First Design Client: How to Land It for Your Business?
Being a newbie in any field would never be easy. You are nervous yet excited to carve a niche for yourself but as I said, it is not an easy thing to do. Finding your first few clients is the hardest thing to do. Web designing industry has grown so much in the past few years that competition is also at its peak. So, fresh graduates who are in search for new clients should not just sit idle and wait for opportunities to come their way. Always remember, in order to succeed in life, one should look and grab opportunities instead of waiting for them to find a way towards you which hardly happens. In this article we will be discussing a few keys to getting your first design client.
If you follow the below mentioned points, your chances of finding clients will increase. Do not expect things to come your way without any effort. As a fresher, you will have a lot of energy so you should be utilizing it properly. Following are a few things that you should keep in mind while entering into web design industry:
Work for Yourself :
Do not waste your time if you are unable to find clients to work for. You are in an industry where you always have a chance to work for yourself. In order to gain experience, you need to start working on your own so that you can prepare yourself for the upcoming professional projects. Also, you need to have some projects to show the client. The work you will do for yourself would be added into your portfolio. You obviously do not want to appear dumb in front of your client. If you have not worked on anything practically, you might not be aware of a lot of things.
The best way to learn things is from mistakes and you cannot afford to make mistakes in a client’s project. SO working on your own projects will give you enough space to make mistakes and learn from them. Working for yourself is actually preparing yourself for future which is very important and also, adding a good project to your portfolio won’t do any harm. Your own projects will give you a freehand and you will be able to do whatever you want. This will bring out the true skills in you.
Work On Your Portfolio :
Second key is continuation of the first key. As mentioned earlier, even as a fresher, clients would still want to see some of your work so you need to make sure that you have a portfolio worth showing. If you are not getting any big projects, you can always look for freelance projects. In order to be a freelancer or work on your own one page web portfolio, you need to have a domain so you should work on getting that too in order to ensure your presence on the web. Keep on trying to get more and more but good projects on your portfolio. Initial projects does not have to be huge, they should be able to provide you with some good experience and something to mention on your portfolio.
Connecting Dots :
There is no harm in getting in touch with your friends and family to find new clients. Mostly, the first projects are result of a helping hand of a friend or a family member. Friends and family members are usually the people who are willing to give chance to someone they know. Also, if you are among those who are not very comfortable with the idea of working with family members, you should find any contacts in the designing industry. It is always good to have to some connections in the industry you belong to. They can prove to be really beneficial for you in getting some new projects.
Work for Different Organizations :
Are there any organizations or associations that you are a member of? If yes, you can make a proposal for them and let them know that you would be interested in working for them. Such organizations are also in need for some designers but mostly big designers are not willing to work for small organizations. This could be a great chance for you to showcase your talent.
However, at times, you might have to work for very less amount or no amount at all. This all depends on your situation because if you can afford to work for free, you should go for it, to gain some experience.
Utilize the Social Media Networking Websites :
We all have an account on these social networking websites. Some of us are active and some of us are not so active. If you have an account, it can really help you in getting some new projects and clients as it is the most convenient way these days to market yourself. If you do not have an account at Facebook or twitter, it is time to make one and start socializing. Instead of promoting yourself only, you can even make good contact with the people in the same field.
LinkedIn is also a great website as you can join various groups related to web designing. Since LinkedIn is a professional networking website, it can bring in a lot of opportunities your way. All you need to do is be attentive and look for them.
Browse Through Forums and Alike :
Forums, message boards and classifieds are a great way to find new opportunities. However, these can be really time consuming too so make sure you do not end up wasting your time instead of finding the new projects for yourself. The chances of finding projects via forums are moderate so do visit them often but you do not have to make them a priority.
Word-of-mouth :
You need to offer something to everyone in order to get your work done. We all know that mouth referrals are a great way to get some new projects but why would anyone recommend you in the first place? You should offer some kind of referral incentive to your friends who are willing to help you and refer you to the people they know. You can offer them anything of their choice so they refer you happily.
Quality of the Work :
It is understandable that you want to have a lot of projects on your portfolio and initially you might take as many projects as possible but this is not a good thing to do. By taking up lots and lots of projects, you are only increasing pressure on yourself and also you won’t be able to give attention to each project. By doing this, it will be affecting the quality of your project. You will not even enjoy working and you will become less productive about it.
Final thoughts :
In the initial years, try to focus more on gaining experience instead of earning money. In order to gain experience, you need to work hard on your personal projects because that is the only time in your professional life where you will have complete authority to design and develop whatever you want and feel like.
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Nice article! i am beginner in Graphic design, so this article will gonna help me ,ore to become nice nice n more better designer 🙂 thanks for all this Info!
very informative article, thanks for the post.