If you are a graphic, brand, or web designer and you’re in a season where you want to create revenue or generate some fast cash, then today’s post is for you! It’s important to remember that the kind of results that we see in our businesses are directly impacted by the action that we take.

Regardless of the reason you are wanting to create revenue, I support you! Whether it’s to have little more finial cushion in your bank account, or investing in something big and exciting, you don’t need to make any excuses or justify why you want to generate more money. Wanting it is enough for me and I support you with whatever you’re going after!

Create Revenue On-Demand In Your Design Business

Today I’m peeling back the curtain on a training that I shared inside the Brand Strategy School, my signature program from graphic, brand and web designers. I’m giving you access to a little sign of exactly how you can start to create revenue on demand! These are three pieces of advice or actions you can take that will help you on that journey. And you absolutely do not need to all three! Pick what serves you and your business the best! 

So looking at your current season of business, we’ve reached the decision that it’s time to turn up the volume on the revenue that you’re bringing in. We want to see more dollars in that bank account and more clients coming in. We are eager to see all of those signs of growth in your design business. So what do we do?

REACH OUT TO YOUR PAST CLIENTS

You already have access to an incredible network of people who are highly likely to hire you, and that’s your past client(s)! I know that we’ve all heard that it’s so much easier to turn a past client into a recurring client or a future client, than it is to go out and try and convince strangers on the internet to hire you. And that’s for good reason, right? The people that are already familiar with you, your brand and your work are more likely to work with you again!

Go back to the clients that you really loved working with and just check in and say, “Hey, how’s it going? I loved the work that we did together and I was wondering if you needed any more design support in XYZ way?” You could even make recommendations based on what kind of projects you could work on together. Maybe you like the idea of trying out VIP days or design day intensives. That could be something that you pitch to a past client.

A lot of my clients are in the wedding industry, and the winter months are typically a slow season for them. So this is a great time for me to reach out to them and say, “Hey, as we’re going into the 2023 season and you’re looking at booking couples and more events for not only your 2023 season, but also your 2024 season, would it serve you well or would it be helpful if I updated your portfolio on your website with your most recent work? Would it be beneficial if we took a look at your client assets, such as your welcome guide or investment guide, and we maybe updated some things?”. 

What I’m saying here is before you run out onto the internet trying to find new people to work with, before you start hustling anywhere on social media, look at the people that you already have in your corner, the people who already have said yes to working with you, because they are more likely to say yes to working with you again.

If your past client comes back and says, “Hey, thanks for thinking of me, but I actually don’t need any design work at this time.” This is when we follow up and we say, “Great, I appreciate that. Do you know of anyone who’s looking to rebrand in the new year? Or do you know anyone who needs website design going into the new year?” Don’t be afraid to be more specific about what kind of service you would like to book so that you make it easier for this person to point qualified leads your way!

So even if that past client doesn’t end up being a yes for you, there’s still value in that conversation because you never want to sleep on the power of the relationships that are already around you. When we are connecting with past clients and they aren’t in a spot where they wanna work with us right now, but they have a friend, a colleague, or a biz bestie who does need our help, then that can be a really organic word of mouth referral that can generate some awesome revenue for you! 

UPSELL YOUR CURRENT CLIENTS

Now, we’re looking at our current clients. We’re not looking at going out and acquiring new leads, right? There’s a time and a place for that, but the name of this game is quick cash.

If we wanna do this quickly and efficiently, I believe it is more efficient for us to look at the relationships that we already have around us than it is to spend a lot of time or energy creating content and trying to get out in front of new people. 

Let’s say that you have a handful of folks that you’re currently working with. Is there a way that you can upsell them on a higher level of service? For example, let’s say that you are doing brand design and you’re doing that full identity work for a client, and the client is just obsessed with how their visual identity is coming together. You’ve done just the whole identity suite in terms of logos, marks and illustrations, type, color, and patterns. But. maybe you’re seeing an opportunity to create an additional asset to take this visual identity that you’ve created, and weave it throughout another medium, right?

