Break into freelance graphic design in 2023: The complete guide

Cultivating a brand

While a portfolio is helpful in sales calls, it may not bring potential clients from across the United States to your door. That’s where cultivating a brand comes in. The more well known you are in your space, the easier it becomes for people to find you and for others in your network to refer business your way.

If you’re totally new to freelancing, you only need to worry about three core elements of building a personal brand:

1. Your personal website
2. Social media
3. Forums and platforms
   
   

Building a website

Your website is meant to do three things: introduce who you are, clearly explain your industry experience (and the type of clients you work with), and make it easy for people to get in touch with you. That’s it. In the case of being a freelance graphic designer, your website design is also the first image that potential clients will have of you. With that in mind, make sure it’s well-designed in your signature style.

You can treat your website almost like your own personal graphic design resume. List out the accomplishments you've achieved in your career so far, what skills you've developed, and the types of projects you've worked on.

Social media

Being active on the internet - social media being the most common place - is usually a good thing for your brand. But even if you don’t want to engage on social media from a business perspective, then at least make sure your personal social media accounts won’t deter clients from you. This doesn’t mean you can’t share personal opinions, but make sure you’re comfortable with potential clients reading those opinions. It may not be fair sometimes, but people can make quick decisions about someone based on their social media profiles. If you’re just starting out in freelancing, make sure you’re putting out an image you’re comfortable with online.

If you do want to leverage social media to build your business network, think about key ways that people engage on major platforms:

• LinkedIn: Responding or comments on popular status updates plus natively blogging on the platform
• Twitter: Twitter chats, threads, and sharing your (sometimes controversial) opinions or experiences
• Facebook: Private, niche interest groups see a lot of engagement
  
  

Forums and other platforms

Aside from the major social networks, there are a bunch of forums and platforms built just for graphic designers to meet, network, and in many cases share freelance project opportunities.

Here are a few of the big forums made just for freelance designers:

• Graphic Design Forum (GDF)
• Dribbble
• Designer Hangout
• Graphic Designers (Facebook Group)
• CoffeeCup
• WebDesignerForum (A UK-based community)
• How Design Live
• Stack Overflow

The key to success in these communities is to figure out what they are for and engage appropriately. Some are for website accessibility, others for making friends, etc. - if you poke around a bit, read the rules, and follow along, you’ll be much more successful in building community and learning from peers. You also don’t have to engage in every community all the time. For example, you may only pop into Stack Overflow when you have coding problems (cause that’s what it’s primarily for). Since a graphic designer won't code much, if at all, that means you likely won’t spend too much time in Stack Overflow - and that’s totally fine. Instead, you might collaborate with web designers (either from a client or your employer) to handle any code issues.

Setting your prices

Knowing what to charge as a freelancer can sometimes feel like an experiment. Ideally, your rates will provide you with a comfortable, profitable business without burning you out. Further, these rates have to be enough in line with client outcomes that you don’t have angry clients at your door wondering why they paid so much.

With that in mind, a freelance graphic designer has three primary pricing strategies:

1. Project-based (also called outcome-based or deliverable-based)
2. Hourly
3. Retainers
   
   

Project-based pricing

This is the ideal option for freelance work because it’s the best balance of client incentives and freelancer incentives. To get to project-based pricing, you have to scope a project with a clear beginning and end. Further, that end is usually defined as a specific outcome that the client wants. Then you put a single price on it.

The client benefits because they pay one price and get a predetermined outcome that they want. You benefit as a freelancer because your earning potential is not harmed if you become more efficient. You can also outsource work more efficiently with a project-based model because you didn’t sell your labor, you sold an outcome.

Hourly pricing

Hourly pricing can be great for ad-hoc additions and other work that requires flexibility. For instance, if you start with project-based pricing but there’s a small additional thing that’s hard to scope, you can add a couple hours onto the project with an hourly rate. Further, you can use hourly rates when the ‘outcome’ is time, for example sitting in a client meeting.

