24 years in business teaches you things they don’t cover in design school.

I started Top Left Design in 2002 with zero clue about sales, delegation, finance, or running a business!

Here’s what working with dozens of employees and hundreds of amazing clients taught me:

1. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

When I started as a young designer, I’d jump straight to design because “the client’s in a hurry.”

And then do more revisions than I could count!

Over time, I’ve obviously evolved and built up a really great planning process.

The 2-3 hours we spend upfront asking better questions saves us weeks of revisions later.

Once the designs are signed off, the coders never have to fill in any gaps or guess. They just follow the designs we’ve created, considered, and reviewed.

When you understand why someone started their business, what makes them different, and who they’re truly trying to reach – everything else flows.

The lesson: 

Invest time in the beginning.

You’ll move faster in the end.

2. Being proud of your website changes how you share it.

I’ve met so many people who, when I tell them what I do, say “Don’t look at my website”.

Well, that’s just sad, isn’t it? Think about it!

When you’re embarrassed by your site, you hide. You don’t mention it in conversations. You don’t include it in your email signature.

When you’re genuinely proud? 

You can’t stop sharing.

You send it to prospects. You show it to peers. You use it in pitches.

We put this onto an Instagram post once:

Pride = visibility.

Visibility = opportunity.

I still don’t understand how nowadays, with so many options to do things better than ever, people still neglect the home hub of their business, the core of their marketing – their website.

If you’re not excited to share your link, your website isn’t working for you – it’s working against you! You’ll see me talking about this a lot on LinkedIn!

---

3. You’ll never regret removing someone from the wrong role. You’ll only wish you did it sooner.

I’ve made this mistake more than once.

You know someone’s not the right fit. But they’re nice. They try hard. I love nice people and hard workers!

And you don’t want to seem like an uncaring tyrant.

So you wait. You hope it’ll get better. You make excuses. They make excuses! Oh gosh, it’s a terribly stressful toxic situation.

But the hard truth I’ve learned, the hard way is: Keeping someone in the wrong role hurts them too.

They feel it. They know. And staying longer just makes it harder.

The lesson: Fast decisions save everyone pain. Slow ones just drag it out.

I am lucky I haven’t had to deal with this messy situation for many years as we have a strong loyal core team and it’s working well. But it took a lot to get here!

4. Templates create sameness. Bespoke reveals greatness.

Templates have been getting better, I admit. But what I see happening with them is that people don’t know how to work them, and as they fill in their own content and business info, things get worse. The wrong image choices, inconsistent or badly chosen heading formatting, and uninspiring copywriting make the orginal template so much worse.

And then at best, the sea of sameness, where their website looks pretty much like too many others, with nothing special shining through, and which doesn’t represent THEM.

And they wonder why they’re invisible.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

The businesses that stand out? They didn’t take shortcuts on the thing that represents them online.

Our clients that are most successful? Invested in their businesses, and had our expert help! And they’re doing so much better.

They invested in custom design with us at TLD that actually reflects who they are.

Not because it’s prettier. Because it works harder.

The lesson: Unique beats fast. Every. Single. Time.

5. Teach and learn isn’t optional. It’s the culture.

Early on, I thought my job was to deliver websites.

Now? I know my job is to teach clients how to think about their marketing.

We don’t just hand over a site and disappear. We explain why we made every choice. We train them to update it. We share what we’ve learned from other projects.

Because when clients understand the “why,” they make smarter decisions long after we’re gone.

One of our values is “Teach & Learn” and we live by this every day!

The lesson: Build capability, not just deliverables.

6. Hire people smarter than you. Then get out of their way.

Amy and Tam are better designers than I’ll ever be.

Early on, I didn’t have such talented people. I thought “I am a designer” and “I need to do all the design”!

So I only hired admin people, and if they attempted designs, I redid anything they created!

I spent far too much time redoing their work and  teaching the fundamentals of design when I should have been working on building the business.

It was exhausting. 

Then I learned: Hire brilliant people.

Trust them. Give them space to be shine!

Now, I couldn’t be prouder.

They say you have to hire people smarter than you and I had to put my ego aside to let that happen!

7. The skills that scare you most unlock your biggest growth.

The 2002 version of me was terrified of public speaking and sales.

If you’d told me I’d spend the next 20 years speaking at events, running strategy sessions, and confidently pitching to strangers, I wouldn’t have believed you.

But I joined BNI. I went to Toastmasters. I practiced until my voice stopped shaking.

I hated the feeling of fear and really wanted to be “cured”!

So I through myself into doing it as much as possible. And it worked!

The lesson: The thing you’re avoiding? That’s probably the skill you need most.

I didn’t figure it all out right away; it took me longer than it takes others. But 24 years later, I look back and realise – the lessons that felt hardest at the time became the foundations I built everything on!