Entrepreneur

Are you taking advantage of Etsy?

Do something that can't be replaced by AI

Honestly you can make more money as an entry level employee at Amazon

Example of your work? Hard to give feedback with nothing to work with.

You can find someone who knows branding and will help you gain social presence and make yourself look like a brand.

Graphic design is going to be tough and it’s only going to get tougher the more people start using AI.

How’s your English and phone voice? If it’s good you could make more by doing sales or recruiting phone calls.

If you’re more of a behind the scenes person I would try and learn some programming. Your design experience would be useful for the frontend but backend developers are more in demand at the moment.

Get in the insurance industry use your graphic designer skills to market yourself and create a business that brings you passive income

I hate to say this but if I were you I’d move into something that is more AI proof. The problem with being an ads designer is that it’s budget dependent on the ad spend and AI can easily do great ad design these days.

What kind of graphic design do you do? I got some work for an illustrator

Change jobs Dall E is coming for you

they offer me exposure every time i do a job.

Anyone here looking to start a UX design coaching academy ..

$1,000?! Bro chill.. You don’t have to brag!

Can you DM me your portfolio? The company I work for is looking for designers and animators

Step it up. Pivot to something more profitable using your skills

cold calls, emails, dms, ads any of these usually work just got to the volume

There are those competitions you can enter like in 99designs. There are some really nice cash prizes.

The company basically gives a specification, then different designers will upload their designs and a the winner will receive the cash. I think you can do about one per week. So see if that's something that can help you out maybe.

Now that you have highlighted your flaws and limitations work on Diversifying your skill set and exposure towards potential clients.... if you are doing ads .... the latest trend is "acting" like a digital marketing company and approaching companies. You can also design your own products for example if you arent getting alot of gigs make a product on the side lin e such as playing cards and launch them on Kickstarter or shirts, stickers etc. Last but not the least follow the big accounts on IG and see how they market themselves .... search made by James he's worth following

Since this is r/entrepreneur buy a sign company. Your skills will translate and the margins are huge. Lots of boomer businesses looking to sell. Read "Buy, Then Build" for a roadmap.

Can you DM me with some of your work, I need a designer.

I may have an opportunity for you in cannabis packaging/ bag design, if youre interested, feel free to reach out🤞🏻

Ads, ads,ads..... If you do ads or hire a pro, every Problem will sollen themselfs after.... There is no, i repeat: no other way.... You need more customers, Charge more money or get retainer... ADS, ADS, ADS

What are your rates? Is the problem that they are too low, or is the problem more that you can’t find work?

Unless you are a master networker going to events etc, I think it’s good to start out working a few years at agencies or in-house, and really working your ass off and being friendly with your colleagues and bosses. When going freelance you then have a strong network of people who know about you, your skills, your work ethics, and they trust you (compared to some rando from the internet).

I have been at it 10+ years, if you want to DM me your portfolio for feedback?

Pack up and move on. AI taking over and we all have to make ourselves indispensable by doing talented or indispensable skills. Real estate, engineering, sales, and investment raising.

If your work is great then advertise. You want a nice website, great portfolio presentations and have them in places like Behance besides your site. Get someone to help you with Marketing on Social Media, email marketing etc. Big Agencies hire freelancers so market to them as well. Connect locally with business in you area through SM, events, etc. Maybe you can desing cards, shirts etc and build a passive income on the side with Amazon, Etsy to mention some that can help too. Not sure what type of designer you are, if branding, packaging, web or all around but there are all these ways and others for you to coonect with potential clients.

Hope U don’t mind OP, I also have a question :

ID-ish Doc ?

Am a doctor interested in, yet new to, interior design. I have experience in copywriting and marketing, just wanna know couple of things:

• what are the ‘real’ pain points of interior designers?
• what are their ‘real’ life visions and goals?
• what are their highest paying services & who is their dream client?

This is extremely broad, and advice would require more information.

Where do you live? How many hours do you work? How many are billable? Do you have many clients? What's your niche? Do you have a marketing plan? How well are you doing at converting leads? What have you tried yourself? Is there a change to be expected? How much do you need/want to earn? What costs do you have?

