90 Things You Need to Know About Running a Successful Design Business
This is not a drill: in this post, we're sharing 90 of our best and hardest-learned tips about running a brand and/or web design business! No fluffy intro here, we'll let you get into this advice.
PS: 90 is a freaking lot of points, so we broke them down into easy-to-find categories with headers.
Starting A Business
1. Make sure your legal documents are in order before your begin work (in the US, this includes your business license(s), EIN #, defining your business entity, and setting up a bank account). (Check out our free guide to launching your business in 6 weeks to help you go through these steps!)
2. Plugging into your local community and/or entrepreneur center can be the most effective way to get your first clients!
3. Your portfolio plays a huge factor in brands’ decisions to hire you, so make sure you have strong examples of your work, even if they are just fictional brands you designed to show your skills.
4. Doing your first project with a friend or family member can be a good way to practice your process. Just make sure you always use a project contract, even if you’re doing the work for a discounted rate.
5. You don’t have to offer every design service there is. Specialize in what you’re passionate about and what you’re best at.
6. You’re never stuck doing one thing forever. You can always change up your services and business model, and almost certainly will. Keep this in mind when you’re stressed about making decisions. You might make mistakes, but you can learn from them and pivot!
7. Your first projects won’t be perfect, and that’s okay! Don’t hold yourself to a standard that isn’t realistic; provide the best work you possibly can with the skill you have right now.
8. You always have value to offer to clients. Even if you’re not the most experienced designer, you are providing a service that takes time and skills your client may not have. They are hiring you for a reason!
9. We all feel inadequate sometimes. Moments of insecurity hit us all, so when you’re feeling inadequate as a designer/business owner, acknowledge that feeling, but keep pressing forward knowing you can always feel that way. Your confidence will grow over time!
10. As your business grows, figure out who your specific client audience is and how you are uniquely positioned to help them solve that problem and find success.
Finding Clients & Marketing Yourself
11. Be consistent with your online presence. Do your best to keep putting yourself out there as consistently as you can. (But know it’s ok to take breaks when you need them. Protect your mental health first!)
12. Expect growth to take time; building an online platform and a successful business takes years.
13. Choose the online platforms that work for you by focusing on 1-3 that bring you the most business. For us, that’s Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest.
14. Even if you aren’t focusing on every platform, secure your handles and profiles for all platforms in case you ever want to start using them.
15. If you don’t have a salesperson on your team, you are your own sales department! Marketing and sales have to be a part of your everyday work.
16. When creating content for clients, talk to them like they are the hero of their story and you are there to guide them to success.
17. In the beginning, your ideal clients won’t know who you are unless you introduce yourself. Sometimes you’ll need to send the first message or cold email.
18. If a potential client says no for now, be gracious and thank them for their time. You never know, they may come back years from now when they’re ready, or refer you to a friend of theirs! It’s happened to us!
19. Create content that’s genuinely helpful and educational for your ideal clients; give them insight and education they will enjoy.
20. Feature the portfolio work you REALLY want to do more of. You don’t have to share that random client project from two years ago just because it’s all you have. You can create personal projects for fictional brands that represent your ideal clients!
Pricing Your Services
21. Don’t do work for free, even if it’s your very first project, at least charge a small amount because your time IS valuable.
22. Plan to increase your prices gradually over time. Don’t let yourself stay stuck at your beginner’s rate for too long!
23. Upping your prices takes courage; it’s scary to send a proposal for $500 or $1000 more than your last one, but it’s important to increase your prices as you have more experience and skill.
24. Make sure you're charging your minimum price: do the calculations to set a base price that will be the minimum you charge for every project to remain profitable (consider how many projects you can do per year, your time, business expenses, desired salary, skill, and experience). View our Free Guide which includes this calculation
25. Pricing hourly generally isn’t profitable. It’s going to be a way better experience to price your services at a flat rate, based on your minimum/base price, the value of the work to the client, etc.
26. Ask your potential client about their budget and concerns on the sales call. Let them tell you what they were expecting and what they may be worried about so you can talk everything through.
27. Send a compelling proposal after the sales call if you want to work with a potential client. Make sure you’re including a vision for what their business could look like if they work with you by listing the top three goals you plan to achieve together with the project. (Purchase our Project Proposal Template)
28. Create an incentive for clients to book quickly. Our clients that do book, typically do it within 24 hours of receiving their proposal, so consider adding a 24-hour booking discount to your proposals.
