Finding my own clients - Graphic Designer Christian Tait
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Finding my own clients - Graphic Designer Christian Tait
Christian spent the best part of two decades working in agencies before eventually going freelance. He’d had a couple of trial runs before but this time he wanted to do it properly.
To Christian, that meant bringing in his own clients rather than setting up in the corner of an agency.
And it’s working.
These days, Christian gets most of his work via social media or word of mouth. He talks about taking a slow approach where the focus is on building relationships.
He also chats to Steve about working at home with his wife (a fellow freelancer), collaborating on projects, and finding balance (by riding around on tractors every Friday when he volunteers at the local nature reserve!)
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Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Graphic Designer Christian Tait and Steve Folland
Steve Folland: As ever, let's start hearing how you got started being freelance.
Christian Tait: So, graduated in 1995, I think. That's a long time ago now, innit? Blimey. And then managed to get a job in the September at a... It wasn't a design agency, it was kind of like a reprographic house. So they printed large exhibition banners and posters and things like that, but they also had a small design department. I basically managed to cling on there for about three and a half years and do general design work, brand identities, a lot of the exhibition panel type design that they were printing out. And then it just rolled from there, really, I was basically worked in design agencies in Bristol for 18 years or so before setting up this business.
Steve Folland: 18 years, that's a hefty amount of time to spend in agencies.
Christian Tait: A lifetime.
Steve Folland: So, were you always doing? Did you end up managing things? Were you dealing with clients? How did your career evolve, even at that point within agencies?
Christian Tait: Well, I guess I always stuck to the doing. I mean, I did go out and present some of the work when I got to a more senior level. So I'd go out with an account manager or account director and present work to a client or take a brief or something. But not very often, to be honest, it was more at the coalface doing the design, which is kind of what I prefer. I mean, I did actually go freelance a couple of times within that 18 years. It was only ever for a year or two. But I did the kind of thing where I was Christian Tait, freelance designer and I'd basically just go into other agencies. Agencies would book me for like a week or two or whatever, and I'd just sit in a corner and have work thrown at me. And you don't often get the best work freelancing like that. You get the work that the studio can't be bothered to do or there's some ridiculous deadline that they've got. Sometimes they say, "Oh shit. Okay, let's get a freelancer to sort that out," kind of thing. So you'd never get the best work. But I always ended up being suckered back into a full-time job really. Because of money or because of creativity, I guess.
Steve Folland: So did you like being freelance at that point? I mean, two years is quite a chunk of time.
Christian Tait: Yeah. I mean, I probably did it twice. So I did a chunk of about two years and then I did a chunk of maybe... I think the last chunk of that was actually only about six months or something. I liked the freedom of it. I liked the work in different places, meeting different people. Yeah. I guess the control of kind of running your own thing. And that's probably where the spark of my business now came. I liked that, ooh doing your own thing and in charge of your own destiny, but I didn't particularly like the work side of it. So, as I say, you get sat in a corner, you get given the work that nobody else really wants to do, or can't be bothered, you're amending other people's designs, doing a lot of artwork which is just preparing stuff for print and all that kind of thing. So which is all valid experience, but it's not that enjoyable, I would say.
Steve Folland: So eventually you decide to go freelance again, but this time it's going to be different.
Christian Tait: Yes. So it was a kind of, "Right. I'm going to do it proper now."
Steve Folland: What made it different that time around?
Christian Tait: During those couple of freelance times I had I got a few bits of own client work, just little odds and sods of friends of friends and kind of thing. And I knew that I enjoyed that the most. So I kind of said to myself, "Right, I'm going to do that next time." So that was when I started the business up, gave it a proper name, made it a limited company and thought, "Right, let's this approach this properly." And then obviously when I started this business in 2013, there was handy things like social media so I started up a proper business Twitter account and all that thing. And to be honest, at the start, I still had to do a bit of that jobbing designer stuff, I'd go into agencies and do a bit of that work just to get some initial money, pay the mortgage, little things like that. But eventually I managed to squeeze that out and get more of the own client work in. And probably for about the past four or five years, it's been just own client work, so none of the going into agencies and that kind of thing.
Steve Folland: You decide to go with a business name and become a limited company. Was that all a mindset thing? Or would you try to appear like the agencies that you had been in before? Like what was your take on it?