My useless advice based on what you've shared: It seems like you're unsatisfied with your current income. Try to earn more!

How good is your design work?

How about approaching clients using an unorthodox way. As I read you are a meta ads desinger. Follow these steps:

Go to ads library Search in a general keyword like "dentist" You will see thousands of ads creatives Skim through and find odd looking or single ad creatives that are not appealing and most probably the ads aren't working for the owner You make a better version of ad creative for them, send them a message

Do it for like a 50 people in a month. You will surely get clients of it.

Get a normal job first and try to buiilt your business on the side. 1k is not cutting it.

If you’re already doing meta ads design why not upskill to media buying? A lot of online business owners doesn’t know how to run ‘real ads’

I personally do both. It is a package already when they avail my services

Why not work for someone ? You’d easily make 4k a month if not 7 if you’re that good

Build your portfolio to ra eally high level quality and charge more!

• Is $1K a lot where you live?
• Are you good at it?
• Do you have a portfolio online?
• Are your prices ok?
• Are your customers the right ones?

Use your skills to make shirts and find a print on demand company. Once you've published it, you collect until you ull the design. That will net you plenty more than 1k a year.

Forest for the trees as the saying goes

Work at fiverr and elevate your asking price over time as reviews and happy customers grow. Sounds like you haven’t been doing any scaling methods like that. Also, broaden your skills if you can. Design Amazon product images or some other niche design. Do web design as a whole, branch into functionality and you are a web developer. Don’t have to do backend if you don’t want. I’ve tried making many businesses and have only bought graphic design on fiverr for up to $20 at once. I use AI generated services now for the icons etc I can’t make. Unlimited retries and buy for $15

Hi, going to share some hard truths of the industry but will try to do so with the utmost care. I’m going to touch on some subjects where you might need to self analyze, followed by some industry trends.

1. Self analyze

It will take work to reflect on what you can do to remain relevant in the industry or level up your career. I will start by saying I am a designer with over 10 years of industry experience and I’ve had to pivot about 3 times in my career into new specializations, skills, and higher pay.

If you’re at the five year mark, first and foremost you should be considering if your current specialization is highly valuable or commonplace for clients or employers.

I saw in another thread that you design ads. In a corporate or agency job, social media and paid ads are a very tiny fraction of responsibilities that a visual designer might have.

If you’ve been mostly working independently as a contractor and not within a team, you should strongly consider applying for entry level design jobs on a team where you can grow. Contracting, corporate, small business, agencies, and startups are all distinctly different and have different demands. Five years of experience as an independent contractor will have different value in an agency versus a corporate setting.

You don’t have to take my advice, but you would be doing yourself a disservice if you only looked at years of experience as a metric for growth. You should also be looking at things that also determine the qualities of your contributions and the opportunities you’ve had.

2. Industry trends

In the coming years for better or for worse, generative AI will eliminate a significant portion of visual design labor that produces derivative work, like paid ads, popular illustration styles, and conventional user interface.

Companies have bought into this promise very early, even if the tools at our disposal are still rough. What that means is that the value of labor on the production side will be significantly reduced, because one person will be expected to do more with new tools.

The job market is tough, but contract positions will likely increase during an economic downturn, as opposed to full time roles. That being said, you better be the best at what you do and be able to communicate that. If you specialize in design in marketing, that could mean a grasp of digital omnichannel design strategy and a clear plan for executing it, testing it, and expressing a brand’s presence faithfully.

3. Other considerations

Graphic design might have to be a subset of your professional career. Take it from others who have also studied it and are thriving— it’s just one small tool in their toolbox.

For a small portion it’s honing their craft but also becoming valued for their communication and creative point of view.

For others, it’s also their ability to manage and execute complex chunks of work, teams, and key stakeholders.

For most folks, it’s accepting that what you study does not have to be what you do to make a living. That doesn’t mean that design doesn’t have its value in your life. It just takes a different form, like a hobby, a sub skill, or a way to see the world differently.

Best of luck.

Have you considered specializing? Chris Do talks about this all the time. His audience is designers. If you don't specialize, you'll be competing with millions of other designers.

Sad but true. Graphic design should be reinvented as a job.