The practice

Member lesson

Building a studio

Lesson 11 of 11 in The practice.

3 Keys To Success—How To Run A Design Business pt.1 · The Futur
Lesson

A studio is a small business that happens to make design, and most of the ones that close were good at the design. The failure modes are cash flow, over-hiring on optimistic pipeline, and a founder who is the only person who can sell.

discoveryaskbriefagreeconceptswidenrefinenarrowhandoverlet gothe widest point is the cheapest place to be wrong
The arc of a project, with the widest point in the middle and one narrowing at each end.
A doodle of a tower of blocks where only the bottom row is green paid work, held up by a straining figure, and the grey blocks above carry small icons for emails, pitches, selling, admin and hiring.
Only some of a studio's hours are paid. Those few billed hours have to carry the cost of all the selling, admin, hiring and pitching stacked on top of them.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The proportion of paid hours against available hours. The number that decides survival.”

    • Client-side dependency
    • Result
    • Runway
    • Utilisation
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “How long the studio can operate on current cash. Measured in months.”

    • Case study
    • Credit
    • Runway
    • Pipeline
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Work that is likely but not signed. Always less certain than it looks.”

    • Pipeline
    • Success criterion
    • Reverse brief
    • Desk research
End of The practiceMembers onlyNow play it5 games from this module at four levels, and a stamp for your ticket book.

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