Ever feel like you’re drowning in tasks, both personal and professional, as a freelance designer? You’re not alone. In this episode, I share how hiring and outsourcing can transform your business and your life. From hiring a cleaner or nanny to taking on a design assistant, I’ll show you the steps to move from solo freelancer to thriving business owner. Discover the freedom and growth that comes with building a team and the tangible benefits it brings.

 

Listen to the episode here:

Spotify  –  Apple Podcasts  –  Amazon Music

 

You will learn:

• How outsourcing personal tasks can boost your productivity and mental well-being.
• The steps to transition from a solo freelancer to a business owner with a team.
• The benefits of hiring in your design business, including increased efficiency and financial growth.
• Practical tips for identifying tasks to outsource and finding the right people for your team.
• How to overcome common challenges in letting go of control and managing a remote team.

Grab a cup of coffee, your notes, and get ready to redefine how you run your design business!

 

Aventive Academy’s Resources:

Free Client Portal for Designers: https://aventiveacademy.com/client-portal/

$12k Client Attraction Masterclass: https://aventiveacademy.com/attract-clients-workshop/

The Wealthy Client Blueprint: ⁠https://aventiveacademy.com/wealthy-client/

12-Week Business Program for Designers: https://aventiveacademy.com/profit

The Creative CEO Accelerator: https://aventiveacademy.com/accelerator

 

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TRANSCRIPT:

0:00
I believe I would have never been able to charge $29,000 for a branding project if I was still a freelance designer. But with a team, landing 5-figure clients is actually easy, not to mention the team handles the project.

0:16
Giving me more time for business development, family, exercise, and maybe just hobbies. Without hiring or outsourcing, I would still be stuck in the feast and famine cycle. I know this for sure.

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 6-figure design agency based in Austin, TX, serving clients worldwide. 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. 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.

1:40
But for now, grab a cup of coffee and join me in today’s podcast episode. Outsourcing and hiring is something I didn’t understand at the beginning of my career, but not enough. So what I mean by that is that I did quickly realize that I would need some help, and I hired a blogger a long time ago. I think it was in my first year and a half or so in my design business. But I was so hesitant about hiring brand designers, web designers, and just in general other designers to help me because I felt that everything I do for my clients only I could do, which is so far from the truth.

2:28
So right now, when I have a design agency, I see how much we can deliver not just in terms of quantity, but the quality of our design services when we all work together as a team. So I quickly realized that outsourcing and hiring experts is what brings my clients the best results. And that’s why people hire us. You know, in the past, I was at this stage where I was doing everything by myself. I used to look for clients by myself, I used to communicate with my clients, you know, doing the emails or Zoom calls. Then I used to promote my design services, basically all the client acquisition, social media, blogging, like absolutely everything in order to grow my business.

3:17
Taxes, numbers, money, pricing, you know, figuring all things out. And that’s fine. That’s what freelancers do. And that’s what we all kind of have to go through in order to grow our business, especially at the beginning. And then also, besides growing and running a design business, I also had to design everything by myself. I had to design logos, select colors, work on typography, styled imagery, sometimes even learn website design and website platforms, and even learn a little bit about coding, even though I always hated coding. It’s just not for me. I am more on the creative side. So anything like numbers, it’s just not for me. I’m more, you know, like the creative director and the graphic designer, so brand designer technically. So I would never be as good in, for example, web development as a web developer. I would never be as good in writing as a writer or copywriter. I would never be as good in logo design unless I focused on logo design only. But then I would need someone who would do my sales. And I would never be good at sales if, you know, I’m designing and things like that. You can’t be good at, you know, 10 different things at the same time. You kind of have to choose.

4:54
That doesn’t mean that you have to focus on one thing only, but just imagine for a second if you were to focus on logo design only in your design business and then hire someone who’s gonna do your social media, hire someone who’s gonna do sales for you, like Zoom calls, talking to clients, have someone who’s going to do pricing for you, someone who’s going to maybe develop your website and portfolio in a way that is going to attract your ideal clients. And your task is to design logos only. Imagine how amazing that would be. And of course, logo design is just an example, but you get to choose and pick what you want to do in your design business when you get to that level that you have an agency and a team that can help you grow and get to your next level.

