G'day Design Life

02/04/2021

✳️ - A pretty simple message to those of you who have recently graduated from design school/university.⁣
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You are about to enter a bigger world of what it is you love to do 😍⁣
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So it doesn’t matter if:⁣
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- Your grades were average
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- The degree you completed wasn’t exactly what you hoped it would be⁣
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- You think your portfolio isn’t good enough or getting enough attention⁣
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- Your classmates are getting jobs with big companies but you can barely get an interview⁣
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- You need to stay in a casual job selling sneakers until you find your opportunity⁣
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From my experience, none of this matters come the day things find a way to work out. Because it will happen. It’s about making your own opportunities if they don’t present themselves.⁣
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But just remember, what matters most is that you have the opportunity to do what you love and what you love doing CAN help others.

AND at the stage you are at in life, you have SO SO SO much time to figure it out 👌

Be grateful for that 🤩⁣
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So what’s your next step?

08/03/2021

🎙EP 26 - Becoming a brand strategist - with Stef Hamerlinck

🔍 Find this episode by searching ‘Two Red Chairs’ on Apple, Spotify & Google podcasts.

This week I have a conversation with fellow branding designer, turned brand strategist, Stef Hamerlinck

Stef shares his journey of how he discovery brand strategy and his transition of thinking from being a designer to uncovering what strategy means to him and for the clients he has worked with. Both in the businesses he’s worked for and now in his own business.

Stef is always a very interesting person to chat with, especially as his perspective on what many of us know as branding may be a little different but also a little more down-to-earth realistic when it comes down to measuring expectations of what branding can do. As well as the ways branding can impact the a customer or business that we may take for granted.

To connect with Stef find him on Instagram:

02/03/2021

🎙EP 25 - Quiting a dream job at Disney to start a design business - with Amy Kuo

🔍 Find this episode by searching ‘Two Red Chairs’ on Apple, Spotify & Google podcasts.

I am once again extremely proud and privileged to have another equally inspiring woman on the Two Red Chairs podcast.

Amy Kuo, all the way from Orlando, Florida (USA) joined me on the proverbial red chair to share her story about how she started her design business

Now you might think, why would you quit a dream job at Disney?

Well this is story that caught me off guard when Amy was so open about losing a parent and nearly both in a short space of time and subsequently left her dream job at Disney to best process that time in her life.

But it lead Amy to start her own business and using the existing skills she had learned from her time working at Disney and applied them to how Amy now runs her business 3 years later.

To connect with Amy, find her on Instagram:

01/03/2021

Doing more is adding value. Being more valuable is doing what others can't. Thoughts? 🤔

This is how I frame my opinion on adding more skills to our process as designers.

Be it adding web design, brand strategy, copywriting or photography to your skillset, that is adding value to your clients if you’re able to do so.

However I don’t believe it means you’re any more valuable to your client.

Being valuable in my mind is purely doing what others can’t. Case in point, our clients can’t design a logo, develop a website, put together a brochure or business card.

Or if a fellow designer doesn’t have the capacity to do the work or have the skillset we have, to them that is valuable.

Doing something for someone who can’t do it themselves is a valuable service.

AND valuable doesn’t necessarily mean monetary either. Because your value can well exceed the price your clients pay for your services.

Where I’m going with this, is that you don’t need to add more and more services to feel like you can charge more.

What makes us more valuable is being able to solve the right client's pain point with a service that is reputable, engages them in a memorable experience and delivers a great result that meets their expectations. So that the value delivered exceeds the monetary value of what they paid for our services…no matter your price point.

13/01/2021

🎙The TWO RED CHAIRS podcast is back! 🤩

New year - New cover art - New direction and a New episode is out!

Check out Episode 19 on Apple, Spotify, Google and more 😄

So last year I had to put this podcast on the backburner as you can image, that life, business and a freakin pandemic rocked the boat.

BUT! Onwards and upwards so the podcast is back and I've altered to format and puporse of this podcast to be:

1. Shorter bit sized episodes you can easily consume in one sitting (est. 10 mins)

2. They're gonna be anecdotal stories from me and YOU my fellow designers.

Stories about our experiences, failures, mistakes, learning opportunities and successes that have lead us to become better designers and business owners.

And the first episode back is a story I've shared about one of my first clients when I started my business and how I learnt very quickly not to price each deliverable/line item on a proposal.

So with that said, if you have a story that you believe could help your fellow creative - no matter if you're a full time biz owner, freelancer or in-house designer - flick me a DM so that we can share your story on the Two Red Chairs podcast!

Also, do you get the design nerd symbolism in the cover art? Hopefull it's clear 😅 (hint - it's using the duplication tool)

10/08/2020

This is a follow-up piece (on Medium) to my previous post about designers, including myself, getting our priorities mixed up when starting a design business by designing our logo first.

I hope you'll find some gems in there. As they come from experience since starting and getting my business into its groove after learning from my mistakes and those of fellow designers I chat to on the daily.

But most of all realising what mattered most when I started and how you can avoid the same mistakes we all have made when going into business.

https://medium.com//are-you-starting-a-design-business-566a1da30f34?source=friends_link&sk=34b5d5b1dbfce736ed8413103833056f

And did you start by creating your logo first?

09/08/2020

You’ll start your business this way…but then realise you probably should’ve changed up the order 💁🏻‍♂️

1. Define your services & ideal customer
2. You then register your biz
3. Create your client contracts
4. You create your logo
5. Take on your first few client
6. Create content and a website

I got this order mixed up when I started my own business.

