If I did it again…

I had a pretty resounding response to the ‘Inside a design consultancy’ article, so I thought I’d continue in a similar theme and maybe have a think about my experience of running my own consultancy.

It’s a very different thing, starting up and attempting to maintain – late alone grow – a design business, to getting a ‘job’ in an established consultancy. Your mindsets are world’s apart and your motivations differ massively.

I’ve been lucky (if that’s the right word to use) enough to work in a number of large, world class design businesses as well as run my own for nearly 12 years, so I’ve had time to observe and reflect on what works in a big agency and what works in a small agency. Conversely, I’ve also seen what really doesn’t work in either! I don’t have any direct experience in working in-house, but I plan to convince someone to guest write something along those lines.

However, I won’t delve into the murky, chaotic mind of a small business owner as it’s horribly complex and a bit messy, but I did think it might be interesting to reflect on the things I would do differently if I were to start up a bona fide design agency again.

You could argue that’s what I’m already doing with Four Beards, but there’s a difference. Four Beards is simply an umbrella brand to facilitate my activities as an independent consultant, offering multiple services to very different groups of people. For now, I’m not trying to be anything but myself, but should the opportunity arise to step into those consultancy owners shoes again, these are the things I might do differently…

I had intended this to be a ‘Top 10 things’ type article but 10 simply wasn’t enough!

1. Grow quicker.

I took too long to grow my business. This was in part down to my family circumstances, and the desire to be around my daughters when they were small. I worked out of a room in the loft and this permitted me the opportunity to see them for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as bath time and any times in the day that I may have missed out on if I’d been at ‘normal’ work. It suited us, and I only decided to move out and get a ‘proper’ studio once the kids were well ensconced at junior school.

Even then I deliberated too much. I waited until I was run ragged and then took on a graduate with the usual caution you might expect. This caused a few false starts, primarily because the graduate didn’t have the experience to cope in such an exposed working environment and I didn’t have the time to support them as much as I should have done.

If I were to do it again, I think I’d recruit someone with a few years under their belt and not wait until I was absolutely sure of the amount of work for two people. I’m now much more confident in the idea of hiring and then finding the work to satisfy the larger team. Having said that, I’m not suggesting recklessness…just less caution and more faith in the flow of work.

Ironically I interviewed what would have been the perfect person at the time but decided not to hire as they were too expensive for my cautious mind and circumstances. I ended up working with him at KD and have always kicked myself for not hiring him back then. Hey ho.

2. Endgame.

This is something I’ve been ever more sure of as the years go by. The idea of deciding on an end point as much as a start point.

Most businesses start off with an electric flourish and energy. It’s exciting and you are ambitious.

But few people ever really consider the end game. When does this end? What does success look like? How long do I want to be doing this particular thing for?

I never considered it at the time and never thought I would ever be in a position to consider an offer to buy my business. That was coincidence and not something I had engineered to happen.

But the idea of what you might call ‘career drift’ sort of frightens me. The idea that you build a business that then you feel obligated to pursue and continue because…well…it was your idea in the first place. To fold the business smacks of failure. To simply walk away feels futile. And to try and find people who want to take on your business is something that is becoming ever rarer as more people have the spirit and capacity to set up their own businesses so easily nowadays.

I want to be be in a position to be able to make a decision to go somewhere, and try new things without the shackles of a business holding me to a particular place or time (or possibly the framework to facilitate moving that business to wherever my family, dreams or circumstance take me). By considering the ‘end game’ for a business, you at least are aware of the ‘arc’ of that business and what you may need to do to make that happen.

Whether it’s a deliberate conclusion or a decision to carry on but on different terms, I think the idea of putting some form of deadline on the ‘end’ of a business is healthy and keeps you aware of its progress and how it might affect your future plans. It also allows others who you recruit into the business to make similar plans and possibly stick around to see a common conclusion?

It also provides some level of urgency I guess to take risks and move things forward when you don’t have the liberty of ‘forever’. Who knows. I may be talking hogwash, but I quite like the concept of a ‘fixed term business’ and may yet choose to try it out.

3. Be ruthlessly honest.

This is something I’ve talked about in previous articles, more related to my recalibration, but I like the idea of putting honesty in the epicentre of a business.

You could assume that all businesses should be honest, but that’s not the case…at all.

