Designer Boss
Designer Boss
The ins & outs of changing your design biz niché
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0:04
Welcome to the designer boss podcast, listen, learn, love and level up with the ultimate success guide for web and graphic designers.
0:17
My name is Anna Dower. I'm a cake lover and success-slaying graphic design mentor.
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And I'm Emma Kate, your personal sensei for mastering the wonderful world of the Web.
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Together, we'll show you how to harness our tried and tested experiences and hard-earned lessons while you soak up everything we know about building a successful design business.
0:47
Hi, everyone, thanks for joining us for another episode of the Designer Boss Podcast. Today Anna and I are answering a question that was posed to us by the lovely Rowena pretty on how to make a change to a new niche. That's a big change to what you already do. And I think if you know, if you've been freelancing for a bit of time, or even if you've just started something that's it's probably going to come up as you work through your business as the years go on, you will probably want to change your niche. And so how to best approach that and I know, this is something that I have done a few times throughout my career and I'm I know you've done it as well. And so do you want to start us out with your first tip?
1:32
Yeah, and like you said, um, it's, I think you need to just know that your business is going to morph and change over time. Like, don't fight it, it's okay. But before you do make that really be a niche change, it is important to ask yourself, Is this something that I'm going to be 100% committed to before you do it, because I know as a designer, it's like, really fun to design a new brand, just for fun. And then when it comes to actually like working in that niche, you may not love it, you may regret it. So really, really think about it before you make the leap. Because it's going to be a lot of work. And it's going to be a big commitment. Now, Rowena, I know that you're pretty committed to changing your niche. And I know that you've probably put the thought into it, I think when you're changing your niche, you need to make sure that you have dabbled in the new niche before, as in taking jobs for those kinds of clients, those kinds of projects, and know that you're good at it. And that's what you want to do more of, in my business, I made a huge change going from graphic designer to mentor. And I know it's a transition that took me maybe one to two years like it wasn't an overnight thing. And the way I did it was I continued my design business, and then had a separate website, and business for my new niche and slowly moved towards that new website and niche. And I think that's what you need to keep in mind that it's going to be a slow process. And it's going to be something that you work towards over an amount of time.
3:26
Definitely. And I think that's something that I'm actually probably at the end of the process of at the moment, I did a similar thing, obviously, going from designer web designer to being a mentor, and having any courses and stuff. And initially, when I wanted to make that change. When I decided to make that change a couple years ago, I was like oh, do I really need to create a new brand for this new niche, can I just have it all under all our websites and kind of just like change that up a little bit and have both sort of branches. And I really thought about it because over the years I have rebranded myself, I haven't necessarily changed a niche too much. I just kind of wanted to like rebrand a little bit and change my business name and stuff. And that is just such a process like changing all the things and you know, all the tech and all that kind of stuff is just a huge process. So figuring out whether you actually have to fully rebran, change your business name in order to change your niche, maybe what you've currently got kind of still fits that niche and you can just kind of make the swap in your obviously your wording and the services you're offering and the you know, the language and stuff like that. So yeah, really having a think about that. And, you know, I wrote down something here like what would you advise a client to do if a client came to you with this same predicament? Would you look at their brand and then advise you know, what would you actually advise them to do as the professional that you are?So, thinking of that, I think is is really important. Don't just do it willy nilly like, and like Anna said really think about, is this something you really want to do and then do you have to rebrand in order to change your niche.
5:13
And when it comes to rebranding, treated like you're the client, I know, as designers, we tend to think, oh, I can just miss a bunch of those steps that I usually do with clients, because this is what I do for a living. But that's wrong. You there's a reason why those foundational steps exist, do them for your own brand. And make sure if you are rebranding for your new niche, it's crystal clear who you are, who you work with, and how you do it. It's really, really important. And designing for yourself can often be a freakin nightmare. Because we turn into those tortured artists hate everything we designed for ourselves. But if you do the foundations and go through the steps that you do for clients, it'll become easier. And that's why I often think if you're moving to a new niche, it's easier just to create a whole new brand, and website and business name for that new niche, and then slowly move towards it. If you're keeping your existing branding and business name, it's gonna be a whole different process. Like, you're gonna have to do it slowly over time. And you're gonna have to explain it to your existing clients that a change is coming, direction is changing. And then it's up to you to decide which client to keep and which ones you ditch. So yeah, when you're branding yourself, remember to do it properly, the way that you do it for clients.
