The Debrief: A Graphic Design Side Hustle

Welcome to The Debrief. This week we interviewed Riley who runs a graphic design side hustle. If you didn’t catch it, feel free to check it out here before diving into this edition.

In this mid-week newsletter, we are going to investigate what we covered in our interview and breakdown the key takeaways and share some actionable advice for you to work on in your business venture.

Each debrief is designed to give you something to work on each week based off the advice given by our featured entrepreneur.

Let’s get into it!

Graphic Designer

Key takeaways:

1. Start Small but Strategically. You don’t need a massive portfolio or a polished website to kick off a design side hustle. Focus on creating a few strong pieces (even hypothetical ones) and start sharing your work consistently on platforms like Instagram and Behance. Visibility plus word-of-mouth referrals were key to her early growth.

2. Niching Down Accelerates Growth. At first, Riley said yes to every type of design work, but quickly realized that narrowing a niche to clean, modern branding for small businesses helped them attract the right clients faster. Building a clear personal brand early would have saved time and energy in defining their market position.

3. Invest in Tools That Help You Scale. There’s a value of investing in quality mockups, fonts, and client onboarding systems. These professional tools not only saved time but also elevate brand image, helping to charge higher rates and package services more effectively.

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How to start this business?

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