Graphic designer - How do I get my first business client (B2B)?

[hhaider]

I am tired of working for friends and small project. They ask so much and the awards are not that good. I have graphic design skills and I want to get my first business client.

What steps should I take to get my first B2B client with 1000,- budget?

How much should I charge an hour as an graphic designer to build up my portfolio.

Your advice will be appreciated.

Thanks fam.

 

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[perchboy]

never charge hourly. you must charge for the result, not the input. if i want a flyer designed, idgaf if it takes 100 hours or 10 seconds (input); i just want a flyer that will help me get more sales (output).

what value do you provide being a graphic designer? i can easily use Canva for any of my graphic design needs. cheap and takes 5 minutes.

if i were you i would quit it all together tbh. if i had to do graphic design though, i would start networking a lot more and leverage my personal network first. do good for a friend who has a business and he will refer you.

the tough part is, anyone who needs a design will do one of these 4 things:

1. they will use canva - nothing you can do
2. search up "graphic designers near me" - you can try google ads for that
3. if they know a graphic designer they will ask them - try networking
4. hire a $2/hr freelancer - no point of competing since these people will automatically go for the cheapest option

 

[Beijing]

I have several graphic designers who work for me doing product development tasks. Several have earned over $1000 working for me. The work I need to have done always involves either a certain amount of drawing or repetitive tasks that require a few decisions here and there, and therefore can't be done with an automated process.

They got that work by having:

• Really good skills - I hire graphic design freelancers based on their effectiveness during a one-hour unpaid skills test.
• Having experience/knowledge in my specific niche.
• Being lucky enough to look at the job board where I posted my ad during the month that my ad was up.

There's no magic here. Being a freelancer involves self-marketing and always being on the hunt for the next job. If you want to escape that type of hustle, consider applying your graphic design skills to creating a product that you can base a scalable business around.

If you can't think of anything else, then start working on ideas for board games that gamify school subjects that are normally boring to learn about. Creating a board game for B2B sales is a simple matter of combining graphic design with established game mechanisms already refined by popular games.

Or if you don't want to do that, then create a product for people who are creating board games that includes a huge collection of icons and other graphical elements that they can utilize to design the visuals of their game. Charge $5 a month for access to the resources or if you don't want to chase MRR, then just sell an all-in-one download of the visual board game elements you've created for $25 a pop.