I’d like to try a bit more honesty in client negotiations and discussions, understanding if the work is good enough, growth of people within the business…that sort of thing. More open discussions all round really. Not rude levels of honesty, but the kind of honesty that breaks down the layers that often exist between bosses and employees, clients and service providers. Would this framework allow us to be more free to explore more avant garde solutions, or would it ensure that we stay pragmatic. Who knows. All I know is that I’ve kinda got fed up of the merry dance that often ensues between client and consultancy at the start of a project and feel so much more at ease and able to deliver better work if I know that the client is getting the truth. Raw truth. Not contrived truth.

4. Better understand the figures.

I was a bit of an ostrich when it came to the figures first time around.

Not that I didn’t know how we were doing, but it was more a mental set of calculations and rough assessments that made me either break out in rampant sweats or allowed me some time to relax. As a small business owner, you become inherently woven into the fabric of how it’s faring – so much so that you almost feel it. That and a rather competent accountant who made up for my significant shortcomings!

If I were to do it again, I think I’d be much more aware and on top of the numbers. Not necessarily from a direct accounting point of view, but more from a profitability and value perspective. Did the project deliver against expectations when you weigh up the satisfaction and time spent? Less about utilisation and specific individual profitability but more about an overall client/provider reward in number form.

Looking at the balance of effort, worthiness, delight and longevity through a numerical lens so to speak. Seeing if it stacks up for the long term, rather than on a project by project basis. I think this would help to understand if a client relationship is heading in the right direction and is worth nurturing or is it something that needs adjusting…or worse still, jettisoning? Just because a client gives you work, there’s nothing to say you need to accept it if it doesn’t provide you with what you need, aside from short term monetary gain.

5. Physical space is still important.

This is a strange one for me. I left full time employment just before the whole world had to adapt to fully remote, online working practices, as a result of our little friend COVID-19. So I’ve never had to adapt an existing team to a fully remote one overnight.

I like solitude. At times.

I like collaboration. At times.

I like talking about nonsense with people I rarely work with. At times.

Fully remote working doesn’t really make complete sense to me as a creative person. Even working as a sole trader, I still need to be around people sometimes. If you have a business that sells itself on creative problem solving, you need to facilitate the fuel to creativity, which are ideas. Ideas can come from within, and from an isolation bubble. In fact, some of the best ones do. They are allowed to ferment and froth to the surface slowly.

But a lot of great ideas come from synaptic tennis. Tennis played with lots of players all at once.

There’s no substitute for throwing people together with some catalytic stimuli and standing back as the alchemy happens. A large part of it yields utter tripe. But within the tripe lie some genuine nuggets of delight. Of brilliance. Of wonder. Stuff that with the right caress and nourishment can become amazing solutions.

That rarely happens with people sat at desks looking at each other through unnaturally direct webcams. It has to happen in person. When you can smell their cologne or breakfast. When you can see someone starting to conjure up something as their eyes dart upwards and their mouth starts to mutter. When a chance comment about the sarcastic bus driver promotes someone to say something that makes your brain flick left and think of something you’d never consider under your own steam.

That. Needs. Togetherness.

A physical space designed to facilitate togetherness and relaxed thought.

6. Hire people with experience.

I feel like a bit of a fraud saying this – given the amount of undergraduate and graduate support I’ve been banging on about recently – but I think I would hire people with a chunk of experience in the first instance. See point 1.

As much as they may cost you more in direct monetary salary, the benefits are several fold.

They don’t have to find their ‘sea legs’. No unnecessary metaphorical vomiting.

They have had enough experience to know that working in a small business has its advantages and they won’t get gradually disillusioned that it isn’t quite what they expected of a ‘consultancy’ (see this article).

They understand the ‘time is money’ principle that much of the consulting world has to base it’s business framework on (again see this article).

They’ve had some experience of working with a client or two, and understand the way you need to establish the early client relationship in order to maximise return (in every sense of the word).

I’m not talking about hiring a seasoned pro – although there’s nothing wrong with that – but someone with a decent bit of direct experience of working on projects (doesn’t have to be consultancy at all…some in house ‘clients’ are probably harder to please!) and the ‘tool belt’ to slot in and start delivering whilst they learn the specifics of your business.

The better you can do this from the early days, the less likely the business will be a direct ganglion of the founder’s personality. It will become a healthy balance of personalities which will create a more suitable framework for future junior hires.

I think.

7. External marketing support.

Marketing and promotion is hard to do when you are attempting to communicate with prospective and current clients, create and deliver work and grow a team.

Hire it in.

It doesn’t have to be a full time employee and to be honest, a small to medium consultancy doesn’t need a fully blown marketing campaign as such. It just needs consistency and regularity of message to the right audience. The people who will be well placed to ‘buy’ design.

