Are you thinking about starting your own business and get out off the rat race as soon as you can? I'm sure most people dream of working for themselves where they will have more flexibility in their time management and start making money for themselves at the same time. But most of us stop short of taking the next step further mainly due to fear of failure and lack of capital. This may be true if you are thinking about starting a business that requires an upfront investment from your own pocket. For example, if you are planning to open up a restaurant business, you will need to find a location for your shop, buy kitchen equipments, furniture, hire staff and engage an interior designer to help you renovate the place. All these will add up to tens of thousands of dollars at the least. And if it fails, it would be a huge setback to your personal financial position.
But don't give up on the idea of becoming your own boss just yet. There are still many other business you can enter into which do not require huge amount of investment before you start to see the monetary returns. And one of them is if you are in the design business, graphic design in particular. If you take a look around yourself, you will suddenly realize that you are being surrounded by graphic design in all sorts of forms and medium. You see them on the shelves of your local supermarket, flyers delivered to your house's post box, bill boards along major roads, on TV, in cinema and the list goes on and on. Graphic design is not just about beautiful pictures and print, it is a branding tool that can successfully project out the essence of a product to the public when it is done properly. Top branding firms can often charge fees as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But don't give up on the idea of becoming your own boss just yet. There are still many other business you can enter into which do not require huge amount of investment before you start to see the monetary returns. And one of them is if you are in the design business, graphic design in particular. If you take a look around yourself, you will suddenly realize that you are being surrounded by graphic design in all sorts of forms and medium. You see them on the shelves of your local supermarket, flyers delivered to your house's post box, bill boards along major roads, on TV, in cinema and the list goes on and on. Graphic design is not just about beautiful pictures and print, it is a branding tool that can successfully project out the essence of a product to the public when it is done properly. Top branding firms can often charge fees as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now then what do you need to start practicing as a graphic designer? Let's not think too big right now before we blow our minds up, let's start small. The hardware you need is a laptop and maybe a printer as well. The software that you must get is Photoshop which is a very powerful tool that can work wonders. And the final most important thing to have is IDEAS. All great design comes from ideas. Services which you can offer as a graphic designer include designing name cards, brochures, promotional flyers, T-shirts, corporate logos and so on. You can even offer this service online so that you may capture the international market.
You will notice that it only takes a small amount of money to start a design business and ideas are FREE! The more creative you are, the higher your chances of achieving success. This type of practice has the highest profit margin as your initial investment is very low.
Next time when you see an attractive billboard on the road, instead of just admiring it, why not challenge yourself to come up with your own design.
I strongly believe that strong passion leads to talent and creativity. Forget about those negative thoughts that all great artists and designers were born with natural gift. We only see the glorious side of them and not the other part which requires tremendous effort, time and energy in producing great works.