29. List your base price & package expectations on your website if you find lots of people who are not a good fit keep inquiring. This helps lower the number of unfit inquiries you receive and shows your potential clients what your starting prices are so they don’t have sticker shock on your intro call.
30. Don't let your emotions about money or assumptions about your potential clients’ finances dictate your pricing. The client will make the call on whether your pricing is right for them or not.
The Creative Process
31. Refine your process, everything from your timeline, document templates, meeting notes, emails, presentations, etc. This saves you SO much time! (Learn more about building your process in our course, Pro Design Process. Get on the waitlist!)
32. Block off time for yourself to work solely on client work, calls, internal business work, etc. We only take calls on Tue/Thu, so all other days are for client work and internal business tasks.
33. Take the time to learn about brand strategy so that your designs are as effective as possible.
34. Use templates for any documents, presentations, and emails you send regularly.
35. Don’t skip steps in your project process. It may seem tedious to have so many prep/planning steps, but they all build on each other to make for a smooth process.
36. Be on the same page with your client about who the designs are for. The work you create together is to attract their ideal audience, not just express their personal style.
37. Don’t let the project become scarier than it actually is. Sometimes, in our head, we make projects or difficult client situations into life or death scenarios, when they are just another project that you WILL get through.
38. Give yourself enough time for the creative process. If you’re constantly running behind, consider adding an extra week or two to your project timeline.
39. Use beautiful templates and mockups to present your design work to WOW your client and help them see the vision. This improves our client feedback by a lot!
40. Set up a system to get clear feedback, and refer to it as “feedback and approval”, rather than “revisions”, so as not to imply that something always needs to be changed/improved.
Client Experience
41. When you can, work with clients whose values align with your own.
42. We always do our best to create a positive and elevated client experience that will result in raving clients who want to tell their peers about us.
43. Build a genuine connection with your clients: check in with them, listen to them, and reassure them.
44. Help your clients understand the technology and tools you use- if they are confused, take time to train them and help them feel confident. Clients can get really frustrated if they don’t understand the tools you want them to use.
45. Loom is our best friend. You can make lots of visual training and walkthroughs throughout the process for your clients, which elevates and simplifies the experience. (Here’s our Loom affiliate link!)
46. Get your project discussions with clients out of email and into a project management workspace; this helps keep things organized. (We love Basecamp).
47. Be honest with your clients about what you think is best for their brand. But, if they don’t want to take your advice, you can’t force it. In the end, you want them to be happy.
48. Help your clients plan for due dates and meetings far in advance (we send a welcome guide with due dates at the beginning of the project).
49. Send a small gift or a card after the project to celebrate what you’ve created together. Clients love this small touch! (We have been enjoying Greetabl to send small gifts in the mail).
50. Check-in on your clients 1-2 weeks after your project ends to see how they are doing and if any questions have come up for them. This is also a great time to ask for a testimonial.
If this is your dream, today is the day to start pursuing it!
Difficult Client Situations
51. Have a really good contract to protect yourself. You can get contracts made through a lawyer, purchase templates from lawyers selling online, or use free templates through a CRM, like Honeybook.
52. When we first started, we often acted as “order takers” with clients, rather than guiding experts. That was due to our own insecurities and fear of leading. Now, we act as confident guides, while also inviting our clients’ input as we are a team working towards the same goal.
53. Set boundaries with clients around how and when they can contact you, payment schedules, expectations, etc. This can be included in your contract and/or welcome guide or mentioned when boundaries are pushed/crossed. The key is to reinforce them! Easier said than done.
54. Send your visual direction early on in the project. Realistically, you don’t want your clients to be 100% surprised by the final design, as they should be approving the direction along the way to ensure you’re all on the same page! This really helps limit negative feedback, excessive revisions, and unhappy clients. Communication is key! (Purchase our Brand Strategy & Design Direction Template)
55. Presenting revision rounds as “feedback and approval stage” vs “revisions and changes stage” helps set the tone and lets the client know that not everything has to be changed just because we have asked for their feedback! We found that simply by changing the title of this stage in our process to “feedback and approval,” our clients were much more likely to have fewer revisions and were less nitpicky at the end of the project.
56. Remind your clients of the end goal if they get off track or start requesting changes or new ideas that don’t fit the initial brand strategy and design direction. Unless they’ve actually pivoted something major in their business, they're likely just getting antsy about the project and throwing out a million ideas out of nervousness or excitement.
