Advice on running a design business you should ignore - Creative Confessions™
- Robin Son
- Dec 7, 2025
- 4 min read
I received an anonymous creative confession from a podcast listener about this topic, so let's talk about it.
The Confession
"How do I know what advice to follow online and what advice is bs? Everyone says different things and it is just confusing"
Want to listen to this episode instead of reading? ↓
Originally aired: 21 March 2025
You've got to be charging premium rates because clients value it more
Some clients do see high prices as high value but other clients see high prices as too expensive; you have to know who your ideal client is. If you want to work with business owners who have a smaller budget because you want to provide more accessibility for those needing a brand identity then you can do that, and your target audience would not be people with large budgets and your pricing would not be high. You can charge whatever you want, as long as the client is willing to pay, you're able to make a living and you are able to deliver on what you are promising.
You should never discount your design work and you should never work for free.
This is another piece of advice that kind of depends on the context. Discounts aren't inherently bad. They can be a problem if you're using them in the wrong way, but they don't always have to be bad. You can offer discounts to returning clients.
People hear this advice, and it makes them think that they should never, ever do free work in their life. But there are some situations where free work makes sense and doing free work can be a good thing. You have to set good boundaries and have a strong contract and be very clear about what you can and can't do, but maybe there's a charity that you really believe in or it's a dream project of yours, but they have no budget. It is up to you whether you want to take that on. You are trading your labor for nothing in return, you need to determine whether there's going to be a return on investment for you in that.
If adding this free project to your portfolio is going to bring you lots more work of a similar nature for example, go for it.
As long as you have a clear process in place, the client is not taking advantage of you and you are not pushing yourself outside of the bounds of what you can do, I don't see anything wrong with it. It's another one of those pieces of advice that doesn't apply to every single situation.
Don't niche down in your design business.
This can be good advice. Figuring out what you are good at and focusing on that is a really beneficial thing that you can do for your business. But people seem to take niching so seriously that it means that they have to pin themselves into this little box when they are multi passionate people, or they have multiple sets of skills that could be beneficial to a lot of people, and you don't have to take that advice if you don't want to.
Some people would argue that specialising in one single thing is like the best thing that you can do, and other people will argue that being multi passionate and having multiple skills under your belt is like the best thing that you can do. So everybody's going to have different advice so you should just do what you think works best for you.
For me, I know a lot of brand and web designers, but I am not a brand and web designer. I'm a brand designer, and I don't like doing website design, so I don't do it. And if I don't enjoy it, and it's not bringing me joy, basically, then I don't want to do it. I only niched into that because I wanted to. But Brand Design and Web Design do go hand in hand. So if you have the skills for both and enjoy both, there's no harm in offering both.
Niching doesn't always mean what you think it means. A lot of us assume that to 'niche down' means to only work with one type of industry, which isn't true. You can find more about niching down here, especially if you're a multi-passionate creative.
Listen to the full episode for more
Ready to hear more? Listen to the full podcast episode at the top of this post.
Got a Creative Confession™ of your own?
Brand Your Brain is the podcast that collects and shares anonymous confessions from creatives to normalise the messy reality of creative life.
Every episode starts with a confession submitted by a creative like you and me. Some are deep. Some are funny. Some are wildly relatable. All of them are real. (it’s 100% anonymous, and always free)
If you've got a hot take, unpopular opinion, or personal story about life as a creative then you can share it anonymously below:
Comments