What to Do When Your Design Business Is Slow
September 7, 2023
Category: Business
what to do when your design biz is slow
getting realllllllll transparent over here!
I’m going to be the first to say that owning a business isn’t always *glamorous.* In fact, there are seasons where it’s the hardest thing you could ever do. There are SO many highs and lows I could literally go on about them for days, but today I want to chat about one of the lows that so many of us in the design biz face and that’s slow seasons! While a slow season might feel like the WORST thing to happen to your business, it can actually be one of the biggest blessings. Slow seasons allow us to dive deeper into our processes, ask ourselves hard questions about what we reallyyyyy want in business, and it allows us to take a breather. Mentally and emotionally, we can’t AND shouldn’t be going full steam all the time, so my hope in sharing this is that you’ll find the silver lining in your slow season.
I think as a business owner, no matter the industry, you come to expect busy and slow seasons and luckily after nearly 7 years as a business owner I’ve learned which seasons I can typically expect to be slower and which are generally busier — I’m looking at you jam-packed, chaos-filled fall! So when it comes to Brighten Made, we’re typically slower in the summer. Now like I said, I’m getting REAL transparent over here so get ready because here’s all the tea. Back in 2022, I experienced my slowest slow season in all of my years of business and I’m not going to lie it was pretty scary. I knewwwwww things would pick back up as they always do (and sure enough they did) but in the moment it was a very nerve-wracking experience.
With that being said, my team and I didn’t sit around and twiddle our thumbs. We still showed up and got to work! SO how did we keep busy this particularly slow summer? I’m sharing seven ideas to keep you (and your team if you’ve got them!) productive and ready to tackle the next season with full cups!
1 | Update that portfolio!
Prior to having a team to help me, I’d go literal years in between adding new projects to my portfolio. And if you’re experiencing a slow season then there’s no time like the present to take the time to make sure your current work reflects the type of work you want to attract! Remove past projects that no longer reflect your ideal design style or client and take time to thoughtfully curate a portfolio that will have your dream clients drooling.
2 | Create personal projects
We’re going to call this one 1b essentially. To add to my first point, if you’re not loving the work in your portfolio, start creating personal projects that align with the style of work you’re wanting to do! This isn’t just a great exercise to get the creative juices flowing but it also gives you content to share and can really help target your ideal clients in the process!
Hot Tip: This is also a really great way to let your clients in on the behind-the-scenes! I’ve shared about rebranding everyday things that my ideal clients can relate to like Lume deodorant, Taylor Swift, Stanley mugs, and more. While sure, they take time, they’re great for engagement and telling a story. If you want to know more about my method of storytelling and building connections, check out my course The Brighten Blueprint where I teach you my marketing framework.
3 | Share that content!
Take time to focus on and build your social media presence! (Hi, I have a whole course dedicated to growing your business and attracting your dream clients!) Use those personal projects you just created or some favorite projects from your existing portfolio and GET TO SHARING THAT CONTENT. And don’t forget about Pinterest! While Instagram seems to be everyone’s favorite platform, Pinterest is also the second leading source where clients find us! And think about it, where does a potential client go when they’re looking for new logo inspiration? Bingo. Pinterest! We recommend batching your content and scheduling in advance so that you can set yourself up for success when things get busy again.
4 | Take a course
If you’ve got the extra time, start investing it into your business! Think about taking a course specific to growing your design business (hi, again!), a course specific to SEO strategies for web design to improve your skills and expand your offerings, or even consider some more general courses that focus on content planning and social media. Here are some of my favorite courses I’ve recently taken!
If you’re like okay Bri, but I can’t afford a course right now things are THAT slow. There is so much free content out on the internet! Read blog posts, listen to podcasts. Here are some of my faves:
Jenna Kutcher Goal Digger Podcast
Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield
How I Built This with Guy Raz
The Heart and Hustle Podcast
5 | Uplevel your client experience
Is there a way you could make your client experience better? Probably. Update your brand guidelines, branding presentations, create a welcome guide, set up workflows, the list is endless. Do you have solid systems in place to ensure projects are being completed on time? Check out our project timeline template (my ride-or-die tool to make sure clients actually adhere to deadlines!).
6 | Give your own brand some love
Give your own brand the love and attention it deserves. We often put our own design work on the back burner because we are too busy designing for clients. Make yourself your own client! Re-evaluate your own site and messaging. Are you attracting your ideal client? Often we might be wondering why we’re not attracting a certain type of client but then we realize that our own current brand and website aren’t doing the job! Create your own dream client profile and think about where these people might be hanging out (we cover this in the Brighten Blueprint!).
Another perfect example of this would be in my slower season last year, I had my team completely transition my website from Squarespace 7.0 to 7.1! It was something I’d been wanting to do for a while (but was holding out on in hopes Squarespace would make it easier to go about…spoiler they didn’t) so I finally took advantage of being slow and put my team to work!
7 | Brainstorm new revenue streams
Have you thought about starting to offer a new service or create design templates? Now is a GREAT time to pour some time and effort into creating and brainstorming those new revenue streams. Implementing a new revenue stream, take design templates for example, can actually be a tedious process as you not only do the design work but also figure out the logistics. What better time to focus on those than when client work is a bit slower!? This could look like Canva templates, PDF guides, website templates, and SO much more!
I know slow seasons can feel like defeat but if you flip the script they can be a blessing for your biz. Hope these tips were helpful!
