As she approached her fifth year in business for herself, Thiara Borges Dananberg hit pause to reevaluate her firm’s internal processes and project pipeline. In both cases, she realized that it was time to streamline.

Like many designers running young businesses, Thiara Borges Dananberg said yes to most of the inquiries that came her way. But in her firm’s fifth year, a period of rapid growth left her worried about both professional burnout and her fledgling studio’s profitability. Suddenly, the systems that had served her well seemed more like an obstacle to success, and she realized that she had to start thinking differently. “It can be scary to change how you’re operating, but I knew I had to take a look at my business holistically and reset in order to move forward in a sustainable way,” she says.

Borges Dananberg realized two things: She wanted to be more discerning about the work she was taking on, and to do this, she needed to fine-tune her internal processes so her firm could successfully manage bigger, better projects. “We did an audit of our workflow, which took time—time we couldn’t bill for—but it was a worthy investment,” she says. “You hear about investing in photo shoots or staffing up, but there’s also a lot of value in making the time to ensure that the cogs are running smoothly and your team is working well together.”