5 Lessons from owning a business that improved my skills as a designer.
A year ago I joined 2 of my friends to keep their small business alive. After some financial, emotional and physical investments, we were able to open our co-woking space/anti-cafe Aeon in the very heart of Yerevan. Looking back to the year of being a “business owner” here’s what I learned along the way.
Responsibility of Team manager ≠ Responsibility for running the business.
Having managed multiple teams and designers throughout my career, I learned the weight of responsibility at a young age. However, being an employer carries an entirely different level of stress and responsibility, which can be both daunting and motivating. Knowing that people rely on our business financially is a brand new and unique motivator, and it adds more purpose when I wake up each morning.
While the user/customer is always a top priority yet a business cannot survive without generating income.
As a UX designer, my role has always been to advocate for the user, promoting and supporting what is best for their benefit. However, despite my inner anti-capitalist ideals, I cannot ignore the fact that unprofitable businesses ultimately fail. Sustainable businesses require meeting both the needs of the customer AND the goals of the company to succeed.
Delegating work is more crucial than personally carrying out everything.
As someone who previously preferred to work alone rather than spend time explaining tasks and sharing responsibilities, I often found myself missing deadlines due to a lack of time (I’m still a full-time employed person). Initially, I handled all design-related materials myself, but now each team member takes ownership of their own projects and ideas, with me reviewing their work to ensure it aligns with our design standards. As a result, our team not only understands how to use design tools more effectively but also produces better designs with each subsequent project.
Sometimes being present is all that matters.
One year ago, the three of us founders (all with full-time jobs) joined forces with four freshly hired managers (full-time students with limited work experience) with the aim of making our business thrive. Today, a year later, we remain the same trio, but our four managers are now soon-to-be university graduates, each with their own distinct skills in inspiring, communicating, organizing, leading events (and even designing). They all have their unique approaches to managing their work, and we feel fortunate to have such a talented team.
To keep them motivated, we ensure they feel supported when needed, hear their concerns and ideas, and act on them accordingly. With all the other responsibilities we may sometimes not be able to keep the notion of it, yet keeping transparency was the key to our team’s success.
Open and running business ≠ Work is finished
Although the renovation processes were intricate and time-consuming, the actual work began when the business started operating. Everything leading up to the opening was just laying the foundation. The real work started after.
Upon opening our space, we embraced the notion of being in a constant state of change. We were all committed to bringing the place to life and making interior adjustments based on customer feedback. However, we were caught off guard by how many requests our customers had, and how quickly they wanted them fulfilled. To our surprise, many of the things we considered turn-offs for our customers were of little importance to our clients, such as an unorganized manager’s desk or the minimalistic state of our kitchen. Instead, they were more in need of small details like pillows and types of lemonade. We are now fully committed to our MVP approach and continue to seek feedback to enhance our customers’ experience.
Having a physical business as a service and designing a digital product aren’t that different after all…small things DO make all the difference.
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