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How I Got Rich From Being A Graphic Designer
This is the story of Jacob, who was a part of Blue Sky Graphics last year. He studied design for almost a year and developed a portfolio. Today, he is working as a successful graphic designer and earning a decent sum of money. Here are some of the things he has to share with aspiring designers who want to earn more money!
1. Say good-by to unsatisfactory customers.
According to the Pareto Principle, you will most likely get 80 per cent of your profits from 20 per cent of your clients (this will be different if you are not a freelancer). In principle, you could fire 80 per cent of your clients and yet make 80 per cent of what you are already paying.
Things take a mystical turn from there.
Not only can you keep making similar to what you were before, but you also free up 80 per cent of your customer base, making room for bigger, better customers. Clients who would pay you better, respect you, and assist you in reaching your objectives. It can be frightening to say goodbye to bad clients, but it can also be liberating and empowering. You can see what I mean if you do it with only a few of the worst ones.
2. Raise the prices for new customers
Another obvious (but terrifying) way to make extra money as a designer is to deliver a price rise letter to all of your new customers. This also applies to all new customers.
When you lift your rates, a curious thing happens: the low-balling, tire-kicking customers (the ones you had to shoot in point #1 of this article) avoid coming back. Instead, you are approached by real companies with big budgets looking to work with a pro. Consider what this could mean for your day job if you are not a freelancer.
Contrary to popular belief, architecture is not a luxury, and successful designers — those who have a significant effect on a company’s bottom line — are in short supply. Leverage this by politely requesting a salary, a promotion, or more career perks.
3. Increase conversions by optimising the portfolio
If your company depends on an online portfolio to produce new revenue, concentrating on conversion strategies this year could mean a big payoff. And optimising the online portfolio for conversions does not have to be time-consuming or difficult. Even a few well-thought-out changes will have a significant effect on who enters your online portfolio and what they do while there.
Install Google Analytics or other analytics tools you trust to get started, and then start seeing how people communicate with your portfolio. Then, drawing influence from other design portfolios develops hypotheses, evaluate certain hypotheses, and iterate when required.
4. Have upsold in the production workflow
If you wish to make more money as a designer this year, you can see that you can incorporate upsells into your existing workflow. Upselling your services (for example, asking “would you like fries with that?”) is a fast way to increase your profit margin without adding too much more labour to your plate.
Of course, you must exercise caution by adding benefit without adding additional hours to your calendar. If you need some inspiration, read my post about how to upsell your design ventures and increase your profit margin.
5. Earn Passive Income
There is almost nothing more mystical than passive income for designers, similar to building extra cash through your income by upsells.
While creating streams of “passive” income requires a significant amount of work upfront, they can pay off handsomely in the long run. Making in-depth, high-value digital design products and selling them on marketplaces is one of the most basic and effective ways to build a passive income design business. You may also consider creating design courses that you can build once and resell to enthusiastic learners through marketplaces.
There are numerous passive income ideas that work well for designers; all you have to do is find the ones that work for you.
6. Make time-consuming aspects of your work automated
Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, there will almost certainly be tasks that take up far too much of your time. These activities could include invoicing, documentation, file backups, looking for a new company, investigating, and more. But just because you are in charge of a design project does not mean you have to do it yourself.
With everything from software and gadgets to help you get the job done on autopilot to low-cost assisting labour on-site, “not having time” is no longer an acceptable reason. The more time you can free up, the more time you can devote to billable hours or company growth – more money and happiness will follow.
7. Produce and Licensing Your Work
This is an excellent way to become rich, as well as one of the most profitable if you understand the ins and outs. The process of licencing your designs is reasonably simple: you visit a corporation that manufactures products and sell them the rights to replicate your work on anything they manufacture in return for a royalty (usually around 7-10 per cent). Then you sit back, put your feet up, and wait for the cheques to come in a while working on a new plan. There are no other customers or middlemen to negotiate with, and you do not have to worry about how the goods can be manufactured or sold – it is the licensee’s responsibility.
8. Become a Startup Founder
This is yet another trendy way for a designer to become wealthy, especially after the dawn of the new age of online and technology startups. Sign in at the ground floor of a startup, contribute to the design of the company’s website, logo, or products, and wait for it to become a million-pound company.
Of note, this approach necessitates a great deal of hard work as well as chance. If you want to serve as a founder member of a venture, you may need to sharpen your Good Startup Detection skills. When investigating a startup, look for warning signs and red flags. Pay close attention to whether they are actually marketing a good or service or whether it is just a ruse.
Why does a designer think about making more money?
All designers are artists, and most artists think much more about their craft and business than they do about making money. We agree with you, but the fact is that having more money will open up a slew of new doors for you and your art.
Designers who earn a higher salary can opt to devote some of their spare time to pro bono work with companies who make a difference around the world.
