Designers too can become great entrepreneurs. It’s just that they don’t realize it! There are a lot of designers who work full-time or as freelancers but very few of them know that they can be one of the leaders of the company.

And how often do you come across founders who have design as their special skill set? Again, very few. Perhaps a reason for this is that designers, especially logo designers, are just too passionate about designing. They do not give enough thought to promoting their skills on the web or polishing their marketing talent. They are obsessed with the colors and pixels.

On the other hand, what we find with most of the entrepreneurs is that they are good at a few things such as fundraising, partnership etc. and therefore they hire designers and others for their support.

However, if you look closely, both the founder and designer work with one aim in mind – solve the problems of the people and give what their audience wants. If a designer designs just for the love for it, just to sell it, then probably he or she shouldn’t start a business.

But if they also love the process of getting their designs to work i.e. finding out the tastes and preferences of people, what they need and problem solving, then they can be great entrepreneurs.

If you are a logo designer and want to be an entrepreneur, you can do it with little efforts. All you need to do is develop a few skills and work hard to master them. Following are the top 10 strategies that entrepreneurially challenged logo designers can adopt to become successful entrepreneur.

1. Conduct market research

Doing rigorous market research and gathering enough information is essential for informed decision. And if you start a business after considering every essential aspect, the probability of your business success will be much higher.  

In fact, you should do a couple of things before you get your feet wet in entrepreneurship—indentify if there’s enough space for your talent in that particular market and what the market demand and supply are.

Pay attention to the forecasts made by reputed institutions/persons for your profession. Once you have authentic information, identifying customer persona will become much easier for you. 

2. Understand what you have to offer

As an entrepreneur, it is important that you know what your field of interest is precisely. Remember that logo designing is a broader term as it covers many types of logos. For instance, your interest may be more in creating vintage sports logo that involves old styles or you love to use negative space elements as your style.

Or, you like to combine old and new era logo styles. You may have special talent for using typography. Make sure that you project yourself as a designer entrepreneur who stands out in a saturated market.

In the era of AI where there are many online logo maker tools available you have to portray your talent in a very strong manner. After deciding on your special talent, mention it prominently in your profile. Also, create a logo for your own business and splash it across your social media pages.

3. Design for your target audience

In order to grow your business, you need to know who you are targeting. Therefore, instead of marketing directionless, firstly ascertain beforehand that you have enough audience for your talent.

In a vast field of businesses and industries, you should find out potential clients, as not all of them will be looking for the type of logo designs you create.

Therefore, research on which specific industry and sector you should be attracting. Find out which clients are more likely to look for your set of design skills.

One insightful article stated that market research is the best way to increase customer satisfaction, understand the factors that affect your business, and to elevate your performance.

4. Plan out your finances

As a logo designer, your overhead can often be knee-high. Most entrepreneurial logo designers start working from their homes or in a small space. Sometimes, they share that small space with such other entrepreneurs.

But they still need some capital expenditure (CapEx to meet personal expenses, marketing costs, software purchase costs. For creating high-quality logo designs to compete the market, you’ll need cutting-edge tools and software. 

Take a moment; roughly calculate the total expenses that would incur in setting up business and running for at least 6 months. Many logo design professionals work as a freelancer or with an agency until they have saved the estimated budget. 

Alternatively, you can seek financial support from a financial institution or government.

5. Get legal advice

New entrepreneurs are most likely to fall in legal disputes. Actually, budget is a major constraint before the start-ups and they try to save as much money as they can. They usually rely on free online resources for legal suggestions and set up businesses with both the federal and state governments.

In order to cut-down the establishment cost, they try to design their contracts on their own. 

This practice could have serious legal consequences. You’re a creative person and may not know the intricacies attached to law. That’s why finding an experienced attorney is essential for you. He/she can help you form the legal structure, contracts, etc.  

6. Determine the structure of your business 

There are many types of structures for establishing a business and your attorney can help you decide. However, you can do some research on these structures. 

 If you have decided to run your business, the structure will be ‘a sole proprietorship’. And the ‘S’ corporation or Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) has both some pros and cons. Now that you have fundamental ideas about the different structures, discuss with your attorney on each option to understand them more and determine the structure. You may tap the services of experts, like one of the best LLC companies, to guide you through the registration process.

7. Set up a blog

To showcase your expertise, nothing works better than to start a blog of your own and start posting your blogs regularly. Project yourself as an expert logo designer so that clients have more faith in your skills.  Your blog should talk about your design projects, images of your logo works and your views on the industry.

This will help you maximize your web presence. According to Millo.co, the exposure blogging can generate for yourself and your business can also be very useful and can become a primary source of clients and business.

8. Explore social media

This is one of the most important skills that you will need to develop in order to become a successful entrepreneur. Take advantage of social media to promote your services. It is an amazing tool to scale your visibility and sell your art.

Millions of people are active on one or the other social media platforms these days. You can reach out to them by creating your own Twitter and Facebook etc pages and engage them in conversation.

Moreover, by putting your profile on social sites, you are showing off your expertise in order to gain recognition from business owners and individuals, many of them may turn out to be your customers in the end.

It can be argued that the evolution of social media reflects the evolution of the design industry, and those who embrace it will find themselves with more opportunities, in much the same way as those who moved from “paste-up” artwork to digital print production.

9. Use online tools for networking

If you are a designer wanting to start his/her own business, using free online tools is the key to promote your business. Free marketing tools allow you to enhance your reach amid your target clients.

For instance, if you think of doing some email marketing, then you can use Mail Chimp to send out your newsletter to your vast list of potential clients at once. Free online design tools give those who aren’t experienced designers the power to create visual content for blog posts and social media posts.

10. Get client referrals

If any one of your clients found working with you a great experience, use that to your advantage. You should seek referrals from the client. Then post those praises everywhere on social media so that others can notice your design talent.

This strategy will help you bring new customers for your logo design business. An expert Hubspot article revealed that customers will only want to refer you if you’ve delighted them. So strive t go above and beyond with your customers to reap the referral rewards.

Now over to You

To conclude, logo designers do not have to master all marketing techniques to reach out to thousands of potential clients. Just keep in mind some crucial tips such as mentioned above and it will be good enough to get desired results for you to become a great business owner.

Once you have promoted your design skills on social media, online and offline, gradually you have a strong list of clients who will be offering you work regularly and help in your path to success.