Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks

The Balancing Act All Creative Freelancers Face - Too Much or Too Little Work

My friend Sara dropped me a line a few days ago, she writes,

 

"What I learned is that for every business you need a critical mass of clients or revenue to 1) break even, and 2) reach your profit goals. These are critical numbers to know as they will determine if you can afford to do freelancing full time or if it’s best to do it on the side until you have enough regular clients and have learned what marketing tactics work best."

 

Sara's of course right, you have to be able to identify your capacity to take on work and to take on clients. Having too little or too many can be problematic. I've found that when you’re freelancing on your own there seems to be such a narrow margin between not having enough work and having too much. Finding that balance where you’ve just about reached peak capacity can be elusive. Freelancers often find themselves not having enough work, and on rare occasions they have too much – it can definitely be tricky.

 

What to do about it:

If you find yourself with not enough work, I'd suggest getting some help, finding a mentor or getting some resources that will help you - hoping things will magically get better or you'll find the answer for free on a message board isn't going to happen.

 

If you find yourself on occasion with too much work, I'd suggest doing what I did - hire some independent creative freelancers to help you with the workload. Just make sure you have a solid contract in place before bringing anyone on board.

How to Make .ico files such as favicon.ico with Adobe Photoshop in 2 Minutes

Wanted to share this with you guys - Brian over at OZZU Webmaster Forum had this little gem - check it out!
Check out the rest of the forum while you're there, thanks Brian.

4 Quick Things that Should Scare the Hell Out of You if You're A Freelance Graphic Designer

1. Online templates for logos, web sites and collateral materials
2. A tightening economy here in the States
3. Design software companies (like Adobe) catering to the average business user (making them more user friendly and less costly)
4. Online freelance posting sites like guru.com, sologig.com and eLance.com

Okay now that I've grabbed your attention (as well as perhaps made you a little worried), let me explain...I've found through personal experience and in talking with other creative professionals that these 4 factors are making it harder for freelance designers to continue to find well paying traditional projects that are limited to just doing graphic design without a sales, writing or marketing component. Most freelancers are finding that just being a designer doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

The industry is changing guys...but let's face it, all industries change over time (including design). This doesn't mean there isn't work out there - there is always work out there, but you may find that you need to adjust your direction a bit. I've made some major decisions with my design firm, I am guessing if you haven't, you may have to soon.

I talk about this in my "What I've learned the hard way about freelance design in 2008" teleseminar. If you purchase the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book in May or June, I'll include this for free* - and if you're feeling the pinch right now, you'll definitely want to get a hold of these insights: the flawed mentality of most of your clients when it comes to marketing/design, how the economy is affecting the industry and finally, my specific recommendations on how you can survive and thrive when other freelancers are going back to work for others. 

A business person told me a while back that "You'll always find competition and change nipping at your heels, and if you stop running you'll get swallowed". Now that you've been told the industry is changing, what steps will you take today to prepare for it?

* I'll ask that you send me an email to jeremy@beingatarvingartistsucks.com with your order confirmation so that I know that only loyal blog readers are getting this deal. Offer can not be combined with other promotional offers. Other small print crap....

PS - Hey, thanks guys for passing along this blog to your colleagues and friends, I really do appreciate it. The traffic increased last month by about 35% and I am grateful to your help.

Freelance Graphic Designers: Find a Mentor or Go It Alone?

I talked to my good friend and mentor yesterday, Norma. She's a former designer who had a tremendous amount of success and has now moved on to developing and implementing high-level strategy.

After the conversation I sat back and thought how lucky I've been throughout my career in having several terrific mentors in my life that I could turn to for advice - professionals that have been there and done that. I wished I'd sought them out a little earlier in my career - perhaps I wouldn't have felt the need to use the title "Being a Starving Artist Sucks".

You know, if I had the ability to go back in time and give myself one piece of advice as an aspiring freelancer coming into the business, I would say, "Invest in yourself, invest in a mentor and invest in understanding how to run a business and handle clients."

