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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 10 customer reviews )
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5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
One heck of a book to help the wanta-be freelance design professional create an awesome business plan and marketing plan! Jul 05, 2008
By Jeff Lippincott
"JLIPPIN"
I loved this marketing and client interaction book aimed at freelance design professionals. Interestingly, it is just as applicable to solo practitioner attorneys and other self-employed professionals. It's really a wonderful small business resource that provides practical advice from an author who has been there and done that. Included between its covers are six chapters and two appendices as follows:
0. Introduction
1. Mastering client interaction
2. Running an effective design business
3. Marketing & promoting your design business
4. Negotiating, pricing & protecting your work
5. Real stories, real clients, & some really hard lessons
7. Conclusion (pp 495-496)
A. Workbook exercises for the success-driven designer (pp 442-494)
>>Managing client relations
>>Running an effective, money-making business
>>Marketing & promotion
>>Money, pricing, & more money
B. Recommended resources for designers (pp 497-498)
Technically speaking Appendix A was listed in the book's Table of Contents as Chapter 6. But I thought it was misplaced there. I didn't really have a favorite section or article in this book. I liked the whole book.
Back in 1990 I decided to open my own law office after quitting my CPA job with one of the Big 7. At the time I was hungry to start my own business, but I was clueless as to what was involved. I wasn't a networker, and I was not well versed on marketing tools and techniques. Basically I could have used the instant book back then and not learned the hard way as the author of this book says he also did. The price of this book and the time spent reading it will definitely be a drop in the bucket for any young professional venturing out on his or her own as an entrepreneur. This book definitely is packed full of value for such a person.
Although I think a lot of this book, I must disagree with any claim that it is a "Total Resource." Marketing and client interaction are two very important aspects of a small business. The author categorizes these things as pricing, marketing, contracts, client management, and time management. But I think of a small business as needing quality integraton of the following: (1) doing the work, (2) marketing & sales, (3) operations, & (4) keeping records. This book does not (nor should it) cover "doing the work." But it does not do a very good job covering operations or keeping records.
I would have liked the book much more if there had been at least three more chapters, and maybe four. One on business plans, one on Web sites, and one on blogging. And there probably should have been a chapter on how to use the business plan and the company's financial statements and other financial reports (Statement of Cash Flows) to monitor the fitness level of the company and to do strategic planning. These were not included.
When "Billing Strategies" were discussed in the book I kept looking for the advice that you must regularly send out bills so the clients will know they have to pay on a timely basis. This was a big problem I had when I ran my first law office. The author didn't actually stress this point in the book. He did say to send an email two days before the due date as a reminder. And another email on the due date, but what about the original billing?
You will have confidence in your ability to run your small business if you take the time to investigate and research the business before you start it. You will have even more confidence in your small business if you take the time to prepare a sound 25-35 page written business plan. Keep in mind that a failure to plan is a plan to fail. And also note that much of what is covered in the instant book is priceless info you should be considering and including in your business plan. 5 stars!
PS. I know of a few books that I think should be read along with the instant book if you want to avoid running your graphic design company by the seat of your pants. Successful companies are not run that way. You don't have to read them all in order to create a well-oiled business machine, but at least take a look at the book reviews I have written for most of them and posted on Amazon. The list of these resources is included in Comment #1 to this review.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Great creative resource for success! Feb 04, 2010
By Julian R. Hough
I have worked in the graphics industry, primarily in signage and then corrugated packaging, for over ten years. I have always been creative, I love design, and I know I want to be a designer in a creative agency setting. Although I've done several freelance projects, I certainly didn't want to jump straight into freelance full-time; it's not the right time for me. I don't have a BA in Graphic Design and no agency experience, so the anxiety of trying to break into that kind of work created feelings of frustration and low self-esteem. I definitely felt I needed some guidance and this is when I learned of Jeremy's "Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks" book.
The initial chapters on being confident really struck a chord with me. At the time I purchased the book I had unfortunately just been laid off from work. Knowing that we all suffer, at least in some part, with confidence and self-esteem issues, both personally and in our creative work, it made my predicament a little more bearable to know I wasn't alone in my thought process.
It has great information for all designers in general - not just specifically freelancers, or would-be freelancers and is laid out in a simple, easy to read format with lots of nice white space and readable fonts, so my eyes don't ache! There's so much valuable information and as a resource book, you will find yourself picking it up frequently to refer to relevant chapters. It's easy to thumb through sections at random, since some topics will be more relevant to the reader than others. Chapters on Managing clients, preventing miscommunication between parties, pricing your work and not letting clients take advantage of you were all great chapters that explain how best to handle things up front to alleviate frustration down the line. Some of the points were based on logic and common sense, but other such as marketing principles and looking at the business end of the design business were really informative and pertinent to working in the real world.
