Businesses are in a constant state of change, even when times are good. This fluidity nurtures our creative ideas and allows new concepts to integrate with the old ones. But what happens when times get tough and life throws you a curveball? It could be any life event that causes you to shake things up. 

Or it could be the year 2020 and the dreaded ‘C’ word has caused a massive rush for businesses to take their brands online.

Having a Plan B or making way for new concepts is part of an overall strategic business plan but it also happens to be a mighty practical approach to business when there’s uncertainty in the economic & global climate, for example, staying at home.

How my diversity has sustained my business and helped it grow over the past year.

Diversifying my skillset and being a “hybrid” designer—aka a multi-passionate digital designer who offers a small but mighty range of services—is my number one point of difference from my creative peers. Yes, it’s important to niche and not spread yourself thin but offering branding and packaging design, as well as web design and development services has leveraged my brand to the point where I can’t scale fast enough. (My waitlist is constantly a minimum of 3 months!) But the best part about refining my skills to offer diverse services is that I can support my clients through their business journey from start to finish without having to hand them off to someone else at the website stage.

In addition to designing and developing websites, I also offer website care and hosting plans. This residual income for a relatively small amount of work per month covers the majority of my annual business subscriptions for the year. It’s complimentary to my services and provides peace of mind and ongoing support to my amazing clients who have invested in their brand and website. 

Benefits of diversifying your skillset as a graphic designer

Allows you to thrive through tough times

As I mentioned above, by offering a diverse range of services, a creative business can pivot and use its versatility to take advantage of the ebb and flow of demand, without sacrificing their passion.

You can charge more

As a diverse service provider, you are equipped to support your clients with more than one aspect of their project if needed, therefore providing more value, less time spent on their behalf collaborating with multiple service providers, and an overall fluidity and consistency through the project. In this way, you are providing a high level of value and therefore can charge more for your services.

You can choose your projects and clients

One of the reasons that I went into freelance graphic design was because I couldn’t find any design roles that would satisfy my desire to make a bigger impact in people’s lives with my work. Now that I am working for myself with a variety of services to call upon, I am able to choose who and what I work on, and give my energy to. This is essential for a long term, thriving business, as it will allow you to look forward to your work every single day and bring your passion with you in every aspect of your work.

You can do the creative work your soul desires

Giving your creative soul the free rein it needs to bring ideas and dreams to life is essential to avoid burnout. Especially as a graphic designer, when so much of your work and business is sourced from your natural creativity.

By giving yourself multiple outlets through a diverse range of creative services, you allow your creativity to flourish.

You can free up time to work on your biz and passion projects. Or just live life.

This ties in with being able to charge more, as well as depending on what kind of services you decide to offer. For example, as I mentioned above, one of my services is website care and hosting plans. For a relatively small amount of work per month, it provides income to cover my business subscriptions.

Skill set diversification will not only keep you busy with dream clients, your business alive and thriving, but will in turn keep your creativity vibrant, and your sanity whole!

How would you diversify your skillset as a graphic designer?