You are an artist and designer. First thing to do is remember to design yourself, packaging is everything. Set yourself up as an an LLC or a DBA and join the Chamber of Commerce of your local city/county and talk up your services at meetings. Don’t just drop off cards, talk to people. Network with other designers, artists, writers, copywriters, photographers and web programmers that belong to the COC. You can team up with them on jobs. Network, network, network, or not work.

Join up local job clubs, find a mentor through the S.C.O.R.E. program, visit creative agencies, join local artist guilds.

Other thoughts

Don’t stop at graphics, do web graphics, push your cartoons, tell people you will do all of their marketing collateral, print, web, mobile and multimedia work. Tell them you can provide copywriters, programmers and photography as well. Don’t say no to any job. If someone wants a website and you don’t know how to do it, sub-contract it out to one of the guys you met at the COC, be the art director.

People will pay good money for good work; especially after they’ve been burned by the housewife who did a brochure in Microsoft Word for them and used the same clip art as their competitors.

You have to sell yourself and make people believe you will make their life better. Gain their trust, be a salesman – they aren’t purchasing your graphics or artistic skills, they are purchasing you. You exist to… A) make their life easier, B) increase their bottom line, C) keep their boss’s boss of their boss’s back, D) answer the question “What’s in it for me?”, E) Make them believe they will earn $10 for every $1 they pay you, and F) Promote you, the Brand, everyday.

Set up websites for your services, post ads on Americantowns.com, craigslist, set up a Facebook fan page, there are plenty of free services if you can’t afford the hosting fees. Create a website for caricatures, one for graphics, one for cartoons. Update your artwork on facebook, set up a fan page. You have a lot of old stuff; show something new, or hide the dates on your work. Set up a Zazzle store, CafePress, Red Bubble, ArtyBuzz Wix.com and Deviant art page.

I realize this may come off as a little harsh and cynical but I believe a cynic’s imperfect vision causes him to see things as they are and not as they should be.

More to come, stay tuned.