KnowledgeCity.com - Doing Business as a Designer - Building Your Business One Day at a Time

Doing Business as a Designer:
Building Your Business 1 Day at a Time
(Slide-u-mentary Version - made in google docs)
By Jae Xavier of KnowledgeCity.com
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Blog: jaexavier.wordpress.com
Twitter: twitter.com/jaexavier

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Introduction
This post is especially aimed at you younger voracious
designers who are starting up.
 
Sure, you’d like your design business to attract a lot of
clients. And… sure, you’d want your design business to be the
best there is, FAST.
 
The truth is; business is about process. Every bit of a
business has sub processes that make your design firm
function properly.

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What are those processes?
Here are the main sub processes that compose of a business:
 
Sales and Marketing – Attracting and contacting prospects,
identifying their needs, negotiate, and close the sale.
 
Finance and Accounting – Paying invoices, manage
receivables, manage debt, and manage the economics of your
business.
 
Administration – Hiring, leadership, and company structure.
 
Operations – Preproduction, previsualization, concepting,
production, rendering, customer service, tech support

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What to expect
Early on, these processes start small. As your company
matures, each of these processes will be administered either
by you or someone you hire. This is a matter of preference for
the founder(s) of the company.
 
For example, you are the only person running your company.
You may be managing all the aspects of your design business
all by yourself.

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Some Scenarios
Here are some scenarios to consider:
 
If you want to grow your business faster, you can choose to
focus on sales, marketing, finance, operations, and
administration while you hire contractors to handle design
work. You are more likely to get more customers but have
lower profit margins because you are paying contractors.
 
If you handle production, you will be neglecting sales and
marketing. Therefore far fewer businesses will be coming in.
However you will have larger profit margins.

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Conclusion
Either way, it’s important to take it a step at a time;
otherwise disorganization will infect your business, distraction
will cloud your vision, and you will become easily lost.

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Want to know more?
Resources
SBA and SCORE
Small Business Management - Online Training
Professional Sales – Online Training
Marketing Concept – Online Training
 
Articles
Doing Business as a Designer: Getting Started
Doing Business as a Designer: The Article Collection at Scribd

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