5:42
That’s where I am at the moment, and I chose to be the salesperson and creative director in my design agency because I love doing sales. I love getting clients. I love that business side of being a creative, of running a design agency. But also, when it comes to, you know, being a designer, I am not into opening Illustrator or Photoshop anymore because I’ve done that so many times. I’ve been in this industry for about 19 years, so one-nine. I started in 2005, so a long time, and I’ve designed so many logos and websites and business cards and whatnot, like literally every single thing you can possibly imagine. I’ve done it. So now I am kind of, I don’t want to say it like on the next level, but kind of in the next level where I chose to be the creative director in my branding and design agency.

6:53
So now I have a team of designers that work with me or for me. And I have a designer that’s focused on brand designs, and then I have a graphic designer, I have a web designer, I have a web developer, I have a blogger, and also we all work together to help our clients get to their next level. And let me tell you, a brand designer, a graphic designer, a web designer, like they all bring their own uniqueness, and they’re all experts in that one thing. They’re really the best. Like my web designer, I’ll just go with that example. My web designer is so amazing. I always work with her. I love working with her. Like she really brings every single idea I have to life and makes it even better than how I imagined it. And then as a creative director, I would just adjust and make changes to it, not physically like I would tell her, like, “Hey, can we adjust this? Can we make changes?” Then we talk to a client, and we go a little bit back and forth until we get the final solution to my client’s problem. But most of the time, she just nails it, like it’s amazing. I would never be able to be as good of a web designer unless I focused on being a web designer only and without doing any of the business things, without doing the emails, without learning how to code, without learning how to get clients, without going to networking events, without posting on social media, you know. So when someone focuses on one thing only, they become the best. And that’s also the power of niching down.

8:18
You might be afraid of, you know, choosing your niche or specialization, you know, like being a brand designer for the food industry only or brand designer for coffee shops only because you think it’s narrow, but it’s not. It’s very broad. There are many, many different coffee shops in the world, and you would be the best in branding coffee shops, and you would be so known as a brand designer in this one industry, and you will be able to charge way more because you’re the expert. But to go back to outsourcing and hiring, if you have ever done it in the past, then you know how valuable that is, how valuable getting your time back is.

9:06
So for example, right now, I outsource absolutely everything you can possibly imagine to the level that I don’t even clean my house. I have cleaners because they’re the best at what they do. It takes me so much time for the things that they do super quickly. They love their job, and I don’t. So I pay my cleaners, and they come once every two weeks, so I don’t need something more often or less than that. So they come every other week. They clean the whole house in like three to four hours, and it’s amazing. Then I also have a nanny, so a babysitter for my baby. I have daycare, and I do have a lot of free time in a way where I can hang out with my friends or do my nails or whatever I want to do because that’s how I get my time back.

10:18
When it comes to the business, as mentioned, I have a full team of people that work for my branding agency. For example, right now, I realize that I don’t have much time for my social media anymore, and not that I will not do my social media, but I need someone who’s going to come up with ideas, what I need to record, what I can write about, things like that. So I hired someone to do that. I also hired someone who’s going to work on my SEO. Our SEO is already amazing, and we’re getting a lot of design clients through our website, but I want to improve it. I want to get it to the next level. I do have a blogger that already writes for us, but I just hired someone to do the keyword research. We did that in the past too, but this is now up to date, and our ideal client has changed a little bit, so I want to update some keywords, things like that.

11:05
And then I also just recently, basically all these hires happened in the past few weeks, but I also hired someone who’s going to do our Facebook and Instagram ads, not for getting design clients, but for teaching designers how to build their own agency. So what I’m doing is I’m teaching designers how to get high-paying clients, how to get better clients, and how to grow into an agency. In fact, now that I’m talking about it, we will be hosting the Designer to Agency Bootcamp in September, so stay tuned. You can sign up for our email list. The link is below in the description of this episode. Basically, what the Designer to Agency Bootcamp is, it’s a three-day bootcamp where I’m teaching you how to go from the role of freelance designer to running an agency. I walk you through every single step that I took to get to the level where I am right now. It’s amazing. This will be our third year of running the Designer to Agency Bootcamp. People love it. You’ll be the first to know when you join the newsletter.

12:15
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. 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. In that case, you will be able to join the waitlist and be the first to know when we open the doors again.

13:01
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. 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.

