AMA ☞ Founder of a design studio based out of Bangalore

I took the safe way, and recommend this to everyone.

I had a stable job and started my agency on the side. This meant working very late into the night for months. Only once we had two retainer clients, did I feel safe enough to quit my job.

So sustenance wasn't really an issue.

Thanks for replying. It must've been hard to do a full time job with less sleep alongside this. How did you deal with burnouts?

I worked at a great startup before starting my studio. Most of the people who worked there ended up moving to much bigger companies. Most of them were happy to introduce me since they liked my work. That's how I got to work with large startups.

I have tried Upwork and Fiverr, but much later into my career. It was so late that I couldn't justify the time and effort that it would require to land a client there (you need testimonials/reviews to build a strong profile, might have to take on lesser paying jobs just to get those ratings).

If I had to start all over again, I would definitely give fiverr/upwork a proper shot. But it doesn't make sense today.

(Also, I read somewhere that platfoms like fiverr/upwork is a race to the bottom where clients filter based on lowest price. If that really is the truth, I don't want to compete there either)

Very cool I think this journey from building credibility to then going agency route makes most sense

1. I've never taken that course, however, some really good designers seem to endorse it. Might be good?
2. On-the-job experience beats most of the courses/traditional education. However, it's hard to find someone who will trust you at first, so taking a course might help you open doors. College in my opinion is good for the network you get out of it. So, before joining one, try and figure out where the alumni from the college are working right now. College might help get a job at "big" firms, which might filter candidates based on that.
3. Design is a painful job tbh. I doubt if any other profession sees so much failure (rejected concepts, hurtful feedback etc) so often. So just ask yourself if you really want to go through all of that? If you still want to learn, find out agencies who excel at what you want to do, and read through their case studies.
4. I own the studio, so don't really have a CTC

All answers were really excellent. Will forward most of it to nephews and nieces who want to go into design.

Point 4. CTC is essentially what is your net take home.

Haven't calculated tbh, but less than 15Cr

15Cr is the point I would stop calculating as well :p

I worked as a graphic designer at a startup before starting a studio. Even though I had a great boss and a stellar team, most "good" work would get outsourced to agencies even though we had the skillset to do it.

While I saw growth in terms of money working at another company, growth in terms of good projects was missing. That's why I decided to switch.

Hope this helps!

Great answer.
I have no questions here but I'm loving the answers you're providing here. Cheers! 🥂