On February 22nd I attended a virtual event by the aiga called “Going Freelance 101” with the host Kimberly Mallek who is an entrepreneur, graphic designer, and brand strategist.
Kimberly Mallek introduced her topic by introducing us to her life and career journey. She talked about how her degree was in interior design but what she really wanted to start a career in was graphic design. She also explained her other passions such as being a writer, singer/songwriter, and musician with other aspects of her personal life like being a mother and wife. She believes in having a very full creative lifestyle and always doing what you love. She mentioned that business can be approached in a creative way because, like one thing the design world and business world have in common, problem solving.
Then she went into the rest of her presentation with step by step lists on what you have to do in order to start a business of your own, starting with coming up with a brand name. She touches topics like accountants, filing LLC etc. She also talked about this app called “quickbooks” that she uses for her business bank account and having her accountant deal with that side of her business directly through the app.
There were questions being asked throughout the presentation that were being answered about the content of the presentation as it was happening. A Q&A section was dedicated at the end of the event as well.
I asked a question “what is a good age to start your own business” and someone in the chat answered the age to legally start you own business, which would be 18+/legal adult in the US but Ms. Mallek then addressed the question herself and said that it is a really personal choice and that some people start their own business when they are still in school. She said that she personally wanted to work in a company first so that she could have more confidence and experience in her career first, so, she suggested starting it when you feel confident and could sell yourself as a designer.
I did connect with Kimberly Mallek on LinkedIn after the event and we even had this present convo about the event and a possible follow up event!
Overall, the event was really informative and unique in that Ms. Mallek went into a lot of details related to entrepreneurship and how exactly it’s done, a topic I don’t see being discussed much in my educational career thus far.
