The difference between working in and on the business for designers
Imagine this, you're starting your business, focused on landing those exciting design projects. You're honing your skills, testing out processes, and building an impressive portfolio that attracts clients. Each project you complete adds to your experience and helps you secure more opportunities. It's a natural and satisfying way to grow your business without spending excessive time on marketing. You get to stay true to your creative work and the passion that led you to start your own design studio. Pretty awesome, right? And your business really starts to take off.
➝ But then there is a plot twist.
As the workload piles up, it starts to weigh you down. Suddenly, your evenings and weekends are devoured by client demands, and it feels like you're constantly reinventing the wheel for every project. And let's not even get started on that never-ending battle to be paid what your incredible work is truly worth.
Sound familiar?
Here's the thing: Every designer reaches a tipping point where they must transition from being an employee to a business owner. And I am not just talking about growth or scaling here, stepping into your business owner role, needs to happen well before you are fully booked with clients.
Michael Gerber's book "The E-Myth - Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it" reveals why many businesses fail. Within a year, 40% are out, and within five, over 80% collapse. Gerber discusses how businesses often run based on what the owner wants, not what the business needs. To shed light on why this happens, he outlines three crucial roles within our business. Let's delve into these roles below.
First, there is the technician - aka the designer
As a designer, you're all about the present. Your passion lies in creating amazing designs, and your focus is on the client work at hand. The more you produce, the more clients you can take on, and the more you earn.
In this role, you don’t know how to run a business, how to manage your finances, or how to attract ideal clients. However, you are making money as clients are coming in through referrals but you have no systems and processes in place. As a result, scopes become larger than contracted, timelines get extended and clients constantly cross your boundaries, but as you like to please your clients you suck it up and work long days to get it all done.
Next, you have - the manager
The manager brings a dose of reality, focusing on the future and understanding the importance of planning and order for sustained business growth. As the manager, you sit down to map out client workflows and then build them into a CRM system like Dubsado or Honeybook. The thrill of the initial setup lies in the promise of spending less time on administrative tasks and more on the creative aspects of managing client projects.
Yet, the manager clings to the status quo and wants to stay inside the comfort zone. Your primary reason for adopting tools like Dubsado is to liberate more time for design or taking on more clients, not to have more time to work on the business.
That’s where the entrepreneur will come in.
The entrepreneur looks into the future with a strategic mindset to drive growth. You have a clear vision and a meticulous action plan to get there and you're not afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Let's stick with the same example: You’re now starting to use Dubsado as a tool that can help you scale your business, productise your services and be able to take on more clients at the same time. While at the same time, keeping enough time in your week for strategic business aspects – marketing, brand strategy, and more.
Now, let's get real; which of these 3 roles would you need to take on more so that you can build the design studio of your dreams?
Here's the thing: Many designers only reach that tipping point when they are overwhelmed and realise they can't keep going the same way.
There are two major reasons that I have often seen that leave creatives feeling like they can't keep trudging along in the same old way:
1. Designers who only rely on referral business.
Don't get me wrong, referrals can be fantastic, like a sweet treat for your business. But here's the catch: Referral business tends to bring in the same type of projects with similar budgets and roles. It's a never-ending cycle of deliverable-focused work that leaves you craving something more. If you only rely on referrals, this is what I've seen as a result:
Designers who have no influence on when new design projects come in (and with that no proactive influence on their income) or another strategy to fall back on when business is slow
Designers who have held back on making a change in their business (change niche, higher budget clients) and are feeling resentment towards their clients
Designers that have made a change like new packages, pricing or niche changes and have seen their only source of business stop working.
Read more about this in this article: Don't build your design studio on just referrals and word of mouth
2. Designers who have not taken the time to lay a solid foundation for their back-end processes.
To achieve sustainability and profitability, you need optimised client workflows and rock-solid business processes. I'm talking about financial clarity to set appropriate goals, understanding how many services you need to sell to hit your financial targets, knowing your capacity to deliver these services, and having streamlined systems in place that guide your daily activities (Dubsado for client management and ClickUp for internal business management) toward your business goals.
I've watched so many designers be overwhelmed, confused, and have a nagging feeling that they could be earning so much more but they have no idea where to start. Where they're winging it with every client, reinventing that darn wheel, or stuck in a limbo of wanting more but not knowing how to get there.
If that’s you, it's time to be proactive and strike a balance between working in and working on your business.
What does it mean to be working in your design studio?
For a designer, working in the business refers to the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of designing, creating, and delivering projects to clients.
