Entrepreneur

AI is going to put strong pressure on you, so you might think about a specialization like others have suggested.

You're in an incredibly competitive field that has a lot of options for people to DIY. You need to focus on building a portfolio for a niche or maybe a small number of them. Focus on marketing yourself as THE designer for that niche and always asking for referrals.

Being a good designer doesn't matter. Being good at getting sales is what counts.

Also seems like a super competitive market. My parents wanted me to get into that in the early 2000’s. Luckily I wasn’t interested but seeing the world now, pretty much anyone with photoshop and a YouTube tutorial can do graphic design work, and they’ll likely do it for way cheaper than a career designer would ask for.

Not invalidating anyone who is a GD, but it def seems like one of those careers that was great 25 years ago but has been taken over my it being accessible to anyone with a laptop.

If you wouldn’t mind, I run a digital marketing agency and I always need good designers. I agree with the comment about AI or Indian designers but there are aspects of having someone close or in the states that can help not only manage those other designers as a lead but also help with client conversations because I get really big deals and I can’t have Indian resources on some of my calls just cause of my patience. I would pay you for QA’ng their work as well as helping to win deals. DM me if interested. Anybody else as well, if you have a service like programming, content writing, project management or sales.

too saturated and too easy to find people in 3rd world countries that can do the work and think $1k/mo is a TON of money

I knew a web designer who has 10 years experience and their website designs were all hot garbage.

I also had a graphic designer who I don’t use any longer because AI can do everything I need and for free.

Learn a trade. Ai will kill your whole industry.

you have design skills. You lack sales. You need to sell yourself

Draw hentai

Get a job?

You likely need to expand your types of work, secondly properly advertise and put yourself out there , unless what you create is so unique or amazing that it sells itself.

Perhaps you need to broaden your spectrum. Commit more time to digital content/social media, YouTube channel, cold outreach, whatever. Just some pivots where you can diversify what you’re offering. If it ain’t working, pivot, try something new. I feel similar in what I’ve been doing for the last 4 yrs (day trading). Only to lose a lot of money. Have made a pivot to fully automate my trading so let’s see how that goes. GL

Make t-shirts, wear them & post them on your social media. They will sell.

Rebrand, Sell yourself .

Hello,

I would love to see your portfolio. It doesn't matter how many years of experience you do have, it's how much you grew, what are your skills, how are you positioning yourself.

Try posting on X, LinkedIn, Dribbble, and Behance. Let me know what methods are you trying to showcasing your work?

Are there any free lance finance skills that can be utilized?

Working freelance is all about who you know, who knows you and who will give you a recommendation. Focus on delivering results to your clients that go above what they expect. Develop a strong working/professional relationship with your clients so they want to work with you in the future and give your name to their friends. Always deliver more than you promised, be on time and stay on budget. Get your social media channels current and do some in-person networking. Get your name and face in front of actual people. Once you find work, treat those new clients like gold. Rinse and repeat. In time you'll build a portfolio of repeat clients that earn you more than $1k per month.

The number one thing is to learn how to market yourself if you can market yourself you can increase your income.

Up you rates, network, be prepared to work as a freelancer (know your hours, how to time manage, communication with your clients). Work on your personal brand by growing your social channels - TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest

Are you on circle and the other platforms?

How are you promoting yourself?

switch industries its not as scary as it may seem. I can help dm me

I think you have to look at things for a more global aspect:
Who is going to pay you, and why should they?
What existing contacts can I mine for customers?
What can I do to make more money, should I get hired by a bigger company?
What can I do to be a better freelancer, get more customers for higher $?

It's hard dude. The freelance grind is very competitive and filled with lots of bullshit. Don't beat yourself up. Developing the bullshit side of business (getting customers, charging $) is not fun for creative types (I'm in video) but it's what actually pays the bills.

Show me your motivated and willing and i will create a job for you

As a freelancer you need to actively market yourself. Create social media accounts on all platforms like deviantart, facebook, instagram, x, reddit, etc. it is all free to do. Post your work and see what happens. Maybe offer some pro bono work on collaborations to get impressions. Also consider doing niche work, strange and odd stuff to get attention.

What kind of art do you make?

Maybe you need to learn to sell b2b style.

DM me some example work? I need a designer.

