How Elizabeth McCravy used Dubsado to grow a 1-person graphic design business into a thriving enterprise
Elizabeth McCravy runs a multifaceted business offering website templates that have driven more than $1.4MM in sales, a 300+ episode podcast, and business mentoring courses for designers looking to follow a similar path.
Just 8 years ago, she was a freelance graphic designer experiencing the challenges of running a business for the first time.
Project management was a time-consuming struggle that limited her capacity to grow her client base
Documents required manual design and tracking
She was creating contracts in InDesign, designing and customizing every invoice in Adobe Illustrator, and tracking the flow of documents by hand in a notebook.
Delays in invoicing meant delays in getting paid
With only manual tracking, it was easy to miss sending a client an invoice, which meant further delays in payment and a messy client experience.
Admin processes cut into her time to design for clients
All the time she lost to administrative legwork lessened her capacity to do the creative work she set out to do for her clients in the first place.
Then she found Dubsado—and never looked back
Dubsado is software for creative service businesses, designed to help you succeed at doing what you love with the business management tools to handle everything else. Within a single platform, Dubsado enables you to streamline your operations, create repeatable processes, and deliver the best client experience.
"When I started using Dubsado, I saw an increase in how many clients I could take on at once, which led to me being able to make more money—because I was no longer spending hours of my workweek on management. I was able to dive in and do the creative work. It also led to clients being more likely to say, "you have to work with Elizabeth."
How Dubsado helps Elizabeth streamline operations for a diverse portfolio of services:
Professionalized invoicing and payments
Dubsado helped Elizabeth simplify the most critical part of her process by generating, managing, and tracking branded invoices from a single platform—where she could also set up reminders and securely process payments for a more professional experience.
Example: Clients appreciated being able to pay for services via Stripe or PayPal from a secure link—without the hassle of mailing a check or the informality of a peer-to-peer payment app.
Automations for a seamless client experience
Dubsado allowed Elizabeth to make a strong first impression while taking on more clients by generating time-saving contracts and using automations to set in motion a consistent, organized, and branded process that allowed clients to seamlessly collaborate with her throughout.
Example: She created a customized questionnaire clients could fill out and sign from a single link, without the need to download, sign, and email PDFs.
Tools that grow and evolve with your business
As Elizabeth expanded her business from one-on-one graphic design projects to selling website templates from an online store and building sponsorships for her podcast, the processes she built in Dubsado could grow with her—and keep saving her time.
Example: Now that she offers a variety of services from her site, Elizabeth uses a Dubsado form to identify what site visitors are looking for and send them automated messaging specifically tailored to their interests.
"Dubsado is not just for service-based businesses. It's also for content creators, podcasters, and other businesses as well. I use Dubsado to manage contracts, invoices, and proposals for podcast sponsorships, and I've had really good feedback from my sponsors that they love how organized it is. I'm not just sending them documents over email; it's a legitimate system."What results has Elizabeth achieved using Dubsado?
6-Figure salaries as a graphic designer
Elizabeth was able to earn multiple six-figure salaries while using Dubsado to manage one-to-one graphic design projects.
$1.4MM in website template sales
By dialing in her processes, she could expand and diversify her services, launching a template shop that has generated $1.4MM over the last 6 years.
Ongoing positive client feedback
Clients have consistently appreciated the smooth process of working with Elizabeth from start to finish, which sets her services apart.
"As business owners, we have so much mental load. I'm a mom, I have a business, and all these other things I'm doing. Having the software to help me carry the mental load allowed me to focus on the thing technology can't do—which is the creative work of my business. I became a designer who was able to offer a better client experience."
Enjoy running your business—without letting it run you.
Dial in your admin processes, so you can flex your creative process. And focus on what's most rewarding about your job.
Use code elizabeth30 for 30% off your first month or year.