Building your own design business can be an exciting yet challenging journey and there are specific traits that successful designers possess, which help them navigate this journey and build thriving businesses.

In this post I share 5 key traits that are essential for building your own design business.

1. Discipline

I’m currently sitting writing this blog post at 5.15am on a Monday morning. Nobody really cares if I write this post or not. I don’t “have” to do it and I don’t have anyone checking on whether or not I write it.

But I have told myself I’m going to write 2 blog posts a week and so here I am writing the post.

Discipline is the foundation of any successful venture.

As an entrepreneur, you need to have the discipline to do what you tell yourself you're going to do - even when nobody else is watching. This discipline will help you stick to your plans and achieve your goals.

2. Consistency

Every day I have a set of “non-negotiable” tasks that I do no matter whether I feel like them or not. If these tasks haven’t been done, I don’t go to bed that night.

The tasks focus on providing customer support to people who have purchased my templates and courses, posting daily content to my social media platforms, reconciling my accounts and book-keeping, checking comments on all my social platforms and answering all my emails and DM messages.

Is this boring to do every day?

YES!

But do I do it anyway?

Also yes.

Consistency is key in running a successful business.

It's not just about showing up every day, but about delivering high quality work consistently. You’re in charge of what happens in your business and even though you could be doing whatever you want, the success of your business relies on consistent, daily effort.

3. Internal Motivation

You need to know why you run your business.

Personally I have three core reasons:

I want to have complete freedom over my time and be able to spend it in whatever way I want each day
I want to make money (which I’m not ashamed to say because just like you I also have a family of children to feed and a mortgage to pay)
I want to help other people to achieve this as well

But I also love the game of business - I love to create things and see what happens with them when I put them out into the world. I also love to compete with myself to see if I can improve and get better.

And all of these things is what makes me get up each morning and be excited and driven to start my day.

Internal motivation is crucial for entrepreneurial success.

You must find enjoyment in the 'game' of growing your business. While external rewards like money can be a fun side product of doing things well, your primary motivation should come from things you feel strongly about - your core reasons for “why” you do what you do.

If you don’t have those sorts of feelings about what you’re doing - you may not be doing the right thing.

4. Leadership

You can’t be a leader to a community of people if you don’t have your shit together yourself. I’m definitely not perfect, but I do try and model a certain level of discipline and consistency for my community and do the things I say I’m going to do.

But leadership is multifaceted. It involves personal leadership, such as taking care of your health and mindset and external leadership, which involves inspiring others to take action and move towards a common goal.

5. Accountability and Self-Awareness

If your business isn’t working and you’ve been trying for longer than a few months then you have to be self-aware enough to pivot what you’re doing or try something else.

When things aren't working it’s your responsibility to recognise and accept this and to try different approaches.

You also have to take ownership for the good and bad things that happen in your business - if you are the business owner it’s all completely up to you.

Make progress by learning from mistakes and be self-aware enough to try something different if your first approach isn’t working.

Not everyone possesses these traits, and that's perfectly okay.

Sometimes it's better to be the best employee in someone else's design business than try and run your own business (and hate it).

It’s also OK to NOT want to be a business owner. But if you are keen to give it a try then the above traits are just some of what you’re going to need.

Thanks for reading and catch you in my next post :)

Clare x

Dr Clare Le Roy

PS: If you enjoyed this then don’t forget to follow me @thelittledesigncorner for my daily tips on growing a profitable design or architecture 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.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY COURSES AND TEMPLATES