Business pain points, and how design can help

I know, I did, when I said to Thomas of Taylor/Thomas, “shall we?” This is the mantra I pedal out to colleagues and friends: “running a business is like having children. You have good days, and you have bad days. The good days are life affirming, but the bad days are a living hell.” Thankfully, there aren’t many of those bad days, but life, and business, does throw a few curveballs.

So bravo, you took the step. Along the way, I am sure, however you have encountered a few growing pains.

Not to over simplify, there are two or three key milestones in a business’ life-cycle. What this article aims to look at is the typical pain points of business growth through a design lens. We can’t help you if your business partner is dysfunctional, or you suspect one of your employees is a drug addict. We can help you though if you want to differentiate yourselves from your competitors. Or, if you are gunning for growth, help you attract new customers, or scale your team. (Those by the way, tend to come hand in hand.)

Let’s go back to the beginning though.

Start up

Exciting times. You are in start up mode. You’ve got your seed funding. Game on! That, or you are self-funding and bootstrapping your business for as little as possible.

It’s no secret however, that 50% of new businesses will go under within three years, and 20% will close their doors within their first year. There are a myriad of reasons. Some simply run out of money, while others have a leadership breakdown, but if you fail to communicate your value proposition in a clear and concise way, how are you going to get customers through your door in the first place?

This boils down to really knowing who your customers are, being clear and succinct about what problem you solve, and making your proposition so compelling your customers want to start a conversation with you. (Read ‘From brand positioning, right down to tone of voice, why both matter’ if this doesn’t make sense to you.)

Striking a balancing act

In our experience, most new businesses are created by those with a track record, and have thought “I can do this for myself, and do it differently.” This is where positioning a new business is what you and I might call a ‘balancing act’.

It has to come across with a certain amount of gravitas (read experience) but a willingness to buck the status quo, stand out and a make a land grab for an incumbent’s territory.

These might be mis-read as opposing forces, and sometimes they are, but buying from an unknown entity is, in the eyes of your buyer, a risk. Internally, be that risk taker, but in the eyes of your customer, be genuine, solve a problem, put a stake in the ground to say we are different, but exude confidence and be a safe pair of hands.

Yes, we can get you off the ground through differentiation, but don’t over promise what you can’t deliver. Break brand trust and you will join one of the 50% quite quickly, for brand is reputation, and reputation is the life blood of your business.

Start ups are on a mission and their key goal will be to acquire customers rapidly to get stability.

We aren’t going to sugar-coat a fly-by-night (we have morals too, you know!), but if you are a genuine contender, then positioning is all important.

Growth mode

In growth mode you are looking to scale the business. You have proven it has worked, you have happy customers (well, we hope you do) and you have just acquired your next round of funding! Let’s do this!

You have also begun to hone your internal and external processes. You know what you stand for, and a ‘culture’ has emerged, either through your own invention, or organically.

Over the years we have been fortunate enough to work on a long term basis with our clients – sometimes creating their second, or, even, third website.

Through each growth phase, we have been witness to a few pain points.

Moving at pace

Your business is moving at pace and has evolved so much that your brand communications no longer represent your product or service. Your customers are confused, or blissfully unaware of the value you can bring.

Basically, your website fell behind your business.

Stuck

You are in the doldrums. You have stagnated and need fresh impetus to help kick-start the next phase of growth. This is a different type of growth catalyst. You have recognised that you have plateaued and you need to re-position or become another statistic.

This is particularly relevant if you have been pigeon-holed for a single type of product or service, and your customers don’t know you have a different offer. Or, they perceive your price isn’t right for them, even though they never even asked. You might call this pivoting your business to tap into new markets.

Either way, each problem is easily solved by deep interrogation of your business and growth plans. Believe us when we we say we know how hard it is to figure out what label to put on the outside of the tin when you are on the inside. This is where we can help.

We will seek to understand your past, your present and your future. Every business has a story to tell, and it takes an outsider – that will be us – to help make sense of it and frame it in a way that makes a compelling case to your customers.

Acquiring customers, employees and funding

In growth mode, you will be likely to be talking to two or more audiences. At the very least, you will be looking to acquire more customers, seek employees to fulfil increased demand, and possibly even go through another round of funding to stoke the furnace.

When talking to more than one audience, you will need to understand each of their needs, as well as fears. Remember, no one who buys your product or service wants to look bad at making ‘that’ decision in the eyes of their superiors. (Sorry, that does also mean you need to keep up your end of the bargain too.)

Acquiring further customers boils down to creating a value proposition again, but this time, this isn’t about then or now, it’s about the future. Don’t make the mistake of aiming for the now, position yourself as though you have arrived, as this round of growth is all about having arrived there, not wondering if you will arrive or not. This is planned. Let’s execute!

Clarifying your offer, again

Again, this is about creating clarity. Have you created new products or services for your customers, that make sense to you, but no one else? Or, has your offer become fragmented because you spotted opportunities and took off in different directions? Now is the time to look at your product or service eco-system and make sense of it through your customer’s eyes. This may mean tearing down walls, but this isn’t about you, this about your customer. And, what does clarity mean? Better revenues! (We got so close to ‘points mean prizes’ there.)

Attracting employees

With increased demand, comes increased need for supply, and so your employee head count has to grow. (Or, you can burn everyone out, and make a lot of enemies.)

So in growth mode, you aren’t just attracting customers, you are attracting employees. This is where your company culture and values need to come to the fore.

It’s the 21st century now, and has been for a while now, so, to the millennial workforce, employment is a two way street. Your company has to have a reason for why a candidate would want to work for you, not the other way round. If your company has a high turnover of staff, you might want to look inwards.

Anyway, back to the point. Your business is vetted by a potential candidate, as much as you vet candidates yourself. If you don’t communicate your company culture, values, and what it is like to work at your company, you miss out on hiring your next ‘star’.

Take Azur for example. Insurance can often be perceived as ‘male, middle aged and middle class’. Being an Insurtech (that went through the same fast paced growing pains, we might add) we know that underwriters and developers work side-by-side. For the technology side of their business, their recruitment pool may have had the same perceptions of insurance. Therefore, it was really important to bring the Azur ‘culture’ to the fore. That isn’t smoke and mirrors. The reality is that Azur is a 21st century business with a millennial workforce.

This growth phase, can and usually goes in cycles every three to four years, and if we are lucky enough to be working on the second or third incarnation of a website, the usual pain points apply: the website fell behind the business, or the business pivoted.

Where do you sit on the growth curve?

In summary, regardless of where your business sits on the growth curve, the same rules apply. It is the deep interrogation and immersion in your business that leads to our customer’s success. Yes, each pain point is unique, and each business is unique. That’s our advantage though, because we can tease that out, and your advantage, because you have a unique story to tell.

What’s your business pain point? While we hope your business partner is slightly less dysfunctional and you supported your staff member through re-hab, please do get in touch. We would love to hear from you so we can help apply the necessary band-aid.