Master Your Confidence, Organization And Sales With These 5 Design Business Fundamentals

Building a design business from scratch isn't always easy…

Especially if you’re like me and you kinda just fell into it (I know many of you can relate)!

When I was first getting my business off the ground, I remember struggling with confidence, organization and making sales the most. I know a lot of you guys have the exact same challenges because we're chatting about them in my DMs on the reg.

I could give you the long story, but the CLIFFS NOTES VERSION is that things really changed for me when I was able to stop THINKING and start DOING.

If you're stuck in research mode (cuz you’re figuring out how to do all the things), what’s gonna help you MOST is taking ACTION. That’s the only real way you’ll see the growth you want.

I had to figure all of this stuff out the hard way so I’d love to lay it all out for you so you can get the needly moving in a purposeful way. I've pulled together 5 Design Biz Fundamentals you can take to get your design business moving!

Each of the fundamentals below will help you master your confidence, organization, sales – or all three!

Create a detailed, step-by-step workflow for each phase of your projects.

This fundamental action helps you with: Organization + Confidence

When it comes to your projects, being organized and consistent will help the entire process work more efficiently! It’ll give your clients a better experience, too.

What you need is a step-by-step, repeatable process so you don't have to recreate the wheel every time a new client books.

It can really help that magical, creative brain of yours to get everything out of it and onto the page.

Something simple you can do is write down aaaaall of the repeatable steps you go through next time you onboard a client. Then you can see where your process is the same every time and what can be automated or tied together.

You can even create a checklist in Trello or a project management tool like Asana to outline everything and lay it out. Detailing your workflows not only helps you stay on track with your project timeline, but it also frees up a lotta creative brain space, too.

If this sounds like a step you're ready to take in your biz, I've made it super easy for you!

I designed a 10-step roadmap to help you outline, streamline and refine EVERY SINGLE PHASE of your design process. It's a beautiful bundle of organization!

It’s inside the High-Value Process Roadmap bundle, which you can grab below to kick off that organized, streamlined biz life you've been dreaming of 😍

Create templates for everything!

This fundamental action helps you with: Organization + Confidence

When I say create templates for everything, I mean everything! Proposals, invoices, contracts, discovery call agendas, canned emails…you need templates for it all.

When you introduce templates in your business, you’re gifting yourself with energy that you can put towards literally ANYTHING else in your business or life.

Templates also create a more efficient, streamlined experience for your clients, which means you're well on your way to charging those premium prices you're dying to charge 💸

If you need a place to start with adding templates to your workflows, I've got an in-depth guest post about 13 templates you can implement in your design business that you'll definitely wanna check out :)

And remember that biz bundle I was just telling you about? It's got 4 canned emails you can use with clients (hello, done-for-you templates!) and a roadmap that’ll help you put everything into an organized process! Sign up above to grab everything in the bundle!

blog_shape bubblegum.png — FUNDAMENTAL #3

Talk about what you do.

This fundamental action helps you with: Making sales + Confidence

You might feel like this one is super simple…but are you really talking about what you do online? Or are you just assuming people get it?

It took me the longgggggest time to figure this one out because I'm not naturally comfortable talking about myself or my business. My main hangup was feeling self-conscious. I felt like I was taking myself too seriously or acting desperate for attention.

“Talking about myself is self-centered.”

“People will think I'm a joke!”

“What do I even have to say that's new?!”

Reframing my purpose changed everything!

I focused less on myself and more on how I could help. And I had to really think about how to communicate my value and come up with a solid plan to get more visible.

If you're not sure how to talk about what you do, I've got a few practical starting points:

Explain your design services and process…tell people about your unique offers and way of doing things!
Share you “operating style”…. tell your potential clients how you like to connect with them during a project!
Help people understand what it's like to work with you… show them what you're all about in a simple and authentic way!

Create a VIP experience for your clients.

This fundamental action helps you with: Making sales + Confidence

Once you've downloaded your High-Value Process Roadmap and mapped out your processes (look back at fundamental action #1), you can identify areas where you can take your client's experience up a notch.

An easy way to make clients feel like a VIP is with a small gift: gift cards, thoughtful freebies or a custom gift that you send once the project has wrapped.

You can also elevate the experience in meaningful, FREE ways!

