Learn Some Business

Over the past month I have come to understand that although many people understand the basics of design and are really striving to better themselves as designers, a good majority still don't know the basic principles of the other side of the coin when it comes to freelancing or running your own design studio and that is business. I have pretty much been on my own for the past eight years and although I don't run a design studio, I do have plenty of experience dealing with clients and trying to grow a business.

First off, it is hard and always requires work. I want to get that out there because running a business is like gambling in a casino. When you envision yourself in a casino all you can imagine are the times you win and the large amounts of money you can bring in with very little effort. Truth of the matter is the odds are stacked against you and short term success doesn't equal long term success. The odds are stacked against you so even though I do believe in positive thinking and remaining optimistic, you have to keep reality in check and understand that most businesses are setup to fail.

If you are contemplating going out on your own or already are on your own you would be wise to ask yourself a couple of questions.

What You Do and What You Don't Do?

Simply saying "I do web design" is not enough. You have to figure that every client is looking for something different and many times they will assume you can do everything. Before you get into a situation where you start to get in over your head ask yourself these questions and hopefully your answers will help you narrow your focus.

• Do you only do front end design in Photoshop?
• Do you do front end design and code (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript)?
• Do you do front end and back end?
• Do you do SEO?
• Do you maintain the websites on a server and therefore become tech support for server issues?
• Are you a copywriter?

To truly be great at your business you have to understand what you are willing to do and won't do. I used to have a bad habit of wanting to do everything by myself not because I wanted to, but because I could. The problem with this line of thinking is that you soon start to notice that you place your focus on all the things you don't like to do and you begin to hate your work. If you really don't want to do any XHTML/CSS then you need to find someone who will do that part for you.

Yes, that might mean less money up front for you in the short term, but over time if your focus is only on doing the parts that you love you will find more enjoyment in the long run and eventually the money will follow. There are still plenty of other aspects in your business that you will need to handle that you probably won't enjoy as much, but everything can't be 100% fun.

Who Are Your Customers?

Everyone is not the correct answer. If you try to be everything to everyone you end up being nothing to anyone. You can narrow down your audience in a number of different ways. Maybe you only wish to serve one industry (medical, legal, small business) or a geographic area. You could narrow it down to businesses with budgets over $10,000. However, don't mistake the fact that narrowing down means you are reducing your revenue.

By meeting the needs of a small audience you provide more value. The greatest form of marketing is word of mouth marketing and people usually do so within their own groups. Focusing on a small audience allows you to better understand their needs and how you can meet those needs better than anyone else. Because of this you can become the go to person in the industry that everyone looks to.

Make sure you are very specific about your target market. If things start to go well for you, you will find that you have the option to choose whether or not you want to broaden your audience because people outside of your audience will begin to contact you. However, if you don't know who your target audience is then how do you know who to market to?

What Makes You Different?

There are literally thousands of people around the world looking to do what you do. If you go through the Gallery and view the websites of design studios you will notice that many of them have the same copy. Everyone likes to create beautiful and usable websites. Everyone codes to web standards. These things don't separate you from the rest. Even trying to use price as a means of differentiation isn't a good way to go because you will probably be focusing on how cheap you are and there is always someone cheaper.

Drawar itself is a business and if you have visited the site over the last month then hopefully you can see how I have positioned it to be different than other design sites on the web. You know you can find some great designs, resources and conversations every time you come here. Unfortunately, that makes the site very different than what you usually get with sites in the community.

To standout in the market you have to emphasize what makes you different. If you can't figure that out then you understand the initial problem at hand.

Do You Have Cash Flow?

At the end of the day the most important truth your business has is whether it is bringing in money. People might say you are a great designer and your employees might rave about working for your company, but the truth is that if there is no money coming in, then there is no business. You need to be bringing in cash to stay afloat. You need to be making a profit so you can keep cash in hand to help your company grow.

It is called the bottom line for a reason. I am not saying that you should sacrifice your integrity or morals to increase the bottom line, but the best businesses in the world understand the importance of keeping cash flow in the crosshairs.

Until recently, before they made deals with Google and Microsoft, Twitter was a great service, but a horrible business. Businesses have cash flows, side projects have people thinking they are running a great business.

