Lessons we’ve Learned Running a Creative Business
Running a business is one of the steepest learning curves you can put yourself on. There’s no real playbook, and often the most useful lessons are the ones you only learn after you’ve made a mistake.
At Oliver Lauren Studio, we’ve been growing our creative business for a few years now — and we’re still learning all the time. But there are a few key lessons that have stuck with us. Some came from personal experience. Others came from speaking with other business owners we admire. All of them have shaped the way we now approach our work and our business.
Here are five we keep coming back to:
1. Don’t over-rely on a single client
In our first year, we had one client who made up a large chunk of our income. When things changed on their side, it had a big impact on us. Since then, we’ve worked to avoid any one client accounting for more than 20% of our revenue. It’s not always possible, especially when you’re starting out, but it’s a good benchmark. Diversifying your client base gives you more control and stability.
2. Take payment upfront wherever possible
We used to avoid this — worried it might scare people off. But it’s actually been one of the most important shifts we’ve made. Taking payment upfront (or at least 50% at the start of a project) protects your time, sets expectations, and helps cash flow. It also reduces the awkwardness of chasing late invoices later down the line.
3. Keep your brand and website up to date
We work with a lot of clients on their branding and websites, and something we always say is: if you’re not proud of your online presence, it’s probably holding you back. That goes for us too. As a design studio, we know how important first impressions are — and we try to treat our own brand like we would a client’s: regularly reviewing and refining it.
4. Play to your strengths — and delegate your weaknesses
Early on, we wore all the hats — from project management to finance to design. But over time, we realised that the most effective thing we could do was lean into our strengths and get support elsewhere. That’s looked different at different stages: upskilling in some areas, outsourcing others. It’s helped us focus on the work we do best.
5. Make time to work on the business
It’s easy to let things like marketing, outreach, or refining processes fall by the wayside when client work ramps up. But we’ve learnt that staying visible and building a healthy pipeline only happens if you carve out time to work on the business — not just in it. That might mean writing a newsletter, updating the site, or planning future projects. It doesn’t need to be big — but it does need to be regular.
Every business has its own set of lessons — and these are just a few that have made a difference for us. They’ve helped us build a more resilient studio, and we hope they’ll be useful to others doing the same.
