Why your design business isn't growing
In this post I share some ideas on why your design business may not be growing and why you may not be as profitable as you would like.
This is a problem that I see time and again with designers.
Perhaps you aren't getting enough clients or perhaps you have enough clients and plenty of work but you aren’t seeing the financial results that you feel you should (or would like to!) have.
Generally when I unpack the problem with a designer there are four main areas we look at to try and get to the bottom of what the issue is. And more often than not the reason their business isn’t growing relates to one of these issues.
So here are four reasons why your design business may not be growing…
1: You’re working on the wrong things
Business isn't about doing more things....it's about doing more of the right things.
If you want your business to grow you need to work on the activities and projects that will actually help it grow. You need to do more of the right activities and less of the activities that feel like work but are actually just procrastination in disguise.
Here is the distinction...
Busy work (procrastination in disguise):
checking and answering email
working on a website
creating a logo
book keeping
random posting on social media without a strategy
planning and organising things (that you don't execute on)
Work that moves your business forward:
planning your day strategically each morning
proactive lead generation (every day!)
obsessing over your client experience and how to improve it
creating new products or services
planning a strategy for your social media
establishing strategic partnerships
creating systems and processes for repeated tasks
2: You’re making too many excuses (or giving up when it gets hard/scary/boring)
The way you think and act will massively impact your business and your success. And a problem I see designers have with achieving their goals is executing on them. Too many people make excuses for why they can't achieve their goals or they give up when things get hard, scary or boring.
But there is an antidote to these problems and that is having the discipline to follow through on the things you say you are going to do.
Here's what that means when you put it into action:
🌟 you do things even when you don't feel like them
🌟 you do the hardest things first in your day
🌟 you make a plan - and then you actually execute on that plan
🌟 your force yourself to get things done - even if they scare you
🌟 you stop wishing and start doing
🌟 you perform tasks that feel hard enough times in a row that they eventually become a habit (e.g. going live on video, getting up early, exercising)
🌟 you don't wait for things to 'feel right' before you take action
🌟 you accept that action and discipline is the hard road and that making excuses is the easy road - but you know the rewards are greater on the discipline path.
🌟 you get help when you need it by paying for any accountability you need to stay on track - e.g. from a health coach (for your fitness goals) or a business coach (for your business goals).
Discipline is a work in progress for most people. Don't beat yourself up on the days when you just don't feel like doing anything. It's like a muscle that needs to be built - the more you practice, the stronger that muscle is going to get. You won't be perfect every day, but if you focus more on discipline and less on making excuses then over time more of your days will be productive and fulfilling.
As Warren Buffet once said "we don't have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplined than the rest".
3: You’re not charging enough (or you have too many expenses)
If you’re getting design clients but you’re not making enough money (or not as much as you would like) then your problem likely relates to your pricing (specifically not charging enough) or your expenses (i.e. you’re spending too much).
When work is coming in but a business isn’t profitable then the way to fix this is to either bring in more revenue, or reduce costs. It’s quite a simple formula.
The problem I find, however, is that many designers aren’t tracking their revenue and expenses properly and so they have no idea how much they are really making. In addition, for those that are tracking revenue and expenses many don’t track how much time they spend working on design projects, so they actually don’t know if they are making any money or not. And so they can end up in a cycle of feeling like they are working all the time but never actually feeling like they are making enough money.
If you aren’t tracking your business metrics properly then this is something that you should start doing ASAP as it’s the only way to really start to understand what is happening in your business. If you need help with this then my business short course the ‘Metrics Tracker’ is what you need. In that course we give you a template you can start using straight away to track everything that’s important in your business.
An additional issue that I see with almost every designer I work with is undercharging, which may be something you need to look at as well.
I have written a lot about pricing design services on my blog - here’s just a few additional articles that may be helpful.
4: Poor self leadership
The final reason why your business may not be growing could be related to a lack of self-leadership.
Self-leadership means:
Making your health a priority. The better shape you are in, the more energy you will have.
Getting up early (or staying up late) and dedicating that time towards achieving your goals - no more excuses!
Scrapping long to-do lists in favour of setting 3 achievable things to get done each day (and then actually doing them)
Setting goals and then making an action plan for how to reach them.
Always be learning and improving via reading, podcasts or online courses.
Tracking your progress via metrics and regular reviews. If you don't measure and reflect on what you're working on you have no idea if you're improving or not.
If you aren't leading yourself then how can you lead your clients, team and business?
I hope some of these ideas give you something to think about if you aren't seeing the success you would like with your business.
Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects
DO YOU WANT TO….
Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?
Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.
These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
