Anyone that has worked for themselves can work for someone else. The key is to find the right someone else. Soulless corporate cube farms and meatgrinder ad agencies are not it. The right company for you is one that gives you many of the same benefits of working on your own, while also giving you the benefits of working with a team.

The first, and most important thing to look for is entrepreneurialism. You are an entrepreneur. If you’re going to work for someone, they have to be one too. Your new job has to be with a company that has big ideas and the will to make them reality. Look for a company that is growing, that puts real money behind new projects and new opportunities. Smaller companies by default have to grow, but you can find big companies that believe in taking risks. No one working at Google or Apple would complain they don’t try new things.

The second thing to look for is flexibility. If you’ve gotten used to coming and going whenever you please, you’re not going to have an easy time adjusting to a 9 to 5 schedule. Most creative departments will allow some degree of flexibility, ask about this up front. You don’t need total freedom, but being able to shift some hours around is a must.

Finally, you need to find a company that has a loose hierarchy. You’ve been your own boss. You can handle someone else being your boss. But you might not be able to handle 37 layers of management between you and your boss. There are plenty of companies with flat or loose organizations that will let you talk directly to whoever’s in charge, instead of going through an army of business drones. This is another area where small companies shine, but I’ve seen huge, multi-million dollar corporations that have flat creative departments that are completely isolated from the corporate structure.

It takes a bit of looking, but you really can find a full-time job that is creative, engaging and challenging, that doesn’t drain your soul and leave you lifeless and grey. Many small companies are good fits for solo designers. A few large companies are too. As long as you pick a company that fits the way you work instead of forcing yourself to work in a way that doesn’t fit you, you’ll do fine.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0

Nothing lasts forever. Mountains crumble, empires fall, and even the best jobs eventually go away. As the veteran of 5 layoffs due to bankruptcies (3 involving lawsuits), 1 start up running out of money, and one firing due to a department being closed (and my not getting along with management), I’ve developed a pretty good list of warning signs. If you stay alert, you can usually spot a layoff or firing soon enough to be prepared when it hits. Watch for the following:

Disappearing Workload: no successful business pays people to do nothing. One day without much to do is a welcome break, two or more and you’d better head for the lifeboats. If the people lining up the work don’t have anything for you to do, that means the company isn’t making any money, and that it won’t be making money in the future, either. If work drops off and stays low, expect to need another job within two weeks.

The Replacements: a lot of managers think the way to save a failing company is to hire a lot of temps and freelancers. On paper, they are cheaper, even though they have a higher hourly rate. They don’t have benefits, and they (or their agency) pay their taxes. Temps and freelancers won’t let you grow a company, however, since by their nature they won’t be around long. If management brings in a lot of temporary help, and it’s not because of some huge surge of work, they’ve given up on expanding the company. They’re concentrating on minimizing losses while they ride out the crash.

This goes double for outsourcing work. No matter what kind of corporate doublespeak is used, outsourcing shrinks a company instead of growing it. A shrinking company is not a healthy one.

Efficiency Cops: the minute anyone in management says the word “efficiency” or “productivity” you should get your resume out. This is code for “we’re going broke, and need to squeeze everything we can out of our workers before we fire them.” If management starts doing “efficiency reviews” or “strategic reevaluations” that means they are trying to find someone they can safely fire. If they go as far as hiring a “Bob”, an outside consultant that starts examining everyone to see who can be cut, then you might as well just stop working and let them fire you.

Mysterious Lunches: when all else fails, pay attention to your coworkers. Many of them know more than you do. If you notice several of them taking extra long lunches, talking a lot on cell phones, or showing up to work in interview clothes, it’s already too late. The smartest rats jump ship first. They’re not coming in late because of a dentist appointment, not unless the dentist is hiring designers. Start looking for a new job before your buddies take all the good ones.

Getting laid off or fired is part of the design industry. You can survive just fine if you’re prepared for it. Every Friday burn all the new work from that week to DVD or a portable drive, and save it at home. Keep your resume up to date, and make sure you update your online portfolio as soon as you complete new work. Make sure you maintain a strong network of other designers, and keep a list of companies you’d like to work for if you lose your job. Because someday you will.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0

It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO or a lowly production artist. Every full-time designer that has ever walked the Earth has a dirty little secret.

They’re still freelancing.