The problem with hourly pricing is it pits client incentives against you as a freelancer. If they are paying hourly, they want you to finish as quickly as possible so they pay less. On the other side, you technically benefit when you work slowly. Many freelancers who work with hourly rates will pre-scope projects (for instance, signing a contract that one deliverable will take X hours), but then you open yourself up to a client who nitpicks on how long you’ve scoped, arguing that you may have said 10 hours but they think it should only take 8, so they don’t want to pay for 10. It’s a back and forth no freelancer wants to be in.

Retainer-based pricing

Retainers - daily, weekly, or monthly - are great for highly complex or widely varying work that is ongoing but difficult to scope. In this model, you get paid a flat fee to show up much like an employee would and work through a list of tasks. There’s some incentive alignment here because clients know their flat rate (like project pricing) and you get a known amount of revenue for your work.

The key here is pricing retainer rates high enough that you are making money without being so expensive that your client may as well just hire someone in-house. A good rule of thumb is to see what an employee would earn for the same basket of tasks and double it. That accounts for the fact that you often have to provide your own technology as a freelancer and you have to manage your own expenses and business admin, things that employees don’t have to worry about.

Mixing pricing strategies

You can always mix pricing strategies, whether using multiple with one client or changing it up client to client. The key is to make sure you’re comfortable with the rates and they work for you - otherwise you risk burning out trying to make a sustainable living. Remember to review industry benchmarks for illustrator salaries and rates before setting your own price.

Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with raising your prices. Just because you started at X doesn’t mean you can’t go to 2X once you gain more experience. The trick is to only raise prices on new clients, giving existing and ongoing clients a bit more time before you circle back and raise rates on them. And when you do, only do it for future work - never go back on a signed contract.

Where to find freelance graphic design jobs

There are three main ways to find freelance graphic design jobs:

1. Job boards
2. Freelancer marketplaces and niche design job communities
3. Your network
   
   

Job boards

A lot of companies are posting freelance graphic design jobs (often ongoing work) on job boards just like they post full-time employment. Here are a few to check out:

• Indeed
• WeWorkRemotely
• FlexJobs
• DynamiteJobs
• LinkedIn
  
  

Marketplaces and niche design job communities

Major freelance marketplaces can be a solid way to find graphic design jobs. They are similar to job boards, but focus only on freelance work.

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• TopTal
• Communo
• 99designs
• Dribbble
  
  

Your network

You never know who is looking to hire for freelance graphic design jobs - or knows someone who is. Make sure all your social pages are updated (which you did above in the branding section) and don’t be afraid to let people know you’re looking for work.

The key to telling people you’re open to referrals is to make it about them solving someone else’s problem. So instead of saying “Hey can you refer clients to me?” say, “If you know someone looking for graphic design work, I’d be happy to chat with them.”

If you want to make your ask for freelancer referrals even stronger, be more specific about what kind of client you want to work with. Instead of just saying you’ll chat with anyone looking for graphic design work, be explicit: “If you know any startups looking for freelance graphic design work, I’d be happy to chat with them.”

The easier you make it for people to refer you - both by having professional, public-facing pages like your website or LinkedIn and being clear on what type of client you help - the more likely it is that your network will send work your way.

Closing clients efficiently (4 tips to implement)

Once you’ve got a call booked - from a job posting, marketplace, or network referral - here are the four things you need to think of:

1. The right sales call agenda
2. How to talk about the value you offer
3. Sending a proposal
4. Dealing with pushback
   
   

The right sales call agenda

A sales call needs to accomplish three things (in this order): introductions, help you learn about your prospect’s challenges, and give you an opportunity to explain how your services might solve those challenges or honestly admit you aren’t a fit to help them and move on. The problem is that many freelancers focus on talking about themselves or their offerings before understanding a prospect’s problems - this is when you inevitably get a high fail rate in sales calls.

Talking about the value you offer

Cultivating a good freelancer mindset means knowing your work has value regardless of the client. As a freelance graphic designer, your beautiful creations stand on their own. In sales, however, you have to talk about your value in context. A rule of thumb to remember is people don’t care about what you do, they care about their problems. So the more you understand their problems, the more you can position your work not as “what you do” but as the solution they’ve been waiting for.

