Designer Tech Stack

Brett at Designjoy, shared his tech stack, and I jumped on it.

The whole reason I wanted to write this newsletter is to see what other people use to run their businesses.

As I get better, I hope to be able to analyze and vet the income claims by sleuthing their business model and social prowess and reverse engineering probable income levels to validate them.

Short of the skill set, I will stick to what I can navigate: costs. When I started doing the financials, what surprised me most was the cost of running a business.

From a non-entrepreneur perspective, all you seem to hear about are the tax breaks, write-offs, and the m.o.n.e.y. But seeing behind the scenes of some businesses showcases how expensive it is and why it's often easier to stay in business than start a business.

Employees cost a freakin’ mint. Systems, though expensive, can save thousands in time, which is the most expensive commodity. The trick is to watch out for software creep. Are you using the right things? Keep that ceiling low. There is a cost to switching (and it gets worse as you get better), so there is nothing truer in software than marrying right the first time.

This stack seems quite lean and on point for someone who designs.

Design, build, get paid

The Desginjoy stack here is core. I imagine this has been through an evolution. I tend to select the web app that suits the customer's needs (Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow, WordPress), but I cannot deny that I feel like Webflow is the cream.

_{*Costing low and high are based on either what Desginjoy offered as paid or the highest paid tier that makes sense for a solopreneur (not an agency).}

_{**These costs are either passed on to the customer in some capacity}

Plan and Communicate

I have attempted Trello before and haven’t fallen in love, but I still like seeing use cases. It has a beautiful UI, and if it is put into the right system, I can see it being efficient.

I used Airtable years ago, and it has changed to A. LOT. I cannot even comment on what they offer today because of how much they have changed. I found them expensive, though, compared to an equivalent like Notion or Google Sheets.

Superhuman is on my list to try. Their marketing calls to me, but their price is so high you really have to need it.

I have used Loom and should do more of it. I have used it to create training materials to date, but recently, I was exposed to just how useful it is as an alternative to a meeting when you want to collaborate on visual assets.

Inspiration

I generally use Pinterest when I want inspiration, but Land-book and Mobbin are cool new tools that rule.

Organize

This is new to me, and I am digging in. It’s a one-time payment for life, works with many formats, and feels like the secret weapon for keeping designers organized.

_{*one time payment}

Icons, mock-ups, stock photos

_{*Supply Failmy and Mockup Cloud are mostly buying what you need, with Mockup Cloud offering a $129 lifetime access to 5000 assets. I would presume, but as you need, have the potential of being passed through to the customer.}

The tech stack so far, with hard numbers, is about $80/month on the low end and up to $115/month on the high end. This excludes one-time payments of $160 or all the soft monthly charges for design elements bought as one-offs or Stripe fees.

It’s easy to get excited about running a business when you see this, and I like to ground myself by remembering all the other hidden uglies: the accountants, lawyers, consultants, insurance, marketing, their own setup costs if they have a website, or other licenses and societies they pay annual subscriptions to, not to mention overhead.

I love seeing people’s stacks and seeing what I can do differently.

This is a fantastic read from 1985 on Warren Buffet having to eat crow regarding closing a textile business (hot tip, search for textile if you want to skip ahead) and recognizing he wasn’t about to outrun the dying industry, hard as he may try.

I think that the Red Queen Effect is strong in athletes and entrepreneurs. Maybe not always for the same reasons, but there is a drive for more.

Taking these ideas, finding real-world examples, or reapplying them to things that are abstract from the original thought, i.e., cross-disciplinary thinking, could certainly be considered keeping ahead of the competition.

Stay hungry, friends.

“You are an average of the five people you surround yourself with.” I believe to be true. This is not only a belief to me but a value set. When I cannot be around people, I use the internet to listen to the people.

This is dangerous of course. Eyes wide open, you could get yourself into an echo chamber.

My goal is not to self-fulfill a prophecy but rather to cultivate a mindset and belief system that the people around me may not hold—I use it as a counterweight to the mindsets around me.

Knowledge is power because when you understand an idea, you can manipulate it to your advantage.