Design Bees

What is Design Bees?

We’re an Australian start-up graphic design subscription service dedicated to making life easier for small and medium size businesses. We offer unlimited graphic design jobs and revisions, with your very own designer working on your projects every day – all at super affordable prices.

What inspired the idea?

I was struggling to find an illustrator for a children’s book and reached out to Liz, a friend and former CMO at PayPal. I assumed she’d have the solution, but she’d faced the same issues as a marketing consultant, local design was costly, and overseas options weren’t reliable. AI was gathering pace, but every time I tried using AI it missed the mark and just left me more frustrated. AI can only do so much and when it comes to creativity nothing beats a human.

What led you to this opportunity?

After leaving corporate roles, Liz and I wanted a change, less travel, fewer meetings, and more time with our young families. Over coffee chats and conversations with local business owners, we realised many shared the same struggles with creating high-quality graphic design. So, we thought, why not help? And that’s how Design Bees was born.

Had you worked in this field originally?

I’ve always been in sales and partnerships and Liz in marketing. We both understand how important great design is in driving impact for businesses of all sizes.

How exactly does it work?

Visit our site, register, brief your design, and we’ll handle the rest. We’ll assign you a designer to deliver all the design work you need. We share the designs via our platform, you make amendments and once you’re happy we release the design in any format you need. It’s then 100% yours to use wherever you want.

What problem are you solving?

Good design is hard, especially for small businesses who require so much of it, from socials to sales brochures, presentations to pricing quotes, video editing to web pages. It takes a special kind of skill to get it right and can be costly and time consuming. Design Bees solves all of those pain points. 

What are you doing to expand?

Right now, our focus is doing the absolute best work we can, nailing the briefs, so hopefully happy customers  tell others. We offer a 7-day FREE trial so businesses can try us without any risk. 

What have been the biggest challenges so far?

Getting to the end of the day with a to-do list that hasn’t grown. 

What have been your biggest triumphs?

Receiving mazing reviews and feedback, clients who love the fact we have solved a huge headache for them, it all makes the hard work worthwhile and is the reason we started.

What advice would you tell yourself back before getting started?

Be patient, focus on the right priorities and grab a new faster coffee maker 😉

Any wisdom for others about to embark on their own entrepreneurial path?

Talk to as many people as you can, the Northern Beaches community is full of experienced folks who’ve been there and can offer great advice and support. It can get lonely, so getting out there and connecting with others is key!