13:33
Now let’s go back to the episode. OK, so a lot of designers are kind of in this, but how do I outsource? How do I hire someone when I don’t have enough money? Well, it’s simple. You have to focus on getting more leads, getting more clients, charging more in order to be able to outsource. And once you do that, you will realize that you’re actually growing into an agency, and you’re not a freelancer anymore. You know, being a freelancer these days is not as great as it used to be. And what I mean by that is, you know how on Fiverr and Upwork people are fighting over clients. And don’t get me wrong, you can definitely be a successful freelancer, but once you get there, I mean, you have to actually get there. You have to become a successful freelancer in order to grow into an agency.

14:40
So, for example, once I got to the point where I was charging $10,000 or $15,000 for a simple branding project like logo design, colors, fonts, then I realized, OK, well now I’ve done it so many times, and I need help, and now I have the money to outsource. So then I would bring on a brand designer, just a contractor, a freelancer, someone who would help with executing all these projects and working with clients. And that’s when I first realized how amazing that is. So you can either, you know, do something like that and hire designers to help you work with clients, or you can hire someone who’s going to bring clients.

15:34
You know, many freelancers, many designers start as freelancers and then get stuck in the cycle of trading time for money. That doesn’t mean that you’re charging per hour; you can still charge per project, but you are exchanging your time for money, and this limits income potential and business growth. Really building a team allows you to take on more projects and deliver higher quality work. And with a team, you can also offer a wider range of services and scale your business. For example, as mentioned, I would never be able to do coding and development, but now that I have a web developer, we can actually create custom amazing designs. And I would never be able to do that as a freelancer. Now what we do is we do brand strategy, visual identity (so logo, color, fonts, all that), and then graphic design like social media posts, labels, packaging, all that, and then website, even copy (so text for websites), web design, and web development. I would never be able to do all of this by myself. And again, English is my second language, so I would never be able to write copy as great as someone whose first language is English or who really specializes in copywriting for websites.

16:43
So really, delegating tasks allows you to focus on your core strengths and strategic planning. As a business owner, you are the one that needs to plan your business, can handle more clients and projects simultaneously as well, which means that you will be growing your business way quicker. Also, a team gives your business a more professional image, which can attract higher-paying clients. When you’re a solo freelance designer, yes, you can charge, let’s say, $20,000 for visual identity, but when you are an agency, $20,000 is actually not that much. Like when you say to someone, “We are a branding design agency, we charge $20,000,” they’re like, “OK, I mean, it makes sense.” Right? So it’s easy to get high-paying clients, and yes, not all the revenue stays with you, but it’s easy to get a lot of high-paying clients. And believe it or not, clients, especially high-paying clients, are more likely to trust a well-structured team than a solo freelancer. Another important thing is that when you have a team, you have the flexibility to take time off without your business coming to a halt, without your business stopping and your income as well.

17:59
For example, I take about two months off every single year, and I talk about that a lot, and I would never be able to do that as a freelancer. I mean, I probably would, but I would not be making any money versus when I have a team, I can literally just take time off, or I can reduce it to a few hours per week. So right now, I’m working about 15 hours a week. During my vacation or those two months, I work between 2 and 5 hours per week, which is nothing. What is that, like 30-40 minutes per day or maybe an hour a day? But that’s it.

18:46
And if you’re now thinking how hard it can be to trust people, like I know it can be challenging to trust others with your work, but micromanaging defeats the purpose of hiring. And I always look for hiring people who are better than I am in the thing that I need them to do. You know, I’ve heard so many times, and actually, the first time I heard that was from Steve Jobs when he said that every time he would hire someone, he hires a person that does the thing better than he would do it. And that’s so, so true. That’s why I hired a blogger, that’s why I hired a brand designer, a web designer. They’re all better at what they do than I would be. Yes, I am really confident and really good at branding businesses, and I know I’m an amazing designer, but still, when I am a creative director, that’s what I’m the best at. So if you’re looking into growing to your next level, that definitely is growing into an agency. And that doesn’t mean that you have to be a huge agency. You can be a small boutique agency just like mine and still make a lot of money and have a lot of time for yourself, your family, friends, whatever you want to do with your time, and be very, very successful.

