How to Start a Graphic Design Business in 10 Simple Steps
Starting a graphic design business can be an exhilarating and exciting adventure whether you’re hoping to work for yourself full-time or just make a little extra money from an on-the-side design business.
Learning how to start a graphic design business is pretty straightforward too, if you’re willing to put in the work.
I’ve coached thousands of graphic designers over the last 10+ years on how to start a graphic design business both with one-on-one coaching and through this blog.
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Today, I want to show you exactly how to start a graphic design business in 10 straightforward steps with the free guide below.
So if you’re ready to learn how to start a graphic design business that allows you to do work you love while bringing in a nice paycheck, then let’s get started!
1. Find your first graphic design clients
You might be surprised to see that my first recommendation in learning how to start a graphic design business is to find clients.
What about your design portfolio!? What about your business name? What about a business license?
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Zero width embedYes, that’s all important.
But far too often, I’ve seen designers who want to learn how to start a graphic design business but fizzle out long before they ever get traction with their design business.
Starting a graphic design business can be overwhelming if you begin with all the bogged-down business tasks.
Instead, we’re going to start your design business on the right foot by getting your first few design clients in the door.
Once you’ve got a few people who are actually willing to pay you for your work, you won’t believe the excitement, energy, and passion you find within yourself.
And from there, you’ll be able to tackle all the other tasks.
Therefore, goal #1: find graphic design clients.
Where do you find graphic design clients?
If you’re just beginning to learn how to start a graphic design business (which is why I assume you’re here) you might be asking yourself:
Where can I even begin to find my first design clients?
Lucky for you, I’ve been working with designers for over a decade and I know exactly how to help.
Also lucky for you, finding graphic design clients on the internet has literally never been easier.
There are hundreds of freelance job sites around the web to help you find exactly the kinds of clients you’re looking for.
For example, sites like Fiverr offer a huge marketplace of entry-level clients that can get you started when learning how to start a graphic design business. These most likely aren’t the kinds of clients you want to work with forever (although some do), but they’re a great way to get some experience, a few portfolio pieces, some cash, and some confidence.
You can also find some nice entry-level work on sites like Upwork. Upwork is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces in the world and you’ll find access to thousands of graphic design jobs there.
Getting even more specific, here is a list of our favorite sites to find graphic design clients:
The best sites for finding your first graphic design clients
SolidGigs (Try for $2)
SolidGigs is our own in-house solution to help graphic designers find clients. Our team of fellow freelancers combs through thousands of freelance job boards every weekday and posts the very best leads to our freelance job board.
SolidGigs also features a library of helpful courses, templates, and other resources that will come in handy as you learn how to start a graphic design business. You can learn more about SolidGigs here.
FlexJobs ($14.95/mo)
Another really great option when just learning how to start a graphic design business is Flexjobs—where they post daily jobs in all areas of design and just about any other field you can imagine. Learn more about Flexjobs here.
Upwork (20% fee)
Next up is the largest freelance services marketplace in the world (at least I think it is). It’s called Upwork and lots of freelancers have built their own six-figure businesses on the back of this powerful platform, including this guy.
99Designs (variable fee)
One option when learning how to start a graphic design business is to build experience, confidence, and a portfolio with competition sites like 99 Designs. While you’re not guaranteed payment for your work unless you win (something you definitely don’t want to do long-term), it can be a good starting point.
Craigslist (free)
Depending on your work style and preference in starting a design business, you might find some success on Craigslist or other similar classifieds sites. Just about anyone can leverage Craiglist to build their freelance business like graphic designer Kady did here.
In the beginning, don’t be too picky
When you’re just learning how to start a graphic design business, you might come across advice from seasoned freelancers and “experts” who encourage you to be very picky about who your clients are.
That’s easy for them to say, isn’t it? They’ve been running their own graphic design business for years. Finding clients has become old news to them.
But you? You need graphic design clients now.
You can always ditch them later. But for now, don’t be so picky that you never get your graphic design business off the ground. I’ve seen too many people fail for this exact reason.
