Our recent DBA University graduate, Asia has booked $18K worth of brand & website design projects after enrolling in Design Biz Academy University at The Brief Collective. Here are some of the reasons she was able to achieve this so quickly.

1. Basic Business Foundation – Asia had already worked with a few clients and created her own website before joining Design Biz Academy University. This gave her a head start and she already taken the leap to full time self employment even though it was scary!

2. “just do it attitude” – When Coach Marisa first told her to charge a minimum of $8,000 on her upcoming project, she thought no one was going to pay that price! She nearly second-guessed charging that amount, fearing the client would walk away, but she stood her ground just in time. The “just do it” attitude landed her an $8K design project before even graduating our program.

3. Stopped Discounting – Before joining our program, Asia quoted a client $5K and they initially said it was “too expensive” but she didn’t discount her prices to fit their budget. This same client came back and booked at her desired price point a few weeks later during our program.

4. Invested In Herself – She told us that 2024 started off slow, and as imposter syndrome began to creep in, she felt stuck. But she knew the only way was up, so she invested in DBA, believing it was the key to turning her business around.

5. Committed fully to the DBA process – Asia did every assignment, showed up to every call, and committed to our program without question. She put in the work and continues to put in the work even after graduating.

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These are the type of results our students can get from our DBA University program. Since joining DBA Asia has booked two $5K clients and an $8K client resulting in a total return on investment of $18K.

That is more than 5x her original DBA investment. Remember, it takes a single high ticket client to make your investment back.

Many designers spend years trying to figure it all out on their own, but with DBA, you get a step-by-step plan handed to you, guiding you straight to your first high-ticket client within months. If you’re ready to get results like this in your design business, consider joining DBA University. And if you’re ready but need that final reassurance, you can schedule a 1:1 consultation with us by clicking here.

In the design industry, TBC sees a lot of designers struggle with talking about money and setting the right prices. Overcoming these challenges is so important not only for personal success but also for the industry as a whole. And it all comes down to one thing. Mindset. Here’s a simple guide for you to work on your mindset to help you raise your prices.

Recognize Your Value:

It’s crucial to recognise your own skills and creativity. This is something we encourage our students to do in DBA University. Knowing what you bring to the table is the first step in setting fair prices. Your work is probably more valuable than you think. 

Switch Your Thinking:

Instead of worrying about losing clients, focus on the many opportunities that come with charging based on the value you provide. This is quite simply, value based pricing. Raising your prices doesn’t limit your opportunities for clients, it just sets you up to avoid the red flag clients a little more. Coach Kenzi was recently a guest on Guidance Councelor Robin’s podcast about this topic. If you want to learn more about the difference between high ticket clients and low ticket clients, listen to the episode here. Setting higher prices sets a positive standard for the entire industry.

Talk About Money Clearly:

The reason you’re scared of money could be because you’re not talking about it. We’re taught that money is a taboo topic and shouldn’t be discussed unless it’s behind closed doors. Don’t be afraid to discuss your rates openly. Clearly explain the value you provide, and be transparent. This helps build trust with your clients and even potential clients, while making pricing discussions less uncomfortable for others too.

Know the Industry Standards:

Since not a lot of designers are discussing their rates, it’s difficult to conduct research to find what others in the industry charge. That’s why we created our TBC pricing guide for designers who are stuck on where to begin.

Showcase Your Work:

Probably a really crucial one for your mindset that probably gets overlooked. Building a strong portfolio that highlights your best projects not only attracts higher-paying clients but also gives you confidence in raising your prices.

Educate Your Clients:

Low prices are an issue across the entire design industry. You can’t expect clients to know everything about it. Help clients understand the value of your work. This can be done with attraction marketing which is something we teach all of our students in DBA University.

Raising your prices isn’t just about making more money for yourself; 

It’s about making the design industry stronger as a whole.

By working on your mindset and pricing strategies, you can help us build a more sustainable and respected creative community and break the starving artist mentality.

Embrace your value, talk about money openly, and set a standard that reflects the quality of your work.

Brand and web design go hand in hand. A cohesive brand identity can boost the effectiveness of web design, creating a seamless online experience. This post explores the untapped potential of integrating web design into your services to boost your business revenue

Building Your Skill Set

Expanding your skill set to offer both brand and web design elements can bring client opportunities from those who need a full brand makeover.

It’s important not to overwhelm your clients with a huge range of different services on your website. You want it look less like a menu and more like a professional elevated service offering. By integrating with design into your existing branding services, you can offer more value & allow you to raise your prices without adding an extra service to your existing offerings.

Meeting Demand

A lot of brand and web designers (including Coach Kenzi) don’t like working on websites that they haven’t built the brand identity for.

It can be harder to communicate the needs, especially if the web designer need something from the brand designer and vice versa.

By offering website design bundled with your existing brand design services, your meeting a demand for websites so you’re branding client doesn’t have to hire an external web designer.

This not only brings more revenue to your business as you are offering more, but it can bring higher client satisfaction. If a client needs any tweaks or changes to their brand or their website, they can come straight to you opening up more revenue opportunities later down the line for your business. Higher client satisfaction = more referrals/word-of-mouth marketing — which is extremely powerful

But what if I don’t want to offer web design?

If you are not ready to offer web design, or you feel it’s not something you’re interested in doing for a client, learning web design can still be beneficial for your business and bring more revenue in the long run.

Our Semester 5 DBA University Graduate & Guidance Counsellor Robin is open to learning website design but does not want to offer it in her services yet.

Robin will still be taking our DBA Tech Institute — a new web design course to learn how to build strategic websites. If you’re like Robin, and you feel like you don’t want to offer web design, having the knowledge of strategic website building can I help you build your website. Even if you’re not doing it for clients, you still have your own website that needs to be strategic and focus on the clients journey in order to attract more clients and ultimately make more money.

And it’s never a bad thing to have extra skills under your belt.

The world of design is filled with opportunities. You just have to be open to taking them on.

The key to earning more in your business is not always offering brand-new shiny services, sometimes it’s about integrating a new skill into the offerings that you already have.

That’s why we have built DBA Tech Institute. This is an interactive course for those who are looking to build strategic websites and it starts in January 2024. We are currently in rolling for our first ever semester, and we can’t wait to see some new faces as well as some of our previous DBA University students.

If you’re ready to boost your business revenue by offering strategic web design, click here to learn more about DBA Tech Institute

There are countless small businesses in rural towns that offer amazing products and services but aren’t reaching their full potential because they’ve never prioritized branding or marketing. As a lifelong Midwesterner in a rural community, I created Sweet Pea Designs to help those “hidden gems” shine brighter with innovative, captivating brand design, because they deserve access to quality work by someone who has firsthand experience with the unique challenges and rewards of living and doing business in a rural community.

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I love elevating brands and telling compelling, unique stories, so you feel confident that your brand will stand out from the crowd and attract new customers.

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T Day Design is based in southern New Hampshire and specializes in branding, web, and print design services for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

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Crafting intentional and tailor-made designs for the passionate CEO

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I help bold businesses drive sales and stand out in their niche by creating unique branding, website design, and marketing strategy. I cohost the Your Sparkly Brand podcast – a show aimed to inspire and empower women business owners through how-to content, mindset tips, and entrepreneurial stories.

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I create brands that purposefully connect with your ideal client

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I create feminine, sustainable brands that help companies attract their dream client. I incorporate my faith into my work and design beautiful brand identities that serve a purpose. My work is unique and instantly recognizable.

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