Design Domination Podcast Episode #180: 21 Business Lessons After 21 Years in Business

Music: https://www.bensound.com

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July marks 21 years since I created the LLC for my consulting business and almost that long since I started working for myself full time. So I thought this would be the perfect time to reflect on 21 business lessons I’ve learned over the years.

1. Don’t call yourself a “freelancer.”

The first lesson is don’t refer to yourself as a “freelancer.”

When I was first starting out in my own business, I called myself a freelancer all the time. I didn’t think much of it really. Working for myself seemed synonymous with “freelancer.”

But I quickly came to see that “freelancer” was what I call the “other F word.” I will say, though, it doesn’t have as much of a bad taste as it did 20 years ago, but it also doesn’t really convey anything about what you do.

It’s a very generic term. You can be a freelancer in many industries.

It’s important for friends, family and clients to know what you do, so they can refer people to you.

But, also, you might find that clients may not take you as seriously if you call yourself a freelancer. I am not saying you can’t be a freelancer. I’m just saying don’t use that term.

Another issue is that many designers who call themselves “freelancers” don’t think of themselves as a business. So they don’t act like one. They may be more lackadaisical about contracts, payments, their marketing and so forth.

But you are a business, so you have to think like one if you’re going to stay in business.

If you work for yourself—whether you’re an LLC, incorporated or not a separate business entity at all—you still need to think like a business owner.

2. Own who you are and what you do.

This is a very important lesson, and it took me a very long time to learn it.

One of the things that I wonder for years was should I refer to my business as an “I” or a “we?”

This became more of an issue for me in this one particular case when I went to meet with a potential client about a media kit design. Shortly after that, I was on my honeymoon.

I remember taking my laptop over to the office area to check my email (there was no wifi in those days) and checking to see if I had heard from that client. Totally pathetic, right?

Even worse, I learned right then, when I was checking my emails, that they had turned me down for the work. When I asked why, I couldn’t believe the words staring me in the face in the email. It was because I didn’t “have staff.”

Why in the world would I need to have staff to design a media kit? I had created plenty of media kits in the past all by myself. Why did they see that as being an issue?

I knew darn well I was capable of taking on much larger projects than that and working on them by myself. So that really pissed me off.

I think after that I felt the need to prove myself to certain potential clients.

I remember writing and rewriting and rewriting some more the copy on my About page. I went back and forth about using “I” or “we” so many times.

I wanted to attract any potential client—those looking for a solo designer and those who were looking for an agency. But I also didn’t want to misrepresent myself either.

What I should have done was just owned being a solo designer and realized that clients… Some of them are misinformed or they might have different preferences about who they wanted to work with, and then I could have just moved on from clients that didn’t want to work with a solo designer.

Some clients want to work with a solo designer and some want to work with an agency. You don’t need to adjust who you are and how you want your business to be, because some clients may not want to work with you.

Several years ago, I had a coach who strongly encouraged me to run my business instead of doing the work. They were very much into the concept of you being only the business owner and having a team do the work.

I really didn’t want to not do the work. But I have also since learned I don’t like managing people, and I don’t want to hire someone else to manage them either.

I also have certain standards. I am super picky, and some of that is necessary for the type of work I do—accessibility work and very technical publications.

But I don’t have the personality of someone who wants to do that. I would rather work by myself or have one person working with me. I have absolutely no desire to have a large team. I want a much simpler business.

The other thing is that a lot of designers think they need to be everything to everyone. I used to think this.

I had a client that I did website updates for and one day he suggested offering SEO too. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to learn something new. I didn’t want to offer something new.

But I see a lot of branding or print designers who feel like they also need to be a website developer. But—news flash—you don’t! Stay in your lane.

Subcontract or refer the work you don’t want to do to someone who does it. If it’s not something you know, it will take you so much longer and it may not get done as well.

3. Niche!

The third lesson I learned was about niching.

Niching can be a controversial topic. Do you have to niche to be successful in business? Do you have to niche to make six figures? No.

Will it be harder if you don’t? Probably. Could be.

I struggled with the idea of niching for quite a few years. So many coaches talk about niching.

But, like most designers, I felt like I could serve everyone, so why in the world would I want to alienate potential clients by niching?

In my case, most of my clients have always been nonprofits, but I had a few small businesses as well.

I remember struggling to write blog posts—not because I didn’t know what to say. It was because I couldn’t speak to both audiences using the same language.

Nonprofits and small businesses don’t use the same terms.

You also refer to nonprofits as “nonprofits” or “organizations.” You refer to businesses as “businesses.”