Christian Tait: I want it to appear bigger than I was to try and get my own clients. I never had any intention of growing it in terms of a business with employees and stuff, and still have no intention of that. It's always going to be just me. But I wanted to appear bigger from the outside. So even on the website at the time... I mean, I've kind of changed it in the past few years actually, but I talked about, we do this and we do that and we can help you do this and that. And not really hiding it from people, I was always honest with people, if we had a conversation I said, "It's just me," Et cetera, et cetera, but almost to try and get those own client gigs in. And it was definitely wanted in terms of the business name because it always annoyed me slightly in the past where I think people assumed you were small because you were just called Christian Tait, freelance designer. They kind of thought you probably can't take on this big brand identity job kind of thing.
Steve Folland: And do you think it changed the way that you put... Did it change anything inside you? That's a deep question.
Christian Tait: It is, it's a very deep question. I don't think it did.
Steve Folland: Fair enough.
Christian Tait: No. I'm just trying to think. No, to be honest, like a lot of creatives, I've always struggled quite a lot with self-confidence in terms of work, even though I've got that 18 years' experience and now it's something stupid, like 24 years experience or something. Even now, because it's creative work, I'm still a bit like, "Ooh, am I good enough? Oh, I wonder if they'll like it or are they going to hate it? Ooh, I don't want to send it over in case they don't like it." That kind of thing. But I knew that I had a portfolio to back me up so I could almost let the work speak for itself. So it's kind of like, even though I don't feel massively confident, maybe, going into this meeting with this new client, I know that on my iPad or laptop or whatever I can show them all this work and it is going to blow them away and they're going to love it. But deep down, I'll be thinking, "Oh crikey, I wonder if..." It's terrible.
Steve Folland: And so how did you go about finding those clients of your own?
Christian Tait: Really it's either word of mouth or it's social media. So when I went freelance in the past, it's kind of before Twitter. Can you imagine? It was really difficult because you'd have to phone people and email them or write them a letter, that kind of thing, but the social media stuff made it so much easier. But it's kind of a slow burn. So I do it by building relationships with people on Twitter. So I kind of seek out freelance marketing managers, maybe, who I know are going to be jumping around different companies, doing their marketing skills. And then their marketing plan might suggest that company X needs a new website or a new brochure or that kind of thing. So it's building relationships on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram with people.
Christian Tait: So it might not happen straight away. I remember one marketing guy, we had a chat on Twitter a few times, direct messaging, found out he lived in Bristol, let's meet for coffee. This kind of went on for six months and then eventually he emailed and said, "Oh, I'm working in this technology company at the moment and they need a folder and a brochure and some pull up exhibition stands and can you do a quote for that?" Kind of thing. And so it's building relationships with people, really. And then once you've done enough work as this business, Creative Cadence, then the word of mouth referrals start to work. And I always get a testimonial off a client when I finished a project with them and that goes on the website and it goes on LinkedIn. And so it's gradual stuff like that rather than the hard sell kind of approach.
Steve Folland: But you always for a testimonial as well. Do you have a process for that?
Christian Tait: Yeah. So I always ask for the testimonial on LinkedIn, so via their recommendation thing. So I ask for a recommendation. And then when I ask for it, I say, "This will obviously appear on LinkedIn, but can I also have permission to put it on my website and maybe use it on social media?" Every client always says, "Yeah. Use it were you like." So I put it on the website and then if it's a short one, I often and put it on a little graphic on Instagram and put it through there as well. So one testimonial, but squeeze the heck out of it. Steve Folland: There's quite a lot I want to ask about your website. One, so, okay, you have client stories, so I guess those are like case study type things. About me. All of these things, quite usual. But then we have working process, FAQs guide costs, under this tab called useful, as I look at it here in 2020. So have you always had those things on there? If not like when did you add them? What was the thing behind that? Working process and guide costs, in particular, have they made a difference as well? I was just intrigued because there's often that thing about should I put my costs on my website?