Rarely if ever do I come across a designer that will come right out and say, "I don't need your help or your book, I can just learn it on my own", (designers aren't typically rude like that) but that's in fact what many of them are doing - they'll just try to pick up free tid bits of information here and there and hope that's enough. It's not...I know from experience. Over the years I've found 4 main reasons why designers don't seek additional training and advice:

• They say they don't have any money to invest in themselves or their future
• They don't have any time to invest in themselves, work with a mentor or read a book
• They feel they just feel they can just pick things up as they go, or believe that design school has taught them all they need to know
• They can't find someone they can trust or their not sure how to go about finding help or a mentor

Whatever the reason, most designers out there don't have a mentor and invest less than $100 a year and under 10 hours of additional training to become more successful business people. How do you stack up with that? Well, the bottom line fallout of that is that 95% of small businesses fail within 5 years (that includes freelance designers) - only a fraction ever succeed. It's a lot to think about, I know...but it's better to think about these things now rather than when things really get tough.

1. How is business going for you right now? How are sales? Are they up or down from last year?
2. Do you have a mentor? Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to bounce ideas, designs, projects and situations off of someone who's successful been in the situation you're in right now?
3. What steps have your taken recently or will you now take to ensure that you don't end up a statistic in the 95%? Do you have a plan to become more successful or are you hoping it will just happen?

Quick Encoruagement for Creative Freelance Designers that Hate Sales

Yesterday my good friend Andy, (entrepreneur and business building guru) was talking to me about something all creative freelancers dread: sales. Andy points out that the word "sales" comes from the Norwegian word, "sala", which means "to serve".

While this might not sound interesting, it should offer a great deal of comfort to designers that either loathe or are terrified of selling (as I was at one time): being a good salesperson isn't about tricking someone into buying what they don't want, it's about serving people's needs and wants.

Does this reframe the way you feel about having to do sales for your freelancing company?
Does this make you feel you can be a good salesperson because you care about people?

PS - You'll be able to find the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book on Amazon within the next month. They are sending me the final proof in a couple of weeks. If you don't want to wait, check out the monthly specials by clicking on the graphic in the upper right margin.

A Creative Freelance Designer's Continued Frustration: Why Can't I Find a Reasonable Online Printer?

A while back I'd written a post about frustrations I've had with online printers and their lack of dependability and good customer service. The post got a good amount of circulation after I'd added it as a trackback to Seth Godin's blog (thanks Seth). In the post I raved about a printer in CA called Overnightprints.com, in fact, I had included them in my preferred vendor section in the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book.

For the most part, I like overnightprints.com:

• Prices are reasonable
• The online interface is intuitive and fairly reliable
• Their customer service reps are generally pleasant and helpful

All of that said, after his print order still hadn't arrived, a good client and friend emailed me yesterday and asked, "Can you check on the status of our print job with overnightprints.com?" I called the company to find some answers. We'd paid specifically for 3 day select delivery for my client to receive their materials on time. I'd placed the order on the 23^rd, but they were going to be delivered until the 1^st.

The customer service rep I spoke to was friendly and was trying to be helpful - but I've always found it funny that the more people have screwed up or don't want to take responsibility for their actions/policies, the more they call me "sir" instead of my real name. Apparently, calling people "sir" or "madam" is sign of good customer service. Well, as you might guess, I was called "sir" a lot during this conversation. It turns out they printed the job late, gave the package to UPS late and they were very sorry.

While I honestly believe that my customer service rep (CSR) felt badly about the situation (she was good), what upset me was that she had to routinely put me on hold to talk to her supervisor on how to resolve the matter - like car salespeople going to bat for me with the dealership manager. Silly.

First she came back and said her supervisor would give me 15% off on my next order. She then came back and said they would credit the account for $43 shipping cost, on apparently their final offer the supervisor said they would issue a refund of $43 for the shipping.