Some nonprofits sell things, just like businesses do, but they may work off donations.

On the other side, not all nonprofits are charities. Some nonprofits don’t want to hear about sales. They are only interested in increasing donations.

Businesses, on the other hand, are talking about sales. They’re focused on sales. don’t take donations.

I tried using more generic terms, like “organizations” to represent both audiences. I tried to incorporate all the terms in my copy. So when I would refer to “increasing sales,” for instance, I would say “increasing sales or donations.”

My copy started sounding unnatural and really verbose.

In trying to be inclusive of both audiences, I realized I was really alienating both of them.

So that meant they didn’t think I really understood them and their needs.

So then I thought, OK, I will make nonprofits my niche. But that too is really broad.

It didn’t help I was offering almost anything and everything at the buffet—logo design (which I hate), print design, website design and development, website maintenance plans, SEO through a partner relationship and so forth.

It was a lot to manage. Plus I was confused about who I was serving and what I was offering. I came across as a jack-of-all-trades.

Then I talked with a coach, who suggested I simplify and get rid of some of these services. One of them that they wanted me to get rid of was maintenance plans. I was kicking and screaming about why would I get rid of recurring revenue.

I mean, everyone talks about recurring revenue as the holy grail. But there are some downsides to recurring revenue, which I talked about with business coach David C. Baker on the podcast.

I had only a few website maintenance plans. They didn’t bring in that much money every month. The profit from them was almost nothing, and they were a lot for me to manage.

As much as I was afraid to get rid of them, I did—and I am so glad I did.

Niching (which I did with accessibility) is something I wish I had done sooner in business. My business has always done well—six figures every year—but niching really helped me to do things like:

• charge more;
• bolster my confidence, especially in the sales process, which I used ti hate (and now I don’t mind it at all);
• get clear about how to talk to my audience and about what I offered;
• get more respect; and
• have fewer processes (I am not always switching gears to a million different things).

Prior to niching, I struggled with all of those things. I think that affected getting work from new clients who didn’t know me. I had a lot of clients, but it was hard to get new ones. Since niching, I get new clients so much easier.

4. Screen clients before working with them.

In my earlier years in business, when a potential client would call or email me, I would get so excited. Could this be my next project?

I thought it was my mission in business to win every client and project that came my way.

I didn’t have any kind of screening process in place before working with a client.

Red flags would be flying everywhere, and I would just ignore them all.

No, that’s not going to happen with this client.

I had potential clients who wanted to tell me how much they were willing to pay. I thought I needed to adjust my pricing to meet that.

I had potential clients who wanted to ramble on for more than an hour on the phone, as if I had nothing else to do. They don’t respect you or your time.

I had one or two who refused to use my calendar link to schedule a call.

I had a few ask me to do free work up front to see if they liked it and only then would they pay me.

Listen: if potential clients won’t follow your process or abide by your terms, that’s a huge red flag!

It will come back to bite you every single time. They will make your life difficult. They may fight you throughout the process, trying to manage things, instead of letting you lead the process.

So always screen clients to see if they are a good fit or not.

5. Be comfortable saying “no.”

That leads me to the next lesson: Be comfortable saying “no.”

You do not have to—and should not—work with every client who comes your way.

I used to be such the people pleaser! And I know that so many other designers are too.

It’s ok to say no! It’s even good to say no.

You have to get comfortable with saying no…

• To clients you don’t want to work with;
• To unreasonable client requests;
• To certain types of work you don’t want to do, such as something that goes against your morals or work that you just can’t stand doing (like coding HTML emails!);
• To work you’re not good at.

You do not have to do anything you do not want to do.

In fact, if you say yes and take on a project or client that you don’t enjoy working with, you won’t do your best work. And that won’t make you look good. That will cost you a good testimonial. It will cost you a referral.

Worse, it could cost you the project fee. You might end up having to refund it.

If you say yes to client requests such as sucking up making extra revisions, you won’t be as profitable.

If you say yes to calls and meetings on the weekends or evenings just to accommodate a client, they could bully you in other areas of your business too.

It’s also OK to not put up with bad clients:

• bully clients,
• late payers,
• difficult clients, and so forth.

It is 100% OK to not work with them to begin with or to fire them. You do not have to put up with them.

6. Be comfortable hearing “no.”

Not only should you be OK saying “no,” you should be comfortable hearing “no.”

I used to think it was my goal to win every client and project that came my way. When I didn’t get that project or client, I was disappointed. I felt like I had failed.

I questioned myself. Was it me? Was it my pricing? Was my work not good enough? Was it because I was a solo designer? Remember that one client that got in my head about that.

