Business is down :(

And I ain't feeling so good
Any tips to get back up?
I do freelance graphics.

 

Be sure that you have a list of clear short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals for yourself. Whenever you are feeling down, do something - anything, in fact - that is a step towards achieving one of your goals. View any setback as just another step in the process of achieving your goals and move on to the next activity.

My favorite quote on this subject is as follows:

A successful entrepreneur is someone with a vision...

Who is stubborn enough...

To stick around long enough...

To get lucky!

 

It would pretty well start with your website. First be clear as to what your rates are. Also you need to promote, talking about what you do for a living on this thread is a start.
Go back to your inbox and see if you have missed out on any potential clients. And if possible get clients to post on your website, to say that they were satisfied with your work.

 

Build your own website and soon you can earn from several ways with your site

 

Try to find out where things are going wrong. Look into your site, your products, your marketing. Once you see what's causing it, find solutions to whatever is causing them. One way to find out is to survey your customers. Usually customers will list what could be wrong, so you can start out from there.

 

I would like to ask where the majority of your client base is from, and where you typically find new clients.

I would reach out to all former clients, get in touch, actually say to them, refer a friend, get $10 credit (or $10 cash if it leads to a successful and fully paid project). That and or, offer 10% off the base rates if they order in April. I would give base rates for business cards, letter heads, websites, logo's etc.

Offer a free re-design of business cards, and only pay if they love the work (put protection in the image of course...), and you might find people sending you their current cards, your gonna vomit at how bad it is, and can do a new design for them. They pay for the PSD's if they like.
Former clients, if they need work to be done, and if they like the work you submitted in the past, then they should be easy to get business from, as there should be some rapport between the two of you.

One book I read, the guy was saying that if you ask someone if they know anyone that needs their services, people will push you away, but if you were to say, 'hey refer someone, and you will pay them a finders fee', they will pretty much embrace you, and take your business card, and quite possibly introduce you to someone that needs your services. This could work well with established clients....

Do you actually have a website? If not, a short term solution to help you would be to create a mini-site using gobizcards.com -> it is not as good a proper website, but at least gives you a way to showcase your work, provides an easy way for people to contact you, and its often easier then telling people the links to your fb or other social media accounts to preview your work.

Sadly, everyone needs to eat.

My advice, for nearly everyone, is to aim to have a career option in real life, and treat online stuff as a hobby, I say to treat it as a hobby as it has proven to be volatile. One day, this too shall pass.

 

I'm sorry to hear that, bud. But you know, Milliardo is right. Take note of his advise.

When you know what's wrong, you can always find a way to make it right. And that will help you build your business again. You got great talent, bud! Explore, observe, and act. Good luck! Success will surely find its way to you as long as you work hard and smart.

 

I do have my own business site (sig), also I do have one long term client, sometimes two. But looking for more.

 

It is a competitive market, that is for sure. My sense is the need so specialize - to do graphic work for one type of business.

Your current client? Would they care if you did work for other companies similar to them? Or in a related industry. If they are satisfied clients, don't be afraid to ask for referrals, try some honesty - people generally like to help each other.

 

I'm not expert in graphics so I can not give you professional advice.
but
Newton failed 999 times to find the incandescent material for his light bulb
Failure is inevitable
The difference between a successful and a defeated is that a successful person knows how to stand up when they fall.
Fighting. You will definitely do that.
good luck

 

Back then google black hole wasn't around to chew all existent light bulb materials

 

Last I checked there wasn't some sort of weird downward shift in demand for graphic designers... so if business is down it's your fault. How are you marketing yourself? Where are you getting business from?

If you are in freelance you need to have multiple streams of revenue... meaning you need to have many sources to find jobs not just one site. You also need to follow up with your previous clients as they are golden sources for your next opportunity whether it be referrals or more work.

 

This may be true.... but the number of graphic designers has sky rocketed, there is fierce micro-cost competition from 3rd world markets. Your advice is uninformed and pure s***!

 

You must be angry at something I said in another thread lol. So you think the following is crappy advice? 1) Have multiple revenue making streams 2) followup with previous client for more work and ask for referrals.

Haha. you're too much snow flake...

Irrelevant if there are more graphic designers. He didn't all of a sudden notice a 100% decrease in business.