you and can prevent you from achieving success in your business. Fear is a real income killer. It constantly sets up roadblocks, which cause all sorts of negative effects on your pocketbook:
• Fear stops you from selling effectively.
• Fear prevents you from charging market value (or above market value).
• Fear causes you to be defensive and negative in the way you communicate to prospects and clients.
In fact, negativity is a mind-set that communicates to others long before you open your mouth. It’s a subtle and deadly foe of the design entrepreneur and, if not kept in check, it can really hurt your business. Having a negative attitude can be an immediate turnoff to any prospective client. If you don’t act like a confident and successful designer, you won’t get many clients.
How do you guard yourself against insecurities? One of the best ways is to spend time around positive people. This might mean meeting with a business friend or mentor once a week, or getting together with a group of other business owners once a month. Either way, it’s important to protect yourself against becoming negative. Look for relationships with people who are encouraging and uplifting, and ask for help when you need it. Most importantly, be positive. As simple as this sounds, it will be a real benefit to you when you make a conscious effort to look for the good in every situation.
5. Are You Cut out to Be Your Own Boss?
Although the thought of working on your own can be enticing, it really isn’t for everyone. There are many challenges you will face. One of those challenges will be to stay focused on the task at hand. That means you must be self-disciplined, self-motivated, and an all-round self-governing person.
There are many distractions to guard against. The daily calls of life are some of the biggest ones. Being on your own gives you freedom to do what you want to do, when
you want to do it. But that doesn’t mean that those things are going to be beneficial to growing your business. You’ll have to experiment with how to best divide up your time. Discover what your best times are for designing and the best times for meeting with clients. Then try and schedule your activities around those time slots. You’ll also have to discover the methods that work best for you when you do your work. It’s your job to stay sharp and remain focused.
Starting out as a solo designer will take a few mental adjustments. In fact, it will take a whole new mind-set, especially if you’ve never done anything like this before. For some people the switch from working for an employer to working for themselves could prove to be a little too much to take. Consider carefully if you’ve got the personality and the drive to go it on your own.
3
The Pros and Cons of Partnerships
All this talk about thinking and acting like an entrepreneur might be making you feel a little uneasy at the moment. Maybe you’re starting to think that you can’t do it on your own.
The experience of going into business can bring a harsh reality to light for even the bravest of souls. It did for me. I didn’t know the first thing about starting or, for that matter, running a graphic design business. If you are anything like me, you may feel that it’s time to start panicking. In fact, that panic might even lead you to the bright idea that you could handle this if you had just a little help. That would make things better, wouldn’t it? As a result of that thought, you may even start to think seriously about partnerships.
1. Should You Form a Partnership?
It’s a tough question. Should you enter into your business with full control over it? Or should you share the decision making, burdens, and profits with another like-minded person? There are obvious pros and cons about entering into a partnership, but do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? That’s the real question and, ultimately, only you can answer it. Only you know what you want and what you consider to be a good arrangement.
The bottom line is: Partnerships are challenging. It doesn’t mean that they don’t work or that they can’t work. They absolutely can. In fact, I think I have a great partnership with my wife, Anita. But there is a lot of pressure involved in partnerships and, in my opinion, partnerships have a hard time surviving in today’s business environment.
One of the main reasons designers consider partnering is for the simple fact they don’t want to go it alone. Designers who get that “entrepreneurial bug” to start a business are quickly attacked by the “entrepreneurial seizure” (a kind of professional paralysis) when they realize they are leaving the comfort and predictability of working for another company for the great unknown.
Naturally, these designers begin looking for someone to share in their anxiety. After all, they’ve spent most of their working lives sitting beside someone in the cubicle next to them. What’s going to happen when that person is no longer there?
The second reason designers consider partnering is because they feel they need some support in a particular area. When you start to think of all