5 Essential Business Growth Lessons from Half a Decade of Self-Employment

August of 2023 marks 5 years in business as Amp’d Designs!

That means half a decade has passed since I filed an LLC and decided to make this thing official! Today I’m laying everything out about how I got started and what I’ve learned along the way.

Let me start by filling you in:

Just over six years ago, my boyfriend Will and I had a conversation about moving out of New York City in five years. We made a list of places we were interested in checking out. Asheville, North Carolina, was the only place on our list within driving distance, so we took a few days off work for a summer road trip — and it quite literally changed our lives!

As soon as we got back to our apartment in Queens, we pretty quickly went from, “we’ll move in five years,” to, “what’s stopping us? Let’s just go.” We quit our jobs on a whim. (Seriously, I was sitting at my desk at work one day when I got a text from Will that said, “I put in my two weeks,” and I was like, “well, I guess I will, too,” so I did.)

We found an apartment online, reserved a 16-foot truck (which was a nightmare to drive through the streets of NYC, let me tell you), and left! And we didn’t really have any plans. Will applied to a handful of jobs and got an offer before our move date. I researched the creative community in Asheville to find that there weren’t very many in-house design positions, but there were a lot of self-employed designers, so I decided to try “freelancing.”

Up until this point, it was a wild dream of mine to work for myself, and I’d imagined it as something I might do after I had 10, 20 years of experience.

Through college and working in NY, I’d been conditioned to think that “success” was working for an agency on giant projects, and that freelancing was something designers only did when they couldn’t find a job. It didn’t help that family and friends seemed wary of my decision, as if my lack of a “real job” was a temporary thing.

When I first started out, I didn’t realize that “freelancing” was actually owning a business. I didn’t know a thing about marketing. I had never been to a networking event. I had never had a “sales call.” We knew no one in Asheville, and I had zero clients.

The first steps I took to start freelancing:

• I told myself that I would design something every day, even if I had no client work. I had previously started an Instagram project illustrating restaurant fronts, so I focused in on Asheville establishments, and added local bird drawings. This helped me start to circulate some new work for people to see.

• A few days after we settled into our new apartment, I noticed a Facebook event for AdClub WNC (our unfortunately now-defunct chapter of AAF), and talked my extremely-introverted self into checking it out on account of “it would be good for me.” (Spoiler alert: it was!)

• A few new colleagues from AdClub were kind enough to meet me for coffee, and the AdClub Board invited me to help out with their design needs. As I became more involved in the chapter, I met many of my initial creative and business connections.

• Before we moved, I had also Googled “designers in Asheville” and reached out to a handful to hear about their experiences working for themselves. Katie Gillikin invited me to check out a monthly design meetup called the Asheville Design Salon, where I met tons of fellow designers and creatives across many industries. For a small city, I was blown away at not only how big the creative community was, but how tight-knit it was.

  • The most wonderful thing about moving to Asheville was how incredibly welcoming and collaborative the creative community was (and still is!). I was amazed at how many other designers were so quick to generously introduce colleagues, refer projects, offer to collaborate.

• I also eased my way into local small business networking groups. This early in-person networking was a huge help to building up my early client base. Here and there, projects started coming in.

• So, almost a year into our new mountain life, I’d already learned a LOT simply from being surrounded by so many other amazing self-employed designers. I noticed that almost everyone referred to their work as their “business,” not “freelancing.” And it hit me that I was a business owner, too. All of the work that came alongside self-employment was the same as any multi-person design studio — only there was just one person doing every task.

• Many designers and other local entrepreneurs I met had recommended taking the Foundations in Business course at Mountain BizWorks, so I took their advice and enrolled. Y’all, it was a total gamechanger! Even though I was already a good designer, I had never actually taken a look at the why behind my business. I’d never asked myself the same questions I asked my clients. I hadn’t grasped the autonomy that I had to shape my business into what I wanted it to be — and this course changed everything.

• From Foundations, I crafted my first two actual design packages — one package for Logo Design, and one package for Website Design — and my mission statement.

• In August of 2018, I completed the course and filed an LLC for Amp’d Designs (a name I’ve actually been using since high school!). From there I focused on collaborating with new, local small businesses, most of which had never hired a designer before, working hard to exceed expectations and help them feel comfortable successfully using the first logo and/or website they’d ever had.

Now it’s been 5 years, and so much has shifted in unexpected and surprising ways!

To close this out, I want to share with you the top 5 lessons I’ve learned:

1. The most popular thing is not always the right thing.

I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go — not only visual trends, but business trends, too. I’ve felt the pull to market like other designers do, structure my offers like they do, follow the advice that they give. But ultimately, I’ve learned that if my gut is telling me something isn’t in alignment, I don’t have to do it just to “keep up with the other designers.”