Sending a proposal

Many prospects will ask you for prices on a sales call. That’s fine, since they are just trying to understand the project’s potential cost. However, be careful about providing exact pricing on a phone call. Since freelance work is often custom-scoped, it’s usually better to avoid pricing (or just provide a typical price range), then follow up with a proposal email after the fact. This gives you room to consider all options and provide an honest scope, which avoids problems later of needing multiple add-ons so the final price is way above the initial proposal. If a prospect pushes for pricing on a call, give a general range and explain what levers affect price. From there, say you will provide a written proposal after the call. That way the prospect leaves the call with some information to share with their finance team but you get time to think things through.

Dealing with pushback

When you focus on outcomes, it’s easy to deal with pushback on prices. When a prospect says that they want a discount, you can respond with “this is the price for this outcome. If budget is a concern, let’s talk about what we can reduce from this outcome to lower the overall price.” It helps here if you have multiple offerings as well, since you can easily point to a lower tier offering.

Ensuring you set up business admin tools

Business admin is perhaps the most annoying part of freelancing. Even if you enjoy admin work, it’s time that doesn’t produce revenue. The best thing you can do is optimize three areas where business admin can take a huge amount of time:

1. Business banking and bookkeeping
2. Creating and sending invoices
3. Accepting payments
   
   

Business banking and bookkeeping

Always open a business account for your freelancing business. Even if you transfer 100% of the profit over to your personal account, having a separate account will save you hours during tax season when it comes to tracking expenses and other tax deductions. There are many free business bank account options available on the market, so make sure you have one.

Creating and sending invoices

If you don’t send invoices, you can’t get paid. But designing them from scratch is a huge waste of time. Instead, use a free invoicing tool so you can quickly spin up an invoice template that matches your branding and easily make invoices for all clients. For ongoing clients, you also want to make sure you can schedule invoices for even more admin automation.

Accepting payments

You have to make it easy for clients to pay you. Whether that’s accepting credit card, bank transfers, or opening up other payment gateways, it’s critical. Ideally, you should work with a system that lets you accept payments directly from your invoices, providing the ultimate convenience for clients.

Including the right contract clauses

Here are some typical clauses to include in your contracts:

• Payment terms: When a customer must pay you by. A common clause is Net-30, meaning the customer has to pay you within 30 days of the invoice date.
• Deliverables: Clearly stating what you will do for a client or produce for them.
• Late fees: If you charge late fees, make sure they are clearly stated.
• Permission to share: This clause gives you the right to privately share any ghost work you do, so you can still have a portfolio to share with potential clients.
• IP ownership: This clause explains that you own the intellectual property (IP) from the project until the client pays their invoice.

All of these clauses are common amongst freelancers, but may or may not apply in your circumstances. Always be sure to check with your lawyer to see what you may need for your context and projects.

Client management

Handling clients is a function of setting expectations, communicating, managing bad clients, and accepting feedback.

Setting expectations

Expectations start in your sales calls. When you’re explaining the value you create, you also briefly explain how you work and what you need from a client to make the project successful. You can also explain any project-specific things such as access to client files, regular meetings, and timelines.

You can elaborate on all this during a kickoff call or email, in particular explaining any dependencies and how they may affect deliverables.

Communication

In general, the more you communicate the better. But there are two caveats to this: 1) if your client asked you for a specific communications timeline or cadence, and 2) not all communication has to be manual.

If a client asks for a specific cadence, follow it unless there’s an emergency. But ‘communication’ does not always mean booking a call or writing an email. For example, you can set up a client dashboard where they can click a link to see the status of your project at any time (you can do this for free in tools like Airtable).

Dealing with bad clients

Often clients aren’t ‘bad’ so much as communicating poorly or not following expectations. If you hit a snag with a client, first make sure you’ve set the expectation they are breaking. For instance, you can’t be mad at a client for not sending you something you never asked for. If the expectation has been set, professional follow ups usually solve the problem. This is also where having good contract clauses helps, since you can lean on them to remind everyone of their obligations.

