0:00
All of a sudden, you’re going to have a lot more time and freedom than you had when you were a freelancer. And I know it sounds ironic because you’ve built your freelance business because of the freedom, but working alone means you have to fix your website, post on Instagram, and work with clients.

0:21
You have to design, and with the agency model, you get to pick and choose what you want to do and outsource the rest.

0:47
Welcome to the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast, brought to you by Aventive Academy. I’m your host, Kady Sandel. I’m a brand strategist, designer, creative director, and the CEO of a successful six-figure design agency based in Austin, TX, serving clients worldwide.

1:05
After mastering the art of building a profitable and sustainable design business, I decided to help you achieve the same success. I teach brand, graphic, and web design business owners how to attract more clients, increase their pricing, and develop design businesses that provide the financial freedom and time flexibility you’ve always dreamt of.

1:25
We offer online programs, courses, and templates that you can use along with our Coaching Accelerator and Mastermind high-touch experiences for creatives. You can learn more about starting and growing your design business at aventiveacademy.com, but for now, grab a cup of coffee and join me in today’s podcast episodes.

1:47
I was just about to say how excited I am about today’s episode and then I realized that I say that for every single one on my podcast, so we’re going to skip that part. But it is going to be so valuable, and I’m going to walk you through all the steps you need to know and really take in order to grow into a small design agency.

2:11
So today’s podcast episode is for brand, graphic, and web design business owners who are not just starting, right. So it’s for you. If you already have an established business, maybe it’s not like you know, super successful and all of that.

2:27
But let’s say you’re making a couple of thousand dollars per month consistently. You do have leads, you do have clients, and you want to transition from being a solo freelancer who is dealing with every single thing in your business to running a successful, profitable, and simple design agency, whether that’s a branding agency or web design agency.

2:51
But it has to be a design agency and specifically a small design agency.

So I am not talking about how to build this huge business with 100 employees that you have to manage and hire managers for and all of that, and you know, build like a corporate business.

3:08 But I’m talking about a small design agency.

So let’s start with what does a small design agency mean?

A small design agency has, let’s say, up to 10 employees.

It has, you know, a couple of graphic designers, maybe a web designer, a brand designer, depending on your services, and also it has one or two managers.

3:30 Or you are the manager and you also outsource things that you no longer want to do in your business, such as your taxes, profit and loss, all of that.

I mean really, I don’t know any creative business owners that love doing that.

3:47 Maybe marketing, maybe posting on social media, writing blogs, connecting with people on LinkedIn on your behalf, and you know, things like that.

So whatever it is that you don’t like doing in your business, that is what you’re going to outsource.

OK.

4:03 So let’s start with the first step.

So the first step is all about transitioning from being a freelancer to an agency owner.

And what I mean by that is knowing that you will not be working alone anymore and someone else will have insights into your business.

4:24 I mean as much as you give them, right?

However, you will no longer design everything by yourself.

Communicate with clients by yourself, do your marketing by yourself.

You will have almost like a strategic partner.

Now depending on what you need in your business, that will be your first hire.

4:43 And I’m going to talk about how to hire your 1st and 2nd employee and whatnot and how to expand your client base, how to start getting more and better clients, how to delegate and manage your team effectively, how to build your brand and online presence, and all of that.

4:58 But right now, I want to focus on your mindset and maybe you’ll think like, Oh well, Kady, I don’t need that right now.

I’m already ready to transition.

I’m already ready to grow into an agency.

And you know, that’s all fine, but I

want you to know that the people you hire will never be perfect in your eyes, and that is OK. It is totally normal. They’re not you, so they will be doing things differently sometimes. Actually, most of the time they will be better than you are, and that is great.

5:37 That is what makes a successful design agency successful. You know, I heard this interview where Steve Jobs said that he has never hired anyone who is not better than he is. So he was always hiring only people that are better than he is.

5:58 And I think you should apply that in your design agency too. At least that’s what I did. I never hired a graphic designer who’s not better than I am. All my designers, like everyone that works for my design agency, they’re all better than I am.

6:17 They’re better designers, better developers, better writers. I am just like the brain of operations in my design agency. And by just, I mean I do all the CEO stuff, really admin tasks. And then I have an amazing brand designer, amazing packaging designer, amazing web designer, developer, content writer, proofreader.

6:40 Even though we do use a lot of ChatGPT to fix my grammar mistakes because English is my second language. And even if it wasn’t, there are many people who simply don’t know how to write. And if you’re one of them, or if you find yourself having a lot of mistakes, just put it in ChatGPT and say, “fix my grammar mistakes only.”

7:02 Don’t say proofread it. It’s different when you say it, proofread it. Then you get ChatGPT to make some changes, and it’s so obvious the ChatGPT wrote it. So just fix my grammar mistakes. OK, that was like a random extra tip.

7:18 But yeah, try not to micromanage your people. Let them be. Let them do their own thing. Yes, you’re going to provide insight on who your clients are, what your services are, and all of that, and what your goals are, what your vision is. But that’s it.

7:34 Let them design, let them work. And you will have to figure out if you want to stay to work in your business or to work on your business. You have heard this many times, I’m sure, but working in your business means opening a software, designing that logo using pen and paper, and all of that.

7:54 While working on your business means maintaining the vision for the future, working on financial things, having a business coach, organizing, planning, and all of that. So you have to figure out what it is that you want to work on.

8:10 I mean, you will be working on your business anyway. And then it’s just a question if you want to work in your business as well. Many designers don’t want to give up the creative part of running a design agency. So like designing. But if you want to run your agency, you have to know that you will no longer be working on every single project.

8:32 And that is OK. That’s how you will grow. You need to hire graphic designers to help you grow. And also, when you’re a design agency, I know for sure that you will be providing better design results and better results for your clients than you’re providing now as a solo operator. There’s nothing wrong with being a freelancer on your own.