Because I have a formal design education (a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute), and worked for years at design studios in NYC, I have a solid understanding of industry standards and best practices. Often I see recommended shortcuts or alternate money-savers — but the honest truth is: just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

As a professional design expert, I’m committed to always following industry standards, to questioning practices that compromise quality, and to doing things correctly even if that means they’re harder or more expensive.

2. Fixating on goals is not always helpful

I don’t mean that you should never set goals! But I do think it’s important to acknowledge that the ability to meet some goals is outside of your control, and that’s okay.

For me, I’ve found it more helpful to set general goals. For example, aiming to “work with X branding clients in X industry” is possible but not guaranteed, because I can’t fully control the number or type of inquiries I receive. But “work with more branding clients than last year in X industry” is something I can more solidly work towards and most likely achieve. Making a certain amount of money is also not predictable, but aiming to “raise my price to $X for branding projects by X month” is much more attainable.

Even still, in business there are always going to be things outside of your control (a global pandemic, perhaps?), so don’t get too upset if you don’t meet your goals by the date you had in mind! As a baseline, I think that as long as you’re striving to do good work, treat your clients well, learn, and improve, you’re in good shape.

3. Don’t be afraid to say no

When I first started out, I took almost every project that came across my plate because I needed the work. (I know I’m not alone here!) I negotiated my price and process often to fit what my clients wanted. I’ll be honest, I don’t regret this because it was necessary for me to get my foot in the door and start making an income. Everyone’s got to start somewhere.

BUT! As I formed more connections and started to receive more steady inquiries, I was able to start turning down work that didn’t excite me, standing firm on my pricing, and getting better at enforcing my boundaries. This is necessary for growth.

From time-to-time I’m still faced with questions about why I wouldn’t take a project just for the money, or why I’m so adamant about only working during my business hours, or why I won’t remove things from my smallest branding package to accommodate an even lower budget.

Here’s the thing: none of those above things are wrong to do. Every business owner has the full right to work in the way that’s best for them. Personally, over the years I’ve learned that compromising in certain areas leads to stress and frustration for me (and sometimes the client, too), and that’s why I’ve embraced saying no to things that don’t feel in alignment.

Whether it’s a project, a budget, a process, a policy — don’t be afraid to turn it down if your gut is telling you no. Whether it’s an after-hours phone call, a last-minute request, a coffee meeting you don’t have time for, a referral from a friend — don’t be afraid to say no!

4. Kindness goes a long way

On the flip side — somewhere over the years, the design community has developed a bit of a bite in its marketing. When I mentioned “saying no” above, I strongly believe that there are kind, tactful ways to turn down requests. It saddens me to see that quite a few designers take this idea to a level that comes across as rude, demeaning, and entitled.

Here’s another thing: you’ve got to remember that your clients are not experts in your industry. They haven’t spent years learning it like you have. They may have never hired someone like you before. So even if their requests might occasionally be annoying, remember that they’re mostly likely not trying to undermine you; they simply don’t know.

Running a business means that you’ve got to let go of your ego sometimes. I don’t necessarily believe that “the customer is always right,” but I do believe that the customer always deserves respect. Taking the time to respond kindly — even when saying no — and to educate your customers and clients works wonders when it comes to the reputation of your business.

P.S.: My friend Maddy and I hosted a webinar all about how to improve your experience for yourself and your clients by flipping the way you approach “annoying” situations.

5. Be patient.

Lots of “coaches” out there will try to have you believe that if you follow a set of steps, you can go from 0 to 100 in no time. And sure, here and there someone will get lucky and reach immediate success, but that’s simply not true in most cases. For most entrepreneurs, it really takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work to get the ball rolling — and keep it rolling!

I’ve seen a lot of designers and business owners start out with huge dreams — which is great! — but quit too soon because they’re not seeing immediate results, so they think nothing is working. But growth takes time.

It took me about a year to start getting a steady stream of work. A year of networking before the connections I made started paying off. A year of adjusting my design services and process before I landed on something that truly worked.

Even now, I don’t get immediate sales when launching a new service or product. Most people don’t, despite what they’d like you to believe. So don’t throw in the towel too soon!

Thanks for following along!

It’s been a joy to connect with you here, whether you’re new here or we’ve known each other for a while! These past 5 years have been a blast, and I’m so grateful to my clients, colleagues, and friends who’ve helped my small design business grow. Looking forward to the next 5 years!

Looking for more business growth resources?

Check out my Freebies for both Business Owners and Designers!

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