So, you’ve had a momentary lapse of reason and decided to forgo the regular paycheck in favor of starting your own business. Welcome to the club. Being in business for yourself can be a WILD ride, so fasten those seat belts.

BoDo is here to (hopefully) make that ride a little smoother. We’ve all had our triumphs as well as tribulations. We plan on sharing all the ins and outs. The ups and downs. As well as the in betweens.

Quoting Creative Coach and visiting author Mark McGuinness from Wishful Thinking

To run a successful design business you need to be more than a great designer. You need to be an accountant, manager, negotiator, salesperson, marketer, presenter, networker, copywriter, debt collector, strategist, intellectual property developer and more. You need to be comfortable dealing with people, money, technology and sometimes even the law.

Take advantage of programmes on offer to help you develop these skills. Make use of resources like BoDo where you can learn from others’ expertise and experience. Read books, ask questions - do whatever it takes. Commit to learning these business skills - they are tools for turning your creative talent into creative success.

In our first series, BoDo Niblets: Starting Out and Setting Up, we will cover the bare basics. The series will be just a nibble, an intro, a bite of what BoDo will bring. Later posts will go into more detail on the running a successful design business.

We’ll also be introducing team members, visiting authors (like Mark), and a few odd friends who’ll stop by on occasion.

Below is the outline of the series. For each subject there will be joining posts, BoDo Experience. It’s where a few of us dig back into our start-up days.

Are You Ready?

Do you have enough experience (both with design and running a small business) to start your own design company?

Taking it Personally

Are you an independent self-starter, disciplined loner, superb marketeer, multi-tasking monk? Or do you feel more comfortable working mainly in-house, surrounded by living, breathing flesh?

Clients, Oh My!

How many clients do you need to get started?

Where’s the Money, Honey?

How much ready cash does it take to leap?

Location, Location, Location

Decisions, decisions … Will you rent office space, or work out of the home? Will you work on-site or via the Internet?

How Equipped Are You?

Can you start with the bare basics, or do you need the bells and whistles?

Who’s (ac)Counting now?

You’ve got the clients. You’ve got the projects. What kind of invoicing will you need?

A Recap of the Starting Out and Setting Up series

So, how’d we do?

Thanks for stopping by,
The BoDo Team
cat - nt - jay

Welcome to BoDo:
The Business of Design online launch

Introducing Alina’s In-sights

Ah … the security of a steady paycheck. Benefits. Paid vacation time. Real live humans close by to bounce ideas off of and share thoughts. Yup, this is the in-house world. But, it’s also the world of commuting traffic, office politics, challenging bosses, nutty deadlines and the likes.

In Alina’s In-sights, our in-house connection, Alina Hagen, will be sharing her triumphs and tribulations of working in the corporate environment, along with ways to keep your sanity during the crazy times … both good and not so good.

In addition to generously sharing her not so available time with BoDo, Alina also authors Creative Latitude’s Graphic Make Overs and is a “regular” on the About.com graphic design forum, where she contributes her insights and experiences to help out others in the industry.

You can read more about Alina on BoDo’s visiting authors page.

The BoDo Team
cat - nt - jay

Should I work for a design firm, in-house, or freelance? What are the differences between the three?

This depends on your personal preferences and needs. Some people want the security of a regular paycheck and benefits possibly at the expense of less interesting work. Others thrive on the independence of running your own business. Follows is a brief description of the three types of working environments:

In-house: This will probably pay more than a design firm and have better benefits as far as health insurance, holiday and sick time, and retirement plans. The work, however, is apt to be very repetitious and narrow in scope as you will be doing the same type of projects over and over, always adhering to the corporate graphic standards originally set up for the firm. You will more or less have regular hours and will have to be located in an office environment 40-60 hours a week.

Design Firm: Working for a design firm or ad agency is highly competitive, long hours, high stress, and tight deadlines. However, there is more creativity and variety involved. It varies, but the pay could be lower than in-house, though some people are able to make very good money at ad agencies if they are good. The benefits will probably be there, but may not be as strong as working in-house.

Freelance: It’s all up to you. It’s highly advisable that before you do freelance, you get several years experience working for a design firm or in-house. There is so much you need to know. Working in a corporate setting will familiarize you with doing design in the “real” world, get you up to speed and experience, and give you some idea of what your strengths and weaknesses on. Once you freelance, you will be adding the jobs of marketing and accounting to your lists of hats to wear. There will be slow times and frantic times. It won’t be steady. You will need to be marketing yourself all the time; not just during slow periods. And, you will need to set up your own health insurance and retirement plans.

Alina Hagen | Visual Communication Designer
Alina Design | Creative Latitude | BoDo Author | Alina’s In-sights

(Where Should I Work? first appeared on Creative Latitude’s Holy Grail )