Increasing your income as a logo designer
4 important factors to increase your income as a freelance logo designer
As a self-taught freelance designer, I had learnt many things through trial and error. An important area I had figured out, is how to increase my income.
As freelance logo designers, we actually have more opportunities than we can imagine, especially when it comes to the financial growth.
Here are several ways to improve your income as a logo designer:
Improve your craft - Putting the time and money into your craft of logo design, is the biggest investment in your freelance business. You reap what you sow.
Increase your rate - Confidently increasing your rate can only be done when you improve your logo design skills.
Market yourself - Produce consistent specialist content and be everywhere in order to reach more clients, and gain opportunities.
Create multiple income streams - Whether its digital products, online courses or merchandise, explore other avenues rather than only client work to generate income.
Master Your Craft
As freelance logo designers, we can sometimes forget that logo design is a craft and not just a job. When this is identified, we value logo design more than ever and make the conscious decision to take a step back and work on the craft.
It can be easy to get lost in client work and feel as if you are an employee instead of a highly-skilled creative.
One way to avoid this mindset, is to consciously make the effort to invest in your self as a logo designer. Whether its upgrading your equipment, buying courses or taking the time out to practice logo design these are investments that will pay off in the long-term.
The several methods I had taken to improve my craft were waking up earlier than usual to create logo design concepts. This was a big thing for me as waking up earlier had always been a struggle.
Placing myself in such a situation, only forced me to care more about my work, as well as improving as a logo designer.
You truly reap what you sow, and when this is understood you will go all out for your freelance business and logo design craft. By improving your craft, you create more opportunities for yourself due to an increase in confidence.
There is certainly a positive correlation between your skill and your confidence as a logo designer.
When your skill increases, so does your confidence.
This may decreases the chance of imposter syndrome which we all know is a huge barrier as a creative. As a result of this, you may also find it a lot easier to increase your prices, ultimately resulting in income growth as a logo designer.
Pricing Is Confidence
Increasing your rate can be an obvious solution to increasing your revenue as a logo designer. However, to some creatives, this maybe a difficult solution.
In my experience when I initially started as a freelance logo designer, I found it difficult to increase my prices, due to a lack of confidence in many areas such as skill, experience and my ‘brand’.
We have previously discussed how we can get around the issue of improving your skills, but now we can discuss the solution to a lack of confidence in experience.
I was fortunate to gain experience as an in-house graphic designer. This job position taught me a lot before I went full-time freelance. Even though this position was only 1 year, my eyes were opened and acquired many key skills that can be carried over as a freelancer.
Prior to this, I also spent 6 months as an intern.
What I’m getting at here is you don’t need to have years of experience before going into freelance logo design, but it maybe best to find paid or even unpaid position as a graphic designer since a lot can be learned and implemented in your freelance career.
Lastly, another barrier that hindered me, was a lack of confidence in my brand. Building a brand is crucial when going into full-time logo design. You may quickly realise how vital it is for clients and other designers to perceive your business/ work in a good light.
Believe it or not, but this perception can be influenced (to an extent) by yourself, the freelancer -
“Your brand isn’t what you say it is, but what others say.” - Marty Neumeier
Building your brand is a very deep topic in which I recommend the following: The Brand Gap & Zag
Apart from this, the actions you can take to increasing the confidence of your brand is by marketing your self how you want to be perceived. For example, across all my social platforms, I allow viewers to know I am a graphic designer that specialises in logo design.
I also back this claim up by creating consistent, relevant content such as daily instagram posts, logo redesign live streams, and most recently- logo design course.
By doing all of the above, It results in greater confidence about my business/ brand as what I say correlates to what I do.
This area of increasing your prices actually goes into marketing your self as a logo designer, which we will dive into next.
Walk the talk.
The Internet is full of thousands of self-proclaimed ‘Logo Design Professionals’. This is a very bold statement which can only be proven by the fruits of the logo designer.
As a logo design freelancer, your only option is to become a logo design professional, which can be done by specialising (Read more about how to specialise as a logo designer).
