Picture this, little Lauren in her brown haired pigtails sitting at a table the perfect height for someone under 10 years of age, carefully selecting all of the coloured construction paper, stickers, glue, scissors, markers, and of course sparkles (!) that she could reach for.
It was clear at a young age that I thrived in creative environments and having the opportunity to express my creativity and artistic abilities whether that was through drawing pictures of my favourite moments, designing my own greeting cards to give to relatives, or creating paper banners and decorations for special occasions to put up around my parents’ house. Of course, over time the art projects I created became much more detailed and more mediums (asides from construction paper) were used.
Wearing Many Hats
As a part-time solopreneur running my business alongside a full-time career, there are many different hats that I wear or “departments” that I am responsible for in my small business – such as Client Relations, Creative Direction, Marketing, Finance, and Shipping to name a few - and many different skills and knowledge topics I need to know in order to run my small business – customer service, sales, audience building, software and technology, legal requirements and regulations, product development, and budgeting to name a few.
Learning the First of Many Key Skills
Customer service/client management, in my opinion, has continued to be the #1 key component to running a small business, because without clients you very likely do not have a business. Customer service was one of the first skills I learned when I entered the workforce in 2006 at my first job in a restaurant preparing food while engaging with a handful of customers to eventually moving up to be a server working with a largely diverse group of customers. The impact my first job and other similar sales/retail jobs I had that followed (in photography equipment stores, art galleries, and community centres), were helpful in building and improving the foundation of my skill set that would later benefit my small business.
The Start of University & My Small Business
The 2008-2009 school year was a big year for me. Not only did I begin my undergrad in Art & Art History that year in September, but I also started my small business in January (whoop whoop!) - back then named Lauren Baker Photo + Design. I originally chose to focus my business on photography and graphic design at the beginning stages of growing my business as these were the two art mediums I was very passionate about and had chosen to focus on throughout my undergrad (realistically, though, I had a hard time picking only one medium to move forward with because I loved them both so much).
Sharing My Passion & Experience With Others
At this point I had had the opportunity to explore several types of art mediums and work in jobs that combined my passion for the arts and customer service experience. Naturally, this resulted in me working at a few summer camps and in kids programs as a Camp Counsellor/Arts & Crafts Specialist where I had the opportunity to teach youth about art materials, photography compositions, colour theory, design elements, as well as, helping youth unleash their own creativity and originality.
In between going to school and working/teaching in various creative roles, I was experimenting with my art aesthetic, my products and service offerings, as well as, engaging with as many clients as possible on photo and/or design projects.
The Invite That Started It All
My interest in wedding invitations and stationery really began in 2010 when I was asked to design a custom wedding invitation for a relative. Compared to previous projects that I had done up to this point, this project was very out of the box for me. I have always enjoyed a challenge and found the entire wedding stationery process so fun. This invite was the reason I decided to started offering wedding stationery and day-of materials in my services.
A Virtual Presence
The day I launched my very first business website in 2010 was an exciting day as it was the beginning of growth towards where my design business is now. After this first big professional step in my business and over the next few years, I continued to grow and make improvements to my business - tweaking my website of course as I went. For me, growth took many shapes and sizes at this point, such as completing my undergrad degree, creating a business email, opening an Etsy Shop and making my first sale, starting an e-newsletter to build my audience, and starting a blog to help share my experience and expertise.
Exploring Canada
My move to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2014 with my now husband, Brendan, helped to encourage my creative process and ideas. I continued to experiment with product and service offerings, and unexpectedly, this move is ultimately what inspired my entire Canadian Collection of art prints, posters, and mugs in my Design Shop.
Changing Things Up
Eventually, in 2016 I had decided to rename my business to its current name, Lauren Baker Print & Design, and officially shift my focus to solely working on graphic design related products and services. This was due to my interest in design increasing substantially more than my interest in photography. How I was able to build my business and schedule clients also worked better for me from a design project perspective.
New New New
By 2019 I had started offering even more products and services including semi-custom wedding stationery collections, a [#1 customer favourite] Harry Potter inspired art print and mug, custom portrait illustrations, several new art prints, and pattern and illustration licensing. This particular year was also all about networking with other women-owned businesses here in Winnipeg through memberships and social media groups, enhancing my brand images through professional branding photography sessions, and starting to find ways to streamline my processes and expand my revenue streams.
The Covid Curveball
Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic throw a curveball to all small businesses in 2020 and 2021, but it provided an opportunity to hear more from my clients on their needs (everyone everywhere seemed to be improving their business and working on their “back burner” projects), adjust my products and services accordingly (i.e. I started offering logo design and more promotional material design), and shift my focus to new and different projects I may not have previously had time to work on (such as participating in styled shoots and speaking at/participating in panel talks).
Entrepreneur Tips
Some tips that I’ve learned along the way of my own entrepreneur journey include:
Go at your own pace: Do your own thing. There’s no list of requirements that say when you need to reach certain milestones in your business. Whether your growth milestones happen very quickly or are more spread out over a few years they are all equally exciting for your business!
What works for others won’t necessarily work well for you: Promote a unique overall business style and aesthetic that works for you and your personality - as opposed to just copying what you see others doing. Your uniqueness will draw the right people to what you do.
Find resources/providers that work for you: Business resources, to name a few examples, could include your website, email, newsletter, client management, shop, or educational webinars. There are tons of free and paid business resources/providers out there that work for a variety of budgets, skillsets, and even processes. Finding the right resources/providers for you can mean doing some trial and error to find the right match - and it is much easier to do lots of trial and error in the beginning stages of growing your business.
Grow your network: Expect this to take some time as not everyone will learn about your business at the same time. Start by sharing your business with your family and friends, and work towards joining entrepreneur memberships/groups, attending networking events, and even reaching out to big clients you’d love to work with so people can get to know you and your business.
Gradually add/adjust your offerings: Grow with your clients and your audience. Look at industry trends and listen to client/audience feedback on what types of products and services they need. Don’t feel you need to add new things all at once as that can feel overwhelming both to you and your clients if you’re constantly making significant changes to your business offerings.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading about my creative journey as a freelance graphic designer! I hope you found my experience and entrepreneur tips helpful in your own business journey. If you have any questions or comments about this blog post, or would like to discuss the products and services that my design business offers, please feel free to reach out to me by either filling out my contact form or emailing me directly at hello@laurenbakerpd.ca!
Happy designing,
We're all about visuals over here, so we created this fun infographic for our creative journey:
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