We recently connected with Cynthia Akita and have shared our conversation below.

Cynthia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

Business is such a long journey filled with many great experiences and lessons. Personally, I wouldn’t change anything about the journey, but if I could, I would do the following things…

Learn How To Do Things
I personally did this very well along my journey, but if you are not creative, it’s important to learn how to do the things that you cannot afford to pay for. You either have time or you have money, you usually don’t have both. So if you cannot afford a service, find a tutorial that teaches you to do the things you need, until you get to place where you can pay someone.

Get Training
Let’s talk about training. When it comes to creative services, a lot of it is based on something that you may have naturally been doing well that was turned into a for-profit service. Other times, it’s something you had to learn, and later realized that you enjoy teaching others how to do the same thing or that you would rather help others by doing it for them.

The way you get into your area of expertise may vary, but whether it comes naturally or not, I think it’s important to get some form of training. Training is not bound to applying to an accredited college/university. In this day and age, I’m sure the best thing about it all is the fact that education has expanded so much that we can even get some knowledge from videos on YouTube. You can also visit Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and additional online avenues.

Training and education is important because in order to give the best service, it’s always good to learn what the industry standard is, as well as what you may be missing. At the end of it all, the best thing for your business is to give a great brand experience, so if additional education will help you do so and even charge a premium for that, why not do it? You can’t lose anything by learning.

Price for Growth
Ugh!!!! Pricing is so hard!!!! I honestly struggle with pricing from time to time because I allow my inner self to try to convince me that no one will pay my prices, but I quickly shove that in the trash and tell myself that I am worth my price and A LOT MORE!

Something I wish I understood beforehand was the fact that I needed to price for my “now”, and also for my “future”. It’s easy to want money to pay your immediate bills, but it’s more important to think long term about the funds you will need in order to keep your business going. From the maintenance of your current business tools to the purchase of those educational tools I mentioned earlier — all those things require MONEY and INVESTMENTS. If you want to build a team and start hiring, that also requires money.

So here’s my advice. Envision where you want to be, and price in a manner that will allow you to achieve all of those aspirations, but please make sure that your skill level also matches the value you are requiring form prospects.

Clear Strategy
Rebranding on 1000! How many times have you “rebranded” because you felt that you were going in a different direction or just didn’t like what was created for your brand?

I’ve found myself in that trap over and over because I spent a lot of time trying to emulate other businesses that I thought were doing well as opposed to creating a brand that reflected ME, and the type of amazing services I delivered to my customers.

Don’t fall into that trap! Being you is always good enough!

So do this… sit down and create a plan and strategy. Define who you are, what you do, and why you do it, and then go ahead to determine who you will serve, and how to accurately appeal to that audience. This is actually a service I offer, so feel free to book a strategy session with me, anytime!

Networking
I’m pretty sure I heard someone say that “you are only as smart as the company you keep”. I could be wrong, but go with me. Networking and forming genuine relationships with business owners in and out of your niche is such a VITAL thing.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned just from hearing other people talk about and live out their experiences in business. I literally have a business besties group that I engage with everyday. We encourage each other and share advise based on where each person is in their business. I promise you that I would not be where I am without such connections.

Embrace Experiences
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, experience has been the best teacher. Experiences teach you what to change in your contracts. It teaches you the type of clients to stay away from. It teaches who you serve best. It shows you how to set boundaries. It gives you the opportunity to create a healthy balance between work and life. Experience is truly the best teacher.

Without experience, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to share my journey with you, so don’t despise your small beginnings. You are exactly where you are for a reason, so make sure you learn what you need to in that specific moment, and GROW from it.

Cynthia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Cynthia Akita, and I am a Brand Strategist and Web Designer over at Gyidi Design Firm. Art has always been a big part of my life, and thankfully, I had parents who allowed me to live out my interests through after-school programs that were centered around the arts. My sisters were also very art-forward, and so creativity was something that seemed to be in our bloodline. My mom at the time would design weddings and bring us along to help her, so we truly had many opportunities to learn more and more about design and its different forms. I got deeper into web design when I started my first business, a fashion line, back in 2011. I had to learn how to do all the things I could not afford to pay for, and web design was the biggest. I grew a love for it, and enjoyed helping others create theirs as well. The story goes on and on.

Gyidi Design Firm exists to create thriving brands that stand the test of time in the digital branding industry by building strong foundations that are based on strategy. We’d love to work with you to create something unique and bring clarity to your business.

Our services:
-Brand Strategy Workshop: This service is a 3-hour session that allows us to delve into what you do, how you do it, and why you do it through a number of fun exercises. We break down your business and build it back up with actionable strategies that you can use to appeal to your audience.
-Brand Identity Suites: We create your primary logo, variations, color palette, typography system, patterns, and additional design assets that will be used to identify your business.
-Web Design: We specialize in WordPress website design and use tools that allow you to easily update your website. Once we’ve completed your design, we conduct a training session in order to teach you how to make changes to your site on your own. We don’t want you to be in the dark when it comes to using your website.
-Creative Services: For additional design requests including graphics, template designs, and mockups, this service covers them all.

We emphasize brand strategy because it is vital that you build a brand that truly reflects what matters to your business. We don’t want you to have to do it twice, so strategy helps us build the right design foundations for you, the first time around.

At Gyidi, we pride ourselves on transparency. We give you all of the original files of your designs because we believe in complete brand ownership. It is not our desire to continuously siphon money out of you by holding your source files hostage.

To see us in action, please visit our website at https://gyididesigns.com/

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

In the Ghanian culture, it is quite common that occupations outside of the corporate space are not valued because they are perceived to not be of high-standard. The belief is that jobs outside of the medical field, engineering, or law, will not give one enough funds to appropriately take care of themselves and their families. This ideology is quite hard to deal with, especially when you’re a creative with the unction to move in the direction that God wants for you. This is why it is important to us that we help you set the right foundation for your business and help you get started. I always like to say “someone needs what you have to offer!”

Gyidi is here to inspire creatives to build strong brands of their own, so that they can achieve financial freedom doing what they love.

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I believe that non-creatives struggle to understand that the lives they have come to enjoy were only made possible by creatives — people who stepped out of what they knew in order to create something innovative and convenient for another.

Many times non-creatives fail to understand that design is necessary, and comes with a cost. Design shouldn’t be cheap, and it definitely shouldn’t be free. In the same manner that we eat with our eyes, people experience our brands based off of what they see first before they move on to their feelings. We deserve to be recognized for the impact that we make in society, and we should also be treated as such.

Ask yourself: Would you buy your favorite brand name if they didn’t have a logo or color palette that you liked? Would you be able to identify a high-end pasta brand at the grocery store from a low-end brand? Design is all around you, and what we do is vital for the lives we live today.

Please see the value in what we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gyididesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gyididesigns/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gyididesigns
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gyidi-web-design-consulting
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4o7PD9gBx6y3rDcIBaA7dw

Image Credits
For the photo of me, please credit “Studio Eveliz”