When I first started working for myself, I had some big goals.
Of course, I wanted to earn a lot of money (and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that). But I also wanted to do it in a way that wouldn’t require me to work 60 hours every week.
I still remember the excitement and motivation I felt when I wrote down what I wanted to achieve in the upcoming months and years.
Outcome #1: Work less, charge more
I knew I didn’t want to be stuck in the “charging per hour” trap.
I wanted to charge based on the value I was creating for the client, feel confident in my worth, and work with clients who understood that having a brand identity is an investment, not an expense.
Outcome #2: Fewer revisions & quick approvals from clients
I’m sure you’ve been there, too.
Pouring your heart and soul into a design, only to have the client ask for endless tweaks. It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and honestly, a bit soul-crushing.
I dreamed of a world where clients looked at my first draft and said, “Wow, this is perfect!”
(Okay, maybe that was a bit optimistic, but I at least wanted to get close on the first try and have minimal revisions).
Outcome #3: Happy clients who’d refer me to others
Word of mouth is really powerful in our industry.
I wanted clients to be so thrilled with my work that they couldn’t help but tell everyone they knew, share their experiences as testimonials, and become unofficial brand ambassadors for my design services.
Outcome #4: Less time on admin, more on creative tasks
I wanted to spend my days in Illustrator, not in my inbox.
I was spending so much time on emails, contracts, invoices, and project management that I barely had the energy left for actual designing.
I needed a process where admin tasks took minimal time, leaving me free to do what I love - create attention grabbing brands.
For a long time, these outcomes felt like distant dreams.
Late nights, endless revisions, and charging way less than I should - that was my reality.
I was overworked, stressed, and stuck. I wanted to improve my business but didn’t know how.
I actually remember being close to throwing in the towel and going back to a 9-5 job where at least I’d have weekends off.
But instead, I did something different.
I took some time off.
Not just a long weekend, but a proper break to really look at my business.
I absorbed myself in my projects from the past year.
What was it?
How could I turn things around?
I analysed my time, my pricing, and my client interactions.
That’s when it hit me: I was trying to solve too many problems! And obviously, I couldn’t. I had to pick my problems.
You might have heard of the 80/20 rule - 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
I learnt about it from Tim Ferris’s “The Four Hour Work Week”, where he gives the exercise to strip down all the tasks on a piece of paper, and bring it down to 20% that were actually creating the bigger impact.
When I applied this to my design business, everything changed.
I realised that 80% of my success came from just a few key areas:
1. Having a set client process
With every new project, I was constantly scrambling, and my clients could sense my uncertainty. So, I created a roadmap with a clear, repeatable process.
The more I used this process, the smoother things got. It was all about putting in the reps:
I refined my approach, identified bottlenecks, and made improvements with each project.
I broke projects into milestones: discovery, strategic planning, mood boarding, and then design.
This made the actual design phase the easiest part because we’d already aligned on the direction!
2. Presenting my work well
I used to think that great design would speak for itself.
I couldn’t be farther from the truth! How you present your work is almost as important as the work itself.
Initially, I’d send over my work with a brief “Here’s the design, let me know what you think!” email. It gave me nothing but confused clients, lots of back-and-forth, and endless revisions.
And then I realised that clients can’t read my mind. They don’t know the thought behind each design choice.
So I completely overhauled how I presented my work:
I created appealing decks, revealing design snippets to build anticipation.
I explained the rationale behind each design decision.
I included mockups to help clients visualise the designs in real-world applications.
And everything flipped.
My clients went from saying “I’m not sure about this” to “Wow, you’ve really thought of everything!”
3. Implementing brand strategy
For the longest time, I thought my job was just to make things look good.
And while aesthetics are important, I was missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: strategy.
So this was the next thing I started to focus on.
I started asking deeper questions about business goals and the WHY behind the company.
This shift in approach meant I was creating strategic visual solutions that aligned with my clients’ business objectives.
I could justify my design decisions because the overall strategy ran every choice. The colours, fonts and illustrations were used to evoked specific emotions and convey a cohesive story.
I was delivering more value by providing a complete brand identity that could guide all of a client’s marketing efforts. I wasn’t just focussed only on designing a new logo, and this added value meant I could charge premium rates for my services.
I was attracting better clients: As I started to position myself as a strategic brand designer, I began attracting clients who valued strategy and were willing to invest in quality work.
If there’s one thing that truly levelled up my freelance game, this was it.
4. Off-boarding my clients happily
I want clients to finish my projects feeling satisfied, but a bit sad it’s over - like finishing a great series.
For a long time, I was dropping the ball, ending projects with a quick “Here are your files” email.
After I came across an old client that wasn’t using their brand guide months after my project had ended, I realised: the project’s end is just the beginning of the client’s journey with their new brand. And I needed to set them up for success.
So, I developed an off-boarding process:
Brand Guidelines: A comprehensive guide covering file access and best practices.
Brand Guideline Sheet: A one-pager for quick reference to fonts and colour codes.
Goodbye Packet: A deck explaining their files, my additional services, and a referral bonus.
This process eliminated the stress of project handovers and set clients up for long-term success.
But here’s the thing:
Setting all this up wasn’t easy.
It took time, trial and error, and a lot of hard work. I spent months refining my process, creating templates, and developing strategies.
Now, I know you probably don’t want to spend years figuring this out like I did. So if you’d like a done-for-you version of all the templates for various stages of the client process, you can check out The Pro Freelancer Bundle. It’s the resource I wish I had when I started out.
Hope you found this helpful!
Chat next week,
Abi
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