We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kat Irwin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kat, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

My business growth was definitely NOT an overnight success.

When I started freelancing, I loved designing. I’d spend hours in the zone, sketching, refining ideas, tweaking colour palettes. It was creative. Exciting. And I knew this is what I’m meant to do. But one night at 3 am, everything felt different…

Lying in bed staring at the ceiling, exhausted after finalising a client project. My body ached, my head was buzzing, and my eyes burned from the hours on my laptop. “I’m getting too old for this,” I thought. I was only 29….

I didn’t start my business to feel this way. Tired. Overwhelmed. I knew something had to change. And the first step was hiring help. That also… wasn’t an overnight success. Like anything worth doing, it came with a steep learning curve.

My first hire was a disaster. Missed deadlines, bad communication, the list goes on… It was easy to blame the person I’d hired or to think they weren’t the right fit. But actually, the responsibility was all mine – I hadn’t managed the project well. And I knew it would happen again if something didn’t change. I had to step up. I had to think like a CEO.

And that one mindset shift is what changed everything. I started to treat every challenge as an opportunity to grow and learn. I evaluated how I communicated and set expectations, and also refined my systems. Today, I consistently work with a group of amazing freelancers and it’s always a collaborative, mutually beneficial process. It’s not only lightened my workload, but its made me a better business owner.

My advice if you’re looking to scale would be to remember to remember to rework and refine after every failure. Your first hire might not be perfect, but it’s part of the process. Focus on improving your communication, expectations and systems each time, and treat every mistake as a learning opportunity.

Kat, 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?

Hi, I’m Kat a web designer based in Berlin, Germany. I help impact-driven entrepreneurs build websites that drive results in their business. With 10+ years of design experience, I focus on creating long-term solutions that will help you hit all your goals, without all the stress and overwhelm of self-employment.

Whether it’s a full website, a quick audit or ongoing support, I partner with clients to build a digital presence that works for their business – not just that gathers dust in the background like many websites do.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Before I transitioned into web design I spent 6 years as a UX designer in the FinTech industry. I designed complex financial apps and thought that websites would be easy in comparison. But I was very wrong…

Despite my years of experience, I had grossly underestimated many aspects of working as a web designer, and it was definitely a humbling experience. It felt weird to start from scratch after 6 years. But actually, it was the best thing ever.

Embracing and accepting my lack of knowledge introduced me to a whole new way of thinking and a bunch of topics I’m genuinely passionate about. So, keep your mind open and stay humble – you never know what you might learn.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

After all my years in freelancing, I have two:

1. Don’t be an asshole.
When you treat people with respect and honesty they more likely want to work with you. I’ve build an amazing base of recurring clients just because I treat clients like people, not numbers. Business is not just about making money, it’s about building relationships and growing something amazing together. Which leads to the second point:

2. Provide solutions.
Lot’s of web designers market themselves as just that – a web designer. You hire me, you get a website. But your clients don’t need just ‘a website’, they need a solution to their problems. Solve their problems and they’ll want to continue working with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kat-irwin-design.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kat.irwin.design/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-irwin-design/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kat.irwin.design