Time for a reality check for beginning graphic designers

Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 9

Mike, thanks for your posts here. I'm partway through the design program (I was a corporate designer employee for years; this is a somewhat different animal) and have felt a little "unanchored". Your input has provided me a kind of game plan to follow for the time being. I just wanted to ask for a little clarification:

Quote:

http://www.awaionline.com/bootcamp/materials/

Thanks for this- I didn't know it was there, and I can see the exercises, names, etc will be helpful.

Quote:

If you have some extra money, you might consider the Who's Mailing What Archive.

I can't find this on the site anywhere-?

Quote:

Remember, you don't need to hit a home run with every person you contact. Just a client or two will get the job rolling.

Good encouragement for those of use who start thinking in terms of all or nothing.

Quote:

Find someone in multi-level marketing.

This is something I'm not at all familiar with. Any suggestions for a starting point?

Quote:

In our 9-5 jobs, most of us got used to different people handling different tasks.

Easy to overlook/be overwhelmed by those functions that others fulfilled and that are now up to me.

Quote:

...if someone has time to be scared, they have time to make another call until that pipeline is filled.

This one made me lol! A good reminder also!

Also, any suggestions for freeing oneself from the employee mindset?

Thanks again for all your input and your reminders of what's available on the site- it's much appreciated!
Donna

Joined: 22 Dec 2004 Posts: 440

1. Who's Mailing What Archive

Don't know if AWAI still offers a discount on this. My original comments are about 1.5 years old. You'd have to contact AWAI directly and see if it's still available. Otherwise, you can do a Google search for the archive and order it directly through Target Marketing.

2. Multi-Level Marketing

Also know as Network Marketing. At your local B&N or Borders, you'll find magazines devoted to network marketing and home business opportunities. Most of these magazines are filled with people offering MLM opportunities. Some aren't always ethical, but there's no way for you to know which ones are and which ones aren't.

But with all the ads you'll see, it's an easy source of companies one could contact. It's a situation of people who have already proven they use a graphic designer. (Assuming they didn't do the ads themselves in which case you'll probably notice that they really could use a designer.)

3. Employee mindset

Start reading the stuff other entrepreneurs and freelancers are reading so you start thinking the way they're thinking. These days, I like the relaunched Success Magazine. Just one or two useful nuggets that you can apply is enough to make a significant difference in the path your traveling. I've also always been really high on Daniel Pink's book, Free Agent Nation.

Maybe you subscribe to magazines like Before & After, Dynamic Graphics or Inside Direct Mail. And you start pouring through free blogs like For Graphic Designers Only, Direct Creative Blog, and The Wealthy Freelancer. (Sorry... can't link to them so you'll have to use Google.)

Search out some free audio/video podcasts dedicated to freelancing or graphic design and listen/watch them on a regular basis.

Finally, read about everyone on AWAI's Wall of Fame. Most are copywriters, but it doesn't matter. These are the folks just like you who were doing some other job, but decided to make a change and found success as a freelancer. It's nice to know about the legends in copywriting and design who have done it for years and years, but it's easier to relate to the folks who are just slightly ahead of you and were recently in the same boat. You'll often find that their story is your story.

When you immerse yourself in building your skill-set and knowledge, you don't have time to think like an employee.

Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 9

Thanks, Mike.
Onward and upward!
Donna

Joined: 01 May 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Well, I'm new here. So I really thank you Mike for your post. When I first logged in and saw relatively few posts I started wondering if people really made it as Graphic Designers. I questioned my decision. But your post has put my fears to bed.

So where am I at? Part 6. But I've gone through pretty quick because I've had lots of prior experience. I've done graphic design and document formatting for an environmental engineering company 10 years ago and got fast. But no creativity, just follow the standard template.

Then in graduate school I enjoyed doing the layouts for my papers and studied graphic design more in-depth. I have always enjoyed beautiful (but readable) layouts. Just from prior experience I didn't know I could make a good living as a freelancer and didn't want to be a bottom rung admin assistant (which I retitled "Technical Assistant" because I did more scientific-geared things like technical diagrams, charts, graphs, and maps.) It's something I really liked doing, but not for "the man."

So I'm trying to escape my dead-end government job and forge my own path. I'm working hard to change my employee mentality.

I first tried the AWAI copywriting course, but have realized I'm just not a writer. I'm a "man of few words." Then I found GD, but was worried because I always thought of graphic design in terms of Madison Avenue crap. I was very pleasantly surprised the course was exactly what I wanted to be doing.

My immediate goal is to make $30 designing this month, then double that each of the following 6 months, use that to get free of my school debt, then focus on building my business.

I think my focus will be in one of the following:
The scientific/engineering B2B field. That is my experience.
Non-profit humanitarian groups. I would feel good about helping out.

I'm not sure which will be my final decision and will need to test. But I am so happy to finally be on this designer road.