Some people have asked me how my business has become successful. It didn’t happen overnight for sure but it required lots of patience, determination and a lot of designing!

In my opinion, the most important thing, if you want to run your own business is that you are passionate about what you do, whether this is design work or anything else, if you don’t love it, you will not be motivated to succeed. Especially the first years, I didn’t have a lot of experience or connections. Nor did I speak Finnish so that was definitely a challenging time. But it also made me realize that designing was, what I wanted to do! So I learned Finnish, took projects that I could get and gradually created a network of customers and the necessary skills. I don’t believe I was lucky, I believe I created luck by not giving up.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have. – Thomas Jefferson

Next to that, you have to brand yourself. There are lots of resources on the internet on how to do this. And branding yourself does not mean that you have to think of a fake story how great you are, but add your genuine self into the brand. Your customers are not stupid and they will know when you try to sell them something fake. Be honest, work hard and help your customer succeed, rather than working to earn money so you can go on holiday. If you like your work, this will come automatically. I have seen so many people who were hired somewhere and complained all the time about their work. Sure, everybody has bad days but a permanent dislike of your work influences to the result. People that are not motivated don’t give 100%.

Networking is of vital importance. If you don’t meet people, how are you going to get work. Perhaps you are shy, perhaps you have kids at home or there is something else but you can always find excuses. I have worked for 8 years and had children at home, was with maternity leave, moved to 4 different cities and didn’t have a driving license. But it never stopped me from going to seminars, meetings and networking opportunities. I used the bus, asked someone to take care of kids for a few hours, walked through the rain and woke up as early as necessary, simply because I liked my work so much! And the networking paid off.

Find some people that you get on with well and do cooperation with them. Find companies that can add to your own services, like that you can outsource certain work that your customers might ask from you, to your cooperation partners and vice versa. It’s a win-win situation. But be careful who you do cooperation with, if somebody tries to make a deal to let you work less than a cleaner’s salary, you might have to rethink. Those companies are definitely not the right ones. Also know what you want and go after it. If companies are not very open and give you some vague promises, call or write what you want and ask if that’s possible. If they don’t reply, then you at least know where you stand and then you can move on again. Being proactive and knowing what you want will get you much further than being desperate and letting people walk over you.

Don’t take big loans when you set up your design business. Perhaps some small to get the right equipment and to get started the first months but it’s much better to earn your own money and not have to pay back your loan the year after. It gives much more pressure and it takes away the fun of the work. Working from home is not something shameful, although a lot of people seem to think that you cannot be successful if you work from home. Why to add high costs to your company when all you need is a small room. I can guarantee that you can do much more fun things with the money that you would otherwise spent on office costs. Then when you start to hire other people, it might be a good idea to rent an office.

And last, but not least, never think you know it all! Continue to learn new skills and work hard but don’t get overworked! It’s a great thing to get work done before a deadline and to give that extra service to your customers to do some evening work. So if you do some longer days, sure. But permanent 12-hour working days, 7 days per week are simply not healthy.

So keep your head up, set your goals and create your own luck!