Let me tell you… Your goal in business is not to get every single project or client, like I said earlier.

Like Blair Enns says:

No is the second best answer we can hear. We want to hear it as early in the buying cycle as possible.

That’s because you don’t want to waste time on clients who aren’t a good fit.

Boom!

7. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

That leads me to the next lesson: Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there.

A lot of designers (I get it!) are afraid or just don’t want to write blog posts or post to social media, because they are shy about putting themselves out there.

Maybe you think clients won’t care what you have to say. Maybe you think others will judge you for what you say.

I totally get it. I used to not even put my video on when I would attend webinars. I wouldn’t ask questions. I thought I would look stupid for asking.

Bullies at home and at school used to criticize everything I said and did, so wouldn’t strangers treat me worse?

Plus, people can be complete jerks online. There is always going to be someone who is a jerk or jealous and says something negative. Everyone has an opinion.

But you have a lot of knowledge to share, even if you think you don’t. I promise you do.

Your audience will probably surprise you and embrace what you have to say.

Most designers are also not going to go beyond that and get on a podcast or host a workshop, but those are great ways to get more exposure for your business and to get new clients.

It builds credibility.

I never thought I would even have a podcast. A coach suggested I do it to reach a new audience—designers, you.

Again, why would I put myself out there? That would be crazy. I was always criticized.

But I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by the feedback I’ve gotten, and I try to ignore the couple people who felt the need to tell me they can’t stand my laugh. Not my problem. That’s their problem.

8. Don’t take everything personally.

The next lesson is don’t take everything personally. I remember getting really upset early in my career if my boss or my clients didn’t like my designs.

I am sure it could have been any combination of people pleasing behavior on my part, missing the mark with the design or someone who just wanted to put their own stamp on things.

If someone doesn’t like your design, it doesn’t mean they don’t like you. Design can be very subjective, and everything thinks they’re a designer.

But it also could be that you need to know who you’re designing for, and you need to make sure to get that right.

What can help you to do that is keeping things objective. You want to use a creative brief and refer back to it as you are designing. Also, reiterate a client’s goals and who their audience is when you present the work. It makes it much easier to explain your work and to get it approved.

If you get any criticism, assess it and see if you could learn from it.

Whatever you do though, don’t ask what they “think!” Like I said, everyone thinks they’re a designer, but everyone has an opinion. If you ask for one, you will get one! I promise you.

9. Use a contract for every new client.

I cannot stress this lesson enough: Use a contract for every single new client! That goes for friends and family too.

It doesn’t matter if you know your client or if they seem nice. Trust me. No pun intended.

Contracts should always be used. You don’t necessarily have to use one for every single project for the same client, but you should for each client and any different type of work.

What I mean by that is that you may use a different contract for website design and development than you would for print or digital files.

Contracts clarify the scope of the project and the terms of working with you, when to pay and so forth. It makes sure everyone is on the same page.

Don’t assume your clients will understand how you work or what is or is not included or what rights they are getting to the files, if they’re getting any.

Plus, professional use contracts—always!

I once had a nightmare project where my point of contact changed about six times. I can’t tell you how many times I had to point them back to the contract for them to see what the scope was.

If you do work for friends and family, use a contract. It’s very easy for you to make exceptions and go beyond the scope of work. If you want to do that, it’s your business to do that.

Things get muddied and hen you may become resentful.

I’ve had it happen many times, and it ruined a few friendships. I have since refused to do work for friends or family.

The other thing is that don’t think that someone you know won’t burn you.

One business who didn’t pay me was owned by two women that I had met at a small local business conference and had a good repoire with. In fact, I worked on their website for several years—until they ghosted me.

They didn’t give me a heads-up that they were going to have issues paying. They also didn’t even respond to my emails or phone messages asking for the money. Luckily, the amount they stiffed me was very small. It was maybe $20 or $50 or something.

But I knew them, so that was weird.

10. Sell results, not deliverables.

Let’s get into a lesson about sales. I can hear you screaming. Sales?!

I know but hear me out. Sales doesn’t have to feel sleazy, and it doesn’t have to be hard either.

I used to hate the sales process. What do I say and when? Did I not do the close properly?

I would be totally nervous. I felt like the client was a shark and there was blood in the water all around me.

I felt like sales was about convincing clients to work with me.

When you understand the underlying problem you’re really helping your clients with, then the sales process will be easier. It will just be a conversation of helping them, not convincing them. You’ll be selling by helping them as my friend Nick Gulic says.

As my friend Mike Killen says:

“Sell futures, not features.”

