While I haven’t had much going on in the blogging department of late, I have had a lot going on in the research and development department and you would have read about that in my article on Keepin’ it Tidy.
I’ve come across a lot of blogs on design and business promotion on a budget during recent times. It’s quite ironic because I’m currently in the situation of wondering how to promote myself to gain more clients. I already have several clients and pull in maybe one a month. While more business is always nice, I just don’t have the slightest about how to promote myself. I have plenty of ideas of how to promote other peoples businesses, but never mine.
I’m a designer; I have been for some 8-9 years now and I’m just that – a designer. I don’t know how to code web pages strictly, but I can do enough to get a website out for someone on a budget that works. Like I said, I’m a designer so I only care how it looks at the end and if it looks like it should then I’ve done my job. But I’m no web designer – my forte lies in print and pre-press and that’s where I’d like to stay. Leave the ‘candy-apple’ graphics to the kids with Photoshop and nothing better to do. Because honestly, they make some of the most terrible designs I’ve ever seen and you only need to see some PHP-nuke templates to understand what I’m talking about.
More to the point, I read both articles on Freelanceswitch.com about how to promote your graphic design business part one and part two, and also the 10 essential free or cheap ways to market your freelance work. This is where I’m going to go in more depth on some of their material
Also a lot of people find it easy to give advice on how to promote your business, but not in enough depth. Exactly what should we put on a business card? Thats something I’m going to try and help you with, and more.
I’m progressively working on a series of articles that I’ll release over the next few months covering some topics mentioned in FreelanceSwitch to help start up a business. If you’re like me and you want to make a little bit of cash on the side and hope in pushing your business to one day be a full time proposition, then stick around and I’ll give you something to read and consider before you start up your own business.To see whats coming up, I’ll be writing on the following.
- Brainstorming
What exactly do you want to do as a business? Finding a good business name, doing some lengthy research and deploying that research to get the ball rolling.
- Promotions
Business cards, websites, marketing proposals, fliers. It’s all there, can be done cheaply and effectively.
- Client Focus
Focusing on what your client wants, and what you can give them to find the right balance.
- Target Audience
Find your target audience, who are going to be your clients, and who is going to be their clients.
- Communication
Communicating with your prospective clients, and helping them communicate with theirs.
- Profitable Niche
Narrowing down that target audience to find a niche market you can find profitable from.
- Client Satisfaction
Bending over backwards until your client is happy.