There’s a difference between people who fawn over design output or read articles you’ve written, and the people who hold the purse strings to design projects. Often, the latter don’t really ‘get’ design or the need for it, or they are part of a committee who decides. Communicating your values and relevance to the former is vanity (it’s nice…don’t get me wrong). To the latter is business.

Using someone to help you target the right people with the right content and at the right time, is critical to maximise visibility and to cracking open as many of those purse string holders’ doors as possible. Once they’ve pushed the door ajar, it’s down to you to convince and cajole.

We all think we can do the necessary marketing for our own business but we often simply bleat to our own tribe and are not particularly calculated about it.

8. Four day weeks.

There’s so much evidence to suggest that this works.

Evidence that is almost impossible to ignore.

Make better use of the hours you work and enjoy more hours off work. You become a better, more balanced and healthier person. In mind and in body.

No brainer.

9. Push clients harder.

I’m not talking about the ‘push’ that is often synonymous with getting work. The pushy ‘attack’ that comes with attempting to convert projects and land purchase orders.

I’m talking about the ‘push’ related to challenge and discomfort in finding solutions. It is often all too easy for a client to brief an agency (or similar) and step back to await the results, but this is like having an arm wrestle by yourself. You need the resistance to push back and fight harder.

Easy solutions are just that. Easy. And most often wrong.

The tricky stuff comes from overcoming obstacles and sidestepping constraints to find the solution that makes beautiful sense but takes time to formulate. That can only happen if clients come along for the ride. They know stuff you can’t possibly know or can ever find out any other way. They need to be involved – within reason – to a level where they are both open to new suggestions but able to counter with evidence if solutions are simply not working hard enough.

If everyone is too compliant and agreeable, you end up with lovely looking vanity projects.

As designers we love to be told our work is amazing. We are – at heart – vain creatures. But we also should learn to grow a thick skin and understand that criticism and builds are not personal slights, but part of the journey to find an appropriate and genuinely relevant solution. By being part of that metaphorical arm wrestle we – the client and the creative – enter into an unspoken contract to fight for the same cause, albeit with some grit, spittle and choice swear words thrown in for the ride.

10. Be less ‘Ta Da!’

I’ve spent years wanting to be like the proverbial magician. Working on ideas in ‘secret’ and then revealing them to a chorus of ‘Oooohs’ and ‘Aaaahs’ as the client realises how amazing the work is.

When this does happen, it is lovely, I will happily admit. But it is not a particularly effective way to build a solid foundation for collaboration, or a trusting relationship. What it does, is maintain the mysterious distance that design often has to other business services, and the thing that most designers complain about when “…people don’t understand the importance of design”.

Magicians never reveal how they do their tricks, but design needs to be much more open about how we do what we do and to bring the client along with us. Designers are – by and large – talented folk that can bear scrutiny when interrogated. We shouldn’t fear them pulling back the curtain to reveal the contraption that made the elephant disappear. We should be proud of what we can do and how we do it, as it’s a skill and something not a lot of people can do. Thankfully.

I’m now of the opinion that sharing work that isn’t always supremely polished, or involving clients in discussions that might not be about delivery, but exploration, is healthy and tends to garner faith in the service. Give your client time to process what you are sharing with them. You can’t expect them to judge something within a microsecond of you showing them on a 65” TV screen in a boardroom. Bring them along with you and develop advocacy in your approach, rather than simply awe and wonder in your ‘shiny delivery’. That never lasts for very long.

I fully appreciate that there is a fine line between opening yourself up to sharing the journey and having to explain every tiny decision to someone who wants to micro-manage the process. You still need time to do what you do. But the success of that bit lies in your management of expectations and how well you’ve understood the needs of the client (not just the project) in the first place. If you’ve done your homework from the outset, you should be able to suggest a suitable mode of collaboration to suit both parties effectively.

If they are aware of the journey, and have ultimate faith in what you are about to share, then that is a good thing. Surely.

11. Run lean.

I’ve snuck this one in as it’s something I held true to throughout my time running my own business, and it stood me in good stead. And it is something I would definitely do again.

Run lean. By that I mean, don’t succumb to the toys and trappings of design consultancy life for the sake of it.

I decided from the outset (more for cost reasons initially) to avoid buying printers, workshop equipment, extravagant IT equipment or anything else that people might assume a design business requires. If I needed something printing, I would prepare it and send it to a trusted printing supplier. If I needed anything 3D printed, I would send it to someone who had a business set up to do just that.

I am selling ‘creativity’. Brain juice. Time. The ability to solve a challenge posed by a client.