No doubt there are a heap of other steps to add in there, but had I known this was a better order to go about it, it would have saved me a year of trying to figure things out.

So if you’re in the throws of starting up your design business, your logo ain’t your priority and you should have a contract set up for clients before starting paid client projects.

But most importantly, first define your services/processes and set out who your ideal customer is as it will influence every step after it.

For those of you who have your own design biz, did you nail it when starting up your business? Or was it a big learning curve and a mix of these steps in different orders?

29/07/2020

🎙 The 17th episode of Two Red Chairs - a G’day Design Life podcast, is LIVE! Link in bio to listen to our chat.

Today's chat was raw, off the cuff and only hours after my guest, Mia .directorscut had been ejected from a private Facebook group. Mia had innocently posted a job opportunity for her business Idiello and it got immediately taken down. When Mia questioned it, the admin of that group publicly shamed Mia and left her with no right of reply before kicking her out.

Now I had this same experience in an Aussie freelance group when I was in the throws of starting my own business a couple years back and so Mia and I share our experiences and expectations for what Facebook Groups and private communities should instead aspire to be. Rather than dogmatic groups that are ruled by their owners as a 'for benefit for them only' group, veiled as being a 'nurturing group to learn'.

I've even heard of some that sound like a regime or even had experiences with lion's den types of groups that are just horrible to be a part of. So while it sounds like we're being a little high and mighty, honestly, if you've experienced toxic double-standard groups, you'll hopefully understand where we are coming from.

And as a little bit about Mia, she's one half of the online marketing service Idiello .directorscut with her business partner Lana. Together they help entrepreneurs DIY their marketing for their own businesses, offering their decades of experience and support.

Thanks Mia for being a guest on the show!

27/11/2019

🇦🇺 This one is for my fellow Aussie designers that are running their design business and are bringing in over $75k in annual revenue.⁣
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So GST, similar to VAT in the UK, is an additional business related tax on relevant products and services. Which includes our design services to clients and any products we sell.⁣
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So should you expect to generate, or are currently generating over $75,000 annually in revenue, you need to register your business for BAS/GST.⁣
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As such, you’ll need to hold aside 10% of all revenue. So it’s up to you to decide whether or not you integrate it into your total price or charge GST additionally. ⁣
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The one pro for GST is that the government credits us for any expenses that incur GST. So if we withhold $2000 of GST in a quarter from client work, but incur $500 from business expense purchases, we only need to lodge a Business Activity Statement (BAS) with an amount owing of $1500 to the ATO for that quarter.⁣
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So ensure you lodge and pay your BAS by the upcoming deadline dates:⁣
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- 28 February 2020⁣
- 28 April 2020⁣
- 28 July 2020⁣
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Anyways, another boring financial post done and dusted. Hopefully it was helpful and not a total bore 😅 @ Sydney, Australia

27/11/2019

Happiness > Success. ⁣
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What is success to you?⁣
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- Is it award winning work in your portfolio?⁣
- Is it high profile clients you need to work with?⁣
- Is it a $100k, $200k, $1M dollars in revenue?⁣
- Is it a big following on social media?⁣
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And do these things come as the result of knowing what the f**k we’re doing? Having our s**t together with a clear purpose and understanding of what is going to work?⁣
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…maybe, but for the majority, it’s a big fat NOPE.⁣
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No matter what age or amount of experience we have we don’t need to have it all figured out.⁣
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And to be honest, who wants to deal with that pressure? I forever see myself as winging it and making the most of the opportunities that I’m presented with.⁣
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So, what if success was instead, happiness?⁣
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- doing what it is we love doing?⁣
- being grateful for the opportunity to create?⁣
- simply being able to chose what we do and who we work with?⁣
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These things don’t require us to have our s**t figured out. Keep it real by finding happiness from starting, doing and creating.

27/11/2019

🎙 The second episode of Two Red Chairs - a podcast, is LIVE! Also, stay tuned for the IGTV video dropping shortly! (Though it’ll be a 30 min video - you can also watch it on YouTube)⁣
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I'm chatting with Ryan Hayward, CEO and founder of Pitchproof - / ⁣
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In this ep we talk about Ryan’s recent Pitchproof digital conference Frontrow 2019, as well as the growing social media presence his account is experiencing as a result of consistent content on Instagram. Which has drawn in a following of over 70k people, within 12 months. ⁣
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You can also watch the video of this podcast over on the GDL YouTube channel - or on IGTV in an hour.⁣
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You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on:⁣
* Spotify⁣
* Apple Podcasts⁣
* Google Podcasts⁣
* TuneIn⁣
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Thanks for tuning in to TWO RED CHAIRS! 🙌

27/11/2019

Why do we fear a potential client will say ’no’ after one phone call, or a proposal, or email? ⁣
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Because we don’t realise that:⁣
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1. This might not be the right client for us⁣
2. There are plenty more opportunities out there⁣
3. We have runway in the bank (see the IGTV video)⁣
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Additionally, we think that just because we have connected with the client, it’s a done deal. ⁣
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REALITY CHECK: The client is not yours until you have 50% upfront sitting in your bank account.⁣
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The best way to put this, that I continuously hear say, is “why do we fear losing something we didn’t have yesterday?”⁣
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Think about it. Nothing in the state of your business changes if you hear a ‘no’. You simply move onto the next and to the next and to the next until you hear a ‘yes’, which is what creates change.⁣
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Change that helps you realise what you did right that time, compared to the times you heard ‘no’. And change that moves your business along profitably.⁣
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Don’t fear ‘no’, as ‘no’ is one step closer to ‘yes’. @ Sydney, Australia