That means you want to talk about the results of what you sell—not like specs. What is this going to do for them? What problem is this going to solve?

The other thing is that when you talk about solving problems and not deliverables, clients are less likely to commoditize what you do and price shop.

But you have to understand the value you bring to the table. If you think you are selling just a brochure or just a website and you don’t see those things as giving them a more professional business presence and helping them being in more clients, then your clients won’t see it that way either.

No one wants a brochure or a website or a logo dsign just to have one. They want what it will do for them. That is where the value lies.

11. Revisit your rates annually.

Speaking of pricing, be sure to revisit your rates every year. The cost of living goes up. Your business expenses go up. Your skills get better over time. You get faster over time. Clients should expect to pay more.

I remember a time when I discovered I had not raised my pricing for a client in seven years, I think it was. Seven years! It might have been five. But that’s horrible, really, really horrible.

12. Don’t assume all clients are looking for “cheap.”

A lot of designers assume that clients are looking for cheap prices. I used to think this too.

A lot of times, this stems from our own mindset around money. Sometimes it’s because we undervalue the work we do. We forget how much effort we’ve put into learning it and perfecting it over time.

You become better and faster at it. But, for some reason, you think it should cost less because it’s taking less time.

Or you think it should cost less because clients can Google how to do it.

This keeps you from charging more or looking for clients who will pay more.

Not all clients want to do it themselves. Most clients aren’t interested in doing that because they value their time.

Many are willing to pay more to get it done right the first time and not go round and round with a designer who is maybe cheaper and not as skilled.

And if you think having low rates helps you get work, sorry, but you’re wrong.

I know this from tons of experience.

Good clients are looking for value and they are turned off by low rates. They will wonder why the work is so cheap. It must not be that good.

That’s what they’re thinking. That’s probably not true in your case. But that’s what they’re going to think. I’ve had clients tell me this—this is why they didn’t pick me because my rates were too low and they thought I wasn’t qualified, even though I could run circles around the work. I could do it in my sleep.

I can’t tell you how many times I lost a project due to estimating too low. I can’t tell you how icky I felt when a client that I had told I wasn’t offering one-off website fixes anymore. He said to me, “Well, darn. I was hoping to work with you again because you were so cheap.”

Cringe.

I’d rather hear no due to my price being too high now than too low now. At least I still feel more respected.

Low rates also mean that you will always attract clients looking for cheap work. You get what you put out there.

Cheap clients are often the worst to work with too. They will nitpick everything to death. They may not pay you on time either.

But my rant’s not over.

Low rates also keep you stuck. Not only will your business not grow, but you will be stuck in a mental rut, afraid to charge more. It’s not a fun place to be.

If you live in fear that raising your rates will cause your current clients to leave, your business will suffer.

You will always be in a race to the bottom when you price projects. You will always competing on price against other designers.

Before I end my rant on low pricing, let me also talk about lowering your pricing to get a client. You will likely encounter a client who will ask you to lower your price.

You can do that, but you should also decrease what is included as well. You don’t want to do the same amount of work for the same price. Or make the schedule more flexible or something. But you never want to keep the terms the same at the same price.

13. Don’t charge hourly.

Another pricing lesson is don’t charge hourly. Hourly punishes you.

I learned that as I got better and faster, my rate needed to go up, because I was spending less time on a project but able to deliver it faster. That meant I was adding more value to my work. What client doesn’t want good and fast? That shouldn’t come cheap.

There are also so may hours in a day, in a week and in a month. That means you limit how much you can make.

I also didn’t think it was fair if it took me longer that it should cost the client more.

When you use flat rates, it’s actually better for you and the client. The value of what you provide isn’t based on your time. It’s based on your expertise. You make more money.

Clients aren’t writing a blank check. They’re not waiting to find out how many hours the job took you. They will know up front what the project will cost.

It’s a win-win.

14. Talk money up front.

Another lesson is to always talk money up front. Professionals talk money up front. It’s expected.

When you do this, you get an idea of what a client is looking to spend so you can create a solution that works for them. You also won’t waste your time writing estimates for tire kickers or for a client with completely unrealistic expectations.

That never happens.

I can’t tell you how many times I spent days agonizing over estimates for projects.

OMG, what if this price is too high? What if it’s too low?

If only I had brought up some kind of a price range when talking to them, I would have saved so much time. Estimates would have been more of a written confirmation of the pricing and terms, not a guessing game.

I remember this time a potential client called to ask about having a slide deck designed and they needed it done over the weekend too. I told her what that would start at.

She was completely blown away. Out of curiosity, I asked her how much had she been expecting to pay. She said $100!