You could pitch to your client, “Hey, I’d love to create a new client welcome magazine for your clients.” Or, “I’d love to create a hidden investment page on your website.” There’s a lot of different things that you could think of. So look at the relationships with the clients that you’re currently working with, and see if there’s a way that you can currently upsell this client to a service that helps you generate more revenue right now. 

Let’s also remind ourselves that there are seasons where we take on client projects that we don’t love because we do need the resources to pay our bills or pay our business expenses. That absolutely happens to everyone! And so I think that it’s important that we give ourselves grace. If you’re in a season where you are feeling like you need to prioritize taking on whatever comes your way to create revenue, that’s okay and that’s normal! You are a doing a powerful thing by taking care of yourself!

But if you’re in a season where you have a little bit more of a financial cushion in place, and you’re able to take on clients and be a little more intentional about what projects you’re taking on, please be sure to only pitch upsells that you get excited about offering! So if it’s something that you don’t love the idea of doing, don’t mention it. However much money you’re charging for that upsell, if you hate actually delivering on it, it’s not going to be enough money. 

CREATE REVENUE WITH NEW CLIENTS

So now we’re starting to look at ways to generate revenue with future or new clients. An easy way to do this, raise your rates, friend! 

Just take a look at your website, packages guide, investment guide or wherever it is you talk about pricing and package details with your clients and bump up those numbers! 

And the challenge for you? Bump up those numbers without adding any other deliverables, because the value of your work is already there! You do not need to add on more value or more deliverables. You don’t need to stack on more things, hours, or more assets into your packages in order for the value to be there, because the value is already there!

Raise your rates right now so that every new client that comes to you is booking at a higher price point so that you are generating more revenue and ideally more profit every time you get a new client on your books!

My final piece of advice is to offer a VIP day or a design-day intensive (or whatever you want to call them!). This is actually something we’ve talked about on the podcast before with the incredible Sarah Masci, who I think of as like the queen of all things VIP day(s). That’s an episode that I highly recommend checking out and tuning into if you want to learn more about how to set up a VIP day and how to effectively implement that. 

In my little corner of the internet, we don’t hustle for our worth. We don’t max ourselves out. We don’t buy into that 24/7 hustle-culture nonstop. That kind of like nose-to-the-grindstone mentality. We focus on creating the life that we want to live, and our business fits into that. So VIP days can actually be a really thoughtful way to do this because instead of needing to take on a bunch of new clients with two or three month long projects, you could take on just a handful of half-day or full-day clients.

This can be something you pitch to your past clients as well! It could be an easy way to knock out a “design punch list” that they’ve created to work on with you! If you are connecting with new people, talking about this on social media or finding leads in a Facebook group or something like that, that would be such an easy thing for you to knock out in a design-day intensive or a VIP day. 

CREATE REVENUE AS A DESIGNER

I hope that this helps and gives you some ideas on how you can take some intentional action to start generating the revenue that you want, whenever you want it. I hope that it’s leaving you with tons of ideas to take action on as you intentionally focus on growing your design business!

And, you know, money isn’t everything, but it sure is nice! And I want you to have however much money you want or need for whatever reason, because it can be this incredible tool that you use for good in your life, in your business, and the lives of those around you. Money can give you the resources to create this powerful ripple effect out into your community or your home area, city, or even your country as well. 

ARE YOU READY TO CREATE REVENUE AS A BRAND DESIGNER OR STRATEGIST?

These are actually a handful of ideas that I took from a bonus training that I did, earlier this year for my incredible students inside the Brand Strategy School where I actually mapped out in-depth 10 ways to generate cash on demand as a designer, while giving yourself the power to command the revenue that you want when it serves you best. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BRAND STRATEGY SCHOOL

And this was such a fantastic training! That same day and week, the folks inside my signature course started implementing my advice and instantly started getting feedback from past clients, started booking people at higher prices, and started seeing all this money come in!

That’s exactly the kind of community that I’ve created inside the Brand Strategy School where I want for us to have the support, resources, and tools at our disposal that we need in order to pursue what success looks like to us. 

JOIN THE BRAND STRATEGY SCHOOL

P.S. Did you enjoy today’s post or have you found value in another resource that I have shared in the past? You can head here to buy me a coffee, and I would be so honored by your support! I am so thankful you are here, and always cheering you on from Waco!☕