- Ali Rahmon is a Syrian refugee who moved to Romania as a graphic-design freelancer in 2014.
- He's since built a business selling customizable Photoshop design templates and mock-ups online.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ali Rahmon, the owner of Sports Templates. Rahmon's revenue has been verified with documentation by Insider. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I started my career in 2011 as a freelance graphic designer in Syria, where I grew up.
In 2012, I started selling templates on GraphicRiver — a marketplace where you can sell digital templates, vectors, and Adobe add-ons — to diversify my income.
My income as a freelancer meant I could move to Romania
I moved to Romania in 2014 because of the constant war in Syria. My freelance earnings and professional portfolio were sufficient for the refugee visa.
In Romania, I pivoted my freelancing efforts from creating printable graphics to designing templates for clients' branding, web design, and 3D design.
A printable graphic, such as a logo or illustration, is a static visual asset. It's less appealing to buyers because they can use it only once and there's a risk other projects use the same graphics.
After two years in template designing, I decided to focus on sports templates as my niche. I was inspired by the importance of visual identity to American sports teams.
I posted a sports template on GraphicRiver and got an overwhelming response. My $15 design has 1,600 sales on the platform, which puts me in the top 20 sellers.
I built a website and focused on sports graphics
I always considered showcasing my work in one place, and my sports-template sales gave me the push. I paid a professional website developer $2,000 of my savings to make a custom WooCommerce site.
The website went live in February 2016. I sold Photoshop templates and mock-ups for the sports industry, such as for helmets, sports jerseys, and tickets.
Within the first month, I stopped working as a freelancer and gradually pulled away from my long-term clients to focus on marketing my digital product.
I started Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, all linked to my website, and shared demos of how people could use my templates. These posts attracted some early sales.
Additionally, I reached out to YouTube influencers in the design and sports space who had about 50,000 subscribers. I paid them $50 to $100 to promote my work in a video. This helped me gain credibility and trust in the industry.
In 2017, I was approached by the creative director of ESPN, who found me through a Google search. He asked for a custom template.
ESPN paid me $2,500 for the template. I put a lot of effort into the template, and while the payment didn't cover the time I put in, it was worth it for the credibility of having ESPN as a client.
After I worked with ESPN, the Minnesota Timberwolves used one of my templates on their website during the 2017-18 NBA season to display their new jerseys. They bought the template for $60 off my website.
I advertised that I'd worked with these big names on my website, which helped me attract other clients.
The Phoenix Suns used my "Slam dunk basketball uniform template" to reveal their new uniforms. The Los Angeles Kings used my hockey jersey template for content and user engagement on Twitter.
I was making five times as much from my template business as I was as a freelancer and it was less stressful.
TikTok helped skyrocket my business and increase my revenue
I began experimenting with TikTok in 2020 to scale my business amid the pandemic. I made a "What if NBA logos were minimalist" series to show off my templates in use.
I converted NBA logos into minimalist designs and put them on my templates to show how my reimagined logo would look on a fan T-shirt or a jersey. These videos went viral, with some receiving over 4 million views.
When a video went viral, I would notice my website revenue increase between 20% and 40% in the days after.
The NBA teams started engaging with this content on TikTok. I got about 20,000 to 30,000 followers within two months of being on TikTok.
I also reused the content to grow my followers on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I now have nearly 200,000 followers across Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
After establishing a successful online presence, I was making between $10,000 and $15,000 monthly
It was enough to hire a small team to help diversify my product offerings. We now make a lot of animated graphics to compensate for social media moving into video formats.
My team grew from one designer to five working remotely.
Now my work involves checking my website daily for updates, conducting extensive research, analyzing market trends, and informing people about what's new and valuable. I spend two to four hours on daily updates and eight to 10 hours when releasing new template designs.
I was successful because I found a niche that combined my love of sports and graphic-design skills. I could leverage my personal interest to make a great product.
In all my years of struggling to build this business, I've learned the importance of having a personal presence on the internet, especially as a graphic designer. Investing in a professional online presence was also crucial. A well-designed website showcased my work and lent credibility to my business, helping attract clients and establish trust.
It's also very important to keep up with industry trends and customer needs and be prepared to adapt your offerings.
I adapted to artificial-intelligence trends and designed a startup that could create sports logos in seconds from text prompts.