Hmm, let's summarize:

• I paid for express shipping, which we didn't receive
• I spent over $20,000 with these guys over the past 2 years
• The original post has over 300 hits (which means I've driven business to them)
• I specifically recommended this printer to the client, the client is now disappointed and inconvenienced
• I look like an idiot
• I am having to waste time out of my day to chase down someone else's screw up

To compensate me for all of this, they are generously going to give back $43.
Are you kidding me?

Would I still recommend these guys? Yeah, I might, it's a shame there aren't better options out there, and I know people can make mistakes. What pissed me off was that the "supervisor" did get on the phone and talk to me about how she/he could have made this right. After getting off the phone with them, I did realize what I wanted - I didn't want any money, but I wanted her/him to call up my client, admit that they completely fumbled this project and ask what they could do to make it right. Instead we got $43 back.

Look, I wasn't expecting them to give me a Porsche, but $43? Am I crazy, am I expecting too much?
Email me or drop me a comment - let me know what you think.

Understanding Your Freelance Graphic Design Clients Better: Perception Versus Realty

My fiancé went to the grocery store a few days ago. In addition to the normal goodies, she informs me with a great sense of pride that she found a sugar free caramel topping that I can pour over my whip crème (I eat too much crap and I am trying to be better). Much to my surprise, the stuff was good - really good! After a few seconds the sugar rush faded and I began to think logically again, I thought, "Hmmm, how could something so tasty not be bad for you?"

It turns out we had a couple of bottle of the sugar loaded caramel syrup, so I made a little comparison: it turns out the sugar free "good stuff" was only 10 calories less that the real stuff! Crap.

This got me thinking about people's perceptions though...we as a society think sugar free is good, when it often isn't any better than the real stuff, McDonald's is always unhealthy and Subway is healthy, and that SUV's make you safe and smaller cars don't.

Are any of these true? I am not sure. It depends on who you talk to, I suppose. The point is, they are assumed or perceived true...which often makes them true in the court of public opinion. Reality and perceived reality aren't always the same.

So when it comes to your freelancing businesses what perceptions do clients have about you?
What perceptions do potential clients have about you versus your competitors?
How can you help to shape or reshape their perceptions?

PS - As part of promoting the Being a Starving Artist Sucks book, I'll be speaking this Friday at Mesa Community College to a group of aspiring designers. I'll also have the book available for purchase on Amazon in the next couple of months (I will receive the first proof in the next couple of days).

They Couldn't be More Wrong - Creative Freelance Designers that are Convinced that Everyone's a Client

A client and a good friend of mine emailed me up a few days ago. She'd read a local press release that I wrote Being a Starving Artist Sucks and was contacting me to say she wanted to purchase a signed copy..."in a few years it might be worth thousands", she wrote.

I am not sure about the thousands part, but I thought, "What the heck?", so I pointed her to the products page and said, "Thanks!"

A few days passed and I noticed she hadn't ordered it...I think I know why. I think she expected the book to be some flimsy 100 page book I threw together and was selling for $9.95. The printed book is just under $100...there is no way in heck that she's buying the book. In all honesty, I can't say I'd blame her, if I was in her position I wouldn't buy it. She's not who I am marketing to, she's not an ideal client/customer.

This book is NOT for everyone, heck it's not even for all creative freelancers. This book is for designers that: have had enough of just scraping by, tired not being paid what they feel they're worth, frustrated that they don't know the insider secrets on handling tough situations and they are willing to work to make things happen. Does that describe you?

This book isn't meant to sit on the shelf, and the freelancers that are purchasing it want a competitive advantage and don't want to just hope they'll become success - they take action and they aren't looking for a quick fix to become successful (they're smarter than that).

Wouldn't it make more sense and make me more money to say this book is for all creative freelancers? No. This book...like your design services, isn't meant for everyone.

When you're marketing, networking and promoting your freelancing services, are you telling people that you'll work with everyone or have you clearly defined who you're looking to support, like I did above (see italicized text)? You'd think that by narrowing your market you'll lose sales, but it has quite the opposite effect: the more you try to be a "jack of all trades" every potential client out there, the less likely they'll be to hire you. The more you've clearly defined your target clients, the more likely you'll be to identify them and attract them.

