When I’m shopping for something, discounts can play a big role in what I wind up purchasing. Whether I’m looking for a host for my website or a graphic designer to put that website together, I’m more likely to choose an option that offers me a discounted price. I’m not the only one who makes purchasing decisions that way, either: depending on your clientele, you’re likely to pick up at least a few new clients with a discount.

Discounts and sales offer motivation for potential customers to buy now: if they want to take advantage of the deal, it’s necessary to act immediately. You can also use discounts to motivate your customers to do all sorts of things, like pay early or try out new services that you’re offering. The right discount can help bring in more money from new projects, if you take a long-term view.

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For many freelance designers, an extra buck here and there would be a welcome sight. Unfortunately, many freelancers are currently experiencing just the opposite. I’d like to share a technique that can help you create additional income opportunities through recycling old work. For the purpose of demonstration, I will be talking about turning unused logo concepts into cash, but with a little imagination, this same technique could just as easily be applied to almost any other design medium.

If you are a graphic designer, you have probably designed quite a few logos for clients that included presenting multiple initial concepts. What happened to all of those concepts? Some designers may get a little bit of mileage out of their unused concepts by including them in their portfolio for self-promotion, but generally speaking, most unused concepts go to waste.

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Photo by yorkd.

A few years ago, I did a couple of projects under the table for a local company. They paid me in cash, with a quiet understanding that they didn’t plan to issue me a 1099 and I didn’t plan on declaring that income.

I don’t work that way anymore, but I know the appeal. There are a lot of negatives to such an arrangement — which led me to make sure my income taxes actually reflect my income — and it’s worth giving them some consideration before going one way or the other for cash-only arrangements.

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