Making Money as a Graphic Designer: A Simple Guide

Are you looking to make money as a graphic designer? This guide will show you ten ways you can!

As a freelance graphic designer, you know all too well that generating income is often a tricky business. With there being no guarantee of work, we need to think of new and creative ways in which we can generate income.

While honing your craft and delivering great design solutions remain the core of your freelance business, there are numerous strategies and avenues through which you can expand your income streams and boost your earnings.

In this guide, we'll explore various ways in which graphic designers can put themselves on the path of making money money with their skills!

Why is Diversifying Your Freelance Business Important?

It may seem that the most logical and straightforward way of making money with your design skills is just by offering them to clients.

However, spending the time to develop and diversify your design business comes with many benefits. From financial security to increased flexibility, there are many reasons why diversifying your graphic design business is a good idea.

These benefits include. but are by no means limited to…

• Financial Security: By diversifying your income streams, you can mitigate the impact of fluctuations in client demand or market trends, ensuring a more stable and reliable source of income.

• Uncertainty of Work: Freelancing inherently comes with periods of feast and famine. Diversifying your business helps to cushion the impact of lean times and provides alternative revenue streams to sustain you during slower periods.

• Expanding Your Reach: By offering a wider range of services or products, you can attract a broader audience and appeal to different segments of the market, increasing your visibility and opportunities for growth.

• Flexibility and Adaptability: Diversification allows you to adapt to changing industry dynamics, emerging trends, or shifts in client preferences, ensuring your business remains agile and resilient in the face of uncertainty.

• Developing Your Skills: Offering new services will more than likely necessitate additional learning. Extra training and skill development is always something we should be striving for as graphic designers.

Ideas to Help You Make More Money as a Graphic Designer

Now that we know why diversifying your business offerings is a good idea, it’s time to look at some different ideas, products, and services you can work with.

In the following section, we’ll explore ten different ideas that you can incorporate into your freelance graphic design business to help you make more money.

Introduce White Label Services, including Outsourcing

Consider offering white-label design services to agencies, marketing firms, or other businesses that require design expertise but lack in-house capabilities. By providing your services under their brand name, you can tap into new markets and secure long-term partnerships that offer consistent income.

Additionally, you can use the white-label model to offer more services to your clients. For example, if you don’t currently offer animation, but know somebody who does, you can hire them as a third party, taking a 20% commission.

If you find yourself turning down jobs because the briefs are outside of your skillset, white labelling can be an excellent way of turning those prospective clients into paying ones.

Explore Affiliate Marketing Opportunities

Partner with brands, software providers, or platforms relevant to your niche and incorporate affiliate marketing into your business model. Promote products or services through your website, social media channels, or email newsletters, and earn commissions for each sale or referral generated through your unique affiliate links.

Keep in mind that this will require a blog and/or social media presence. After all, if you don’t have eyes on your content, you won’t have sales. If you’re considering starting a blog, but don’t know where to start, my easy 7-step content framework is here to help!

Offer Additional Variants and Packages

Expand your service offerings by introducing additional variants or packages to cater to diverse client needs and budgets. Consider creating tiered pricing structures with options for basic, standard, and premium packages, each offering varying levels of service and features.

For example, if you offer a rebranding service that includes the full works, but sometimes hear that this service is too expensive, offer a cheaper version with fewer deliverables. A slightly reduced offering may help to attract clients who would otherwise be slightly outside your price range.

Create Templates and Products

Harness your design skills to develop and monetize templates, digital assets, or products that appeal to fellow designers, businesses, or individuals. This could include website templates, poster templates, printables, or digital products sold through online marketplaces or your own website.

For example, I offer a growing range of digital products, including templates and educational courses. These both allow me to make extra cash, as well as push my skills and knowledge further.

Leverage Passive Income Streams

Explore passive income opportunities such as selling digital products, licensing your designs, or earning royalties from print-on-demand services. Invest time upfront to create high-quality assets that can generate recurring income with minimal ongoing effort.

If you’d like to see a tonne of ideas for how you begin generating your passive income, I’ve put together a full guide that highlights ten passive income ideas for graphic designers.

Offer Consultation and Training Services

Share your expertise and insights with aspiring designers or businesses seeking guidance on design-related matters. Offer consultation services, online courses, workshops, or training sessions to help others enhance their design skills and achieve their creative goals.

This is a bit more labour-intensive, but still an excellent way for you to make use of your existing skills. You’ll be surprised how many businesses don’t have in-house designers, and are desperately looking to train their team on the intricacies of graphic design.

BONUS: If you want to develop your own graphic design skills, whilst also creating a sellable product, here are six design projects ideas for you to work with.

Expand into New Niches or Industries

Diversify your client base by exploring opportunities in new niches or industries where your design skills can be applied. Research emerging trends, identify underserved markets, and tailor your services to meet the specific needs of different sectors.

A lot of us work in only one or two industries, but beyond this, there’s a whole world that we could get involved in. If there’s an industry that you find interesting, why not put yourself right in the middle of it?

Collaborate with Other Creatives

Forge partnerships with fellow creatives, such as photographers, copywriters, or web developers, to offer comprehensive design solutions to clients. Collaborative projects not only broaden your service offerings but also open doors to new clientele and collaborative opportunities.

This is excellent for the white-label services we offered above. By collaborating with other creators, you can build your network, so if you come across a job that you can’t do, there’s a good chance you know another designer who can.

Invest in Continuous Learning and Skill Development

Stay ahead of the curve by investing in continuous learning and skill development. Enrol in online courses, attend workshops or conferences, and explore new tools and technologies to expand your capabilities and stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry.

This won’t directly make you more money, but it will help you stay on top of the latest trends and expand your skill set. Once you’ve picked up a new skill, then you can begin to offer it to your clients.

Conclusion

The key to making more money in the freelance design game is diversifying your business. You need to look at how your skills can be maximised to generate the most returns.

By incorporating things like white-label services, offering training, and (most importantly) adopting a proactive approach to business growth, you can pave the way for long-term success in your design career!

Implementing these strategies into your freelance design business will take a good understanding of productivity, and how to make the most of your time. If you’re struggling with staying on task, you may benefit from working with a Kanban system for project management.

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