Customer Reviews

The Designers Commonsense Business Book

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Starting a graphics business in this world of incredible technology, comfusing taxes, money management, and millions of OTHER graphic designers was simply daunting! I am not to record keeping type and this book gives you the forms and ideas that inspire you to do those things that will make you look professional, structure (bad word to artists! but my life and creativity changed dramatically when I employeed these methods!) your days so you have both the time and money (billing was one of my weak points! I could do the work but would forget to bill the clients...as you can imagine I was a favorite among entreprenures!) to do what you do best and most importantly, you will not be worring about what is around the bend because you actually KNOW! as you are doing it yourself.

I recommend this to all graphic professionals and wish you crash free days, wild abundant creativity and amazing success!, Li

This review is for the version I have, which was published in 1991. It's well-organized and easy-to-read. Be prepared to make several copies of the forms in the book. (Why not a CD-ROM included in the book so that you could just print them out from that? I hope they did that for the new edition.) The best chapter is 5: Work Smarter Not Harder, which takes you from First Client Meeting through writing a letter thnking the client for allowing you to work on the project! (Billing the client is the NEXT to last thing you do! ) I was wondering, though, if some of these chapters aren't out of order; for example, the above Ch. 5 could go after Ch. 8 Pounding the Pavement and before Ch. 9 Growing Your Business and Ch. 9 Planning Your Future. Also, Ch. 7 Who Hires Designers and Why could be the first or second chapter! So hopefully this new edition was a little better edited. Also, the 1991 version sold for $24.95 (got mine for $5 used!) so is the new, more expensive version worth it? Well, I guess that'll have to be for someone else to say!

This is a good book for if you are wanting to start your own business in design or if you are doing some freelance work. It covers such things as how to save money when you are getting started, contracts, and working with clients. Some of the material is dated, but nonetheless, it is still a good book for the designer who is wanting business information.