What Should Your Customers Expect?

We had this discussion in the forums and I wrote about how many of the issues between designers and clients stem from the fact that the design doesn't help to set the expectations of their client. Usually, a client is simply told they will get a great design for X amount of dollars. However, should they expect to be included in every step of the process? Will they need to do any work to make the job easier, for example produce content by a certain date?

You have to assume that you and your customers are never on the same page. Communication is key.

What happens if you do a mockup in Photoshop and don't tell the client that the site might look different in different browsers? They will get upset because their expectations were that they would be getting what they saw in the mockup. Letting them know ahead of time that their design might not be 100% the same in each browser and explaining why helps to keep their expectations in check.

Most importantly, be realistic about the deadlines you set for yourself. Just because a piece of work seems easy in your head it doesn't mean you should underestimate how long it will take. The client will expect that you will continue to iterate the design until it is to their liking, so if you don't want to design forever, be sure to let them know that their budget allows them X amount of iterations.

As they say, under promise and over deliver.

What Should Your Employees Expect?

When I was part-owner of 9rules, along with Tyme White and Mike Rundle, we ran into a major hurdle a year after the three of us started working together. We brought Tyme on later in the life of 9rules and at the beginning we provided her with some generalities of what we wanted from her and expected her to go out and perform. After a year of work we found that we were growing frustrated with what was being done.

After sitting down and talking we discovered that we had a set of expectations of the work she would do, while she did exactly what we told her. For some reason we felt that we could mentally pass over what we needed done by her without having to say it. Of course that doesn't work and our failure to communicate as a team held us back.

Now with Splashpress Media, we use Basecamp to maintain communication amongst all team members. Instead of being frustrated that a job isn't getting done I make sure that my expectations for that person are clearly communicated. Once that is over and done with and the job still isn't getting done, at least you know that you did your part.

As you do with your customers keep open communications with your employees. Never assume and if you have expectations of a specific job, make sure they just don't stay in your mind. Always assume your employees have no idea what you are expecting of them.

What Are Your Goals?

Beyond getting rich what are your goals? I have a bad habit of setting goals in my mind and never achieving them not because I am incapable, but because I don't write them down. You get to decide your future, but if you aren't continually focused on that future then you are sure to miss it.

It's a good idea to set goals that increase in iterations. Maybe in 30 days you receive your first 100 visitors and your first 90 days you get your first order. Setting goals will allow you to focus on what needs to be done to achieve them and if you miss one you can easily analyze what went wrong. They also help for the next part.

Can You Stick With It?

If you are lucky there won't be any rough patches, but if you are successful and growing then there definitely will be. If you can persevere and stick with your business through the tough times then you have a decent shot at succeeding. However, don't confuse perseverance with stupidity. There is a time and a place to know when you just aren't cut out for running your own business or the business you are running isn't good enough and you need to abandon ship.

It could be when you never seem to reach any of your goals or it could be when you are dead broke and get tired of eating Ramen every day. Either way, like gambling in a casino, there has to be a limit set for when you will bail out.

Can You Maintain Your Integrity?

Can you imagine what would happen if I had written about my distaste for list posts and then my very next article was nothing but a simple Top 10 list? What about me complaining that ads can kill a site and the very next day you see 10 of them pop up? I'm not saying people can't change their minds, but if you want your customers to trust you, they have to trust your integrity as well.

Your integrity many times is your reputation. You have to ask yourself if you can maintain your integrity even when times are bad. I could be an extremely rich person if I had gone through with some of the shadier deals that were offered to me during the 9rules days, but I couldn't sell myself, my friends, my business partners or my community out like that. It isn't easy maintaining your integrity when you are trying to put food on the table, but at the end of the day it allows you to sleep well at night. If you stick to your guns you will find that you have less regrets when looking back at the past.

It Isn't Easy

I just wanted to remind you that it isn't easy. I question myself all the time whether I am cut out to run a company, but at the end of the day I know what I am capable of doing. I understand my flaws that need to be improved and the strengths that I can focus on to keep me going. Hopefully you understand yourself well enough and can decide if you are capable of putting in long hours, experiencing many ups and downs, and possibly dealing with failure.