Some of my favorite free ways to roll out the red carpet for clients:

Listen well. A client who feels like their thoughts and opinions are actually heard is a happy client.
Once your project kicks off, be sure to let your client know how excited you are about the project and tell them how lucky you feel to be connected with them!
Check-in throughout the process to let them know how things are progressing and assure them that you're taking care of things. You can ask them about their day or business and take a genuine interest in how they’re feeling and doing.

RELATED: 4 Steps To Creating An Amazing Client Experience

You might be wondering why a VIP experience really matters if you've already booked the project? Lemme give you two big reasons:

Repeat work. Returning customers are easier to work with because you already understand their business and their style.
Referrals. Clients who feel like they got a beautiful website and a VIP experience are more likely to refer their friends to you. And that means less marketing work on your end…woo!

Take responsibility for EVERYTHING that happens in your business - even the bad stuff.

This fundamental action helps you with: Confidence

Taking responsibility when something goes wrong is a really important step in creating more control in your business.

You have to go from an innocent bystander (aka the victim) to the professional who takes things into her own hands and gets them back on track.

So if a client gives you vague feedback, it’s your job to tweak your feedback process so it becomes more focused and easier to get out of your clients.

If your clients are always late turning in their website content, it’s your responsibility to guide them and make the process easier (ps I created a whole mini course about this).

For me, taking responsibility is a weird mix of letting go of my ego (realizing I can’t care more about the project than my clients do) and being more direct (telling the client I realize she’s unhappy but that my main goal is to give her a website she loves and offering my plan so we can get it wrapped up by the end of the week).

Ya catching my drift here?

Confidence is a frame of mind you can PUT ON. It’s not something you wake up and just have one day! It’s a cool detachment. It’s understanding what you actually have control over (showing up as a professional who’s there to help) and letting go of the rest.

This is something I’m VERY glad I realized early on in my business and I really hope my examples here are making sense! This is the kind of work that feels AWFUL to do in the moment (like breaking up with a bad client instead of letting her continue to drain your energy) but CATAPULTS you into the next phase of your business.

Here’s a little exercise I want you to do:

Write down allllll of the frustrations you've felt with client work, processes, marketing strategies, launches, etc. Anything you do in your business that has felt frustrating…write it down.
Then, one by one, figure out how to make each thing better!

A client struggled to turn in their homework or website content? Super frustrating. How can you better support them so the project stays on track?

A client is late with feedback or payment? Ugh. The worst! How can you change or better enforce your policies? Do you need to improve your client communication to keep this from happening again? Would requiring clients to use a project management tool help them with important dates and milestones?

Your project goes haywire during the feedback and refining stage? Hurts every damn time 😖 Is there something you can create that helps your clients understand good vs bad feedback? Are they totally ignoring your thoughts and point of view? Maybe you need to work on building more trust before booking projects through your content or sales process?

I know this is a lot to think about — and I know it’s not the funnest — but you also get to take responsibility for all of the GOOD stuff, too!

Published a piece of content that was liked or shared by at least one person? Woo! That's a win.

Charged a late fee, paused a project, or even declined a project? Pop the champagne! That may not feel great in the moment, but you're setting boundaries and teaching people how to treat you and that is PRICELESS.

Did an IG live even though it made you wanna puke? Break out that happy dance! You're embodying the person you want to become, even when it's crazy uncomfortable.

Here's the truth: running a business is weird, hard and incredibly amazing.

There are always ebbs and flows. That's why I love focusing on the areas where I can take responsibility, because it helps me let go of all the uncertainty and unknowns. I can manage the things I can control!

Wanna do a quick assessment to see which fundamental you should focus on first? Pop on over to IG to take the 3 minute fundamentals assessment!

You may have noticed that more than anything, these 5 fundamentals consistently help with building your confidence.

Having confidence means you BELIEVE in yourself. You know whatever comes up, you’ll get it figured out.

It’s like Beyonce says, “If there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself.”

No matter how your day is going, how your business is feeling right now, you KNOW each day you’re showing up. You KNOW that eventually it will all work out, so there's no need to panic.

Listen, you can't argue with Beyonce. That's just a rule :)

So let’s get you set up to grow your business by getting organized, showing up with confidence and noticing all the EASY and SMART opportunities in front of you.

I’d love for you to drop by my IG to say hey and let me know how you’re using these fundamentals and resources to grow your design business, okay?

Here are all the resources mentioned in today’s post: