Bite me Pt.1 — How to take the leap and sort of set up a graphic design venture
By: Max Lilley
Tags: Graphic Design, Saving Money, Life Lessons, Self Employment, Design Process

Well, I guess this is it then. A venture that has begun quite well really (and currently still is for the time being) but no doubt will descend into madness and lots of ‘Why did I think this was a good idea?!’ statements.

Like the legend that is Dave Buonaguidi once said “If you are thinking about running a company or starting your own business… To get through it, you will have to be prepared to [among other things]: Piss off your partner/family/friends on a regular basis, do a lot of worrying everywhere, think about work everywhere, question your sanity often, start smoking again, drink vodka in the morning and travel down to south London to punch dogs up the arse”. (You can see the full post on his instagram @therealhackneydave)

With this being said I think I am fully prepared to experience these scenarios and more if it means I can have a crack at building something I can look back on when I’m old and stinky and say ‘Yeah that was alright, that’.

Let me start at the beginning. My name is Max Lilley. I’ve recently moved to a place called Lindridge in Worcestershire in the UK — look it up if you want, it’s in the middle of nowhere — to set up a graphic design agency because I had a little feeling I might not be completely shite at it.

This feeling was only made possible by my lifelong friends Remi and Dani Harris who are extremely talented in their own rights. Their business is called www.yardbirdarts.com. Look it up!

During an annual end of year visit to theirs in 2018 they mentioned that an apartment would be opening up on the countryside property they also live on and would I potentially be interested. Now my first thought was ‘No chance, I’ll need a job and I’m not sure about living all the way out in middle earth’ but thinking about how much it would cost (luckily a LOT less than any flat in any number of cities I’ve lived in) and the potential of not needing a job if I saved up enough cash over the next 12 months, swung me round.

This 12 month window would also afford me the luxury of doing the research and planning into how to get set up as a lone graphic design do-er. I’ll talk about a lot of what I’ve learnt in upcoming blog posts if anyone is bothered so stay locked!

Once pushing through the 12 months of saving and researching, I am finally here. As a side note, if anyone is thinking of doing the same thing and taking the leap into self-employment, I found the best way to save money was to:

1. Stick a chunk in an account as soon as I was paid.

2. Resist as hard as I could to not spend what was remaining on anything I didn’t need i.e clothes and other shit.

That’s it, it genuinely works. Even for someone like me who enjoys spending cash like he’s in the rock and roll hall of fame.

Now I’ve landed in the countryside, I am extremely lucky to live in such an amazing environment. There’s views in just about every other direction and going for walks to get some air is not a problem!

Check this monumental gaff out -

That’s about as far as I’ve got, but for now I’m looking forward to living and learning, serving my current clients as well as finding new client relationships and businesses I can help succeed with the power of good design.

This Purple Ronnie cartoon sums it all up pretty well -

Zen Dog by Purple Ronnie

If you’ve got this far, big ups for reading my initial grammatically incorrect ramblings, there will be additional nonsense to come. And I promise it will be mostly related to design and getting the business off the ground…mostly.

And If you would like to get in contact with me, I would genuinely love to talk about any goals you may have for you and your business or any other thing on your mind so please feel free to get in touch.

Much love!

Max

I also want to also say a huge thank you to Mr. Robin Salmon who’s generosity in letting me live within his property is extremely appreciated!