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freelance graphic designerAs a graphic designer, you’ve probably considered the many ways you can earn a living doing your creative work. The two most common routes for graphic designers are to join an office fulltime in a salaried position, or to work from home as a freelance graphic designer. Now at first glance, full-time work in an office may seem like a more attractive option. But truth be told, a freelance graphic designer can actually make a lot more money working from home – especially if they decide to teach an online graphic design course through an online learning platform such as Udemy.

The Limits Of Working At An Office

When you work in an office environment, you will undoubtedly meet interesting people. Many people enjoy the camaraderie of working in an office space. That being said, there are important limits you must consider as a freelance graphic designer before you decide to join an organization with a full-time graphic design position.   First of all, as a freelance graphic designer you must note that when you only work for one company, your work will be very client-specific. As a freelance graphic designer, you typically have the ability to work with a number of clients on a vast array of projects. This allows you to stretch your creative capacities. When you work at an office for one client full-time, however, you’ll quickly see that you could be confining your own creative expression to a single brand. What’s more, your creativity will be limited by the vision of the boss that you are creating for. As a creative person, you want inspiring graphic design work that allows you to fully express your talents.   Secondly, when you work at one office for one client, your earnings are limited by the work you deliver for that client. Whether you work 40 or 60 hours a week, and whether you deliver 10 drafts or 40, you will still earn the same amount of money week after week. In a salaried role, you lose the incentive to deliver your best work. Many people with desk jobs do the minimum required to earn a paycheck, and that’s no way to improve your craft.

The Benefits Of Working From Home

On the other hand, working from home as a freelance graphic designer has a significant number of benefits. Before you decide to pursue working in an office environment, you should consider these benefits. First of all, as a creative person, you want to express yourself and stretch your professional capabilities. When you work as a freelance graphic designer, you aren’t limited to expressing the vision of one person or one company. Instead, you have wider creative range to tackle different projects that appeal to unique elements of your creative persona. One client may want a responsive website design. Another client may want logo and branding materials. When you work from home, you can stretch your talents by doing a wider variety of creative work.   What’s more, as a freelance graphic designer you will likely push yourself to deliver your best work on a regular basis. Because you are working for new clients over time, you will feel a desire to deliver your best work in order to “prove your worth”. Whereas in an office you may find yourself slacking off and providing less-than-stellar results, in your freelance role you will constantly be pushing your boundaries and delivering your best work.

Uncapping The Limit On Your Earnings

All that being said, perhaps the greatest argument in favor of working as a freelance graphic designer is your uncapped earning potential. When you work in a salaried position, you limit the amount of money you can earn to whatever your salary is. But when you work as a freelance graphic designer, you can accept as many projects as your calendar allows. That means that you can earn as much as you desire from an unlimited number of clients. Not to mention the income you can earn teaching graphic design, which I’ll get to shortly.   As a freelance graphic designer, your work deliverables are unlinked to time you spend in a cubicle. If a project only takes you four hours of work to deliver, then you can deliver it in four hours and get the next brief. On the other hand, in a cubicle environment, you could find yourself dragging your feet doing unchallenging work – with no incentive for working fast or delivering your highest quality designs.

The Earning Power Of Teaching Graphic Design

Most freelance graphic designers don’t even consider a significant potential income stream – teaching graphic design. If you are a professional graphic designer, with skills that include Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and more, then you most likely have expert level understanding of your craft. There are thousands of people actively looking to learn the various elements of graphic design – but don’t take my word for it.     The online learning platform Udemy has thousands of students eagerly looking for talented freelance graphic designers who can teach them the basics of good graphic design. What’s even more appealing is that when you create a video course on graphic design through Udemy, you are further uncapping your earning potential.   With Udemy, you create a course once. Then, whenever someone signs up to take your course, you earn money! That’s passive income that you can now earn directly related to your talents as a freelance graphic designer.

Become A Freelance Graphic Design Teacher With Udemy

At this point, you probably want to learn more about what it takes to become an instructor teaching graphic design with Udemy. I assure you that the process is simple and intuitive. Once you create your course, Udemy has tens of thousands of people that are already seeking courses just like the ones you offer! So you have a built-in steady influx of clients who are looking to pay you for your expertise.   Don’t wait another second. Sign up to become a graphic design instructor on Udemy, and start magnifying your earning potential today.

Page Last Updated: February 2020

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