august 2016

How To Create A Contract For Your Design Business

How To Create A Contract For Your Design Business

As all freelance designers and creative entrepreneurs know, contracts are a necessity when working with clients, no matter how big or small the project is. 

Why?

  1. Contracts provide you and the client with a description of responsibilities. It helps you both understand who is responsible for what. 
  2. Contracts secure payment. 
  3. Contracts protect you if you encounter problems with your clients.

Most designers do have a contract in place, but it's usually either (A) an unprofessional contract they wrote themselves (B) a contract they created from bits and pieces of other designers contracts, or (C) a template they found on some shady website they can't even remember.

5 ugly truths about becoming a freelance designer

5 ugly truths about becoming a freelance designer

When I first decided to become a freelance designer, I had big dreams about what it would be like. At the time, I worked a boring 9-5 job that didn't fulfill me creatively in the slightest, so the thought of being paid to design and do what I love filled me with SO much joy. 

I followed lots of design bloggers and I was always in awe of the pretty moodboards they had created, the beautiful Instagram profiles they had curated, and the wonderful testimonials from wonderful clients about how wonderful the design experience was. The life of a freelance designer looked beautiful. But that's probably because I was looking at it through rose-tinted glasses.

I know there are lot of people in my community who want to quit their jobs and become freelance designers (or start other kinds of businesses), so I wanted to take the opportunity today to share a few truths with you.

How to get clients from Twitter

How to get clients from Twitter

Twitter has recently become one of my favorite social media platforms. 

It’s the perfect place to connect with likeminded creatives, build friendships and share your work. 

The mistake a lot of business owners make when promoting their business on Twitter is only tweeting their content, services and products.

That’s not going to work on Twitter. 

Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? You can apply this rule to ANYTHING in life, but we're going to apply it to the wonderful world of Twitter. Here’s what it comes down to: 

Use 20% of your content to promote your brand, and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversation.

cheatsheet.png