Other GD-GIBs:
-GD-GIB: Contracts
Entering the business world as a graphic designer is not hard, but it does demand preparation. You'll be able to make it without being prepared, but you will learn harsh and sometimes very painful lessons along the way.
I know, I did.
I know that others did, too. Every year, the listserv of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) sees the arrival of posts asking for advice on what to do with bad payers, ownership of rights or files, fees, and get-together for beers.
While not able to be very helpful with the latter, other than pointing you on a map the location of Vancouver—man, do those guys ever get any work done? ;)—I thought I could post some of the advice regularly given to the inquiring minds. With chance, people may find it while googling on the matter, but I think it'll be practical mostly for me by copy-pasting when the questions arise.
I'll begin with a totally incomplete overview of things to look out for, then I'll add some posts exploring in more details the various aspects of GD-GIB.
1-Learn the basics.
I strongly suggest to get a business course. There are several local community courses that will help you for a low price. No need to get an MBA.
2-Subscribe to your local professional association.
Seriously, it's worth it. Make that Graphic Designer a Professional Graphic Designer, and say to the world you mean business. First of all, you'll learn what it means to be a graphic designer in the business world. Business courses are good, but each profession has its quirks. Those associations can help you focus your business in a graphic design model.
Each graphic designers' professional associations have a code of fair practice. Learn it and live by it, even if you're not part of your association. Codes of fair practice are the guidelines to a professional designer's attitude toward the clients, his peers and the business in general. It is a great beginning to learn what the public (should) expects from a designer and practice pitfalls to avoid. The code should be included in your contracts. In subsequent posts, I'll go over the different codes from the various Canadian organizations. With hope I'll be able to have comments from their respective spokesperson on the matter and give some background on how they came to be (the codes, not the spokesperson. We already have a pretty good idea of how THAT works).
There are three professional designer associations in Canada.
- In Quebec, it's the Société des designers graphiques du Québec (SDGQ),
- ROC has the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), divided in local chapters.
- In Ontario, you have the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (RGD Ontario) or the GDC (as member at large). The RGD Ontario will ask of you a minimum of 7 years of combined education and professional practice, including a minimum of 3-4 years of post-secondary GD diploma.
Each of these association have their own subscription process. Go take a look, ask them questions if you have some and get certified.
3-Set your price.
VERY important point, of course. In a nutshell your fee IS NOT your salary: it INCLUDES it. Your fee must take in consideration the following aspects:
Your professional material. Computer (and its eventual upgrade), softwares (and their continuous upgrades), that 54" cinemascope monitor that's sooo necessary, cutting board, exatos (if you somehow still use that) and such.
Office material. Chair, desk, printer, Fax, iPhone...
Office expenses. Ink, stamps, paper...
Running expenses. Phone bill, cell bill, electricity, heating, rent... Of course, if you work from home, you only consider the part you use.
Ongoing professional expenses. Most notably (but not limited to), your accounting fee. Even if you decide to do your own accounting, you should charge that activity as overhead, otherwise it will take away billable time or personal time. Not good.
Professional membership annual dues. (that SDGQ/RGD/GDC thing)
Representation + advertisement fee. Finding new clients (networking event$), your website, business card...
Income. Right, let's not forget that one. This is the money you want to make for yourself to spend on those little extras like groceries, rent and college for your kids. Pffff, you're so demanding. THIS is the place where you insert the number coming up when you ask yourself "how much do I want to make a year"
Profit. When things are slow, this helps you maintain your income rate, when thing are rolling, this puts your kids to Harvard
Vacation time. including statutory holidays, period between Christmas and New Year, your own (summer) vacations. You should also include some sick days.
As you see, pricing takes some time to come up with, and you will definitely have to come up with a budget.
BTW, this is one of the things you may learn in a business class.
I will give more details on techniques to calculate all of this in subsequent posts.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10- Make a contract
You have no ideas how bad I want to make that header bigger. Even bigger than your last job's client requested size for his logo. That's how bad I want it BIG.
A contracts is not only a piece of paper saying you are doing business with a client for price x. It is a full description of the work procedures of a project: when will you bill; how many revisions there will be; overtime; when will you bill; how much time the client has to pay you, late fees; limitations of liability; ownership of rights; cancellation; alteration of work... The structure of the contract will change depending if it's fix-priced, by the hour, or for freelancing (which is usually called a "retainer")
Boy, are there things to take in consideration. Don't despair, there are resources available to help you.
This is the perfect example of where a business course—and especially your local professional association—will come in handy. The GDC and RGD have very useful templates for contracts. You may have to adjust them to your provincial legislature, though local chapters probably have some ready. Did I say it was a good idea to get your professional membership?
Another good source for contract making is the "Pricing and Ethical Guidelines" (affectionately called the PEG), published by the Graphic Artist Guild (GAG). Prices and regulations are U.S. based, but it gives a very good idea of what to put in a contract, depending on the nature of the job.
I have a more in-depth post on contracts.
11- Get your prospective clients "certified"
Not really essential for small jobs, but when you begin to get projects with a comma in the price, it's a good idea to make sure the client has the resources to pay you. If the clients gets flagged for some reasons (they may be a startup or they are an in-betweener and they rely on their own client payment to pay you), it doesn't mean you shouldn't do business with them, but rather adjust the contract accordingly (all payment in advance, higher prices...).
12- Attitude
Graphic design is viewed in different way by the general public (and your future clients) and, unless they already have done business with a professional designer, they are usually wrong or largely incomplete. Don't be offended by that, it's not their job to know. Take it as part of the game with every new clients, and DO educate them about what a graphic designer is. I'm not saying to give them a lecture, of course. When you'll meet them for the first time, talk about process, the importance of brief, being audience-centric and not taste-driven, research, etc. Let them know graphic design is part of strategy, that it's more than a service, but closer to partnership. This will probably clear all bad ideas the client may have, like "my nephew has Photoshop, he could do this..."
Again, do it all in a non-lecture sort of way, but rather show your "partner" side right from the start.
The GDC has a nice document helping to present the role of graphic designers in business. Did I say you should become a member of your professional association?
...
Well, that's all I can see for now for an overview on thing to consider when you start your own graphic design studio. I hope these tips will point you on what you have to prepare before making the trip, or adjust if you're already sailing the 072 sea.
As I said, I'll come up with some tips a bit more detailed in later posts.
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