Create Your Freelance Graphic Designer Invoice for Technical Support Seamlessly

Freelance graphic designer invoice for Technical Support

what's up welcome welcome back if you're new my name is Corey I'm a freelance art director and graphic designer and um if you're not new of course thank you for coming back as usual today I am going to run through all my best tips and tricks and all the above on how to get new clients for any client services based entrepreneur freelancer whomever um this could apply to plenty of different areas but because you know I'm all about graphic design in our direction we're going to talk about that so please stay tuned to the end I definitely think I'll be able to offer you something that you have not seen in all the other videos that you've watched on the same topic and if not then I delivered it in a way you can understand at least at minimum so I'm going to break this to two different types of tips I have um tips on how you can make yourself more attractive to your ideal client and then tips on how to go get them where to find them whatever if you're anything like me when I first started freelancing I was looking up and down the internet on specific places that I could find find new clients and I think that the place does matter of course where to get the matters but how prepared you are once you do find them or being ready to attract those clients that haven't chased them all the time that's equally as important and so my very first tip would be to know your ideal client like the back of your hand in graphic design in our Direction your audience is key it's major and so the same thing applies here this will be your North Star to help you understand how to Market yourself I'd go as far as to even create personas for your ideal client so you'll want to give them a name you'll want to give them a career industry whatever you want to give them a budget hobbies and interests what they like to do in their free time how many kids they have all those things everything you learned about this ideal client will help guide you in plenty other areas and all the other questions that you have about marketing yourself so like where is it best to Market yourself what's the best type of um service offering or uh part of your process that's important for you to highlight because that's a huge pain point for them what is it exactly that they want from you for example people question all the time whether they should keep their work slash business and their personal life separate me personally my ideal client would want someone who is less button-ups and slacks more sneakers and jeans someone who can speak their language create a fun comfortable welcoming environment but still know what they're talking about and so that means that them knowing the person is equally as important as the work being good therefore I'm showing both my work and my person together they're gonna know who they are working with before they get to work with me before they even ask that's specific to me because my North Star my ideal client calls for that yours may be different and so it's important that you get to know who your ideal client is speaking of speaking their language you'll also know exactly how to communicate with them and on that note we will go into my second tip which is choose your language wisely learn how to talk about what you do in a way that aligns with your ideal client for example if you want higher are paying clients in the event industry I personally would not say that I make party Flyers no problem if you do if that's what your target client is then that's what it is however a higher paying client would probably respond better to or be more attracted to someone who develops event marketing materials for digital and print the language matters so definitely take some time to think about what the offering is and how you can communicate it in a way that aligns with who you're talking to my third tip is to pick a niche I know everyone hates hearing that paganish I really don't care I promise you you will find greater long-term success if you Niche down you don't want to be a Jack or Jane of all trades though that might seem like the better route to take because it broadens kind of their chances of obtaining more clients it also opens you up to a ton of small gigs a very unsustainable client work to income ratio and then on top of that you won't really have an expertise so when you do Niche down you're able to select an area of work that you're really good at or that you will become really good at and therefore you're an expert of this one thing rather than having no expertise and a whole bunch of things if that makes sense some examples of design niches are designer for women-owned businesses um web designer for client service based businesses book cover designer graphic designer for mental health professionals so on the list goes on but I would definitely pick an area or topic to focus on like you can literally do the same exact or have the same skill set as the next designer but your focus is on this particular industry you know it's industry well you know what they need you know what kind of audiences they have so on and so forth and become the expert in your Niche having a niche also makes people a little more comfortable with booking with you because to them it feels like you are an expert in exactly what it is they need now on to the stuff that you probably really really really want to know how to find these clients where they at we're going to jump right into it because I know you all know this one I've said a couple times before and everyone will tell you this but social media is your friend duh of course but a little more specific on social media I'll start with LinkedIn LinkedIn is the type of platform that you can use if you're looking for a longer term contracts I'm talking three six 12 month contracts with larger more established companies organizations applying to contract roles on LinkedIn will be exactly like applying to jobs on LinkedIn whatever these companies require of you to land these long-term contracts is basically just what you'll have to set yourself up for you will need to make sure that your profile is optimized for the role that you're looking for because they are looking at your LinkedIn profile as well it's no big deal really I like looking on LinkedIn for long-term contracts so I am not necessarily in a place where I prefer long-term contracts but it's still freelancing don't shy away from it it still offers a level of flexibility and I highly recommend going that route now moving into your more common daily casual whatever social media platforms these will be your Instagram your Tick Tock your Pinterest and your Twitter I would use these these platforms as a place to show up consistently and remind people that you're there and this is what you do I would also highly recommend using these places as somewhere to Showcase your passion projects because you don't always have the space for them in your portfolio necessarily but they do great on social people don't care if it was a real client or not when they see it on social media it's just a place for you to show people what it is you can do the more consistently you show up the more people will remember you for being able to do XYZ skill if my lighting is changing here I apologize it's raining it's ugly we're gonna push forward Tick Tock in my opinion is a great place for marketing your business your freelancing whatever right now I personally think that algorithm you never know where it's going to pick you up and where it's going to drop you off