I don’t need to be spending hours farting around with printer cartridges because the cyan has run out. I don’t need to be swearing at the 3D printer because the support structure has failed on a 16 hour build. I don’t need my high spec machine sat here churning through 20 high resolution renders. I use external support. I use printing companies who can print much better quality visuals, mount them and coat them to withstand coffee spills. I can simply email my data and have my 3D printed parts delivered to my door at an agreed cost. I can send my render files off to a render farm and carry on working on other things while they chug away somewhere, making use of the time difference.

Anything that prevents me from focussing my efforts on spending time on the direct challenge at hand, not only is wasted but unprofitable.

It has also taught me to plan a little better. I need to ensure that the visuals are ready for printing 2 days before the deadline. I am clear with clients about external costs. I structure projects to ensure that work is done in a timely manner to suit these external benefits.

I know that’s not for everyone. Some people need a dusty old workshop to tinker and resolve ideas themselves. Some love to print reams and reams of ideas mid way through a project. Some want to iterate as they go, forever playing until they are happy.

I get that. But I guess my time in consultancy has taught me to be a little more efficient in using my time effectively. Time is my greatest asset. Time spent on a specific challenge is what I am selling. Anything that distracts me from that is just that….a distraction.

12. No timesheets.

I talked about timesheets here. No need to elaborate!

13. More inputs.

I accept that for everyone to be involved in every project is counter productive. Nobody would ever get anything done and no-one would be able to take ownership.

But each designer has a set of skills, an inbuilt knowledge of the world and two eyes that have seen the world a very specific way. If you only ever get someone with that equation to design something, it will be a by-product of those inputs, no matter how empathic or open minded that individual is. Most of it will be fine, some of it will be amazing.

You can only ever improve the likelihood of finding a better solution if you include a wider net of inputs. At a very simple level, by involving everyone in tactical collaboration at the right time, you will surely give yourself a better chance of considering more options, different viewpoints and building on thoughts you could never have had by yourself.

I’m a middle class, middle aged white male, and very mindful of that. I have a certain set of experiences and this will lead me to think a certain way, despite my efforts to the contrary. I can attempt to inspire and influence my thinking with techniques and tools but broadly speaking I am drawing from a certain well. By involving others, I can shift my thinking generationally, socially, genderly (I know that’s not a real word but I needed to use it!), racially, inclusively, plus a million other trajectories you could care to mention.

I can take an idea and run with it using my experience and skills, but ideas come from strange places, and I would certainly hope to foster an environment where lots of people got to provide their input to as many projects as possible, even if for just a brief moment in time. That brief moment might just be the spark you needed for brilliance. As much for me as for others.

14. Be known for approach, not output.

I have a love hate relationship with design agency websites.

They typically lead with visual impact. Glossy products visualised to court admiration, drool and envy. Idealised visions of context or beautifully isolated, floating in a mythical white world where nothing else exists.

I’ve been a culprit of these.

Design porn.

What it does is place ultimate focus and scrutiny on visible product output. We judge the ‘design’ work by our own personal taste and measures of aesthetic beauty.

But it is extremely rare nowadays to find a design agency whose predominant activity is entirely form based. I would argue that 80% of the creative work that many agencies or creative professionals deliver is for parts of the project that don’t necessarily manifest as the outer form and ‘beauty’ of the physical product. Usability. Positioning. Strategy. Functionality. Sustainability. Human Factors. Material innovation. Engagement. The list is endless.

Yet we still show pretty pictures of ‘things’ that belong to clients we have helped, as a measure of our creativity. It’s a little bit bonkers. And I say that as someone who has actively pushed this method of ‘credibility’ for more years than I care to mention.

I would much rather be known for approach than the ‘thing’ I played a part in creating. That’s not to say that I’m not proud of what resulted, but that only then applies to things that have manifested. There are hundreds of projects I’ve worked on that are simply inputs into much bigger strategies, or they don’t result in any ‘thing’ at all. I’m not simply a sculptor of objects.

I much prefer using verbs than nouns.

A designer who spends time designing.

A ‘design’ sounds so individual and finite, when we know that much of what we do is fluid, iterative and malleable.

I’d prefer to be known for designing and thinking, than designs and things.

There are so many more items I could write about, but once again, my word count is screaming at me to stop. I hope this is useful to some of you and simply just interesting to others.

I’m always keen to hear what people think, and always welcome comments. Good and bad.

I’ve no doubt that if I ever decided to start up another design consultancy/agency/studio (call it what you will), I may not be as principled as I write here, but I’d also like to think that I’d have the decency to read this and try to implement as much of it as possible – assuming I still agreed with it all at the time of inception.

Who knows.

Over and out.