You can no more stop freelancing than you can stop breathing. It might just be a little job here and there for your cousin’s bike repair shop, or you could be pulling 40+ hours of evening and weekend work. If someone offers you a chance to do design and you have 30 seconds a day not booked for sleeping or eating, you’ll do it. There’s no shame in it. Just as artists must paint, we must design, and we might as well get paid while we do it.

If you’re going to be doing side work while fully employed, there are a few things you should do to stay out of trouble. The first is to be totally up front with your employer. Don’t try to hide the fact you have outside clients. It never works. Eventually you’ll get a phone call during the day, leave a print out on your desk, or otherwise slip up and announce to everyone you’re secretly working on the side just like the rest of them. Being honest will save you the trouble, and usually isn’t an issue. Most employers won’t mind, and they’ll appreciate your honesty. The employers that do mind… keep your resume handy and be quiet about it.

You need to be picky about your side clients. Don’t try to do work for anyone your employer wants to work for. Ending up in competition with your own boss can be very unpleasant. Try to focus on clients that are too small for them, or in entirely different industries. Picking work that is very different than what you do from 9 to 5 prevents conflicts and adds variety to your portfolio. If a side client starts to look like they’re getting too big for you to handle, don’t hesitate to suggest they hire the company you work for full-time. That’ll maintain your relationship and get you big kudos with your boss (assuming they approved you doing sidework in the first place).

Make sure your side clients understand you have a day job. If they have to call you, make them do it before or after work, or during your lunch break. Don’t take time off to go to meetings, and don’t spend a lot of time e-mailing clients at work. Absolutely never actually work on side projects at your day job, not even if you have some down time. You have to remember that your day job is your job, and your side work is just something extra. Act like you are a fully-engaged, loyal employee, not someone that is just soaking up a paycheck until you can go back to freelancing.

Pace yourself with side work. Your employer will be okay with it until it starts to impact your performance. If you come in exhausted every day and fall asleep in meetings with 10 million dollar clients because you were up all night doing a brochure for $500, you might as well pack your bags. Limit the amount of side work you can do to about half of the hours you have free each week. Inevitably some of it will take longer than you expect, aiming for half your freetime gives you enough of a buffer you should be safe.

If you get into a situation where you’re going to have to call in sick or screw up a project at your day job to finish some side work, cancel the side work instead. You can afford to lose a side client. In the long run they’re way less valuable than your regular job, the one giving you that nice steady paycheck that covers your rent and groceries.

Doing side work can be a real challenge. I’ve always done it, and I’m doing it now. The truth is, no job is forever, and you never know when you’re going to be a full-time freelancer (unemployed) again. When that happens, you’ll be glad you kept a few backup fires going. Just don’t let those backup fires put out the one that’s already keeping you warm.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0

You know the feeling. Each project could be the one that catapults you to success or buries you in failure. One wrong move and you lose everything. One right move and you have it made. Everything is balanced on your shoulders, down to your skill, determination and luck. You’re running flat out on the razor’s edge, and you’re not wearing shoes.

I miss that feeling sometimes.

Running your own company is tremendously risky, in good and bad ways. It’s easy to get addicted to the constant rush of both success and failure. When you become a full-time employee, that rush is suddenly gone. You get a regular paycheck and steady hours, but in exchange you give up that chance that the next project could be the big one that makes you a rockstar.

Letting go of that addiction can be a real problem. As a member of a team, you can’t expect to be the star of the show. You don’t have total control over what you do, and you’re not going to get all the credit for your success. Nor should you. If you’re doing your job right, your success is everyone’s success, and wouldn’t have been possible without the people you work with. Your team mates are the ones that handle the accounting, sales, client contacts, production work, code wrangling, or whatever else it is you’re not that good at so you can focus on being an awesome designer. Is the rush really worth going back to filling out mountains of paperwork and handling all the non-design work yourself?

Whenever that old tingle crawls up the back of your neck, remember all the non-design you used to have to do. Instead of worrying that you’re giving something up by working for someone else, think about what you’re getting. You’re working on bigger and better projects than you could have ever tackled alone, and focusing on what you’re great at instead of spreading yourself thin. You may not reach the same highs, but you’re also never going to see the same lows. All that energy you used to spend on worrying about the business can be poured into your design work. As a member of a team, you should be creating work that’s much better than you ever could have alone, and a lot more of it. All you have to do is let go.

