Do you ever feel like you’re struggling to fully transition your business into the design world? Or are you *officially* booking design clients, but you never know where your next client will come from? I see you! Not too long ago, that was me 🙋 Something that’s been so helpful over the past four years I’ve been running my own web design business is finding out the business tools that work for me (link) and which courses to take along the way. One of THE best courses I’ve taken for my business was Elizabeth McCravy’s Booked Out Designer – so today, I wanted to spill all the tea with a full Booked Out Designer review! If you’re looking for that boost to take you to the next level of your design business, it’s probably an excellent fit for you. We’ll cover all the nitty gritty details in this post: what the course is all about, why I loved it so much, and how it’s helped my business.
What’s Booked Out Designer?
Maybe you made it to this post because you’ve been curious about Booked Out Designer for a while…or maybe you’re just now hearing about it for the first time. If you’re in the latter category, here’s the two-sentence version of what it’s all about! Booked Out Designer is a course on (you guessed it) how to build a successful design business. The designer behind the course is Elizabeth McCravy, a super-talented Showit template designer, business mentor, and podcast host.
Even before signing up for the course, I was a long-time listener of the Breakthrough Brand Podcast. So when the second round of enrollment opened up for Booked Out Designer, signing up was a no-brainer. I love Elizabeth’s teaching style – she’s like a design big sister guiding the way, breaking down ALL the details of how to build a solid design business that will turn clients into raving fans (and get you booked out for months to come!)
What’s in the course?
- A TON of course modules (seriously, there are over 90 video lessons) on mindset, marketing, networking, working with clients, and pricing your services.
- A mini mindset course that complements the main course perfectly! It’s nice to have both so that you can get into a positive growth mindset with the mini-course, then find the practical skills to get you there in the main content.
- Ongoing monthly group coaching, where you can ask Elizabeth anything. Even if you don’t have anything to ask, you can learn so much from just showing up and listening to what others need to discuss in each session.
- Access to a community Facebook group (and it’s FABULOUS). Many other courses have communities that fall flat, but people are always using this Facebook group to network, share, and ask questions – I’ve made so many new business friends in this group!
- Swipe files, templates, and spreadsheets galore to help you streamline your business processes and systems.
My Booked Out Designer Review
When I first enrolled in Booked Out Designer, I’d already worked as a web designer for a while. At that point, I’d done enough design work that I knew it was the niche for me.…and I’ve always been a designer at heart, and I was even working in a creative director role at the time. Still, I needed a little extra guidance on how to bring my overall business and client roster into line with my vision for my design business.
I try to focus on learning one new skill to grow my business in each quarter (or year, if it’s a bigger skill set). So I started Booked Out Designer I started the course a few months before making the choice to step away from a creative director role I’d been in for a while, and I was hoping to get a more solid foundation on growing afor a design business from Elizabeth. And Elizabethshe totally delivered! She truly holds nothing back in her course, and it was amazing to learn from her experience. Obviously, it went well – as you can see now, I’m all-in on Southern Creative – my design business! 🥂 I would definitely say the course helped me make that transition with ease.
Why I think it was worth every penny
Even though Booked Out Designer is about building a design business, it’s about SO much more than just design. In fact, it doesn’t teach you the ins and outs of design at all! The truth is, you can have all the design skills in the world, but if you don’t have a solid business foundation, then it’s so much harder to piece together a booked-out business. The course is all about what you need to do to build that kind of business for yourself as a designer and learn the real-deal skills that will attract people to work with you (and pay higher rates!)
What’s really cool about this course is that Elizabeth’s advice works no matter what kind of designer you are. Even though we design for different platforms and have different offerings, everything she teaches in the course is something I could easily apply to my business. Everything in the course is intentional and serves a purpose. Along with Funnel Gorgeous, this is the only other course where I’ve binged every single module multiple times…and I feel like I get something new out of it with every relisten!
If you’ve ever listened to Elizabeth’s podcast, then you know she puts an absolute ton of value into anything she sets her hand to – and it’s exactly the same with Booked Out Designer. The course is packed with all the nitty-gritty details of how Elizabeth built her business and her logic on why those things work. She shares what’s worked at different phases in her business and even shows you (with actual recordings of meetings) how those things play out in real-time with clients. She’s so transparent with everything and makes it super clear how to apply what you’re learning to your business, no matter what phase you’re in.
My big takeaways
So, how did Booked Out Designer affect my business? There are three major areas that come to mind:
- Confidence. Sometimes working in the online business world can feel a little like working in a void, and it’s hard to know what to do. When is it OK to call yourself an expert? How do you even charge higher rates? What does a “good” client experience look like? Hearing all those things from another designer who has been there before was SO helpful.
- Clear systems. There are a million different ways to do things, and it takes up so much brain space and energy to figure out what to do on the business side of things. Elizabeth’s suggestions were a huge help, and she walks you through every single resource you’ve ever thought of needing for your business (and even some you probably haven’t!)
- A clear path to the next step. Owning your own business doesn’t come with a set roadmap, and – especially in the earlier days of my business – I needed to figure out what I should do next to serve my clients better or grow my business. Elizabeth shares all of that with you, so you can model your client processes and business path based on what she’s already done.
My favorite parts of the course
The Client Experience Module was, hands down, my favorite. Elizabeth walks through the exact steps she took to grow her business with next-level client experience, from automating client onboarding to sending client gifts. A newer addition to the course (that is worth the price of the course alone!) is the ClickUp project management system. I recently implemented it in my own business, tweaking it to fit my different client offers, and it made client onboarding a breeze.
The coaching calls are also incredible. Even though I’m not always able to make the live calls between balancing kiddos and client projects (#momlife), they’re always available on replay. I tune in on my AirPods while doing the dishes, on a walk, or in the carpool line, and take away whatever I need at that point in my journey.
Ready to take your design business to the next level?
I hope my Booked Out Designer review helped you decide if it’s right for you. I cannot recommend enough, and it’s one of those courses I find myself recommending on repeat. There’s SO much good content in this course – Elizabeth went above and beyond to pack the value into it, and it’s one of the best courses I’ve taken for my business. If you’re also a VA or designer who wants to grow your design business and get “booked out,” – this is the course for you!
Want to chat about Booked Out Designer before joining? Feel free to DM me, and I’ll answer any questions you have about how it helped me!
