If you do good work, you get good work & good things come to those who wait — right? I have incredibly bad news for you — not always.

Don’t be design Hachiko

You were told that making was enough and each happy client will bring you new prospects. But what will happen if… you won’t like them? What if this whole “happy client” network will trap you in a “crappy client” referral system with small budgets and projects that nobody cares about? What will you do?

Face it, sometimes you will work on the projects primarily to keep the lights on. The bad thing — it might happen to often and the risk is that you will hate your job and lose the passion for it.

You might “fake it till you’ll make it” by creating yet another Facebook redesign, but probably this was one of the reasons why you have landed in this bad client situation in the first place. Don’t get me wrong — making concepts for exposure is good thing, but you lose the essence of design business.

Clients aren’t hiring your portfolio, they’re hiring you plus all the conversations, decisions, and convincing you did along the way. If clients are not coming to you for strategy and problemsolving, you can’t call yourself a designer. This process is broken from the start.

Selling design is a core design skill. Finding a client is a core survival skill. No matter how good you are at what you do, without someone willing to pay you for that service you will have to close your doors.

Building the story you want to be telling

“ Your portfolio needs to tell a story and each client you add to it is another chapter in that story. Make sure you’re consciously building the story you want to be telling. And make sure your story is compelling enough that your next client is excited to become a character in it” Mike Monteiro

I will twist that quote a little bit — your story should be consistent. Carefully choose the projects you take on.

In order to chooose from — you need to have a demand. Demand will come when you will gain a certain level of notoriety in the industry. This is hard thing to do when you take what is offered without a choice to make from.

One way to improve your demand is to specialize in few niches. Establishing your reputation as an expert in one area of design or development is easier than establishing yourself as an overall expert in design because there is just too much competition.

Find your niche

The popular phrase “Jack of all trades” has, over time, been modified. Now, you frequently hear “Jack of all trades, master of none”.

Should you specialize? From a strictly business and marketing perspective, this is a no-brainer. If you’re looking to get ahead of the competition and make more money, your best bet is to specialize in a specific niche. And know this, even If you start out as a generalist sooner or later you will probably specialize anyway — the marketplace will tell you your niche.

Nietzsche about the niche

Design is a competitive industry, but there are excellent opportunities for those with clear goals. With a narrowed focus, you’ll be better equipped to meet your clients’ design needs. The best way to fast track your career is to specialize in something.

If you will dive deep into one industry, you could become a domain expert, a person that speaks the same language as your clients. Being a niche designer means potentially less work for the customer. See how many hours you spend gathering information about client’s industry and market trends. You’ll be more familiar with new developments and common concerns of the market. Additionaly the client will have confidence in you if they know that you are a specialist with industry-specific knowledge.

Choosing the right niche

While you might be passionate about Lithuanian literature, you’ll likely earn more by making design for clients with bigger marketing budgets. Choosing a niche that is too small could result in an unsustainable business.

…designers do has an unbelievable impact on a couple of sectors where the consumer doesn’t know the difference. Water, vodka… There is no way for the consumer to tell one water from another, or one vodka from another. Whatever we [designers] do — be it the advertising, be it the bottle, or be it the logo on the bottle — it really makes a difference, because it is the only thing for the consumer to evaluate while making the decision about what to buy. Stefan Sagmeister

If you could, wouldn’t you pick one of “Sagmeister’s Sectors of Unbelievable Impact” as your design niche? You would work with clients in an industry where design is the very key to what sells or not!

While you will need to generate enough income to support yourself, money isn’t everything. Don’t work exclusively with one group if you know you will be bored by the work. Either avoid it completely, or include one or two other niches that you’re passionate about or find enjoyable.

Before committing yourself, make sure you are willing to invest time and energy in learning about that particular subject and figuring out whether you’ll enjoy interacting with the people who you’ll be working with and for.

Domino effect

Everyone has seen a domino fall — that one flick of a finger that creates an amazing chain reaction. But, did you know that one regular sized domino can actually knock over a chain of progressively larger dominoes? It’s actually the smallest thing that does the most. So when you determine what your first domino is and knock it over, the impact of your action will create a higher level of success. Build a big vision, then zoom in to a narrow focus to only one small step that you can do next and do it.

Same could be applied to you career:

Rockstar designer tale

You love rock music. You even know how to play a guitar but due to circumstances you’ve become a designer. And now is the right time to pay your due to the rock music. You start small — you offer a great local musician to create a website or logo (first domino in your chain to success). It gives you opportunity to meet more people in the rock industry… each month you find out new creative ways how to help your clients. One day local rock festival approaches you to help them with design. The headliner of the festival is Red Hot Chili Peppers. RHCP loves the work that you did for this festival. They ask you do the same for them. You design a visual ID for their next tour.

…a few years later

You are sitting in some villa with James Hetfield and Mick Jagger talking about a new project that will involve Rolling Stones and Metallica. You did it. You’re a design rockstar!

Rockstar design story is just a fairy tale. The great thing that sometimes those fairy tales happens in the real world to real people. Just keep on searching for your path!