6:51
Yeah. And I think, even though it could be seem like overkill to begin with, it's gonna be something that pays off in the long run if you do it the right way. And no, no, I definitely haven't done it the right way in the past, and then it's sort of playing a bit of catch up later on. So
7:09
absolutely. just choosing your font, because it's pretty choosing colors, because like, that's like the latest trend that will not last that's that will not give you a timeless brand.
7:23
Yeah, definitely. And I think I've had a few students come to do my be the boss course. And like, you know, they're building a website for themselves, but they don't actually have a really defined brand, or niche or whatever, or they kind of thought to do, but they want to change it. And I've actually recommended them to do your brand rehab costs quite a few times. As designers, we kind of know how to do it for ourselves, it is good to have some process some kind of like step-by-step, here's what you need to do and actually go and and do it for yourself rather than just winging it.
7:58
Yeah, totally.
8:00
Next on my list, I had some technical stuff, because I love all the techie stuff. But for me, over the years, I've actually changed my business name and my domain name in my web design business, I think three or four times. Thats a lot. I know, I don't recommend it, don't do it. But having done that, there are a lot of different things that you sort of need to think about like it chain, you know, you're going to be forwarding your traffic from your old website, your old domain to your new domain. And then there's emails or the emails you have set up from your old domain to your new domain, like what are you going to be doing there? Obviously, ideally, like when Anna said, you know, if you start at a sort of new website over here, a new brand over here and you do that transition over a couple of years, then you don't really need to be doing all those forwarders and stuff, you're still going to have to lots thing or two domains to websites to lots of email addresses all set up. But if you are planning on not not going to use brand number one anymore, and I just want to make this clean switch to brand number two, then there are a lot of those technical details that you will have to set up which you know, isn't too tricky. And it's you know, even if you don't want to do it yourself, if you're a bit of a technophobe, there are people out there that can do it for you fairly cheaply and set up all that techy stuff for you. But it is something to think about because you don't want people typing in your old website address or trying to send an email to your old email and then not getting through.
9:30
Yeah. And when you are making that big transition, it's really important to keep communicating with your current clients that this is happening. And to kind of build up a bit of excitement and suspense with the new launch. Like to give them sneak peeks do a countdown, talk about it as if it's like a really exciting change. That's part of the process as well. And yet Changing your niche is massive. I'm not a patient person at all. And I remember when I was going through the transition, I was like, I just wanted to be, I just want to be there now. But it is something that requires patience. And I'm on the other side now. And it's pretty good.
10:18
Yeah. I'm just coming out the other side. Now, I think it definitely is a long process. But really, if you're establishing at the beginning, that this is your end goal, and this is totally the niche you want to work with, then it's so worth it. Like it's so worth putting in the effort. And yeah, niching down changing your niche and potentially rebranding as well.
10:41
Yeah, it's like auto relief. When you get to the other side. It's like, Yeah, this is home. This is where everything is easiest for me. So it is worth it. Just have patience.
10:53
Yeah, definitely. Well, hopefully, that answers your question, Rowena and gives you a lot of confidence in changing your niche and rebranding and going down that path. I know. You're going to be so happy when you come out the other end. Thanks for joining us today, guys. We'll see you next time. Bye!
11:14
You've been listening to the designer boss podcast with Anna Dower and Emma Kate. If you'd like to learn more about us and our upcoming digital summit for graphic and web designers, head to our website designerboss.co