Embarking on the journey of starting a design studio? Let's navigate the initial steps together. From conceptualizing your vision to understanding the market dynamics, this beginner's guide will illuminate the path to your creative venture.
Start small, prepare yourself, start small, and embrace change
The mindset you need to start a creative business is the same as taking on any new creative challenge.
- Benefit from people who’ve done it before you. Find out about their successes and failures. Learn from other people’s mistakes.
There’s no such thing as a bad first job
The experience you gain from being around other professionals, and from taking pride in performing a role will always be valuable
- Make yourself indispensable by showing how you add value to the company
- Entrepreneurial thinking is about understanding that every business needs to grow and seeing how you can help
It’s vital to establish what your studio’s vision is
Why does it exist, where is it going, and what do you stand for?
- Hire the best people you can afford, and make sure they can do something you can’t
- Each new recruit should fit your values
- Look after your team
- Make them feel part of what you’re building
Don’t stop using your brain just because you’re leaving college
While a robot can perform tasks in isolation, you can see the bigger picture
- Care deeply about the writing, the user experience and the overall impact of a project
- If you fall in love with every part of the process, eventually success will come
People are your most valuable resource
Actively push to change things, and always be curious and experimental in your approach
- Never stop learning
- You gain confidence through only doing what you know, but recognize that your principles and ways of thinking are much more important than your immediate skill set
Learn from everyone and anyone
You’re not expected to know everything, so don’t hide if there are gaps in your knowledge
- When the time is right, start small
- This allows you to take risks and learn what works before too many people rely on your business to put food on the table
Write a thorough business plan
Profit & loss sheet
- Planning pipeline
- Cashflow forecast
- Who does what and how often
- Which jobs will need to be done daily, weekly, monthly
- Plan all the roles a bigger agency will need in the future, then do them all yourselves