I have personally gotten plenty of clients from Tick Tock just from like random Tech talks that I made that have gotten pushed by the algorithm or even my tick tocks that have like three likes on them people have sent them directly to me in an email like hey I saw this let's work I like Tick Tock for that reason another thing I don't see a lot of people talk about is the use of Twitter and again LinkedIn but I'm specifying Twitter because Twitter is all fun and jokes and things like that but it is a great place for you to not only show your work but to establish expertise in your field you can use these spaces to comment on relevant trending Topics in your industry or in your Niche even so if you are a web designer you can focus on that graphic designer whatever or if you want to talk about design as a whole whatever it is that you want to talk about you would choose relevant trending topics to kind of insert yourself into that conversation add your two cents where it may fit a very good example of this is the launch of the we love New York City or We Heart New York City whatever campaign that was intended to revitalize the city of New York Post pandemic it was so polarizing well The Branding itself was so polarizing that everyone had commentary on it there was it was just a huge thing online line at the time I think things like that and even smaller topics are great opportunities for you to join those conversations and kind of establish yourself in that industry it builds credibility it builds familiarity and it also personally for you helps you get comfortable talking about what it is that you do with confidence next of course I'm going to talk about referrals and networking this is self-explanatory the more people you work with the more they'll be willing to refer you to other people who are looking for design work or whatever it is that you've done for them on top of that networking both formal and informal will get you a long way go outside meet some people go to the creative events in your city go to even go to the parties I'm telling you meet somebody who does something remotely close to what you're doing maybe not the exact same thing but even the exact same thing I have a network of friends who are also designers I'm not necessarily into the execution of design I'm more into our Direction but we all typically do the same thing things and I'm able to hand off work to them they're able to hand off work to me we can work together if I work on a long-term project with someone and by the end of our project they're looking to have a video produced to something I have a network of video production people that I can reach out to and so all of that really matters just build your network I think you should be really really intentional of that especially if you're in a major city it is so easy to do especially if you hate networking hate people hate talking I'm right there with you we here this is probably the spookiest thing on this list and that will be cold calling or cold emailing if for some reason you do not know or do not understand why it's so spooky cold calling and co-emailing is literally just reaching out to people and saying hey I do this service and you should work with me and here's why you should pay me to do it for you they didn't ask you they didn't ask for your help but you're gonna go out to them and tell them that they need you and this is why and you dare them to tell you otherwise this is low-key kind of frightening and it does involve pitching and so not a lot of people like doing it however I think a really easy way to get into it is to go ahead and take a quick stroll or drive or a long stroll or drive through your area and make a list of businesses that you could potentially work with I would advise going with smaller businesses if you're just dipping your toe in the water and then go home make your list organize it and reach out to these people you'll want to make sure your pitch is on point you don't want to just hit them up with some BS make sure you know you're coming at them correctly and you really want to help them and make sure it's something that you think you actually can do and have the time for all of that obviously self-explanatory some of these businesses may have a smaller budgets or no budget at all but if you are new to freelancing or you're just having a really dry season and have no clients coming in I would not stray away from that I definitely think this is a good opportunity for you to one practice pitching but two also develop relationships that could turn into long-term relationships with higher paychecks and it'll obviously get you more referrals if you do a great job with this business it does work trust me I just recently literally last week for a separate project but I reached out to a bunch of businesses in regards to branding and a few of them Jay contact me immediately after so try it if you need help with structuring your pitch email or figuring out how to ease your way into that conversation I do have a structure that may help you and that will be in this video up here last but not least let's talk about gig sites I know all of us have tried or have heard of at least Fiverr upwork and the like but let's you know think a little broader we have things like Thumbtack we have taskrabbit we have Craigslist yeah Craigslist I said it those are all websites or apps that have gig sections or are focused on gig work where people are on there looking for design work I would not lie to you they're there on platforms like upwork and Fiverr I do find a lot of people get a little more frustrated with those because the intent is specifically for the work that you're trying to do so everyone and their mother is only offering the same service and there's only but so many people looking for work or you're relying on an algorithm or something like that to get you to that person with these other um apps and websites that I've listed you're able to directly contact the person searching for work the apps often will let you know when someone is looking for something that directly aligns with you things like that this is a great place to go to get somewhere I would not look past it when I first started freelancing I was all up and through Craigslist and not just in New York where I live I was in Austin Atlanta San Francisco L.A I was in everybody's Craigslist I don't care who it was what city it was I was in there I was going down to the gig section and and I was typing in the search bar graphic design whatever type of whatever work I wanted to do I was in there now of course that being said please have some discernment when using any gay site um especially Craigslist of course Craigslist does not have a service where they offer any protection on your behalf so of course you know use it wisely but I was successful in there and so I'm just saying it's an option when it comes to Gig sites I would think about websites like upwork and Fiverr but maybe ones that are less common when it comes to design work or less talked about rather because they do specifically offer that service on taskrabbit Thumbtack Etc that is all I have for right now hopefully that was helpful to you if it was please leave a comment below if you have other suggestions for other people also comment below I would love to hear more about your Journeys and freelancing or any um like help you need the struggles you may be having I will meet y'all down there if you've watched more than one of my videos and you're not subscribed don't be a hater I will see see you in the next video though because I know you'll be back bye [Music] [Music]