By Justin Ahrens

Illustration by Justin Ahrens

This past June, I had the privilege of going back to speak at the HOW conference. My talk was entitled “Designer Sobriety: Life is crazy, so how do you balance life, joy, and great work?” My point was to share my thoughts on running your firm as life throws its inevitable ups and downs at you. I was excited about this topic because it’s on my mind daily, and it’s more fitting than ever for me right now. I’m running my second design firm, which is in its eighth year, soon to be nine. My studio is home to anywhere from seven to nine wonderful people, depending on how busy we are, and I’m also a dad of four. Our firm is now at the point where I can count on a certain amount of work flow, but recently some of my clients have slowed down significantly. Now, that little alarm is going off in my head signaling that I need to speed up the new-business horse a bit.

At this point, I usually respond in one of two ways: One, I start to freak out. Or two, I work like crazy until we’re so busy again that I’m complaining about how busy we are. And, that’s when I start scrambling for help. So, it’s easy to see that like most things in life, it’s about balance. On one hand, I really want to step up the size and types of projects we undertake, but then I get nervous as to how the commitment and strain will affect the company. So, I’ve slowly developed a system. One part of my system that I continually expand is my freelance network. I also have an ongoing intern program at the studio. Both avenues work great for testing out creatives at a lower entry-point cost. Plus, it’s a win-win situation for both parties. Now, when the workload or a specific need calls for more help, I have a few likely candidates to enlist. I know them, they know us, and they can contribute effectively right away. For the most part, I have to say that this has worked very well for last eight years.

So if you are looking for good candidates that you can eventually hire, or trying to find help with work overloads, consider an intern program and take the time to meet freelancers. There are pros and cons that come with the territory, but I definitely think the pros win. Here are a few tips that work for both parties:

- First, this whole “system” only works if you treat people right. You have an opportunity to help advance the design community, so take it seriously.
- Make sure the position and/or the project is well outlined.
- Make sure you plan enough time to manage, especially during the “getting up to speed” phase.
- Be straightforward about everything – honesty is always the best policy.
- Give them the chance to say “no”, but don’t be so afraid of a “no” that you don’t ask. This primarily applies when you don’t have a great budget. They may be slow and grateful for the work, and there will always be a chance to make it up to them.

In the next entry, I’ll discuss what we do to “shake the new business tree”, but first we’d like to hear from you. How do you power up when you need to?

Want some inspiration? Visit Designer Sobriety and watch the videos from designers around the country. And don’t forget to send us your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Design Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.