5 Advantages of Running a Graphic Design Franchise

If you’re a creative, technologically proficient person who’d love to start running your own business, you could find your place in a graphic design franchise. Franchising is an amazing way to discover professional freedom and flexibility at a lower level of risk, and in 2021, the graphic design sector is thriving.

49% of small to medium businesses rate graphic design as ‘very important’ to their overall success, with a further 31% rating it to be ‘moderately important’ [FinancesOnline], and the number of UK businesses employing graphic designers is on the rise. If you’d like to make a career change with a graphic design franchise, there’s never been a better time to take the plunge.

Why start a graphic design franchise in 2021?

As already mentioned, there’s plenty of demand for graphic designers right now, because graphic design is an extremely powerful, brand-elevating marketing tool. Beyond this demand, you might be wondering whether the career path is right for you. Whether you could build a thriving business in the sector and enjoy a successful professional life as a graphic design specialist. Research suggests that you’d be a good fit to become a graphic designer if you are:

• Creative
• Artistic
• Attentive to detail
• Technologically proficient
• A great verbal communicator
• An innovator
• A fast learner
• A lover of art, design and visual communications

You can further determine whether you’d like to start running a graphic design franchise by looking into the daily tasks of a graphic designer. Ask yourself: Would I like to spend each working day doing these things? Things like:

• Communicating with, negotiating with and presenting to clients
• Working out budgets and deadlines
• Generating creative ideas
• Producing rough drafts
• Preparing designs (often using specialist software)
• Keeping up with trends (aesthetic, software, etc.) in the graphic design industry

The 5 biggest advantages of running a graphic design franchise

There are so many reasons to start a graphic design franchise, but right now, these are the biggest advantages of doing so (outside of the evident and growing demand). If you’re on the fence about whether to invest in a graphic design company, these five advantages might well show you what you’ll miss if you don’t become a franchisee...

1. The industry is evolving and keeping pace with new technology

Historically, the graphic design industry has done an incredible job of keeping pace with new technological developments, incorporating them rather than ignoring them. Many graphic design specialists use complex software to complete their work, and will continue to do so in future, putting the sector in a great position to remain ahead of the curve. Here are just a few of the latest tech trends that are being incorporated into this robust, dynamic industry as we speak:

• Use of artificial intelligence with software like Adobe Sensei [Adobe Creative Cloud]
• Graphic designs created for use in fully immersive virtual reality
• Multi-sensory design that incorporates smell and sound through synesthesia

2. Low-cost investment options are available

Many graphic design franchise opportunities are remote, making them a cheaper investment on your end, especially in terms of ongoing costs and overheads. As you might have guessed, the cheaper the investment, the quicker your time to profit will be. Invest in a graphic design franchise network, and you could find yourself recouping that investment (and then some) in just a few years of hard work. 

For instance: The average cost of investing in a franchise, as of 2018, was around £50,000 [British Franchise Association], but an investment in estate agency board services franchise Agency Express costs a minimum of just £12,500, with a total investment cost of £24,500 and an expected revenue, after two years, of £40,000.

3. There’s a million different sub-sectors and niches in which to thrive

There is more than enough room to thrive in graphic design, since design companies can operate in many different sub-sectors. Agency Express, as we’ve already touched on, are an estate agency board services company. This specialism allows them to dominate the real estate sector of the market and hone their services, developing a real skill for the work that they’re regularly completing. Remember, as you’re assessing opportunities, that a niche can be the opposite of a limiting thing. It can be the exact thing that enables you to succeed.

Deciding on a niche isn’t always easy. The initial temptation is to go broad so that you’re not excluding potential customers. Unfortunately, that approach leads to what used to be dubbed “spray and pray” marketing - a term describing how irrelevant messages get sent to generic audiences in the hope that something will stick. The result when you try to sell to everyone is that you sell to no one.
- Caroline Castrillon, Forbes

4. You can attract customers from any industry

Similarly but oppositely to advantage three, this advantage means that your pool of customers is limitless. You shouldn’t be targeting anyone and everyone. As evidenced above, that won’t work. But you COULD target anyone, with the right marketing strategy and pivot. 

Start with a customer profile and a customer base, and expand out from this point with an understanding that businesses of all shapes and sizes have a need for graphic design. When you don’t need to rely on one singular industry to make your money, you’ll find your design franchise is much better equipped to survive unexpected events and recessions.

5. You’ll always have room to creatively express yourself 

Designers get to express their creativity on a regular basis—it’s the essence of the job! [...] While your clients’ needs will likely still keep some of your more extravagant creative impulses in check, it’s still satisfying to create something visually appealing and unique to you.
- Lauren Elrick, Rasmussen University

As a creative person, a job that inspires that part of your brain is a must. Even when working to a client’s brief, a franchisee in a graphic design company will always have the freedom to experiment, flexing those creative muscles and producing an end result that they’re proud of. Build a career that gives you room to express yourself with an investment in a graphic design business.

Become a franchisee in the graphic design industry today

This industry is wide, and full of investment opportunities that might be perfect for you. Make sure you do your research thoroughly, and look into the huge range of different options available under the umbrella of graphic design. Check out FASTSIGNS (a signage and digital communications franchise) and Minuteman Press (a marketing and design franchise).