All too familiar scenarios of handling `difficult' clients, issues of pricing your work, keeping revisions to a minimum are all issues we've faced and had to deal with. Jeremy provides a common sense approach to communicating what he's found to be the best way to deal with these issues and to ensures the job goes as smoothly as possible so there's few surprises (there's always some surprises!).
Pricing your work can be a problem for many of us, especially when it's hard to put a value on your skills and many clients are hiring based on price and not value. Most are probably humble and don't see the true VALUE in what we have to offer. Realizing what skills and what value you can bring to a client is covered in "You are not a Commodity". Realizing that these days, people can be reduced to commodities is something real. Whether it's pricing a logo for a friend, giving a reduction to a family member or doing a project in which the client doesn't place the same value on the work can be tough situations to negotiate to your best advantage. That section was really helpful to confirm what I was doing right and to educate me on areas that I hadn't considered. That goes also for the section on referrals and leveraging money from other creative professions to generate passive income. Jeremy suggests establishing a referral process between creative professionals, so you get a "kick-back" percentage on whatever money is generated from your referral. Free money!
I was also inspired through his suggestion to seek testimonials from previous clients. I had done only small projects, but after reading the positive feedback I realized I had provided more than just a design project, I had been reliable, effective and easy to work with - important attributes beyond being a good designer that will be more important to a successful career.
One other favorite section was the real life story sections. We can all relate to those "times gone bad" and when you can relate to a particular shared experience, you form a bond with your reader.
Jeremy is a big proponent on utilizing strategic marketing and business planning to help shape the creative talents you have into a successful design business. In summary, there's really a lot of information packed into this 500 page book, my wife really likes it, and she's not a designer, so what can I say? I know that as I go forward, I feel better prepared to handle situations as they happen rather than in hindsight and I highly recommend it for that peace of mind alone.
Julian H
Excellent Book, Awful Design Aug 08, 2011
By Cabinessence
There's lots of great, practical advice in here for starting your own design business. The tone is very down-to-earth and encouraging, inspiring confidence in the reader that being a business person on top of being a graphic designer is not really so hard. My only problem with the book is that it sometimes makes it sound like the design work itself is not really as important as being able to "talk the talk." This attitude is bolstered by the design of the book itself, which is kind of terrible. Concepts are poorly organized, typesetting is cramped, and there's ugly clip art filling all pockets of white space.
Maybe that's not an entirely valid criticism of a book that isn't meant to be a design manual. But I worry that serious artists could be put off by such things, while those who are less interested in filling the world with good design will unfortunately be persuaded that they can make a fast buck with a little self-promotion. For instance, a lot of emphasis is placed on getting feedback from your clients about the look of your own marketing materials. This advice would make sense if having a personal style and vision were not such important aspects of being a reputable designer. Anyone who has produced good design for any length of time will tell you that it usually happens DESPITE client feedback, not because of it.
However, if you can ignore the money-over-quality overtones and remind yourself that you need to know about quality AND making money, the content really is very useful. I transitioned from in-house design into freelance while reading this book, and it definitely helped me avoid many problems that might have prevented my business from becoming as successful as it has over the past couple of years.
Graphic Designers BUY this book!! Nov 19, 2009
By Emina D. Sehovic
"six26studio.com"
I started freelancing a year ago and I struggled a lot on how to get clients how to market myself so I started reading a lot of different books. This book by far is the only book that goes into detail, examples, real life stories and I am just amazed how much information Jeremy has put into this book. Everyone starting out as a freelancer should just buy this book. I have an accent and sometimes I have hard time expressing myself but this book gives you examples what to say and I am just amazed. I went to the networking group with a very well put 60 sec intro based from the book and after the meeting I had 5 people walk up to me asking for my business card. This book has created the confidence in me. It has thought me that I am worthy; that I can do great and that I can be successful as a graphic designer and for that I thank you Jeremy... I can't wait to read Verbal Kung Fu as well.
Great for beginning designers Sep 23, 2009
By Karl Parakenings
"student designer"
I've only recently started working as a freelance print/web designer. I knew I was making many mistakes starting out, but had no real idea where to find out what they were and how to fix them - until a friend referred me to this book. It's a great resource that emphasizes the business side of design - something that I know many of my classmates and colleagues look over or ignore completely, and then wonder why their design firm is failing.
Overall, a wonderful book that I'll keep around for reference for a long, long time. Great for designers who, like me, didn't go to school for design.
Keep up the good work, Jeremy.
-Karl Parakenings
See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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