Here are some examples of working in your business:
Meeting with clients to understand their needs and requirements
Conducting research and analysis to inform the design process
Developing concepts and designs for projects
Presenting designs to clients for feedback and approval
Making revisions based on client feedback
Preparing final designs and delivering them to clients
When you're working in your business instead of on your business, you’re laser-focused on your client's immediate needs, ensuring every project runs smoothly and stays within the timeline. And it's only natural to spend most of your time here. You are the only one who is responsible for all of the day-to-day tasks to deliver the best possible designs to your clients. After all, that's what you're paid for, and keeps your business afloat.
What does it mean to be working on your design studio?
When talking about working on the business as a designer, you're working on the tasks and responsibilities that revolve around managing and growing your design studio. It's the strategic big picture, the foundation upon which your studio stands.
Here are some examples of working on your business:
Developing a business plan and strategy for growth
Conducting market research to be able to clearly identify who your ideal clients are
Defining your brand positioning
Creating a marketing plan and executing marketing activities
Developing and optimising processes and systems for efficiency
Managing finances, including bookkeeping, budgeting, and forecasting
Evaluating and implementing project management systems to improve business operations
Building strategic partnerships and relationships with other businesses
Working on your business means stepping into the higher-level tasks (or the manager & entrepreneur role as mentioned before) that are crucial for building a thriving studio.
➝ It's where the difference lies between being reactive and proactively building a profitable and sustainable business.
Why is it so important to work on your business as a designer?
I already mentioned above the tasks that you need to focus on when you're working on your business but before I share a few tips on how to split your time between working on and in your business, I want to focus a bit more on why it is so important to work on your business as a designer. I believe that you should build your business for growth. Meaning that you're always working a few steps ahead of where you currently are.
And again, I am not talking about growing into a 6-figure design studio, taking on 10K design projects or growing into an agency. I am talking about growing into a sustainable and profitable business. A quick example of this; Instead of waiting until you're fully booked and drowning in client requests, to optimise your client workflows and build them in a CRM system like Dubsado, you start when you have a solid foundation and a workflow that works (though, of course, there's always room for improvement!) This proactive approach means you're running your business with intention, leaving no money on the table, and effortlessly responding to new inquiries, thanks to your automated workflow.
But it goes beyond that. Not working on your business comes with a few potential risks that can impact your long-term success:
Inconsistent revenue: Without a focus on marketing and diversifying your sources of business beyond referrals, you'll find yourself caught in the dreaded feast-and-famine cycle. It's like riding a roller coaster with your income, but not the fun kind.
Inefficient operations: Without a focus on optimising processes and systems, you'll struggle to work efficiently and effectively. This can lead to missed deadlines, lower quality work, and reduced profitability because you're limited in the number of clients you can take on at the same time.
Vulnerability to market shifts: Without market research and strategic planning, you're at the mercy of external forces such as changes in consumer behaviour or economic downturns.
➝ A lot of designers are struggling at the moment to bring in new business, and the designers who have a reactive approach in all facets of the business are the ones who are currently getting hit the hardest and do not have other strategies to fall back on.
Now let's talk about how to make sure you're not faced with one of these struggles.
The first step to creating a balance between working on and in the business?
Structuring your week with time blocks. I delve deeper into this in my guide on how to use theme days and time blocking to structure your week but what it comes down to is that if you leave working on your business until when you have time left at the end of the week it will never happen. You need to change from this reactive strategy to a proactive one and add time blocks to your week that are dedicated to working on the business.
Gary Keller wrote in "The One Thing": "The people who achieve extraordinary results don't achieve them by working more hours... They achieve them by getting more done in the hours they work."
It's time to embrace that mindset. Each day, focus first on what needs to happen to move the needle in your business and only then tackle other tasks, like client work. And I know this is a huge mindset shift to make and might even feel impossible. This is why I like to break up larger targets into a phased approach (I'm explaining more about what a phased approach is here).
➝ Phase one is all about structuring your week with dedicated time blocks. You could start small; Wednesday can be a great day to add a time block to work on your action plan. It's not too early in the week to overwhelm you, and it's not too close to the weekend to tempt you to skip it.
➝ If that feels good and starts producing results, you'll move to phase two: adding more hours to your "work on the business" time blocks.
➝ Then phase three can be to move these blocks to be the first thing you work on in the morning.
But it's not just about creating time blocks; you also need a clear strategy for what to work on during those blocks.
Want to see how I do this? Check out this article on how I plan for a productive week. It'll give you the guidance you need to make the most of your time. Keep in mind, that these suggestions are just a starting point. Find a structure that resonates with you and ensures you don't leave the optimisation and streamlining of your business to chance.
You've got this!
Stephanie
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