“Making a customer’s day should be obligatory throughout every organization. Whether you mail swag to early users or add fun to the otherwise mundane, everything should have a personality that wins over users and, as a side effect, is more effective than any other kind of ‘traditional’ marketing.”

– Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit

Make Or Do Something You Love, And Give A Damn

There are plenty of creatives out there, doing what they love. If I look up graphic designers in my city, there’s probably hundreds, or thousands of them, doing exactly the same thing as I am. What truly makes one different, aside from your skills is your personality and care factor.

Like products, clients hire designers based on emotional connection; they hire someone they know they can trust to get the job done (well, unless they are hiring based on price, but that’s for another post).

You need to give a damn, and take the time to understand your client and their business. What are they trying to achieve? What are they like, and how has it influenced their business?

Take Time To Understand And Know Thy Client.

Understand and know who or what you are designing for, and know thy client. In this way, you will also be able to choose clients who are suitable to you and your style. Would you not want your clients to love your first product mockup or idea, or your first design? Accepted and no revisions, permission to proceed! On the other side, if you do not understand what your client wants, you will be spending more time redesigning or tweaking.

Well, this can only happen if you understand and know exactly what your client wants to achieve. And if you do, working is so much more fun and relaxed as well.

Go Further.

It is easy to just stick to your scope of work, but why not push yourself further and do something different for your clients? How do you make their life easier? Even if it’s just a reminder that Valentine’s Day is coming up and you can suggest some ideas before they do, or just ideas and suggestions on how you can do more to improve their business and systems. You never know, this could potentially lead to more business for you! If you’re designing a logo, why not provide a free Facebook cover and profile photo as well? To quote Alexis again, “Look for opportunities to delight people, even in the mundane.”

So have a principle of caring, and it will bring you further in your own business than you could dream of, and hopefully, will get your clients to also give a damn about you and help you grow!

Anyway, this video is worth the watch, Alexis shares how he built his startups from scratch. It gets a bit technical though 🙂