And I don’t want you to fail. I want you to thrive in your design business.
When starting a design business, take any reasonable graphic design job for any reasonable price. You never know where those early jobs may lead.
At a minimum, they’ll give you confidence, experience, and portfolio pieces. At most, they could turn into life-long lucrative business relationships or worthwhile conduits to other clients.
2. Set your pricing
Next, before you get too much further along in starting a graphic design business, you may want to consider your pricing structure.
Will you charge clients by the hour? By the project? Or by the value you deliver them?
Certainly charging hourly is probably the easiest and most common for anyone starting a graphic design business from scratch, but you may want to explore other pricing models once you’re a bit more established.
How to know what to charge graphic design clients
Knowing what to charge your clients when you’re barely getting started learning how to start a graphic design business can be really tough.
I personally love Bonsai’s Rate Explorer. Using their interactive graph, you see how much fellow graphic designers (and other professionals) are charging for their work and adjust your rates as you see fit.
If you’re completely unsure of how much to charge, just pick a number. If client balk at the price, come down a little. If they don’t haggle at all, come up a bit next time.
Eventually, you’ll land on a price that works as you start a graphic design business. Then revisit that number frequently. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much you’ll eventually be able to charge in your design business.
3. Name your graphic design business
Now that you’ve got a few clients and you’ve got the confidence you need to start a graphic design business for the long-haul, it’s time to start laying the framework of a solid business.
That starts with a well-thought-out business name.
Using your own name vs creating a business name
The first question anyone starting a graphic design business will ask themselves might be:
“Should I use my own name or should I create a business name?”
The short answer is easy: it doesn’t really matter that much. Just pick something you like. You can always change it later.
The longer answer is a bit more complicated.
While I recommend just picking something and running with it (you can always change it later—not ideal, but very easy to do), selecting the name of your graphic design business may require a bit more thinking.
The name you ultimately pick for your graphic design business can end up impacting many facets of your design business including:
How much you’re able to charge for your design work.
How easily people remember your design business.
The kinds of design projects you’ll be hired for (including industry, caliber, and scale).
Whether or not people are likely to recommend your design work to friends and colleagues.
Where you can do business legally without infringing on copyright or trademarks.
And lots more…
Bluehost or Dreamhost work very well for beginner sites at an affordable cost. You can use their websites to check domain availability without risking it being parked or squatted.
Porkbun is helpful if the .com of your company name is taken. They offer really great pricing on .design domains. If you’re not sure a .design domain is right for you, try reading this.
Ensure you personally love it & it speaks to the vision of your company
While I really don’t want you to get paralyzed by the task of choosing a domain name (see the next point) it’s also critical that you feel good about your name and it speaks to the vision of your graphic design business.
You’re going to have to say the name of your graphic design business a lot. You’ll have to type it. You’ll have to speak it out loud. And if you feel silly about it or have to explain the context or feel the need to pronounce it for people, that’s going to get old really fast.
Don’t get paralyzed by decision
The biggest error I see people make when starting a graphic design business is getting stuck on all the possible graphic design business names that are available.
The ultimate enemy here is indecision. Because while this is an important decision for your graphic design business, getting back to the revenue-driving decisions is far more critical at this stage of your business.
4. Build a basic website
The next step when learning how to start a graphic design business is to build a basic website.
I say basic because, just like naming your graphic design business, it’s easy to get stuck or paralyzed by the seemingly overwhelming task of building your website.
Lucky for you, there are loads of very easy-to-use and affordable web site builders to build your first portfolio website.
My top beginner website builder recommendations
Here are my personal top picks for those starting a graphic design business. None of them require you to learn coding and they’re all affordable.
Wix is an easy-to-use website builder with hundreds of beautifully designed templates to choose from—all with drag-and-drop functionality. They’ve even got quite a few portfolio-centric options to get you started.
WordPress may require a little bit more technical know-how (still no coding required) but it definitely gives you more flexibility in the long-run. And because it continues to be the most-used website builder on the Internet, there are millions of tutorials to help you if you get stuck.