I quit being a graphic designer as main income years ago. These days it's a market that's hard to do well in. There are tonssss of people who are handy with graphic designs and handy with using a PC with softwares like Photoshop, especially because not much skills is needed nowadays. It's an overcrowded market.

## Mark from leedr.io ##

You should be investing heavily into business development. AS a freelancer, your fist and most important job is to generate new work. Everything else fails without new work coming in.

To be successful you probably need to create more concepts, do spec-work, etc., so you have an amazing portfolio. Then you need to market yourself vs. banking on people coming to you.

For instance, if your specialty is rebranding, how are you demonstrating those skills to prospective clients? If your portfolio site doesn't have a section of rebranding concepts you've created through existing work or concepts, then get to work. Choose brands you like and would one day love to work with, and think of what you do for their logo, website, etc., so you can attract clients who are looking for rebranding.

Then think of ways to get your name out there. If you're not using social media (YouTube, Instagram, etc), to put meaningful content out there then your behind the hundreds and thousands of people in your market who are willing to do that. Using the rebranding example, show before and afters, explain when it's time to rebrand, explain how rebranding is an "evolution" and not something that's done overnight, etc. Create a blog, so you have a place on your website where you can explain all of that in written form. This way you're answering commonly asked questions about rebranding, and people can discover you when they're searching the internet.

Without knowing what you have done already to try to be successful, it's tough to say "do this or that." But having mentored lots of entrepreneurs, worked on startups and turn arounds, the thing most of them have in common is thinking they're doing a lot and just not getting the reward of clients and income. When in reality, they aren't doing much, so their income reflects that.

Take a moment to evaluate yourself, and do it objectively. Can you honestly say you want success as a graphic designer more than anything else and you're doing everything you can to achieve it? Next reflect on how much time you spend with friends, going to social events, watching TV, playing video games, etc? Are your actions matching what your perceived effort is? Remember, you're not giving up other areas of your life forever, but if you're not eating sh*t for 3 years to grow your business, then you're not trying. After 3 years, you have to ask yourself if you have a business or a hobby and whether the juice is worth the squeeze.

Also, my marketing agency designs and builds websites. Sure there are people on Fiverr, and overseas who can do it for a lot less, but those aren't my clients. So remind yourself that there are people who are willing to pay a premium if your quality of work, and service match that level. We live in a world where some people drive AMG's and others drive Elantra's. So don't let people take your dream away either.

I guess that's my longwinded advice.

Run ads on your work - thank me later

Create an online business for graphic design

Hire virtual freelance graphic designers that will put your work first, that can meet the demand and quality. Build a customer base and brand. Service the customers with you team of designers

You have all the skills to recognize talent, find customers, and you know the industry. Makes sense for the logical next step being to scale

Check out Alex Hormozi’s books 100m deal and 100m offers

Then look at other folks in the space doing the same thing for examples on business models

SBA.gov I believe has a template and is a good place to start to build a business plan.

Seems like a good potential business model with low upfront capital requirements

Never owned a business btw so do your research and learn from the high achievers and subject matter experts. Not me lol

It’s things ppl are learning to do in their own. Everything I’ve learn to do (graphic, python, scripting, etc.) just my reading, schooling or YouTube vids. Hell kids are learning how to do those things at age 5 these days… so why I pay someone. Everything cost so much so ppl are cutting cost by doing it themselves.

Freelance is great but if you only work with open market places like Fiverr, UpWork etc, you are in competition with equally talented people living in countries where earning $5/hour is a blessing.

Best for you is to focus on finding a few agencies managing big budgets and becoming a preferred contractor. Or you develop very specific skills not many have and you'll get the higher tickets.

Freelance, digital nomad etc is not a sweet straight motorway sipping ice cream while riding a hot convertible...

Nowadays you need to be not only a talented specialist but also an entrepreneur and see yourself as a "product". Maybe you need to work on your presence and image too, and market yourself better. So many components to master to reach a healthy freelance lifestyle.

Good luck to you !

Idk if my comment will help you but try reaching to company's and show them your work don't wait for someone to find you because there's alot of people are batter then you so try outreach or advertise your work

Switch jobs 😊

You're not taking on enough of the logistics for people to really want to work with you.

If you design meta ads, the biz owner still needs to find someone to run those ads.

Way too much logistics to handle so they end up going with the guy who makes the creatives and runs the ads