5 Must-Have Tools For Design Companies

5 Must-Have Tools For Design Companies

The majority of graphic designers will eventually get to the point where they want to set out on their own and start a company. Working for yourself, forming a team and choosing your clients has a huge appeal for most of us. When that time comes for you, you need to be equipped with the tools and resources to make your life easier and ensure your venture is a success.

As I am sure you have heard before, starting a business hard at the best of times. If you are strapped for cash, the early phases are often the hardest, which is why you need to ensure that you have all the right tools to succeed when starting up your business on a budget.

Here are 5 tools and services that will allow you to build a successful design company.

SalesHandy

Email marketing has been one of my favourite ways of driving sales and increasing the LTV of my clients. SalesHandy offers an intuitive email marketing platform with easy-to-use email templates for Gmail. It also allows you to get clear oversight of your campaigns with detailed and helpful analytics. What makes SalesHandy unique is that you can schedule your emails to be sent at times with the highest open rates optimized for specific time zones.

MockPlus

Mockplus is a must have for every designer out there. It allows you to quickly turn your visions into functional prototypes with their easy-to-use prototyping tool while bringing in designers, and product managers to collaborate efficiently. MockPlus is trusted by over one million users and world renowned brands like Microsoft, Ubisoft, HP and Oracle. That is a pretty impressive resume and you can get started completely free. Check it out today!

GraphicMania

GraphicMania is a great source for improving and expanding your skills as a graphic designer. Their design tutorials contain valuable lessons for all of our favorite tools including Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. The blog section of the site also offers tons of valuable articles, design inspiration for your next project and freebies. Bookmark this website to stay up-to-date on the latest in design.

ImageCropper

I have spent a lot of time in Adobe Photoshop cropping images for web design clients. Too many times there are images perfect for a site but are rendered useless because of their dimensions or colored backgrounds. Luckily, GraphicMania offers an image cropper tool that simplifies and speeds up that process. You simply upload any image you are working with and crop the image to the dimensions you need. While Photoshop is a tool that can achieve all that, I find it a long and tedious process, so save yourself the time and use tools like this to make your life easier.

Dribbble

Dribbble is a platform that allows the world’s best designers to show off their work and create a portfolio online. Not only is it a great place to show off your portfolio and get feedback from other designers, it is also my go-to site to gather ideas for my projects. The quality of designs is outstanding and there design samples for almost anything. You can search by color, layout, style and industry.

Conclusion

Starting a business is hard, in fact it is the most challenging thing I have done in my professional career and it will take perseverance to make it through the tough times. Entrepreneurship has been a roller coaster ride for me and many others, so when tough times are on the horizon for you and your venture, always remember the wise words of Mary Anne Radmacher “Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'”

Thanks for reading and good luck!