Pixpa is designed specifically for creatives and includes cool add-ons like a client-proofing area or a simple gallery feature.
The “minimum viable” portfolio site
For years, I have preached the importance of what I call a minimum viable portfolio.
This can be particularly important for someone learning how to start a graphic design business.
Because as a graphic designer you care very much about how things look, making it far too easy to overdo things, keep adding more and more, editing, adjusting tweaking.
Which often leads to never publishing your design portfolio. Which means no clients. And no graphic design business.
The better path (the one I hope you’ll take) is to aim for a “minimum-viable” portfolio.
The term “minimum-viable” answers the question “what is the least I can do to prove my portfolio can generate sales?”
Then start with that. It doesn’t mean, as you grow your graphic design business you can’t revisit your site and optimize it for getting more clients? You can. And you should.
For now, your mission is to learn how to start a graphic design business and get it off the ground. All the fancy stuff can come later once you have revenue coming in.
5. Develop a simple graphic design business plan
Once you’ve got a few clients in the door, you’ve named your graphic design business, and you’ve got a minimum-viable portfolio site, you can finally start thinking more strategically about how to start a graphic design business the right way.
In my experience, the best next step is to develop a graphic design business plan.
Why isn’t that the first step on the list? Because I didn’t want you to get stuck forever in the “planning” stage only to never actually make it to the executing stage.
Far too many design businesses (and businesses of all kinds) get lost in the planning stage and never see the light of day.
But not your design business. No. You are going to be different.
Since you’re taking the best possible approach to learn how to start a graphic design business, you only need a very basic business plan.
In fact, it doesn’t need to be more than one page long. You can download our one-page business plan here and fill it out in less than 30 minutes.
For an even shorter graphic design business plan, grab a piece of paper or a computer and answer the following questions:
What services will my design business provide?
Who is the ideal client for my graphic design business?
How much will my design business charge for the work I do?
What are your monthly design business revenue goals?
How many clients do I need each month to hit my revenue goals?
Where/how will I find new design clients? Or how will I retain current design clients?
Answering these and similar questions will help you maintain traction and gain momentum when starting a graphic design business.
6. Communicate with your clients
One thing you’re find out extremely quickly as you learn how to start a graphic design business is you have to wear a lot of different hats.
Not only are you a graphic designer, but you’re also the bookkeeper, the marketing manager, and the account manager.
Communicating regularly and effectively with your clients is an absolute must when starting a graphic design business.
The freelance designers who I see succeed the fastest are the ones that realize their clients aren’t some burden they have to deal with, but an essential and wonderful part of their graphic design business.
Sure, every once in a while you get a “client from hell”, but for the most part clients are typically fairly easy to work with if you can do one thing really well:
Communicate.
Part of learning how to start a graphic design business and grow it is managing both the day-to-day growth of your graphic design business as well as keeping current clients satisfied.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with all the client communication, try using automation tools like Freshbooks which can send invoices, follow-up on those invoices, send proposals, and create contracts for you.
7. Deliver high quality projects on-time
If being unprofessional in your communication methods doesn’t kill your graphic design business before you can even get it started, then failing to deliver on your promises will.
This is another huge fail point for many creatives learning how to start a graphic design business because they mistakenly think the hardest work is finding design clients, when in reality it can often be more difficult to manage multiple projects and always deliver on-time.
Tools like Trello, Plutio, or Cushion can help you manage your projects and tasks, keeping you on-track and ensuring you give your design clients a positive experience every time.
This can be especially important in the early days of your graphic design business since a few bad reviews or bad word-of-mouth reports around your local city could signify a real setback for your design business.
8. Write and send professional invoices
Once you’ve delivered your work to your clients and you’re ready to get paid, you’ll want to create and send a professional invoice.
The most basic option is to just write an invoice in Google Docs, Word, or InDesign and send it over via email.
But I recommend eventually signing up for something like Freshbooks—where you can create and send invoices in less than 30 seconds.
Plus, your clients can pay directly from the invoice when they open it on their computer.
And, if after a while, your client forgets to pay the invoice, Freshbooks will remind them for you automatically.