Being an employee doesn’t mean you’ll never be a rockstar. It just means you have to bring the rest of the band with you.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0

Possibly the greatest advantage of running your own shop is you get to choose who you work with. You’re never in a situation where you might lose your job if you say the wrong thing, hold the wrong opinion, or belong to the wrong group too publicly. You’re the one that does the hiring and firing, and the worst that can happen is you have to fire someone else.

Working for someone else is entirely different. Unless you’re very lucky, you’re going to be working people that don’t have the same opinions, beliefs, or backgrounds as you. They may violently disagree about anything from American Idol to the afterlife to the local mayor to the proper way to blow your nose. At any time, what you thought was an innocent conversation can wander into a minefield of undiscovered disagreement, risking explosions that can destroy team unity and leave long-festering wounds.

How do you avoid tripping over someone else’s personal issues? I have a few suggestions that can help you stay away from invisible hot buttons and prevent a total workplace meltdown:

• Stick to Business: Talk about the work, never your private life, except in the vaguest way. Discussing what you do outside of work leads to talking about activities that others may find problematic, not to mention your membership in clubs, religions, political parties and other areas of conflict.
• Dance Like the Wind: When a coworker stumbles into a controversial topic, remain as vague and noncommittal as possible. Answer everything with content-free affirmations like “that’s interesting” and “I guess you could say that.” If your fellow employee possesses more awareness than a houseplant, they’ll take the hint.
• Play the Opinion Card: If you’re cornered, and have to make a concrete statement you know someone else is opposed to, follow with “but that’s just my opinion.” It gives the other person permission to pretend you don’t really believe that, and do not require them to hate you.
• No Validation: If you simply cannot get through life without having those around you validate your personal beliefs, then an office environment is not for you. Either find some company that only hires people that think the same way you do, or go back to being your own boss.

There are a lot of benefits to working with other people: friendship, support, the ability to tackle larger projects, a steady paycheck. Those benefits come with a price, and part of that price is leaving your ego and your personal issues at the door. If you can do that, and you can avoid trouble with coworkers that can’t, you can survive and flourish as part of a team.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0

What does it take to run your own design business?

Over the years I’ve worked for a lot of companies, big and small, in-house and freelance, start-ups and Fortune 500. I watched and learned, and thought I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do when I started my own business. What I discovered was a huge surprise.

First off, your design talent doesn’t really matter. Sure, it matters as far as whether you’ll do good work, but it’s almost entirely meaningless when it comes to business success. There are plenty of terrible designers out there with clients lined up outside the door. The reality is that most of our clients don’t know anything about design, and wouldn’t know the difference between a genius and a talentless hack if they came pre-labeled and color-coded. Being talented might get you better clients, but it won’t make you a success, and lacking talent won’t hold you back.

The biggest factor is being successful in running your own business is… being good at running a business. That requires parts of your brain that are never touched by Pantone 253. You have to be able to spend 20 hours a week making phone calls, sending and replying to e-mail, filling out paperwork, mailing invoices, and managing your employees (if you have any). It’s not particularly creative or interesting. But it’s absolutely vital if you want to survive, much less prosper.

The second factor is how much you can stomach responsibility. When clients are late paying bills, your credit cards are maxed out, your junior designer can’t pay their rent because you haven’t given them a paycheck this week, and you need to fire your programmer for being incompetent, going back to in-house design can look pretty good. Meeting deadlines and making clients happy can be stressful, but it’s an entirely different kind of stress when you’re responsible for a company.

The final factor is your personality. Most people will make their decision to hire your company based on your personality. If you radiate confidence, competence, and friendliness, you’ll get the job. If you project doubt, fear, disorganization or surliness, you won’t. Like every other business person, your people skills are crucial to your success. You have to truly enjoy talking to clients and potential clients, and they have to enjoy talking to you.

If you are organized, responsible, confident and friendly, you might do well running your own business. If you fall short in any of those areas, you’re in for some frustration. You might be a fantastic designer, but if you can’t sell a job or get an invoice sent on time, you won’t be a fantastic business owner.

Until the next
Cube 2.0,
Josh

Josh Jeffryes | Graphic Designer | Technologist | Organizer, St. Louis Design Meetup
Jeffryes Design | On Design | St. Louis Design Meetup | BoDo Author | Cube 2.0