Graphic design is a competitive industry. With many talented designers passing out of school every year, it’s becoming hard for graphic design business to make a name for itself in the industry.
Whether you work solo or have a small team, a graphic design business needs more than just being creative. It requires skills in management, marketing, and operations.
Let’s look at some of the common pitfalls of growth in the design industry and how to avoid them.
Hire carefully
Employees deal with customers on a regular basis and also essential cogs for delivering goods or providing relevant services.
Without a quality team of employees, it is impossible for your graphic design business to stand out, build a brand and develop a unique customer experience.
Making a wrong decision in the hiring process can lead to a lot of stress as they could drive down sales and cost your business a lot of unnecessary expenses.
Only by hiring the right person your business will move in a positive direction and become successful in the future. You must always hire employees to serve clients, rather than finding clients to pay your employees.
So as you evaluate your hiring choices and decisions, if you’re looking to cut down recruitment costs, you can consider outsourcing.
You may be an expert on print graphic design but, a potential client may want a project done on digital or web graphic design. In such cases, instead of hiring more employees, you can outsource the work.
Cost reduction is overwhelmingly the most compelling reason that companies choose to relocate jobs overseas.
The below statistic shows the global market size of outsourced services from 2000 to 2017.
It will actually help your company grow and save money. There are also other advantages of outsourcing that goes beyond money. Here are some,
You can start new projects quickly
Improved focus on your core business activities
Unlimited access to a large talent pool
Save money on infrastructure and technology
Reduced risk
At Web Design Retainer, we offer a wide range of graphic design services for digital and print. We have years of experience in providing our professional design services for clients of all sizes across the globe. If you’re looking for a design partner to meet your graphic design needs, our team is always ready to help.
Set the right price for your Graphic Design Business
Billing on an hourly rate is the most popular pricing option. You can use time tracking software’s to know exactly how much you spend on each project.
It is a straightforward way of charging, you just tell a client you charge $XX per hour and if they think it’s reasonable they’ll agree or move on. Also, the client’s also knows exactly how much you charge and it’s a transparent way of doing business. Additionally, clients are also used to dealing with it as this is how their lawyers, accountants and other professionals charge.
Some are concerned that if the project goes beyond scope, it is hard to bill under hourly basis. They also think it is a major disadvantage.
Here at Web Design Retainer, we offer retainer packages for graphics designing where the services are billed at an hourly rate. We’ll clearly lay out the fact that if the scope is increased, we will again start to bill them for every extra hour spent on the project. So no matter the method you follow, you have to be absolutely clear with term and conditions.
Get your name out there
Now that you have some idea on what to focus on, you have to release the work you want to be recognized for into the world. You have to start building a website that will serve as your portfolio.
Did you know that it takes no more than 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website? .05 seconds
So a website is no longer luxury; it is a necessity to maintain your visibility. The more professional your website is, the more advantages you gain. It also ensures that your brand identity is noted.
If you are looking for a website design for your business website, there are many designers who can help you. There are many website design and website maintenance packages with different prices, you can browse through them and pick one that serves your needs.
Additionally, you have to be active on social media websites like Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to drive more traffic to your website.
Choose the right clients
As a graphic design business owner, you might think that you should serve everyone you can. If your business is busy, it is good, right? Taking on every client who wants to work with you is injurious to your growth and not a strategic move.
If you start serving poor quality clients, you won’t have time to look for the good ones.
But how to identify good clients? Based on your expertise, you can get an idea but, most of the good clients share these traits,
The client recognizes your value and lets you be in control of the designing
You enjoy working with them
They are profitable
Letting off the wrong clients is the one thing that sets graphic design businesses apart from those who struggle to grow. This tactic is intimidating, but if you let go of such clients your company will grow.
Growing with wrong clients is aimless growth and it also hurts the good clients you have. When you’re mostly surrounded by clients who cannot be pleased, you cannot focus on clients who appreciate you. So make sure you choose the right ones to work with.
Conclusion
Running a successful graphic design business is a long and arduous process. So keep in mind that the graphic design industry requires a lot of patience.
If it helps, you can take a look at other graphic designers to find out how they are promoting themselves. The more you observe, the more you’ll know how to experiment and figure out what will work for you. If you take the above tips into consideration, you can pave your way into creating a phenomenal graphic design business.
If you’re looking for creative ideas that will get your users transfixed, we can help you.
We offer comprehensive graphic design services which include branding, logo design, brochure design, advert design, business card design, stationery design and much more. We have professionals with comprehensive experience across wide range of design sectors.
Work with us and we’ll make sure you get what you’re looking for. Contact us now!
