UNENDED - Blog

I’ve met many people who have told me they one day want to start their own design business. The first question I like to ask them is, “What about owning your own design business is most appealing to you?”

People can take that question many different ways, but for the most part all I’m trying to do is get down to the real motivation of starting their own company. Note – when I say owning a design business, I don’t mean being a part-time or full-time freelancer. I mean owning a business with at least one other employee other than yourself.

The reason I ask this question is I usually find that their response has nothing to with with running the business at all. It’s usually some other issue like being able to set their own work hours, working on more creative projects, or being their own boss. The problem is that there is a whole other aspect to the endeavor that gets ignored completely – when you run your own design business it’s more about running the business and less about design.

When you own a firm or agency you have to put energy into other aspects of the business to make sure that the business stays successful. This list includes:

• Marketing your company
• Networking and events
• Hiring employees
• Planning
• Employee career development
• Strategy
• Forecasting
• Budgeting
• Bidding on projects
• Contract negotiations
• Client and general account management
• Growth
• Billing
• Legal
• Insurance
• Taxes
• Accounting and bookkeeping reviews
• Writing
• Presentations
• Damage control (trust me – it happens)

This list I just threw together is a long one, but not anywhere near complete. I’m sure I could add to this easily if I stopped to actually think about it. Some of the items I’ve listed can be taken on by our accountant or attorney but you still need to take the time to meet, review and sign-off on any items under their responsibility.

I purposely didn’t mention any design-related tasks in my list. There’s a reason for that – any time that you do spend doing any of the work yourself will only hurt your business in the long run. This might sound strange, but the reason is that you need to be spending that time building your business.

Businesses are very fragile entities. They require a great deal of energy and attention to make them run at peak performance. The second you’re back inside the business doing the work you’ll be taking away from the energy needed to build and sustain your company. It’s best to leave the design work to the professionals that have the dedicated time to make the amazing work – your employees!

Don’t get me wrong. There isn’t anything negative about what I’ve described above. I simply find that a lot of people don’t realize that running the business is a full-time job unto itself that can result in terrible consequences if left ignored. If everything I’ve said gets you fired up and you can’t wait to get started then great! Owning a design business just might be the right path for you. If, however, you think that anything I’ve described above sounds like a nightmare then maybe owning your own design firm isn’t the right move for you.

You may find that you’d be much happier working for a company that respects your time, talents and role as a creative professional. At the end of the day you’ll be happy knowing that you’ve made the right decision.