My advice would be to work for a design firm FIRST, and once you grow out of it, go on your own. It takes years to build relationships with clients and accounts

My advice would be to work for a design firm FIRST, and once you grow out of it, go on your own. It takes years to build relationships with clients and accounts people who will authorize $100k projects to you. Going door to door is a waste of your time and talent and not the best way to approach building business, unless you're starting from scratch, in which case, I reiterate working at a design firm first. Also, don't fool yourself. "Design firm" is just a sexy and sophisticated title. What you're really doing is research 80% of the time and execution 20%.