We were lucky to catch up with Bitsy McCann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Bitsy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My first year of business, I only billed $12,000. After expenses, it was like I hadn’t invoiced anything at all. By year three, I was up to $50K, and by year seven, I was over $100K. I am now entering a decade of solopreneurship that consistently supports my life and my family. It’s wild to look back at where I started and see how far I have come – especially as a freelance designer in Pennsylvania.

In the beginning, I didn’t have a single clue about how to run a business, how to get clients, or how to market myself. I didn’t even have a website. And somehow, I was able to keep getting clients. It was a slow process, that’s for sure, but I kept growing.

For every meeting I went to, I took about a hundred print samples so I could showcase my work. Potential clients would leaf through everything while we talked about their upcoming project. I can safely say that those first several years, I booked almost every client I met with. My pricing was wildly low, I was wildly friendly, and my portfolio was wildly diverse.

After a few years, the imposter syndrome finally started to fade, I raised my rates, and I began to feel legitimately confident in my abilities as a branding, print, and publication designer. I am a tenacious self-learner. I would continuously take on projects I’d never done before, and I would research each concept endlessly to ensure I was producing my best work. When a client came to me to ask if I could build a website, I said, “I don’t know how to, but I bet I can figure it out.”

Nowadays, I am mostly creating UI/UX websites, developing brands for small and mid-sized businesses, and trying to make each and every one of my clients look like a national brand. I have designed projects for entrepreneurs all over the country, and I feel so lucky and so grateful every day that my work helps my clients find success.

Over the past decade, there are so many things I wish I would have known in advance, but it wouldn’t have helped anyway. I am the kind of human who has to learn lessons first-hand.

Lessons I’ve Learned:

1. Have a contract. Get a law-talking colleague to look it over. Make sure that you and your clients are protected. Make sure it gets signed before work begins. Every. Single. Time.

2. Get that deposit before you start on anything, and do not release any work without final payment. Do not spend any time doing work until you have the money in your account.

3. Your friends and family are never your target market, so do not begin any business venture with an expectation that they will support you. It is not their job to make sure you’re successful.

4. Do not take business personally. Business is business. Whether it’s time, cost, fit, or something else, there are a lot of reasons someone might not move forward, and there are a lot of reasons why someone else will. When people say no, they are saying no to a working partnership, not to you personally.

5. Pair #3 and #4. Do not make it weird for your family or friends.

6. Form partnerships, not rivalries. It’s wild how much you can grow your business through partnerships with peers and colleagues.

7. Do things you’ve never done before. Just be honest with your clients about it.

8. Do not convince someone to work with you. Show them what you can do. Tell them your price. Let them decide.

My path to success was absolutely forming connections with people in my immediate area, doing good work, and providing a positive experience. From there, my business grew by word of mouth. I am still, ten years later, a “by referral only” business. I do not want to work with strangers from the internet. I want people to come to me because they have heard of me, know my work, know my pricing, and know how I operate.

I do not talk people into working with me, and I thankfully learned that early on. You either like my work, or you don’t. You either like my price, or you don’t. Since business is business, I am not upset when people walk away. It frees me up to work with people that are passionate about my creative.

Bitsy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my business by accident in a way. I was head hunted by a financial firm to do their marketing, design, and events. Within four months, they let me go. I was devastated. I’d never been let go from a job before. My partner encouraged me to start my own graphic design business, and I did! I began as strictly a print designer, but over time, I expanded my services to include UI/UX web design with an SEO-focus, logos, branding, digital design, and email marketing. Nothing I create is template-based. I truly do feel that I am an artist, so to use a template would be just “doing a job” rather than creating art. None of my designs look the same, and all of my clients have completely unique brands. It’s imperative for my soul, but it’s also imperative for their business. You can’t stand apart from your competition unless you look different than them. I make sure my clients do.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I am always, always positive. I smile constantly. I love to laugh, meet new people, and make friends. If someone mentions my name, they almost always mention my overwhelming happiness. I’ve had people not use me for work, but recommend me out to other people just because they enjoyed how I engaged with them. Positivity aside (though that’s my biggest reputation marker without a doubt), I wear super colorful clothing, gigantic earrings, and weird, oversized glasses. I look like an artist rather than a stereotypical professional. It’s not every day you see a business owner in an A-line tulle skirt.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I love my work, and at the end of the day, my mission is to just make enough money to support my family. We don’t need to live extravagantly (minus our grass-fed organic meats), but I do love that we can travel to visit family whenever we want. My long-term goal is to keep this business going until I retire. Based on where I used to be and how far I’ve come, I think it’s absolutely possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: bitsyplusdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitsymccann/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BitsyPlusDesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bitsymccann/