With stupid luck and a little creativity

One of the most valuable things I ever taught myself was how to use photoshop. As a bored teenager, who was a bit of a loser in high school, I remember starting out in Paint and begging my parents to buy me Photoshop for Christmas.

When I started working in marketing, that basic knowledge of Photoshop came in handy more often than not, because I could fix things. I could edit images and create banners, and design the template for the company website at the snap of my fingers, so to speak. No one else at the company had those skills. Six years ago, I met a woman named Stacy. The woman eventually became one of my best friends.

She is one of the people everyone knows and loves. She is just one of those people you want to keep in your life and she is very well connected in both business and personal life.

Stacy knew that in this work I was working on, I was lifting weights for her boss and her boss. She also said that I understood graphic design, but I wasn't a graphic designer, so I have the space to enter the market and can charge more people than I make at work, but more than a graphic designer. I knew there were few. Fees (because graphic designers had an academic background and the ability to charge higher fees). When I quit the job, Stacey started to introduce her friend who runs a small business and needs someone to help create signs, menus, websites, and more.

It started out as a side hustle, spent the nights and weekends helping her mother treat her cancer, and grew bigger than I had imagined.

Over the last few years, I've grown from a small project with a well-defined endpoint to a large business project in progress, spreading throughout Canada through word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth.

I haven't been looking for a design client after 3 years.

I'm not a graphic designer, I'm someone who understands the basic principles of design. I explain this clearly to those who approach me, and if they still want my support, I design their project for them.

Over the years, we've done everything from restaurant menus to signboard and website design to the 20-foot statue on permanent display in the City Hall. Best of all, I did everything from the couch. I have never met a customer in person. I meet them on Zoom, complete their project while watching Netflix, and they check in and send me electronically or by email.

It's been almost a year since we accepted a new client, as we currently have two clients paying $ 1,500 per month for an ongoing project (magazine and book design). I wanted my friends and family to be interested in studying graphic design. So far, no one has responded to my desire to learn enough about useful designs. But many of them complain about how I can make so much money for something I'm not trained on.

A couple of prospects send me emails every month, but I have to decline because I don't have enough time. I got acquainted with a graphic designer so that I could give advice when someone contacted me. 100% of the people who contact me do so by word of mouth. 90% of the people who contact me are small businesses with less than 10 employees and simply don't have the internal resources of a design project.

Obviously there is a market and there is a need for unmet design services and I can't help them all.

SMEs are at the heart of society, and over the last few years it has become clear that they need help. Affordable help. That said, I'm well aware that this opportunity was brought to me by stupid luck and a little creativity. This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't taught myself Photoshop as a boring teenager. If I hadn't met Stacy, this wouldn't have happened. In a sense, she is an agent.

This whole experience has taught me that learning skills can be very valuable, not just the knowledge gained. Thanks to boredom and a little luck, I'm earning a stable income from a part-time job where I can see Netflix, and I have a lot of books on cover designs at home. How cool is it?