Q&A with George Moussa

1. What does your business do?
I do logos, interactive stuff, brochures and ads. Corporate identities and logos are our specialties, though. I’d say the majority of our work is logos, maybe 65%-70%. Often I get other work as a result of that. Often I move on stationery, signage and websites. There’s an order you have to do these things in to maintain consistency in a business’s identity.

The good thing about my business is that I do everything myself, and so my overheads are lower. Also, I have 22 years of experience in the industry, so a customer will get better quality work when they commission me to design their business logo than they would if they were to go to a big design company where juniors end up doing all the smaller work.

2. On how many jobs have you quoted?
I’ve quoted approximately 560, judging from the pages on my profile.

3. How many customers have you won?
I’ve won 80 to 85 jobs, and as I said, often winning one bit of work leads to other work. 

4. Is ServiceSeeking.com.au successful in winning your work?
Yeah, it’s been successful; I don’t really use other forms of marketing. The work has ranged in value from $79 to $249 and that’s really determined by competition. My overheads are generally lower than those of other design businesses. The work is on average, around $100. I’m always pretty careful to choose the jobs that I can do. For example, I’m not a website programmer, so I stay away from those jobs.

5. What other types of marketing does your business do?
I don’t do any other marketing really. I have a website, but I don’t pay for any Google ads.

6. How do they compare to ServiceSeeking.com.au?
I think that most of the hits I get on my website are from ServiceSeeking.com.au or other sites where I’ve got links to the website rather than directly from Google searches. There are also design sites that don’t ask you for a specific monetary value when you place a quote. Instead, they ask you to submit the design. They sometimes have some really big businesses advertising work on these sites, but it’s so time-consuming doing the whole design when you don’t know whether you’re going to win the work. Ultimately, it’s just not worth it.

7. Any tips for new businesses?
I think you have to realise that the customers looking to get design work done through ServiceSeeking.com.au are usually smaller businesses that don’t want to go to big advertising agencies. So you mainly get tradies, small businesses and sometimes retail outlets in the country. It’s a particular niche market, and so you have to adapt your quotes for this kind of market. You have to provide the work quickly and efficiently and at a good price because this is what those businesses are after; they don’t have the big budgets of the businesses that go to big advertising agencies.

I think it’s also important to get experience. I can run my business efficiently and provide good value quotes because I have 22 years of experience. Because I do everything myself, I have lower overheads so I can pass the savings on to the customer. Also, it’s important to get some experience in the field before you go out on your own. I’d say you need five years in a full-time capacity for a company before you think about working for yourself as a designer.

There’s so much you need to learn in the design field; it’s not just about opening up “Paint” and whipping up any old thing. You need to get to know the different kinds of software and learn the different software tips.