S U R V I V A L K I T

T H E E S S E N T I A L S Y O U N E E D T O G E T T H R O U G H L I F EA S A F R E E L A N C E D E S I G N E R

T H E

F R E E L A N C E R ’ S

A business plan is essential even if you are not applying for funding from a bank.You need a solid financial plan if you are freelancing full time to ensure you can make enough to live off.

This document will be a basis for your pricing strategy, your client acquisition plan and also your marketing strategy. Being self-employed also means your business life and personal life are undeniably integrated. A business plan will define your work/life balance and help put costs into perspective. It will become a guide to your creative process and ultimately, focus your goals to make your business a success.

I .B E F O R EY O U S T A R T

B U S I N E S S P L A N

N A M E :Your Name

B U S I N E S S P L A N F O R :Your Business Name

F R E E L A N C EG R A P H I CD E S I G N E R

B U S I N E S S P L A N

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E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

F R E E L A N C E G O A L S

Your executive summary is essentially a short statement summarising your freelance business. A brief snapshot of why you have decided to become a freelance graphic designer, any specific areas of design you’re going to focus on and who will be your target clients.

1.1. Name Of Freelance Business Declare your business name here and state whether you’re using your actual name to define your freelance business or using an umbrella term. Check on Companies House to ensure no one else has taken and trademarked it. If someone has already registered your name, don’t worry. Try variations such as including your middle name, or abbreviating your first name.

1.2. Mission Statement Try to describe your business aims in a sentence. Your mission statement is usually the tag line you use on your website to attract customers and inform them of your design services. It defines the purpose of your business and sums up your objectives.

1.3. Sole Trader Or Limited Company? Now to a decision all creative freelancers must face; do you set up your freelance business as a sole trader or limited company? Gov.co.uk outlines the pros and cons of each to help you decide.

1.4 Vision Statement Here’s where you can put your heart on the line and describe an overview of where you want the business to eventually lead. Perhaps you hope to hire someone one day, or maybe you just want to leave your mark stamped on the graphic design world. Injecting ambition into your business plan will help keep you on track to reach your overall business goals.

Now you must delve into more detail as to why you’ve decided to go it alone, what your creative style is and how long you’ve been designing for. Will you be based from home or in a shared workspace? Describe what you hope to achieve in your first three years to show you have realistic basis to grow. Emphasise your Unique Selling Points (USPs) and showcase why people will come to you over other freelancers.

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C L I E N T A C Q U I S I T I O N & S T R A T E G Y

P R I C I N G Y O U R S E R V I C E S

3.1 Current Clients Clients keep your business alive. If you already have clients in the pipeline or you’ve already starting working with some, brag about them. Write down how you acquired them and how you plan to retain them. A small pool of current clients build a solid basis to get you started.

3.2 Prospective Clients Having a clear list of ideal clients you will go after will steer your freelance graphic design business in a clear direction and will help you hone your efforts to secure them. The size and type of clients you go for will help determine your branding, marketing and pricing strategies further down the line.

3.3 Customer Acquisition So you’ve devised a list of clients, but how are you going to reach to them? Will you approach directly or build your brand steadily then draw them in? Don’t worry about going into too much detail about your social media and outreach plans as you’ll cover those in section 6.

3.4 Retention Customer retention will be a huge part of your freelance design business and you’ll be pouring efforts into keeping them happy. What measures will you take to ensure clients don’t stray elsewhere?

State here how much you’ll charge for each project. Due to varying complexities of different projects you probably won’t be able give an exact price, but rough guidelines will help structure your business model. What services will you charge per item e.g. Logo design, and what will you price per hour e.g. rebranding a business?

When devising your pricing strategy, consider:

> Costs Of The Item For freelance graphic designers this is usually pretty low since you’ll be working from a computer. If you’re designing for print products which you’ll resell then these overheads should be included. Apart from the cost of your software, you’re mainly putting a price against your time.

> GrossProfit(Price–Costs)

> GrossProfitMargin(Profit/Pricex100)

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B U S I N E S S P R O C E S S E S

M A R K E T R E S E A R C H & A N A L Y S I S

How will you approach each new project? Will you provide a Statement of Work and how will you communicate with your clients? What will your creative process be? By creating a structured process for new projects, you’ll ensure all bases are covered and this will help you build a clear direction every time.

Freelance graphic design is tough and to win business in such a competitive landscape you must research the market. Prove you know your target market inside out by exhibiting your expertise of your customer base. These four questions should form a strong backbone to your market research.

When devising your pricing strategy, consider:

> Who Are Your Clients? What size business will they be? Are they local or national? You need to show you know your clients and can provide a service to them.

> Why Will They Buy From You? In-depth market research will help validate this question. Have you already received offers? Can you prove businesses are already employing freelancers which you can compete with?

> How Many Customers Will You Have? Work out how many clients you’ll acquire over the next few years and how you’ll reach them; whether its word-of mouth, local or online advertising.

> Analysis Of Other Freelancers In The Same Niche State what you can offer that other freelancers in the same niche can’t. Do you offer a new style or a more specialised approach? Find out which freelancers other businesses use and analyse what’s made them successful. How can you improve upon that success?

7M A R K E T I N G & S E L F P R O M O T I O N

8F I N A N C I A L F O R E C A S T

7.1 Social Media Strategy Plan out how you’ll build your brand and gain a following on social media. Will this be a way of attracting new clients or building your presence in the design community?

7.2 Online Strategy Will you create a blog to establish your brand and help your freelance business rank higher on search engines? Develop a strategy that will make your website and portfolio attractive to potential clients.

7.3 OfflineStrategy This could range from networking events to leveraging existing contacts to win business.

Now it’s time for the maths. You need to calculate expenses from running a business compared to the revenue you’ll generate to create a freelance business that is viable.

> Start-up Expenses e.g. Design software for your computer and website launch.

> Variable Costs These are costs which vary project to project, such as printed products you’ll resell to clients or travel to meet a client far away.

> Fixed Costs This is mainly your salary – how much you can afford or wish to live by including your mortgage or rent, food and general living costs plus any rent for workspace.

> Burn Rate Your burn rate is how quickly you’ll use up your cash reserves. It might take a while to earn cash back from customers so you’ll initially be running on your cash supplies. These are either from your personal finances or any funding you receive. You need to show you will have enough cash to keep going if you’re making a loss, and how long for.

> Current Assets Equipment you already have.

> Future Assets What else will you need to buy?

9E X I T S T R A T E G Y

You’ll need three statements which have monthly projections for the first year; Income, Cash Flow and Profit & Loss.

> Sales Forecast Realistically break down your monthly or quarterly sales.

> IncomeandProfitForecast This is your monthly income, minus your expenditure. You now have your net profit. Calculate these for the next 2-3 years for a solid profit forecast.

> CashflowForecast To keep your freelance graphic design business above water, identify when it will have more money coming in than going out. This needs to cover all expenditure, from salary to tax.

Lastly, if for whatever reason you decide freelance graphic design isn’t for you, create a safe exit strategy to safeguard you financially until you find other means of income.