5 Overlooked Opportunities To Grow Your Design Business - RD103

Are you looking for opportunities to grow your business? [sc name="pod_ad"]It's a given, you want your design business to succeed. To accomplish that, you need to find opportunities to grow. Some of those opportunities take time and money and are well worth the effort. But some opportunities to grow are so small and simple that they are often overlooked. On this episode of the podcast, I share five such opportunities you can implement today to help grow your design business. Be sure to listen to the podcast for the full story, but here's a sample of what I discussed. 5 Overlooked Opportunities To Grow Your Design Business 1) Your Email Signature Most people's email signature consists of their name, title, perhaps their business name and contact information. If this sounds like your email signature, you are missing out on an opportunity to grow your design business. Include a short sentence or a bullet list mentioning the services you offer. Be specific. Go beyond simple print and web design and mentions things like trade show displays, T-shirt designs, Facebook and Google Ads, vehicle wraps, signage and anything else you may offer. You never know when someone might see it and think "I didn't know they did that. I should contact them about it". 2) Your About Page The About Page on a website is something many people get wrong. Don't be one of them. An About Page is not there for people to learn about you, it's there to help people decide if you are someone they want to work with on their next project. If your about page isn't formatted correctly, you are missing out on a HUGE opportunity to grow your business. To learn more about the proper way to construct an about page listen to episode 52 of the podcast titled How A Great About Page Can Attract Design Clients. 3) The Back Of Your Business Cards Why do people leave the back of their business cards blank? It's such a waste of valuable real estate and a lost opportunity to help grow their business. Face it, most of your clients don't know what you do for a living. They hired you for one thing, and as far as they know, that's the only thing you do. The back of your business card should be used to list your services so naive clients can see everything you offer and perhaps give you more work. Whenever you hand out a business card, make sure you mention your list of services on the back. You never know who will end up with one of your cards and contact you because of a service you list on your card. Don't miss out on this opportunity to grow your business.  4) Your Social Media Profiles Just like your email signature and the back of your business cards, you are missing a huge opportunity if you don't list your services on your social media profiles. Every social media platform allows you to write a description of yourself. Simply saying you are a graphic and/or web designer isn't good enough because it doesn't mean anything to a lot of people. Use this space to list your services. Your social media posts should speak for themselves. But if the person viewing them wants to know more about you, don't make them jump through hoops. A link to your website or portfolio is a must in your profile but listing your services is an even better way to attract people's attention. Many designers find new clients via social media so don't neglect this opportunity to grow your business. 5) Your Out Of Office Reply A typical out of office reply looks something like this; Hi, thank you for your message. I'm out of the office and will not be replying to emails until my return. If a reply is required I will get back to you the week of [week of return] Thanks, If this is the type of out of office reply you are using you are missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business. Use this space to interact with the person emailing you and start a conversation you can continue upon your return. Something like this; Hi, thank you for your message. I can't wait to talk to you about ways to improve your website's search engine rankings. Unfortunately I'm out of the office right now and won't be replying to emails until my return. I'm back the week of [week of return] and I'll get back to you then and we can discuss your website or anything else you want to talk about. Thanks, I recently used this as my out of office reply with amazing results. 75% of the people who received this message asked me about search engine rankings upon my return. 25% of them converted into new website projects. Best of all, none of the people who received my out of office reply was contacting me about their websites. It just goes to show you that there are opportunities to grow your design business where you least expect them. What overlooked opportunities to grow are you using? Let us know what small and simple things are growing your business by leaving a comment for this episode. Questions of the Week Submit your question to be featured in a future episode of the podcast by visiting the feedback page. This week's question comes from Ismael I am a full-time Government employee in the U.S and currently attending Full Sail University pursuing my Graphic Design degree. I am only 5 months in. The reason I am reaching out is because I am a bit nervous. I have never been very good at drawing and being creative. As you progressed through your education how did you feel? I am 35 years old, not very young. I plan to eventually start my design business on the side while I continue to work in my current profession until hopefully I just have to dedicate more time to it. Some general life advice as to how you became self employed with a family may be useful. Thanks again. You are doing us all a great service by providing this content. To find out what I told Ismael you'll have to listen to the podcast. Resource of the week Battery Life App This week's resource is a smartphone app that helps you monitor the condition of your phone's battery. Smartphone batteries deteriorate over time and with each charge. The longer you own your phone, the faster you'll see your battery charge deplete. That's because your battery doesn't hold as much of a charge as it used to. Using a Battery Life App allows you to keep track of the life expectancy of your battery, so you know if it's worth replacing or not. Some of these apps also give you insight into what installed Apps and Services use the most energy on your phone causing your battery to discharge faster. There are many such apps to be found in the Apple, Google and Windows App stores. Simply search for Battery Life and download the one you like the best. Subscribe to the podcast Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on Android Subscribe on Google Play Music Contact me Send me feedback Follow me on Twitter and Facebook I want to help you. Running a graphic design or web design business all by yourself isn't easy. If there are any struggles you face running your design business, please reach out to me. I'll do my best to help you by addressing your issues in a future blog post or podcast episode here at Resourceful Designer. You can reach me at [email protected]