20:06
The best way you can do that is to really start hiring for a few hours here and there, and you can gradually increase as your business grows. And you can monitor the impact on your productivity and business performance, and you will see exactly what you need and when. Most designers start with hiring a virtual assistant first. That is someone who’s going to do your emails, maybe do lead gen here and there, or maybe you want to write blog posts. That doesn’t mean that these people are the best because they do a little bit of everything, but at least you’re getting your time back so that you can figure out who exactly you would need next and how you can grow your business, how you can maybe increase pricing, how you can get better clients, how you can improve your portfolio, things like that. You do need that time back.

20:58
When you are growing, when you’re expanding, you would first determine which roles are essential for your business growth. Again, that can be someone who’s going to bring clients or someone who’s going to help you execute the projects that you already have. Really start with the most time-consuming or least enjoyable tasks for you. Maybe that is looking into hiring a CPA or someone who’s going to post on LinkedIn for you if you don’t like LinkedIn. Many creatives don’t like LinkedIn because it’s not as visually appealing a platform as Pinterest or Instagram.

So just really look into the things that you don’t want to do in your business. You know you started your business with a reason to do the things that you only want to do in your business. You don’t want to create a business that you don’t like and do the things that you don’t want.

21:46
Now, in terms of how to hire someone, there are many different ways, and we can do a whole podcast episode about how to hire people. For example, I found my brand designer in a Facebook group. I found my blogger; actually, he found me. It was a cold email. My web designer was also through a cold email. Web development, I think I found him through Upwork, and then I hired him. And who else? Yes, my graphic designer was my mom’s friend’s daughter. There is no rule on how to hire people, but you can use platforms like LinkedIn, Upwork, Indeed, or industry-specific job boards to find candidates. You can even post on Instagram and ask people to share about it, things like that, or you can simply search for them. So if you’re looking for a virtual assistant, you would just go to Google and look for it, or you would go to Instagram, put those keywords in, and find a couple, schedule calls, and kind of go from there.

22:53
You would need to develop a structured onboarding process to integrate new hires smoothly. That takes time and practice, and it will take, let’s say, 10 different hires before you really figure out how to hire, and you will need to provide training and resources to help them understand your business and brand and work standards. You don’t want to lower your standards; you actually want to make them even better than where you are at the moment. So yeah, I really want you to think from the perspective of how much more enjoyable your business would be if you don’t have to do the things that you don’t like in your business. For example, I never want to do my taxes. I never want to do web development. I never want to do all those things that I now outsource. I wanted to be a creative director, and instead of me looking for a job and being a creative director within a different design agency, I actually have my own design agency, and I’m a creative director in my own design agency. It’s awesome.

24:04
You get to choose your path and where you want to be, and then you just have to figure out how to get there. But trust me, it’s possible. OK, I hope that this episode was helpful, and I hope that you will look into hiring and outsourcing. Right now, I outsource absolutely everything in my business, and not just in my business, but in my life as well. I already mentioned the cleaners and babysitters and all of that because I really need that time back. And again, if you’re not in a position where you can outsource at the moment, just keep in mind that I started by being a freelance designer on Craigslist, charging $65 for a logo design and $500 for a full website design and development. Now I am at a level where I’m charging at least $10,000 for branding projects and $15,000 or $20,000, depending on the website, for web design. Just know that you will get there. It’s just a question of how to get there. And once you know that you will get there, then you just have to break it down into action steps to actually get there. Hopefully, the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast is helping in those steps. If not, we have other programs, and you can check them out on aventiveacademy.com.

25:29
Thank you so much for being here with me, and I’ll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast. But wait, before you go, if you enjoyed this podcast episode and want a chance to access one of our online courses for free, simply leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Each month, one lucky reviewer gets to pick a course as a token of our appreciation. And here’s a reminder: we are here to help you build the design business of your dreams, whether it’s creating compelling proposals, attracting $10k clients, pricing your design services, improving your portfolio, reaching six figures and beyond, or helping you stand out. We’ve got you covered. I invite you to join over 1,000 designers in my signature 12-week program, the Profitable Designer. Visit aventiveacademy.com/profit and also don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. That way, you’ll be the first to know when each new episode drops so you never miss out on future content.

26:52
Until next time, be sure to connect with us on Instagram at @aventiveacademy, where we share valuable business tips, stories, and resources for brand, graphic, and web design business owners. Bye for now, your host, Kady Sandel.