Work on the business, not in the business
"You could be the best graphic designer in the world, but that doesn’t mean you could run the most profitable design agency."
Clair Heaviside | Co-founder | Serotonin
Questions:
> How would you explain what “work on the business, not in the business” means?
> What do you think about this ‘advice’?
> Would you give this advice to other people?
> If not, what alternative advice would you give to agency leaders?
> What was Clair Heaviside's end goal at the beginning of building her business and how has it changed since?
How would you explain what “work on the business, not in the business” means?
Simply put, it’s thinking about how the business works, rather than doing the work of the business. In practice that means putting a dividing line between dealing with day-to-day outputs, and the business strategy.
What do you think about this ‘advice’?
As with pretty much all aphorisms, it is a bit of an oversimplification and without explanation or guidance it could be unhelpful. But it does give permission for founders to think differently.
And if you don’t follow it, your business won’t move forwards.
The work will always take over. There will always be leads to chase down, pitches to win, briefs to write, clients to check in on. You could spend all day every day doing those things, and it is tempting because, if you’re a first time founder, that’s probably your comfort zone. But at some point you need to separate your business from yourself, and that is a truly entrepreneurial way of thinking.
Would you give this advice to other people?
Yes. It’s one of those things that is really easy to say and harder than you would think to execute. Not least because not everyone is good at it.
You could be the best graphic designer in the world, but that doesn’t mean you could run the most profitable design agency.
To truly work on the business you may need to step away from the things you loved doing, the things that inspired you to start the business in the first place. And not everyone wants to do that.
But for anyone who has taken the courageous step to build a business from scratch, there is inevitably a need for them to lift their head from their laptop, and make big strategic decisions. So whether you like it or not, it needs to be done.
If not, what alternative advice would you give to agency leaders?
I would give accompanying advice:
Be really clear on what you want from your agency.
Is it the freedom to work on projects you love, with a team of your choosing? Or is it a financial or lifestyle goal?
What will make you happy?
Having that clarity will guide you toward putting in place the infrastructure your agency needs. If it’s the former, bring in people who can help you manage things while you lead the delivery of those fantastic projects. If it’s the latter, empower your team to do great work without you, so that you can focus on ensuring you have an agency that operates consistently, profitably and self-sufficiently.
Ultimately: know what you want (and what you are good at), and hire strategically against that vision.
What was Clair Heaviside's end goal at the beginning of building her business and how has it changed since?
At the very beginning, when Dom and I first co-founded Serotonin, we knew we had the potential within our partnership to build an agency that delivered groundbreaking work, with a culture where people were able to thrive. We knew we could scale quickly, be highly responsive and reactive to our clients and as we kept saying to each other “do things properly”.
All of these things fed into a shared vision, which we laid down right from the start.
What was missing at the beginning, was the end game. We knew what we wanted to do, but where it would end up, and the path to get there, were not yet clear.
After working in the business for a year we were ready to work on it. We had built a team we trusted to operate without us, and in turn we could bring in specialist support to help us nail down the specifics of our goals.
As we look ahead to our fourth year those goals have not changed. Now when we work on the business we focus on the strategy behind achieving them.
Clair Heaviside's bio
Clair Heaviside's agency Serotonin is based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Serotonin’s team is built around creative and digital expertise, working together to deliver multi-channel campaigns for national and global clients.
In 2022 Serotonin was named Small Digital Agency of The Year at the Northern Marketing Awards.
Clair has worked in marketing agencies for over 10 years, and before that was the founder of Odd Arts, a charity that transforms lives through creativity in the criminal justice system.
In 2021 Clair was named as one of Business insider’s 42 Under 42, sits on the BIMA NW Council and was recently nominated Marketer of the Year at the Prolific North Marketing Awards.
She is also trustee of Haven, a charity that supports children and young people impacted by domestic abuse.
Humble promo of Clair Heaviside and Serotonin
Clair and her business partner Dom are a real powerhouse. Relentless in their pursuit to reach the goals they set themselves - and as a result Serotonin has grown rapidly in a relatively short time in relation to other agencies. But what I personally love most about Clair is her ability bring a ton of empathy into her work. That can be incredibly hard when you are growing fast and need to constantly make quick decisions. And somehow beyond the hard work she delivers at Serotonin, Clair finds the time to invest an incredible amount of time into charitable work. Hat off!
Cheerssss!
Daniel
Explore other perspectives
Simon Squibb
Founder @ The Purposeful Project
"You can do both - if you’re a small business you need to do both"
Suzanne Linton
Co-founder @ Freestyle
"It is important to work out what you really want from your business"
Dines
Co-founder @ Studio Blup
"I realised when I was working in the business we weren't evolving it as much"
Andrew Dobbie
Founder @ Yoyo Design
"It’s a great piece of advice, but it’s probably one of the hardest things to do as a business owner"
The Rabbit Hole: Exploding Topics
This retailer has grown interest by 9,600%.
This ecommerce platform has skyrocketed 99x since 2016.
This gives protection to cars from scratches and has grown interest by 1,200%.
This serum apparently stops wrinkles and has had a whopping 9,500% interest increase.
I always love dabbling around Exploding Topics, it’s a fun place to find trends.
Ready to jump down the rabbit hole?
Blindspot: Are you too nice?
No seriously, is being too nice holding you back from taking your agency to the next level?
Read more