What Reading Clockwork Taught Me About Building a More Sustainable Creative Business
The audiobook Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz had been sitting on my wish list for a very long time. It wasn’t until my design business coach, Donna from Design & Prosper, included it in her recommended reading that I finally pressed play.
The timing couldn’t have been better.
My partner, Ash, and I are incredibly lucky — and very excited — to be planning an extended trip through Europe in 2027. It will be my first time visiting these incredible places, and thinking about the trip raised a question I couldn’t ignore:
What do I actually want my life and business to look like while we’re travelling?
Do I want to lock myself into work, meetings and deadlines, knowing I may not be fully present for the experience? Do I want Ash and me to have to plan our days around my commitments when we could be exploring somewhere new?
At the same time, I don’t want to let my clients down or disappear from a business I’ve spent years thoughtfully building.
I knew I needed specialised guidance to help me explore what might be possible for Shiplee Studio. I’m not planning to stop working altogether, rapidly scale the studio or build a huge agency. I simply want to create a business that can continue running smoothly without requiring me to be attached to it every day.
Before reading Clockwork, the idea of having my business run without me sounded almost too good to be true.
Shiplee Studio is a deeply personal business. My clients work with me for my strategic thinking, creative direction, design, illustration and the care I bring to understanding their businesses. How could the studio continue to feel personal if I wasn’t involved in every email, follow-up, deadline and decision?
As I listened, I began to realise that being central to the creative value of my business isn’t the same as needing to personally manage every task that keeps it moving.
That distinction has sparked a much bigger exploration of what Shiplee Studio could become — not only while I’m travelling, but well beyond it.
I’m not trying to build the biggest studio
For a long time, I’ve associated conversations about systems, delegation and creating a business that can operate without you with one particular kind of success: scaling.
More clients. More staff. More revenue. A bigger studio.
That isn’t necessarily what I’m working towards.
I want Shiplee Studio to be a thoughtful and sustainable creative business — one that allows me to do meaningful work, provide a genuinely personal client experience and protect the energy I need to create.
I want to work with businesses that value strategy, personality and thoughtful design. In particular, I would love to keep working with more hospitality businesses, wineries, cafés, restaurants and interesting spaces throughout Maitland, Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.
Growth may be part of that, but growth for its own sake isn’t the goal.
For me, success looks more like having the space to think deeply, notice the details and produce work I’m proud of. It means being responsive and supportive without feeling as though I need to be available every moment. It means having a business that complements my life and creativity instead of consuming them.
Travel has given this work a deadline
My partner, Ash, and I are planning to spend an extended period travelling through Europe next year.
It’s incredibly exciting — but it has also prompted some honest questions about how Shiplee Studio currently operates.
What would happen if I wasn’t sitting at my desk every weekday?
Could a client easily understand what stage their project had reached? Would enquiries and follow-ups still be handled consistently? Could parts of the business continue moving without every decision passing through me?
More importantly, could I step away for periods of time without feeling as though I needed to check my inbox constantly?
I don’t expect Shiplee Studio to operate as though I’m not involved at all. It is a personal creative studio, and my thinking, artwork and approach are an important part of why clients choose to work with me.
But I would like it to operate smoothly without me needing to be attached to it every day.
The travel itself isn’t the only reason to make these changes. It has simply made the need for them much clearer.
If I can create more dependable systems before we leave, those systems will also support me during busy project periods, quieter seasons and everyday life at home in Maitland.
Identifying the work that really needs me
One of the central ideas in Clockwork is identifying your business’s Queen Bee Role: the most important function that needs to be protected for the business to thrive.
For Shiplee Studio, that role lives in the creative work.
It’s the strategic thinking that helps uncover what a business really needs from its brand. It’s developing the creative idea, making considered design decisions, illustrating something with character, and bringing all the elements together into a cohesive experience.
It also includes the personal insight and close attention that I bring to every project. I don’t want to create brands based purely on what is trending. I want to understand the people behind a business, how it works, and what will make it feel distinct and memorable.
That is where I create the greatest value — and where I want more of my time and energy to go.
However, running a creative business also involves scheduling projects, responding to routine emails, preparing documents, following up on approvals, checking payments, updating task lists and remembering dozens of small details across different clients.
Those tasks matter. They contribute to the overall client experience and shouldn’t be neglected.
But they don’t all have to be completed by me.
Realising that has been both liberating and slightly uncomfortable. Staying in touch with clients and being responsive is deeply important to me, so handing over any part of that responsibility can feel very personal.
The challenge is to build support around the studio without losing the warmth, care and personality that make it Shiplee Studio.
Creating more breathing room
I’m still figuring out exactly what this next version of the business will look like.
It may involve better workflows, clearer project stages and more automation where it genuinely improves the experience. It may mean documenting the processes that currently live in my head or working with an operations assistant who can keep an eye on the details while I concentrate on the creative work.
It also means becoming more intentional about communication — setting clearer expectations around when I respond, what clients need to provide, and what happens next.
None of these changes are especially glamorous, but together they could create an enormous amount of breathing room.
They could help projects run more smoothly for clients while reducing the number of things I have to mentally carry each day.
They could also give me more confidence to reconnect with past clients. I’ve often hesitated to check in because I’ve worried about becoming overwhelmed by another wave of work and administration. With the right structure and support in place, nurturing those relationships could feel exciting again rather than daunting.
The goal isn’t to make Shiplee Studio less personal. It is to support the personal work with systems that make it more sustainable.
Making space for inspiration
There is another reason this matters so much to me.
Travel has always had a way of shifting how I see things. In Europe, I know I’ll be absorbing the character of different places — the art, signage, architecture, menus, packaging, galleries, public art, hospitality and all the small visual details that give a destination its personality.
Those experiences are naturally connected to the kind of work I want Shiplee Studio to become even better known for.
I don’t want to spend that time glued to my laptop, trying to keep up with every administrative task at home. I want enough space to notice where I am, experience it properly, and allow it to influence me.
And when I return, I don’t want to slip straight back into an overfilled schedule with no room to explore what I’ve learned.
I’m excited to imagine what Shiplee Studio might look like after such an inspirational travel experience: what I’ll notice, what I’ll bring home, and how that might shape the next chapter of my work.
Preparing the business now is one way of protecting that possibility.
A sustainable business doesn’t have to mean constant growth
One of my biggest takeaways from Clockwork is that creating a business that can run more smoothly without you doesn’t have to be about building an empire.
It can be about creating choices.
The choice to step away for a day without worrying that something will be forgotten. The choice to focus fully on a creative project. The choice to travel, rest, or explore an idea. The choice to ask for support before becoming completely overwhelmed.
I’m not aiming to remove myself from Shiplee Studio. I’m working towards being more intentional about where I belong within it.
There is plenty for me to work through, and I know the business will continue to evolve. But that feels exciting. I’m beginning to see that the right systems, support and boundaries won’t take away from the creativity or personal experience — they’ll help protect them.
Ultimately, I want to build a business that continues to feel like me, even when it doesn’t require every part of me, every day.
