How To Set Up A Freelance Design Business

5 Lessons I Learned from Starting a Freelance Pattern Business

Fundamental takeaways from my experience every bit a freelance designer with no prior business organization feel

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As a design student, I worked part-fourth dimension as a graphic designer for my school's student wedlock. The job paid just in a higher place minimum wage and was enough to encompass my hire every month. But so I realized, I could literally do the same work for other people and set my own prices, so I started a freelance design business.

Starting any business organisation comes with a learning curve and this was no different. I had never worked with clients before and had many unanswered questions. Where exercise I find clients? What would I charge them? Should I specialize in one are?

I failed fast and failed frequently, but I rapidly learned from my mistakes. Here are some of the nigh of import lessons that I learned from my experience.

1. Business organization first, blueprint 2nd

When I started my freelance practice, I didn't realize how much piece of work it would be to actually run the business. I idea that I would spend my fourth dimension designing logos and posters in Illustrator. In reality, operational tasks like establishing my online presence and generating leads took up virtually of my fourth dimension. Design work came second.

Plant an online presence

As a freelance designer, the virtually of import affair to have is a portfolio catered towards potential clients. I built a website that showcased the type of work that I was looking for such every bit logos, posters and brand style guides.

I also created a Facebook page to farther build my social media presence. On the page, I regularly posted snippets of my work to concenter viewer's attention. I would too comment in design groups with this folio to get more people to follow it.

Lead generation

Now that I had some sort of cyberspace presence, I spent a lot of time and energy into getting clients. A few dissimilar ways I used to generate leads included give-and-take-of-rima oris marketing to friends, messaging startups through AngelList or Indeed, and even cold-emailing digital agencies.

I reached out to job postings and agencies past offering my services for any extra projects that they might take. Most of them would kindly refuse my offer, but the few that worked out were able to provide me with a steady stream of work.

Echo clients and referrals

An easy way to get more than work is to just reach out to your previous clients. Check in on them once in a while and inquire them if there is anything that yous can assist them with. If they have no work, yous can also offer to give them a small discount for referring your services to another client. This results in a win-win situation for both parties and has worked well for me on a few occasions.

Takeaway

Becoming a concern owner is crucial to surviving every bit a freelancer. If I hadn't created a convincing portfolio or taken the fourth dimension to find new clients, I wouldn't accept been able to make whatsoever money. Once I started working with clients, echo business and referrals made the procedure easier to continue.

2. Act professional

When I first started freelancing, I had no thought where to start, what questions to ask the client, how much to charge for my work or how to prepare my files. I was a consummate newbie, but I didn't want my inexperience to reflect in how I presented myself.

By pretending to be a professional person, I kept my composure whenever I didn't know how to answer a question. I dedicated my design decisions with potency, trying to sound like an expert while feeling like an imposter.

The interesting office was that the more I learned from each client interaction, the better I got at freelancing. Eventually, I wasn't pretending as much anymore. I knew what questions were good to enquire throughout the project and how to package my files earlier sending them over. Things got easier the more I worked.

Takeaway

Clients won't know that you lot are a beginner every bit long as you don't human action like 1. This can especially be helpful when charging for your work. If a client knows that you are new to freelancing, and then they volition likely either effort to get a cheap projection out of you or wait for someone more experienced to work with.

Exist professional and prepared. Do your enquiry on the freelancing process. Possibly, shadow another freelancer in their daily life. Acquire from your mistakes rapidly and iterate your process each time.

three. Get paid upfront

My very first project was a logo design for an contained record label. Without discussing budget or price, I jumped into the project and finished in a couple of weeks.

I delivered the final work to the client, who then asked how much the project would cost. I calculated a toll based on a $20 hourly rate and around 30 hours of work. Realizing that it came out to $600, I was surprised and somewhat nervous at asking for and then much money. Afterwards telling the customer the toll, he laughed and told me that he would pay me $100 every bit that was the "going rate for a logo anywhere".

Takeaway

I was taken advantage of as a clueless beginner, non knowing to talk over price earlier starting the work. By talking to the client almost their budget, you lot should get a sense of whether or not they are worth your time. Once you hold on a price, always get paid an upfront eolith.

Afterwards this incident, I typically asked for 50% of the total projection price before starting work. If extra work is added on throughout the project, then I tin can suit the final payment without worrying about non getting paid at all.

iv. Sell value, not fourth dimension

Another challenge that I faced was not knowing how to price my work. A popular topic amongst freelancers is whether to charge hourly or by the projection. For the first year, I fix my rates based off of what I would have liked to earn from a salaried task. Then I started charging $25/hour and increased my rate by $v as I gained more than experience.

However, I was losing out on a lot of coin. Clients were willing to pay more than I charged, simply I only didn't know it because of how I was pricing my services.

For example, the amount of time to complete a branding project varied depending on the number of revisions. I was paid less for the projects that took a short amount of time, but the value that I delivered to the customer was generally the same.

Takeaway

By switching from hourly pricing to a value-based approach, I was able to adjust my prices according to the client's budget and needs. This ensured that I was adequately compensated and didn't lose out on earnings due to working efficiently.

five. Avoid lowball clients

When I was struggling to get my freelance business started, I was willing to take any client that came my style. It didn't matter how much they were offering, as long equally I could include the work in my portfolio.

Working with inexpensive clients is not worth the hassle, no matter how desperate you are for work. From my experience, they need more piece of work out of you for what they are paying, which eventually leads to scope pitter-patter. You volition regret taking the project every single time.

Takeaway

If yous have congenital up a sufficient rails, you shouldn't need to worry about non making enough money to survive. Every bit long as you have that emergency savings fund to sustain your concern, you lot shouldn't have to work for less than what you're worth.

If a client tin can't afford my services, I just ask to refer them to someone else that I trust who could probably help them out. I've constitute that this is the best way to deal with lowball clients.

Lastly, make sure your contract outlines the scope of the project and how extra work will exist charged. Past having an airtight contract, your customer won't be able to squeeze more work out of y'all without additional compensation.