• We discussed how the issue of sustainability will change the positioning of our businesses over the coming years as markets, consumers and our clients demand that we live, work and design sustainably. Matt talked us through the journey his own business has been on as it has worked to embed sustainability into every decision they make and signposted us to the Business Impact Assessment as a great tool to use.
• Sigrid and Matt took us through the importance of seeing this as a journey and not being afraid to share what you’re doing, reflecting the journey you’re on and communicating with clients and consumers with honesty, as well as the need to avoid green-washing. Starting somewhere, assessing where you are already and acknowledging that you have more to do over time is a great approach. There are a range of resources and organisations to consider aligning with on your journey, from B Corp to the UK Business Climate Hub and the UN Global Compact.

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here.

Due to bank holidays our next members forum will be on Tuesday 3 May.

1. Clarity

Your website is your shop window. Even if most of your new business comes through word-of-mouth, clients will still take a look at your website before making contact.

Their greatest frustration is not being able to quickly understand what the agency’s strengths are – what is the main thing you are good at and can add the most value in?

You need to clearly and concisely, without resorting to industry jargon, explain what you do and your point of difference from the thousands of other design agencies.

Here’s one way you can make your website work harder.

2. Lack of time

Clients are extremely time pressured.

• 76% of clients complain of being extremely time pressured.
• 89% say their market is moving faster than ever before.
• 79% say they are unable to give as much consideration to longer term brand building as they would have liked.
• 66% of clients stressed the need for short, sharp, and concise communications.
• 44% of clients believe that there is less time for consideration and reflection.

But there are opportunities for agencies armed with this knowledge. Those with concise, clear communications illustrating how they can solve specific problems, can cut through.

Those who understand the client’s market and specific issues can help build longer term strategy into their solutions. By helping the client, rather than adding to the noise, the agency can become a valued partner.

3. Getting a foot in the door

Clients do not have time for speculative new business meetings. They want to feel like they have ‘discovered an agency’ rather than being sold to. Which begs the question – how does an agency make sure they are the one that is discovered? Content marketing is the key – to draw clients towards you. But it needs to be relevant, insightful, authentic and real.

The top 3 new business door openers are:

• Primary research
• Understanding of a strategic issue
• Definitive case study

And through all of this remember that 90% of clients believe that the best agency new business approaches are like an ‘informed discussion’.

4. Client servicing will usually be the reason for the relationship breaking down

87% of clients with a weak relationship with their agency cited client service issues as the reason. Agencies which work hard on developing clear and concise reporting methods to keep their clients informed on progress have an advantage.

5. There are always ways to improve

The report asked clients which area of their business they wished their agency knew more about. The results give agencies an idea of the questions they need to ask and the skills they need to develop to really become valued partners with their clients.

• Commercial realities – understanding the client’s priorities and pressures.
• Operations – how does the business work and what are their challenges.
• Internal – stakeholders, approval process and how decisions get made.

Download the Report and watch the webinar recording

Join us to celebrate the power of design

On Thursday 30 June from 12pm BST, our 2022 winners will find out if they’ve won Gold, Silver or Bronze at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards 2022 winners announcement.

The online event, which is free and open to all, is a fantastic opportunity to find out what makes a DBA Design Effectiveness Award winner, so you too can prepare your case.

Tune into the live broadcast to celebrate the power of design and toast the success of our 2022 winners. Register here.

DBA Design Effectiveness Awards Winners Shortlist 2022

• To the question of what businesses can and should do in response to the war in Ukraine, Matt took us through the 7 top tips from B Corp UK on how businesses can help. There were also some interesting ideas from others, such as donating old technology equipment, supporting Legal Aid and giving refugees a place to stay. We’re keen to hear from you on this issue and will prioritise getting our members guidance as necessary as it progresses. We’ve compiled an online resource to help you keep on top of how the conflict is impacting business you can access here.
• The government’s Levelling Up agenda makes clear that there isn’t equality of opportunity across the country. We heard some great suggestions from Michael Thompson on bringing together the community on a local level. Nigel Davies highlighted that some of the best colleges are outside of the central regions in the UK, and so there are perhaps opportunities to spread opportunities from those bases. Shray Vaidya also shared a great local level initiative – Speakers for Schools – their aim is to end educational inequality by giving all young people access to the same prestigious networks available to the top fee-paying schools in the UK.
• We were invigorated by Sam Jameson from Soapsmith’s story of how design changed the lives of her and her team. If design is going to contribute to the Levelling Up agenda, it has a key role in creating new jobs, improving living standards, and advancing public services – we as a design industry have a key role to play in this.

Our Members’ Forum takes place on the first Monday of each month, at 4 – 5pm. If you would like to attend, get in touch here.

Have your say on how to protect your designs

There are two ways to share your views:

The Designs Framework Survey is currently open for responses until 11 February 2022.

It is particularly aimed at those who do not consider themselves IP experts. The short survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and is an opportunity for designers, design-led businesses, and manufacturers to have their say on the future of how designs are protected in the UK. You can complete the survey here.