I only want to support and market to aspiring or experienced freelancers who are really dedicated to becoming successful rather than looking for free, easy answers that don't work - when it comes to your business, who do you want to work with? When you believe could be working for everyone, you end up working with no one.

How Creative Freelancers Can Share Some Wisdom with Comparison Shoppers

Comparison shoppers love the grocery store. Where else can you find rows and rows of similar products and have detailed information that makes pricing a breeze? Unfortunate many business people have tried to apply the same efficiency and approach to hiring a freelancer - it doesn’t quite work that way.

Graphic and web design firms make comparison shopping a little more complicated - particularly when they bill per hour for their services. But for some reason, some business people still feel they can pick out a designer just as easily as picking up produce at the grocery store. If a potential client contacts you, hell-bent on selecting a designer based on hourly rates alone, you may want to share the following with her/him.

The hourly rate is only one of two key variables in determining the total cost for a project; the other being the projected number of hours needed to complete a project. And you know that if you assign a project to five different designers and you’ll probably receive five different time estimates for completion. If your hourly rate is higher than other designers it could be hurting you if you forget to communicate this point to your potential clients.

For example, if you’re charging $10/hr (it’s just a number), and your competition is charging only $5 but often takes twice as much time to finish a project than you do, make sure you make the prospect aware of this.

If you’ve ever bought memory for your computer over the internet you’ve probably seen something like this. The memory is offered at a dirt cheap rate, but there’s a hidden catch. When you see it, you think, “Sweet, what a deal!” Only to find out that while the price of the memory is only one of the two variables in calculating your cost – the other is shipping. For that 20 oz of plastic and metal they charge over $20 to ship it.

To complicate matters further, clients often don’t ask or don’t think about costs that are outside of labor/production may also charged to them. Meeting time, travel time, research and development as well as down time are sometimes included in a designer’s hourly rate, while other designers include none of these costs in their billing. If these costs are built into your rate (and you don’t charge extra) you darn well better make sure your potential client knows it!

When it comes to choosing the right designer, remember that your potential clients aren’t experts. They can easily be fooled, so it’s your job to make sure they’re educated and that they make the right decision.

PS - Hey thanks for the great feedback on the blog, I appreciate you guys writing in! I am glad you're getting some good value out this. If you do get a lot out of this blog, considering supporting me by purchasing a book or product I have here, if now isn't the right time at least share this blog with your friends that you think would enjoy reading it as well. Thanks.

Are Traditional Graphic Designers and Graphic Design Jobs Disappearing?

A young lady that attended my creative freelance designer workshop at the Art Institute of Phoenix recently asked, "What if I don't have any interest or knowledge of doing marketing for a company? I just don't get into writing content, creating tag lines and stuff like that..."

Hmm, the prognosis for her business doesn't look good - at least to me it doesn't. It'll be on life-support before too long. Things weren't always like this but the industry is changing because of technology; and many clients are finding they don't need traditional designers. This is pretty scary, but it's true - look at what's come on the scene within the last 5 years:

• Web site templates
• Easy to use graphic software packages
• Collateral material templates
• Stock photography
• Stock logos

The bottom line is this guys, if you want to be a traditional graphic designer that focuses on creating cool imagery and working with clients that know exactly what they want when it comes to their marketing you can do it...it's just going to be really hard to make a living at it, and it's getting harder everyday. The good news is that you can compete if you have skills in marketing and sales - talent beyond just graphic design. If you can help a company attract more customers and money, they'll always be a place for you.

Agree, disagree or think I am crazy? Drop me an email or leave a comment. This is a tough issue, but one thing we can all agree on is that it's not going away.

PS - I'll be recruiting volunteer freelancers that are interested in reviewing my new book called, Verbal Kung Fu for Freelancers (this was Verbal Judo for Designers, but I changed it).

If you've ever felt that a client took advantage of you or that you just didn't have the confidence or words to tell a client they were being unfair - this book was written for you. Check back over the next couple of weeks and I'll have more details for you.