As a specialist, you are telling your clients “I really do this.” A bold statement that needs to be backed up with the content you produce.
There are several ways to prove that you are ‘walking your talk’.
On a consistent basis, create content that resonates with your claim - ‘Logo Design Specialist’. Instagram is a good platform to create content regularly without decreasing your brand value. Another platform to take advantage of is Behance.
I have had huge success on this platform, which I highly recommend to logo designers that are in it for the long run - Read more about achieving success on Behance.
Creating strategicaly planned content can be extremely beneficial for your business, as well as resulting in massive income growth when done correctly.
For example, I use Behance and strategically to create projects every 3-4 months. The main reason is to maintain quality over quantity when it comes to projects, as well as intentionally having a controlled amount of projects online every year.
I can happily say I received my biggest clients from Behance, which resulted in huge financial growth. However, there are many ways other than client work to increase your revenue as a logo designer.
Understanding that you have two audiences; clients and graphic designers, can create more opportunities as well as becoming a freelance entrepreneur and not just a creative.
Think Like An Entrepreneur
Don’t be a hungry creative!
Regardless on how long you’ve been a freelance designer, especially a logo designer, there can be seasons where clients tend not reach out to you as much. This is inevitable especially if you haven’t been freelancing for many years.
Therefore, it’s important to be ready at all times for these seasons. There is no shame in having a side job outside of design, that can allow you to pay your bills regardless on the season your freelance business is in.
As freelancers, we are fortunate enough to have more time on our hands than those who are in full-time employment. Time management is crucial as a freelancer, once you understand that you are an entrpreuere and not just a creative.
Time is the most expensive currency - You can’t get it back.
When this is understood, its important to think of other ways to generate money within your creative field.
As mentioned, us freelancers have 2 audience groups; clients and graphic designers.
At first, it is easier to only cater to clients by carrying out commission work (if your lucky enough to get hired), but we can easily forget the large community of graphic designers/ logo designers that are willing to support your business in exchange for your time.
Whether it’s templates, courses, videos, blogs or merchandise, this is a new way to think as a who is init for the long run.
From a creative to an Entrepreneur
The design community is one of the best out there, and will always support your business (if you have a good product). Creating content in-exchange for a donation or even selling products/ resources, is a way to think ahead.
This is creating multiple income streams that isn’t your only source of income (client work) - Read more about how to make passive income as a freelance creative.
Theres no harm done in taking time from work, to plan a few months ahead, as well as prepare content for your other audience- graphic designers.
Heads up, it is a lot of hard work that certainly separates the Entrepreneur (Creative and Businessmen) from the Creative. In the beginning it may feel very difficult to maintain, but eventually you will create new habits. Take small steps at a time and set goals. Discover how to stay motivated as a logo designer.
Don’t feel that you are missing out on client work when you invest time into your other audience group - graphic designers, as this is usually the perception.
In fact, you're actually hitting two birds with one stone as creating more content for graphic designers, will inevitably attract more clients.
Overall, increasing your income as a freelance logo designer is definitely a long-term mission, which certainly pays off. In all honesty, the harder you work, the faster you may see results. Doing what you love and getting paid, is rare.
Its important that you go through every measure to insure the success of your freelance business.
Being a freelancer means your and entrepreneur and not just a creative.
Thinking like a businessmen is crucial as the success of your freelance business is down to you. Remember, as a logo designer, you are a crafts-man that needs to improve daily.
This can be done by creating content that resonates with your claim ‘Logo Design Specialist’/ ‘Logo Design Professional’.
This claim can also be supported with a clear consistent body of work on your website or creative platforms. In addtion, gaining experience through a job or an intern can be a wise move to learn things you wouldn’t know as a freelancer.
Lastly, never forget in order to be successful as a freelance logo designer, you MUST think like an entrepreneur. This is vital since many creatives overlook this aspect.
Feel free to reach out to me on instagram (@amprako.co) with any follow up questions, or simply leave a comment below!