John McDavitt
McDavitt Design
www.mcdavittdesign.com
John McDavitt has owned and operated McDavitt Design, an artistic service business, for the past 13 years. Beginning with airbrushing t-shirts as a teenager and earning a substantial income in one month John decided that only running his own business would make him happy. Along the way John has created and designed murals for residences and businesses. He has been involved in designing, creating and operating a successful haunted attraction, The Asylum Experience. John has a variety of clients that he designs and renders new products and illustrations for including Thomas the Train, Felt Kids, Lamaz Toys, Wilton Industries, Badger Airbrush and others. Sculpture, illustration, product engineering and computer design are among his many services.', 'Starting My Business', 'Networking and Relating', 'From early struggles with his business through the present John will share the building of his company, McDavitt Design. Topics covered are cues for gaining clients, adding services, learning the business side of your business, artistic growth and dealing with various fears. Yes, the realities of owning your own creative business will be covered in great detail in this presentation!', 'Over the course of his career John McDavitt has been successful in developing and maintaining new and existing clients. Networking is the tool used to gain new business. It ranges from cold calling to referrals from existing clients. Relating is the ability to understand your clients' needs. The result of truly understanding and executing those needs is trust.
Session 1: How to Get and Maintain Clients
Getting a client and maintaining an ongoing relationship with that client are major keys to growing a successful business. This session will cover the major points that John puts into practice everyday in his commercial design business. Topics covered include finding clients, building relationships and maintaining relationships through challenging projects.
Session 2: Specialize in Variety
Often times we are advised to specialize in one area of expertise. This can actually be a mistake for the self-employed artist. To become truly independent and successful most of us need to be adept in many skills. John walks you through how he built his design business by almost never saying no to any project- even one's he didn't know how to do! This approach to his business has led to a number of differing clients and a very interesting work life. No days are ever boring as they are filled with many differing tasks- developing art for commercial sculptors, illustrating gift cards and designing toys to name a few.