8:49 That is totally fine. But the design agency can definitely provide better results for clients. And then you can own your own. Let that sink in.

9:05 Because I always thought, oh, I am really good at designing and I will provide amazing results for my clients. This logo or this website or this packaging, this label, these colors, everything will be perfect when I do it by myself.

9:25 But then when I hired a team, oh my God, it’s like the next level. Because first I hired really professional designers. I hired good, good designers, like amazing designers. And then we collaborate and work together. We provide amazing, amazing results for my clients.

9:41 OK, let’s talk about defining your agency’s niche and services. Maybe you already know exactly what you want to offer, or you know your current offers. You want to keep them, and that’s OK. I just want you to kind of look at them again because you know, one of the first steps in scaling up is really defining your agency’s niche and services.

10:04 So take a close look at your current client base and the projects you excel at, like what industries do you enjoy working with? What type of design work gets you excited? Where do you make the most money? Narrowing down your niche will help you target your marketing efforts more effectively and attract the right clients.

10:25 So when growing into an agency, you have to make sure that you have enough clients all the time. There is no more like 0 months or negative months. I mean, you can technically have negative months, but you are now responsible for, you know, multiple people, and those people can be your contractors.

10:46 They don’t have to be full-time employees. You can still have a floating agency. A floating agency means, and I think I talked about it in my previous podcast episode, but a floating agency model is when you hire people based on your needs so they’re not working for you full time.

11:01 They’re almost like freelancers working for their own clients on their own whenever they have clients. But they come on board when you have a client to collaborate with you. So if you get a client like a larger client tomorrow, and you need a brand designer, a graphic designer, a web designer, a web developer, you pull those freelancers from the pool of freelancers that you already have and then you all work on a project together.

11:30 Oh, and just an add-on. I just realized that I said that you pull them from the pool of freelancers that you already have. So what that means is that if you don’t have that pool of freelancers, you have to make it right now. Not to wait to get a client and then to look for them, but to build those relationships with designers that you will eventually hire in the future.

11:56 So find them on Facebook groups, on Behance, on Instagram, connect with them. Those are like white label designers at the moment if you’re planning on hiring them based on contract. So you will need to have, let’s say, an Excel sheet with 20 designers or so that you know you can reach out to as soon as you get a client.

12:19 Before we continue with this podcast episode, I just want to quickly remind you that if you’re a design business owner whose dream is to have a successful and profitable career so you can enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes with it, then I have something for you.

12:35 The Profitable Designer program is my signature 12-week system that will help you improve your business, sign amazing high-paying clients, and truly achieve your financial and lifestyle goals.

Visit aventiveacademy.com/profit to check if you can join us now, or if we are currently not accepting more designers into the program.

12:57 In that case, you will be able to join the waitlist and be the first to know when we open the doors again.

Now we’ll go back to the episode in a second, but I just want to add that designers who completed the program were able to sign 5-figure design clients, 10 times their pricing, reach 6 figures and beyond, make $20,000 per month while working only a few hours a week, and more.

13:23 Here is what Julia said: “It really has everything you could ever ask for to build a six-figure business that will allow you to have financial freedom and that’s why I personally did it—I wanted that flexibility.”

So if you want to be my next success story and achieve results like these, visit aventiveacademy.com/profit.

13:45 Now let’s go back to the episodes.

OK, so let’s talk about building your brand and online presence.

14:01 So far, you were probably going by either your name or maybe even your studio’s name, but it was still just you, right?

So maybe you were like, “Hi, my name is Kady and this is what I do.”

14:17 “Hi, my name is Kady.”

And I offer these services for these clients, you know, you were maybe talking like I am, I do like I, I, I, right.

But maybe you were already like we do this and that, we do that and that.

14:33 But you have to now figure out how to really present your business as an agency, even if you’re not an agency yet.

So everything on your website, social media, and whatnot needs to sound like we provide these services for these types of clients.

14:51 We specialize in this and that.

We can help you and really talk about your team, even though you don’t have a team yet, but you have to in order to build an agency, you have to present yourself like an agency first.

15:10 Like really think about it.

So that’s what I want you to do, like really invest in professional branding that reflects your agency’s personality and values, creates a polished website showcasing your portfolio services, and uses client testimonials.

15:27 And really don’t forget about social media.

It’s a powerful tool for reaching potential clients and showcasing your work, and you know that.

So I want you to really focus on transitioning into an agency and sounding like an agency, then growing your agency.

15:46 So this is now the next step: growing your agency means expanding your client base beyond your current network.

So you have to be really proactive about networking, either attending industry events, joining online communities, and reaching out to potential clients directly.

16:03 And I talk about LinkedIn all the time. We will actually be hosting a LinkedIn workshop in April 2024.

So just follow me on Instagram at Eventive Academy if you want to be notified, if you want to find out exactly when we are going to host it.

16:24 And it’s going to be all about getting high-paying clients through LinkedIn because all the high-paying clients hang out guess where? Not on Instagram, not on TikTok, on LinkedIn.

And yes, sure, you can get some clients on these social media platforms that I just mentioned as well, but LinkedIn is where it’s at, OK.

16:46 That was kind of like an add-on to this episode.

So really, you need to focus on getting more clients, because all of a sudden you will not be paying just yourself, you will be paying other people in your design agency as well.

17:02
So getting more clients, but also better clients. So what does better clients mean? It means someone who’s going to pay more for your same design services than they’re paying right now. So getting higher-paying clients.

17:18
You will now be focusing on marketing and getting amazing clients you want to work with in order to grow into an agency as your workload increases. It’s time to consider hiring your first employee.

So this is our next step.

You will be looking for someone whose skills complement your own and who shares your agency’s values and vision.