Some designers like to ask for payment upfront, but when you’re first learning how to start a graphic design business, I recommend delivering the product before asking for payment.
As you begin to build more confidence and mutual trust, a pre-payment can be a great option.
9. Collect payments from your design clients
When you’re first learning how to start a graphic design business, the idea of doing work you love every day can be exhilarating.
In fact, depending on how much you hate your day job, you might be hoping this graphic design business can be an escape from your cubicle into work you actually care about.
But if you get so caught up in the day-to-day creative work that you forget to manage your graphic design business properly, you won’t be in business for long.
After all, a business that doesn’t make money is just a hobby.
For someone starting a graphic design business, that means collecting payments is absolutely critical.
How to make collecting payments NOT awkward
Sometimes asking for money can be a bit awkward when you’re just learning how to start a graphic design business.
Here are two simple things to keep in mind for taking the awkwardness out of collecting payments.
1. Remember, this is just business.
Sometimes, when you’re new to doing business, it can be hard to remember that collecting payments for work completed happens almost every day in just about every industry.
Starting a graphic design business is no different.
Your client pays FedEx to ship their products to customers. Your clients pay the electrician when the warehouse light won’t turn on, And your clients pay the cafe next door for office donuts every Friday.
It’s just business. And if you don’t act awkward about it, neither will anyone else.
2. You have to make it SUPER easy for clients to pay
If you keep finding it hard to receive payments for the graphic design work you’re doing on a weekly basis, then maybe it’s too hard for your clients to pay you.
The truth is people are busy. Or lazy. Or both sometimes. And this most definitely includes your graphic design clients.
To make things easier on them (and more successful for you), try tools like Freshbooks, Honeybook, or Bonsai which can collect payments online and deposit them directly to your bank account.
As your graphic design business gets more advanced, you might even want to consider establishing recurring invoices or keeping your clients’ credit card information safely on-file to guarantee future payments.
Once you’re a bit more seasoned as a graphic design business owner, you may also want to consider swapping steps 8 and 7 by requiring payment long before you deliver the final product to your client.
This can help you avoid drawn-out legal battles or forever chasing down clients for payment. But I recommend you do that once you’re a bit more established.
10. Ask for referrals
I’ve spent over 10 years working with freelancers in just about every industry—including lots of graphic design business owners.
No matter how many times I ask what the most common way of getting new business is for established business owners is, I always get the same response:
Word of mouth.
Asking your graphic design clients for referrals can be a really great way to establish yourself when first learning how to start a graphic design business.
If you’re not sure where to get started, you can download our referral-generating email template.
But asking for referrals for your graphic design business shouldn’t be awkward or difficult. In fact, with a lot of practice you might even get good enough to ask for referrals throughout your process without ever blatantly begging for them like Ben does.
Remember, part of the challenge of learning how to start a graphic design business is ensuring you have continuous design work every month (not just this month) and referrals is a fantastic way to keep the client pool full.
Which brings me to my last (unofficial) step in this process of starting a graphic design business:
Repeat steps 5-10 regularly in order to grow
If you want your graphic design business to grow, you’ll need to constantly be making adjustments to your pricing, your client communications processes, your invoicing habits, and lots more.
That’s the fun of building a graphic design business.
Building a business is like any great design project: it takes a lot of brainstorming, tweaking, adjusting, and refining. Learning how to start a graphic design business is a lot of hard work.
But you can do it. I know you can. And we’re here to help. Subscribe to our newsletter and join our FB mastermind group for added support and we’ll help you wherever we can along the way.
My sincere appreciation to @Read.Cash for the opportunity given, shout-out to @cybernetus @lilsoftx @phavvy @Vanjinks @Jeffsmith @Blaisegeezy @Phronesis @mazee @KhaLee @Joewest24 @Didibee @Diana @Zizi @Chykextreme @Makiq @Kelvinajala @Dav-black1 @Israeldrumz @Jerry @vevo @Emmax101 @Juddy@HelloWorldd
So much information their, great write up and thanks for sharing this it really useful.