How to Avoid Letting Your Business Run You
sharing a few of the things that have helped me grow and maintain my business over the years
If you’re a designer or business owner/entrepreneur, this post is for you, and if not, I have not forgotten you this week. I’ll be sending out my “I’ve Been Thinking” on Sunday - it’s been a while since I’ve done one so I hope you like it!
I’ve been wanting to share more about the business side of design and thought it would be fun to dedicate a Substack post to this topic. If you’re interested in hearing about a few things I’ve learned since starting my business, keep reading.
Trying to condense all of my thoughts on this subject into one post is almost impossible but I wanted to share just a few of the things I’ve learned as a starting point. If you’re interested in hearing more than just what’s in this post, I recently recorded a class with Renee Bush from Tandem where we go into depth on all things business—Designing Your Business to Intentionally Scale (more details at the end of this post).
One of the hardest things (and also the most essential) is figuring out how to make your business work for you. It requires a lot of trial and error to see which things work for you and which things don’t—here are a few tips.
Pay attention to how you’re feeling in your role. Notice the things that excite you and give you energy and the things that drain your energy. I know that some tasks (even if you don’t like them) are essential and can’t be taken out of your schedule, but I would suggest trying to balance out your schedule with both those essential tasks and tasks that add to your energy.
Remove dread from your calendar. Try to make your calendar work better for you. If you have a meeting or task that you’re dreading, try to schedule it earlier in the day so that you can get it over with and you’re not dreading it all day.
Be more thoughtful about who you work with. When you can, work with people who value what you value—this will help you to avoid conflicts that could come up if values aren’t aligned, and it will be a more positive experience for everyone. I have learned that even when I’m doing my best work, if I am working with a mis-matched client, no matter what I do it will feel like I didn’t do a good enough job because we just don’t align.
Don’t try to rush to the end. What I mean by this is that there won’t really be a time in your business where you can just coast. It’s easy to think that if you work really hard at the beginning, you will be able to just relax and your business will run itself—it’s so much better to pace yourself. Things will always be changing, so creating more of a constant pace for your business will pay out in the long run—no need to run faster than you are able.
The key is BALANCE + STAYING CURIOUS. You have to be creative in how you design your business just like when you are designing a living room. It’s not a formula, and what works at one time won’t be the right thing at another phase. Reassessing and staying curious about the things that are going well and the things that aren’t will lead you to a more fulfilling work life. It will be a constant evolution.
Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments if you have specific questions about the business side of design. Here’s more info about the class—Designing Your Business to Intentionally Scale is a 2 hr video recording that covers a variety of topics, aimed to help those who are business owners or just starting out. Here are a few of the things we cover in the class: how to make your business work for you, setting up your business for success, creating a business plan, building strong processes and systems, sales goals, pricing, technology and tools, growing and hiring practices, expanding your reach/diversifying and more.