Christian Tait: That was actually one of the last things to go on there. I created it as a page and then it was kind of unpublished for probably about six months. It was sitting there kind of waving at me going, "Come on, come on, you need to publish me." Because I'd had the idea of trying to put, maybe, packages on there that a lot of designers have. It's like, "Oh, get a logo and business cards and a letterhead for X amount." And I always really struggled with that because I find it really difficult to try and tie down what any costs should be. So that's why I state them as guide costs. It's kind of, it could be this, kind of thing. But it kind of stops that awful question designers get, where people phone you up go, "How much for a logo, mate?" And you're like, "Aah." So I just kind of point them to that and say, "Look, these are guide costs, but you may require something a bit more bespoke. Let's have a chat," kind of thing.
Steve Folland: You mentioned the fact that you don't want to grow a team and stuff like that, but do you collaborate? Is it just you or do you ever hire other people?
Christian Tait: So I work with a freelance web developer, quite a lot, WordPress developer. So we worked together on clients' websites, So I'll do the design, he'll coma and do the build side because I'm not confident as a website person to build it for clients. I've built a couple of small Squarespace sites for clients, but I kind of assess the complexity of it and then think, "Right, this is a proper WordPress job. Let's work with Andy on it." Yeah. So I collaborate with him, collaborate with copywriters. I would collaborate with photographers if clients ever had enough budget for photography, but I'm not bitter about it. Yeah. So actually my lovely wife downstairs, she is an illustrator. And it was always a running joke that we'd never collaborated together. So I've been running this business for seven years and she's run her business for longer than that. So it's kind of a running joke. People always say, "Oh, well so you must collaborate together all the time." And we'd be like "Nope. Not yet." But then actually this past year, we've collaborated on a couple of jobs actually. So yeah, that has changed. So that's been quite nice, actually.
Steve Folland: Interesting. What's your setup? Are you both working from home? Or do you go to an office? Like what's your...?
Christian Tait: Yeah. Both from home. So I used to rent a desk in a coworking space. So I used to rent a desk, cycle into town which was only a 20-minute bike ride or something, and she used to work at home. There wasn't enough room for us to both work at home at that point. But then we moved house a couple of years ago. Managed to get a bigger house. So we've got a dedicated office downstairs. Yeah. So we both sit in there and do our work. But I don't think she was happy to start with to be honest. Because she had she'd had quite a number of years of just work on her own at home and she quite liked her own company. She's lovely. I don't want to paint her as miserable sort of loner.
Steve Folland: No, I get it. Yeah. You've had 10 years of working in your own space at home and suddenly your husband walks up.
Christian Tait: Yeah. So, so I rock up and I'm kind of like, "Hey roomy, The look on her face was like, "Okay, well we'll try this and see if it works." Because there was actually another spare room across the hallway. It's not Buckingham palace or anything. And I was like, "Well, okay, if it doesn't work out, I can move over into that other room." But we have that as like the kids Den kind of thing. But yeah, it's worked out. We haven't fallen out, still married. It works fine. I mean, I found it a struggle though, to be honest. Because I missed the commute and the going out and seeing other people, because there would be other people at the coworking space obviously. So I do miss that sometimes. So I have to really force myself out. I mean we're in a different situation at the moment, but I really have to force myself out every day to go out and go for a walk or go into town just to buy some bit of nonsense that I don't need just for the sake of getting out of the house. Yeah. I find it difficult, but I think after two years we've settled into it now.
Steve Folland: Do you tend to work office hours?
Christian Tait: I do. I'm quite a stickler for that actually. I mean ordinarily, the kids leave for school about eight o'clock in the morning. So they walk to school. There's no school run because they just take themselves off now. Steve Folland: How old are they now?
Christian Tait: 12 and 14.
Steve Folland: Right.
Christian Tait: So they just they disappear off, walk themselves to school ordinarily. And so I can sit down at a desk at eight o'clock, quarter past eight, get on with some admin and stuff. So I'll start then, but I'm better in the mornings. You know, people have different times of day that they work better. So I'm pretty good in the mornings. But then by about half three, four o'clock I'm dead. I'm kind of like, "I could quite easily finish now..." But I do battle through till five, six maybe. But I try and do all the complicated stuff in morning and then do other stuff in the afternoon, basically. (Cat keeps miaowing in background) So you got a cat?
Steve Folland: The noisy cat has turned up demanding I ask a question about whether or not you have any pets. It's not relevant. Do you have any pets?
Christian Tait: Two Guinea pigs.
Steve Folland: (To cat) No, you can't eat them.
