The first step is developing your skills. If you have only a slight creative bone in your body, you have all the experience needed to become a great graphic designer. You need to familiarize yourself with Photoshop, or what ever graphic program you can get your hands on. One thing is important, which ever graphic software you decide to use, it must have layers. Layers allow a much larger area of versatility with creating graphics. When i first started, i used a program called Photoplus. This is fine to get started. Eventually as you establish your business, you will want Photoshop, or Illustrator, as these source files are usually required by the client when completing a project.

Once you familiarize yourself with the software, create mock logos, business cards etc... You may want to build up a bit of a portfolio. You can do this with mock designs, or you can wait for the next step coming up.

You will have to do some Google searching to find some places to begin your services. I would search for graphic design forums that offer contests. I can suggest my favorite forum. Digital Point has a great forum that hosts hundreds of contests. This is the forum that helped me develop my skills. I still drop in on occasion and enter a contest or two. You will want to locate the contest section, and read carefully to find ongoing contests. Once you find a contest that you feel confident enough to enter, make sure you read the contest holders details very carefully. One of the most important things in graphic design is being able to deliver what the client wants. You have to kind of read between the lines, because the client doesn't always explain things very well. Once you have read the contest description, and you have a good idea of what is required, you can begin your design.

If you are stumped on what to do, use Google to give you some ideas. Do a search for what ever is related to the logo your doing. If you're doing a logo for a financial firm, Google, financial firms, then click on images to get a visual of what represents financial firms. One thing that is very important is to never copy anything you see. It is ok to find inspiration, or to get ideas, but never copy another graphic, or logo. That is a major designer no no.

Once you have an idea of what you want, you can begin to apply the idea onto your workspace. You may want to find some free fonts to download. You can never have enough fonts to work with. Sometimes, the right font will serve enough as a logo. Do your best to come up with what you have envisioned. Play with the effects if you like, since you are still learning, but you should know, a professional logo, usually has very little shadows or glowing effects. Be sure to look at famous logos, to get an idea of how they were made. You will notice they are usually pretty basic. Please remember this as it is very important in designing logos. Once you are satisfied with your design, you will have to present it to your client, or to the contest. Be sure to save it as a jpg, or png. Sometimes it's even nice to create an attractive back drop for your logo to be displayed against. Also remember to watermark your work.

I would suggest creating an account at an image hosting website, there may be times where you need to upload your design to a separate website, and then post a link to that design, to the contest. Normally the way it works is, you post your design in the contest thread, and then you wait for comments. Sometimes it takes a while. If your just getting started, they might skip over your design altogether. If you receive comments, than make the changes that were suggested and resubmit.

If they never comment, it is ok to request for comments on your work. Continue to try and meet the client's needs until they are either, satisfied with your design, or choose someone else's. If you have not created a mock portfolio, you should start, by using the logos you create for contests. Just for starters I would create a large document, just large enough to view all of your logos on your screen, and add all of the logos you create onto this document, then save it as jpg or png. Now if someone asks you for a portfolio of your work, you will have one. Later on I will discuss creating your own website portfolio. This is basically the beginning of you business establishment. You are offering a service, and presenting it to potential clients. The quality of your work may not be that great just yet, but it will come. Be sure to listen to what others tell you. Some of these forums have a review section, where you can post your work for others to review. Some comments will seem a bit harsh, but take them for what they are worth. Harsh criticism is what has driven me to do better and better.