If you’ve got a client that’s making personal accusations or insults, you do not have to stand for that. You can kindly remind them to be professional and focus on the work - if they don’t change, fire them.

Taking feedback

Not all clients will love your work. Or sometimes you will mess up. That’s ok. The key with feedback is to find the useful bits and throw out the rest. If getting feedback tenses you up at the start, don’t respond immediately (waiting a day is a good rule of thumb to let your emotions cool).

If you’re in a situation where the client is mad about a deliverable, get confirmation on what they want to see before rushing to work again. For requests that are way out of scope, you have a right to remind the client. For requests that are in scope but seem really odd, take a mental note to ask future clients about the request so there’s no confusion going forward.

Scaling and growth

Once you’ve got a stable roster of clients, you can grow in a wide variety of ways. Here are some of the most common:

• Partnerships: Work with other freelancers in different niches to take on larger projects together.
• Raising your rates: If you’ve got a lot of client demand, raise your rates. You’ll either see some client demand drop off but you’ll make up the revenue with higher prices, or everyone will pay you more.
• Implementing project minimums: Instead of taking any client on, force clients to commit to a bigger project size to start. This will help you focus your resources and minimize mentally jumping from client to client.
• Press and interviews: If you’ve done some cool work, you may be able to get featured in niche blogs or even mainstream media, which could help with more demand for your services.
• Products and courses: If you’ve built up a good base of knowledge, consider teaching people with paid courses or masterclasses. Similarly, you can create and sell ‘design kits’ to help other people fast-track their design with your style.
  
  

Dealing with taxes as a freelance graphic designer

Even with great business admin set up, taxes can be a nuisance. If you don’t have the budget to hire an accountant, here’s what you need to think about:

• Receipt management: Use a digital receipt management tool so you don’t have to worry about keeping receipts in a shoebox or overflowing envelope.
• Setting aside money for taxes: A rule of thumb is to set aside 25% of your income immediately for taxes. However, depending on your earnings you may want to set aside more or less.
• Tax deductions and expenses: Keep track of all expenses you have for your business (software, meals, etc.) because you might be able to use them to reduce your tax bill.
  
  

Personal money management

Even though freelancing is an individual business, you still need to separate your personal finances from the business:

• Don’t forget about retirement: Just because freelancing isn’t traditional employment doesn’t mean you’ll want to do it forever. Think about tax-advantaged retirement accounts like a 401k or Roth-IRA to help you grow a nest-egg while freelancing.
• Paying yourself a ‘salary’: If your business is earning a good amount of money, consider paying yourself a regular salary. This can help you keep a consistent personal financial plan and help with tax planning.
• Creating a rainy day / emergency fund: Freelancing can ebb and flow. Make sure you have some cash set aside for life’s emergencies if you hit a low income month.
• Not forgetting about other financial goals: If you want to buy a car, house, or have other financial goals, keep contributing to them!
  
  

Mentorship and ongoing learning

Learning never stops, even after you start making a lot of money. Thankfully there are a lot of opportunities to learn. Embrace every method you can (and that works for you), including: taking UX design courses, reading blogs, sharing your journey online and asking for feedback, paying for a coach to help with a specific problem, or finding a mentor that can help you in higher level ways.

The key to learning is to chase a few different types:

• Learning for your passions
• Learning for its own sake
• Learning for specific skills

As you gain more experience freelancing, you might find learning specific skills slows down a bit. While you keep up with new developments in your field, you will also have more time to explore your passions and curiosities.

A final word

In freelance graphic design, like any freelance business, there will be ups and downs. Unfortunately, even following all the best advice perfectly is not a guarantee of success. But one common trait amongst all successful freelancers is that they kept working through difficulty and were open to trying new things. So as you embark on your journey, remember that you’re likely to hit rough patches here and there. However, it does not mean you won’t succeed. Just keeping working and be flexible in your approach until you find something that works for you.