Christian Tait: So, but no, I'm quite a stickler for just doing a workday. I mean it's never nine to five. You have to do stuff sometimes at the weekends, but I desperately try not to because I value the time with the kids and then hobbies and stuff too much really.
Steve Folland: So don't you do something different with your Fridays?
Christian Tait: Yes, So this started about a year or so ago. So I volunteer at a local nature reserve. So every Friday I go out there and help the horticulture and grounds maintenance team, just doing stuff outdoors. So it's basically seven hours of being outdoors, clearing, tidying up, trimming, pruning, cutting trees down, getting covered in mud and driving tractors around sometimes as well, which is cool.
Steve Folland: And you do that every Friday?
Christian Tait: Yeah I did. Steve Folland: Until the whole lockdown thing happened?
Christian Tait: Yeah. So how that started... So about two years ago I did a course, it was a part-time course in environment and countryside management.
Steve Folland: Just for the hell of it?
Christian Tait: Well this is tricky because I don't know if clients are going to listen to this, but basically I wanted to come up with a plan B, if you like. So obviously, graphic design at the moment, brilliant, lovely, enjoy it, it's great. But I am becoming of a certain age in about two years time. So I thought to myself, "Look, I can't imagine myself doing graphic design still when I'm, I don't know, mid-50s, 60s, that kind of thing." But if I'm going to have to work still till I'm 65 or more, and even more now probably, I kind of thought, "I want there to be a something else that I can do." So I hit upon this idea of kind of working outdoors. Ranger, countryside management kind of stuff.
Steve Folland: Cool.
Christian Tait: So I thought, "Right." So I did lots of research with the National Trust and places like that. And basically the minimum qualification that they require is a level two in some appropriate, relevant topics. I found this level two at this college in Bristol. So as part of the course, I had to do 150 hours of volunteering in something relevant. So I thought, "Well, the quickest way to do the 150 hours is to just dedicate a day a week to it. And then that's seven hours a week." So I started that one November and then by about June the next year I'd done 150 hours. So I thought to myself, "Oh, okay. I can knock that on the head now." And then the thought of not going there every Friday and playing on tractors was devastating. So I just thought, "I'm just going to keep doing it. Because it's really enjoyable."
Christian Tait: And it works really well as a mindfulness kind of day. You know, if you've had a really stressful week sitting in front of the computer all day, every day, Monday to Thursday. So it's the day of the week that I look forward to. I think, "Right. I can just go out and spend seven hours outdoors." And there's an element of teamwork there as well. So I'm working with other people, which is good because they've got a large collection of birds there. So you might get to help feed the swans and stuff and there are flamingos wandering about. It's an amazing place. So yeah, mindfulness day and getting your hands dirty and driving tractors. It's just brilliant.
Steve Folland: I love this so much.
Christian Tait: And also, for a year I'd managed to do four days work a week and it didn't have an impact on income or that kind of thing. The income was pretty much about the same. I told all the clients, "So that's what I do every Friday." And they were like you are. Like, "Oh, that sounds brilliant. Yeah." Yeah. So it just worked out and I just couldn't bear to stop. The thought of stopping doing it. And my wife can tell you, I come home on a Friday covered in mud, literally from head to toe, sometimes if it's a wet wintry kind of day. But my face is kind of beaming. I love it. And also you come back and your whole body is aching because you've been shifting and lifting stuff and using quite heavy tools or that that kind of thing. And you come home and you physically ache, but you know that thing where it's like a really good ache, it's a positive ache.
Steve Folland: Yeah. well I say, yeah. But no, because I don't do it. I see what you mean.
Christian Tait: That thing where you've been out in the garden and you've dug a hole.
Christian Tait: So yeah. So I love it. So so I'm going to still try and progress, still try and do that.
Steve Folland: Good for you. Now, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Christian Tait: I would say to get on with it sooner than I did. Because I kind dallied around by going freelance a couple of times and then getting sucked back into a full-time job. And I didn't start this business till 2013. So I was 40 in 2012. So it took it took that amount of time. And I'm not bothered about age because I look quite young. But now that I'm doing it, I wish I'd done it, I don't know, five, 10 years earlier or something. So I'd say if you're even slightly contemplating doing it, then do it.
Steve Folland: Thank you, Christian. Thank you so much and all the best being freelance.
Christian Tait: Thank you, Steve. Good to talk to you.