A Designs Call for Views has now also been launched, seeking views on the designs intellectual property framework.

It allows those who would like to give more detailed comments on the UK designs system to share their views, providing opportunity to submit considered arguments about how the system could change.

The Call for Views launched on 25 January and will be open until 25 March 2022. You can access more information and respond to the Call for Views on design IP here. 

“We would like to hear from you about what works well and what could work better. This will allow the government to consider whether changes need to be made to the UK designs system,” says the IPO.

DBA Expert and Senior Associate at D Young & Co, William Burrell says, “The release of this consultation on whether changes are required to the existing UK design law framework provides a fantastic opportunity for those already making use of registered and unregistered design rights in the UK to have their say on whether these rights are currently fit for purpose, and if not then how they could be improved to work more effectively.

Equally, for those not yet making substantial use of design rights in the UK, the consultation at least now provides a welcome opportunity to provide input on how these rights might be modified to better cover their design related activities.” 

You can read more from DBA Expert William Burrell on the consultation here.

And you can also hear from our industry friends, Anti Copying in Design (ACID), on why they welcome this consultation, here.

Designs Framework Survey: take part here.

Designs Call for Views: take part here.  

www.gov.uk/ipo

1. Speaker events

All of us have a story to tell and our community wants to hear it. Whether it’s sharing your story of how you started out; talking through a favourite case study; or sharing something you feel passionate and that’s relevant to design students and graduates.

We need a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour for the virtual talk. Our project director Emily handles everything else. From the invites to the community, to the tech to run the event. She can help with Q&As beforehand or during. All she needs is a brief description of the event and the speaker’s bio. That’s it.

One recent event saw Bow & Arrow designers, Megan Watkins and Charlotte Liebling telling their story about their journeys into the creative industry, ‘their wonky way in’, showing that there’s not one way.

They told us about taking part with a DCH event: “We had total freedom to share what we wanted, in a way that suited us, and in turn we have been able to access a pool of exciting design talent. As students, we remember how valuable these types of events were and so feel thrilled to have been able to take part ourselves and give back.”

2. Peer-to-peer support

The hub thrives over on the Guild platform. If you haven’t joined yet, please do. You can help here by simply sparing a minute or two of your time to drop in a comment and answer any questions that crop up. Your input could be invaluable. Who knows where your advice or insight could lead a new designer?

3. Portfolio reviews – help the 21-year-old you

Portfolio reviews are a highly valued part of our community. Would you be willing to give us an hour and a half of your time to give feedback to three young designers?

We work with you to find out how you’d like to run these sessions, for example in one block, or over three weeks, and we drive all publicity and registrations over on Guild.

Dan Whetstone, associate director at Lumsden recently held some reviews and said to us: “I got all my jobs through connections, apart from my first as a graduate. Getting that first job felt impossible because I had no meaningful experience, no idea how a design business worked and no clue about what people wanted to see in my portfolio.  

“The DCH portfolio reviews felt like a good way of helping people like the 21-year-old me. Where else can you be interviewed without pressure and ask questions that might feel stupid, but are actually really important?

“Every session was really rewarding. Everyone was very grateful. One person got her first job shortly afterwards. It’s easily one of the best things I’ve done.”

4. Internships

If your agency has an internship to publicise, tell Emily what it is, and we’ll get it posted and promoted on our platforms. Internships are a brilliant way to engage and up-skill young talent making them work-force ready, plus a very easy way to give back.

5. Donations

Giving your time or nominating other team members to get involved with the hub, through the hosting of events, portfolio reviews, community engagement and internships is highly valued, but equally important to us is the continued fund-raising to allow the running of the hub.

Please pop over to our Gofundme page to continue your support.

If you want to get involved in any aspect of the hub or talk about any ideas you have, please head over to the DCH website to get in contact with the Project Director Emily Foulkes.

Keep an eye out for more exciting news from the DCH coming soon and thank you to all of the industry for your support to date. We can’t do it without you!

One manifestation on the surface of our ‘business ocean’ is money arriving in the bank account… diving deeper we should look at the journey of this money and see if the key moments reveal how we might have done things better:

The invoice

• do we send invoices on time?
• could invoices be broken down into stages and invoiced earlier?
• could a % of the work be billed up-front?

Debtors

• are we tracking debtor days and taking action on late payers?
• do we always get a purchase order signed off by the client?
• are our terms and conditions good enough?

Work in progress

• are we tracking time against the quote given to the client? Did we get the quote right?
• are we identifying scope creep and billing the client accordingly?
• are we meeting the KPIs for the value of work in progress?

Pipeline

• have we identified prospective separately from speculative?
• have we set and do we meet KPIs for the value of prospective and speculative work?
• do we have a score system to evaluate the viability of a lead?

Networking

• are we setting and meeting targets for thought leadership pieces?
• are we using our employees network to share content?
• are we positioning ourselves as partners rather than vendors?

For each element of your business you need to look beyond the surface results and understand how those figures came to be as they are. What is causing the success or difficulties, and how can they be improved?