You've worked hard to create your business, build your website, establish your relationships, and launch your graphic design business successfully. Now, you need to create processes to manage the business for continual success and vitality.

Design is your passion and it provides you with the opportunity to leverage your skills and abilities to create a lucrative business. Financial and personal fulfillment result from a high quality design job that increases your client's revenue producing potential.

But a successful online business is also dependent on your ability to manage all aspects of the business – including billing, receivables, legal, and financial issues. We'll provide you with an overview of the major business management components and techniques required to succeed.

Note: Be sure to consult the appropriate legal professionals if you have legal questions about creating or managing your business.

1. First and foremost, having an organized process for managing your client billing and collection is critical to your success. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the design work and forget about the mundane tasks of billing and collecting for your services. Don't get caught in this situation.

Establish a process for billing before you launch your business. There are software resources such as Quicken QuickBooks that support at-home businesses. Research some of the software tools or create your own process – but don't delay this important aspect of creating your business.

2. Establish a process for accounting for all expenses related to your business. Any hardware, software, supplies, books, professional dues, relevant magazines, and other tools to support your business may be tax deductible expenses. Keeping meticulous records of expenditures will be a timesaver and a money-saver when it's time to file your taxes.

3. Keep accurate records of revenue and expenses for annual tax filing. Since you are a home-based online business owner, you are responsible for paying your own social security, federal income taxes, and state withholding taxes.

Quarterly tax filings are required for all home-based businesses. Consulting a certified public accountant (CPA) or other professional is advisable if you plan to have a lucrative, financially-rewarding business.

4. Creating, purchasing, or downloading free forms from the Internet is a good way to procure them for billing and other business management processes. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a good resource to help you get started. The AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has some valuable information that may help you as well.

5. Establish strong relationships with reliable, reputable, and high-quality vendors that are relevant to your field of work. As a designer, you are focused on designing the documents with utmost precision and accuracy. But to be a more well-rounded and comprehensive designer who is able to accommodate multiple needs of your clients, you'll want to have relationships with printers and shipping companies.

For example, your clients may ask that you take the project through to printing completion and delivery. Depending on the type of print job – large or small scale, business cards or brochures, posters or postcards – you'll want to use the most cost-effective and efficient printers.

Having pre-established relationships with printers will save you time now and embarrassment later. Choosing a printer from the ‘yellow pages' is not advisable. Do your homework early and make sure you have established relationships with high-quality vendors.

There are many reputable online printers with an excellent track record for quality and service. You should consider them in your analysis of print vendors when establishing relationships. The following online printers are worth investigating:

• PsPrint.com – boasts affordable prices, multiple paper options, same day services, and a wide variety of design templates.

• 4over4.com – quality, low-price print services including business cards and die-cutting. They accept Quark, InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator files. They also boast a large supply of templates.

• VistaPrint – printing jobs at low prices – your template or theirs.

This is an excellent place to provide you with a valuable tip!

Be sure to include costs of your time and efforts in your initial pricing if you will be managing the print production and delivery of materials. Don't overlook this important aspect of your business services and the associated costs.

Managing the “business” of your online graphic design business is critical, but it should not be daunting. There are multitudes of online resources available to you to support your management efforts. Once you establish your business and have the processes and procedures in place to effectively manage your billing, receivables, and taxes, you'll be ready to get started.

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