I was really glad I didn’t waste time putting together an estimate! That would have been crazy.

15. Get money up front.

Another lesson is to always, always, always get money up front.

Fortunately, I’ve only not been paid by one or two clients, and it wasn’t for a lot of money. But I’ve had a gazillion late-paying clients that I put up with for years.

Getting money up front means less chasing down payments.

When you don’t get money up front, you take on a lot of risk. What if you do the work, send a proof, they cancel the project and have someone else who is cheaper finish it and they just don’t pay you?

That might be a rare scenario, but I have heard of this happening from other designers.

You don’t want to invest your time into a project you’re potentially not going to get paid for.

16. Set and enforce boundaries.

Another lesson is to set—but also enforce—boundaries with clients. Setting boundaries is easy. Enforcing them is the hard part.

For years, I had no boundaries. I was a huge people pleaser, as many designers are too. My business was a complete circus, with clients running it, clients running the show.

Anything they asked, I did, for the most part.

One client, who used to work at my full-time place of work, would call me at my job instead of waiting for me to respond when I was able to outside of my work hours!

I should have told her that was totally not OK. But speaking up for yourself against clients is hard. What if you lose their business?

You teach people how to treat you by what you let them get away with. Also, rarely are you a pushover in business and not in your personal life. It seems to me that’s the case.

Boundaries also include your written policies too—not just how people treat you but your written policies, such as:

• your terms of work,
• how to contact you (or not contact you),
• when they can expect to reach you.

Enforcing them may mean you’re collecting late fees for an invoice paid late, and you’re not replying to calls and emails outside of work hours, or that you have to fire a client.

17. Fire bad clients.

Speaking of firing bad clients, you definitely should fire clients who don’t respect your boundaries. If they don’t respect your boundaries, they don’t respect you!

Hanging onto bad clients negatively affects your mindset and that affects your work for good clients. You become distracted. They suck up your time and energy.

I wish I had learned that lesson much sooner than I did.

Get rid of them.

18. Ask for testimonials or reviews.

After a job well done, when the client is happy, that’s the best time to ask for a testimonial or review.

I’ve had new clients tell me they could relate to what another client said, reading that review, and that testimonial helped them decide to work with me.

They can also help your website rank higher in search results [ with Google reviews ].

19. Keep backups.

You don’t want to have to learn this lesson the hard way either. Back up your work.

I can’t tell you how many times having a backup saved me.

I’ve had the power go out and I needed  to continue working. I was able to do that from the backup of my main computer.

I’ve had clients come back years later to update a brochure. I was able to just pull the file from an external drive I use for backups of all my projects. That saved me a ton of time.

I also maintain a backup of my external backup drive in case one drive fails. I have had that happen too.

20. Get support.

Get support when you feel stuck.

I was thrust right into my first design job two days after my college graduation. I was the only designer there. There wasn’t another  designer to get feedback or support from.

But then when I went to work in a design firm and had other designers and an art director I could talk to, that really helped me stretch my design muscles.

So if you’re a solo designer, don’t design in isolation. Don’t be afraid to ask for critique from more seasoned designers. You can easily join an online group or get a design mentor to help you. That will give you objective opinions and help you to improve your skills—not just creative skills but software skills as well—even business skills or how you approach a design.

Also don’t be afraid to invest in yourself.

I remember talking to a business coach almost 20 years ago (maybe like 15 years ago) and the cost for it felt astronomical to me. I couldn’t have imagined spending that much money. I also didn’t believe in myself enough (now that I look back on it). I had a lot of imposter syndrome going on.

I couldn’t help but wonder years later how much farther my business would have gotten—and how much faster I would have gotten there—had I invested in myself and worked with that coach back then.

21. Don’t ask for advice from unqualified people.

By that, I mean don’t go asking friends and family what to do about your business, unless they have a business.

I say that because, for years, I would ask family and friends about clients I was having issues with. They would always tell me, oh, well, if they are paying you (especially “that much”), just put up with it. Just put up with the bad treatment from them.

Heck! No wonder I got that advice. Some of the people giving that advice were treating me badly. At least with clients who were doing it, I was getting paid!

No, but seriously, as I say a lot: You do not have to pimp yourself out for the money!

So when you ask unqualified people for advice, you’re going to get unqualified advice. You get advice that isn’t necessarily helpful.

If someone had told me years ago, “You don’t have to put up with that crap,” maybe I would have gotten a backbone a lot sooner. I didn’t until much, much later, after investing a lot of money into coaching.

What lessons have you learned in business?

Let me know in a comment.

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