57. If you get a bad feeling about a potential client, don’t bury it. Often, your gut instinct will be right. We learned this the hard way.
58. Sometimes your clients won’t want to take your professional recommendations, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. If they are persistent in ignoring your recommendations, just do as they ask (if it’s within the project scope) and move on.
59. Getting on a phone/zoom call can often diffuse an uncomfortable situation. It’s so easy for a person’s tone to be misconstrued over email.
60. Don’t take it personally when things go wrong. We ALL get a rough client every now and then and you just have to wrap up the project and move on. When the project is over, look back at everything that occurred to see if there’s anything you can learn from this experience or a way you could have done things differently. This is how we learn and grow as business owners, and how we improve our processes!
Entrepreneurship Challenges
61. Allow yourself to pivot when things don’t go as planned.
62. Consider yourself a business owner, not a freelancer. Because you are one.
63. Find a way to specialize or be known for something you do. Do you have a unique design style? Specialize in one website building platform? Find your thing to set you apart.
64. Outsource what you can once you start growing. Start with what you don’t do well or hate doing, but that must be done to keep business moving. Things like social media marketing, bookkeeping, etc. are great.
65. Sometimes you’ll forget that you’re great at what you do. Keep all of your client testimonials and nice messages from people in a folder on your computer, not just to use as testimonials, but to read on occasion to remind yourself that you’re doing a great job.
66. Approaching all of your tasks at once can be stressful. Try putting only 3 things on your to-do list each day to minimize overwhelm.
67. Your business isn’t going to look exactly like someone else’s, and that’s a good thing. Your business should be as unique as you are!
68. Keeping organized bookkeeping/finances is key. Hire a bookkeeper if this isn’t your strength.
69. Save more than you think you need to for taxes. Your tax rate percentage will very depending on a lot of factors.
70. Expect evolution. Your business has to grow and change as you and your environment change. This is a beautiful thing!
Investing In Your Business
71. Take it slow when first deciding what to invest in (equipement, courses, coaching, subscriptions, etc.) Gradually increase your investmentsas your business picks up.
72. Utilize free resources as much as you can when first starting out.
73. Take your time when deciding which courses to purchase. Ask peers for reviews if they’ve taken it. Ask the course creators questions you have.
74. No one has the “secret sauce” to success. Remember that the true value of courses is having all that information in one tidy place, the tools provided, encouragement, accountability, and community.
75. If you hire a “business coach,” make sure the coach has experience in a business other than growing their own coaching business. You don’t just need a pep talk, you also need practical knowledge.
76. If finances aren’t your thing, hire a bookkeeper and/or CPA who can help whether it’s monthly or quarterly. It will likely help you save money in the long run on taxes if they’re doing their job well!
77. Your CPA is your best friend. Seriously, we can’t imagine doing our taxes on our own. In the US, taxes are so complicated! This is an expense for sure, but to us, it’s so worth it.
78. Never lock yourself into an expense you’re not sure you want to or can afford to take on long-term.
79. Just because “everyone else” is buying it, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right for your business.
80. Keep an eye on your monthly expenses vs your income to make sure you’re not spending more than you’re bringing in. (Use our financial tracker sheet to track month to month!)
Mental Health/Balance
81. Please seek professional/medical attention when needed. Medication, therapy, or other types of mental health intervention are a huge part of so many of our lives.
82. Whether it’s therapy, journaling, amazing friends, or a combination of all three, communicate about your mental state. Internalizing everything you face as an entrepreneur is not sustainable or healthy.
83. As entrepreneurs, our work weeks/days can look a lot different than regularly employed people, so embrace the unique schedule that works for you best.
84. Take mental health days whenever you need them. Without guilt.
85. Book vacations and weekend trips whenever you can, plan big trips months in advance, and book your projects around them so that nothing gets in your way of time off!
86. Block, mute, or unfollow accounts online that stress you out, anger you, or make you compare yourself/your business and hurt your mental health.
87. Take a half day off each week or every other week, if you are able to, and fill that time with something you enjoy.
88. Have regular work hours that fit your lifestyle so you can “clock out” each day and maintain some sort of structure to prevent overworking.
89. Change up your work environment when you’re feeling blah. Coffee shops, bookstores, coworking offices, etc.
90. If it works for you, fully embrace your weekends! When we can, we love clocking and not thinking about work again until Monday morning.
