I remember the first job at the first agency that I had ever worked for. After I graduated, we were working for a local restaurant. They were going through a branding phase as they were building their business up.

One of the benefits of being in school is it's easy to find a mentor. Often a school has these for you. We just call them teachers. Whether its a teacher, teacher assistant, or a student, there's always somebody invested in making you a better graphic designer. Once you switch out of school and into the real world, it's more difficult to find somebody who can do that.

One of the most exciting parts about working with a client is when they trust you to do a lot of things. If this is your business model, it's great because you might become that one stop shop for them. But in most cases, you don't want to be that one stop shop. And more often than not, you want to be your own boss and not someone else's employee.

When I was starting my freelance business, one of the most exciting things was spelling out my creative process. This mostly included what would happen once a client had signed with me and we got to the “fun part” of my job.

In the past, I've equated interviewing potential clients like dating. Unfortunately, as graphic designers, we don't have any Tinder apps for figuring out if we're going to be a good fit based on a swipe of a screen.

At some point it's bound to happen. You have a potential client that you're excited to work with and they love everything about you. Except your pricing.

Once upon a time, elevators moved slow enough that the people who got on them actually wanted to have a conversation with the others who were sharing the ride. At some point, somebody got crafty and coined the phrase “elevator statement” for the mythical time when the CEO of a large company would be standing next to you, eager to hear about who you were and what you did.

Unlike a lot of good stories, I started my freelance business, not because I wanted to move, but because I had to. Looking back, I have a few things that I would have done different. Things that would have made my first few years a little easier and set the business up better for success.

“Just one more thing.” When Steve Jobs mentioned those words, for the first time, we didn't know how they would change the world. Fast forward a few years, when your clients said it, you had a sense of dread that almost made you go running for the hills.

For many people, freelancing starts by juggling side work while maintaining a full time job. While it looks super easy, especially for those who share their process on Instagram, or Twitter, or Dribbble, you'll begin to quickly realize it's a lot of work to juggle.