What if things aren't happening the way you want them too? What if you're being taken along a path that doesn't feel aligned?

Working with clients who don't feel like a good fit?
Charging way less than you want to and know you could?
Filling your schedule to the brim and pushing yourself too hard?
Struggling to get projects to make your portfolio shine?

And as you move further and further away from the path you wanted to carve for yourself, you start to question your own abilities as a business owner, as a designer as an action-taker.

Maybe you don't have enough followers or a big enough audience? Maybe you don't have the right experience as a designer? Maybe people just don't want to work with you? Maybe you don't work hard enough? Maybe you just aren't good enough?

I'm sure we've all had similar thoughts to this at some point, right?

But what if the problem isn't you (and I'm sure it isn't!). What if your business just isn't allowing you to reach your big, exciting goals? Without the right systems, the right infrastructure, the right foundations - your business simply can't sustain your next steps!

Let's have a think about some common goals for the year and what foundations we need to make them a reality…

I want to reach my income goal

Making more money than you ever have before or than you ever thought you could is very hard without some business prep first. We only have so many hours in the day, days in the week etc. and we definitely don't want to spend every single one working!

You want to start by pricing your services. We often think that to reach new height with our income, we need passive income here, a course there, a product (or maybe five?!). The truth is, our solid and consistent income should always come from our main services so we need to make sure these are created carefully to help us reach our goals.

Work out your dream goals with The Big Picture Blueprint

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

I want to work fewer days per week

Moving from working five long days a week to fitting my tasks into two-three days for me was a difficult, long process. But the hardest bit was by far shaving off that first half a day! Once that was done, the rest was just a case of continuing to cut back, set solid boundaries and getting the most important foundation in place… my systems!

Systems and an organised, clear client process from start to finish allowed me to focus my mind and energy on what really mattered - the design work! Without the processes, I was spending the time I wanted to streamline doing admin tasks or answering common questions when I could have been making the most of my free time.

I want to launch my new project

We all have that little, exciting idea in the back of our minds that we want to bring to life. But client work can take over and pull you away from working on the new exciting thing and mean it's permanently on the back burner.

The thing that really transformed my ability to put time towards my passion projects, new income streams etc. was being really clear on my dream client. Who did I really want to work with on my design projects and who was going to allow me the space and freedom so I wasn't constantly checking feedback, worrying about the next steps and spending valuable energy on client work over other projects.