Why make someone else rich? Come to Generate London and learn how to build your own design empire.
Running your own business can be a daunting prospect, but if you've ever fancied making the break from employment and striking out on your own, or if you're already a freelancer and want to improve your prospects or expand your horizons, here's something that can help you make the best of it.
If you come to Generate London on 21 September, there's an all-day workshop that will teach you not only how to start your own design business, but also how to ensure that you make money and build your enterprise into a profitable going concern.
Hosted by Brad Weaver, managing partner and director of design in Atlanta, Georgia, the workshop's title says it all: Start and build a profitable design business. It aims to help you streamline your marketing, operations and finances, in order to get you focused in four key areas:
How you operate
Who your clients are
How to price your work
How to stop the crazy revisions and break the scope creep cycle
Over the course of the day you'll learn a host of tips and techniques, from all-important financial issues such as working out your actual billing rate, how to get paid for proposals, which pricing models work best for you and how to use them, and how to raise your rates, through to the brass tacks of running a business: your vertical and horizontal market targets, your elevator pitch, where to focus your attention in order to maximise your time for growth, and of course how to actually start or re-form your business for legal and financial stability.
It's going to be a day packed with practical advice and useful insights, designed to help you shift your mindset from emotional to pragmatic when it comes to your pricing and operations, and show you how to build towards a value-based pricing strategy with better estimation workflows.
By the end of the day you'll no longer have to guess about what to charge, who to work with and how to get them to sign on the dotted line, and after the workshop is over you'll have access to a companion website that offers up-to-date resources, articles, tools and discussions, allowing you to continue learning as you grow.
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Whether you're just thinking about starting your own freelance practice or agency, or if you've been in business for years but feel that you could use some extra pointers, this workshop is the perfect way to give your career a boost and set you on course for great things. Don't miss out; book your ticket today, and visit the Generate London site to find out about all the other sessions that are on offer.
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Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
