DBC Creative
Building a more commercially sustainable creative business
Design & Creative
Business Coaching
March 2026 to September 2026
Helping Tim Booth move from reactive project work towards clearer commercial decisions, stronger client relationships and sustained business growth.
Tim Booth is the founder of DBC Creative, providing graphic design, branding, image editing and wider creative support to businesses and organisations.
When Tim and I started working together, he was looking for greater consistency in his business.
He had the skills, experience and client relationships to produce excellent creative work, but like many independent business owners, much of his attention was inevitably focused on delivering the next project rather than stepping back and considering what the business itself needed to achieve.
One of Tim's initial ambitions was relatively modest: to create a more predictable level of monthly income.
That became one of the first areas we challenged.
The Challenge
Tim's original target felt achievable, but when we began looking beyond turnover and considered the realities of running a business — operating costs, expenditure, tax, existing financial commitments and the lifestyle Tim ultimately wanted the business to support — it became clear that the initial goal would not be enough.
It was a starting point rather than a destination.
The coaching conversation therefore moved beyond:
“How do I hit my target?”
towards a more important question:
“What does this business actually need to generate for it to work for me?”
That required Tim to think differently about the type of work he accepted, how he valued his time and expertise, which opportunities deserved his attention and what a sustainable version of DBC Creative should look like.
The challenge was not simply finding more work.
It was building a better business.
The Coaching Engagement
Our work focused on creating greater clarity around what Tim wanted DBC Creative to become.
We explored the areas of the business with the greatest potential, including graphic design, brand identity, image editing and longer-term creative support.
At the same time, we looked critically at work that consumed time without producing an appropriate commercial return.
That included smaller jobs where the administration, sourcing or delivery involved could outweigh the value of the project.
An important shift was beginning to move away from the idea that every enquiry represented work that needed to be won.
Instead, Tim began to consider:
Is this the right work, with the right client, at the right value for the business I am trying to build?
Key Areas
Raising the Commercial Ambition
Tim's original monthly income target provided a useful reference point, but our conversations exposed that it would not provide the level of return the business needed once the realities of running it were taken into account.
We therefore established a more ambitious and commercially meaningful target.
This was not simply about choosing a bigger number.
It required Tim to think differently about where revenue would come from.
Rather than relying exclusively on a collection of smaller, one-off projects, the focus increasingly moved towards:
- Higher-value creative work
- Better commercial discipline around pricing
- More valuable client relationships
- Recurring and retainer-based opportunities
- Being prepared to turn down work that did not make commercial sense
The target began influencing decisions rather than simply measuring them.
Building Longer-Term Client Relationships
A significant part of the work has involved considering how individual pieces of creative work could develop into broader client relationships.
For potential opportunities, Tim began exploring monthly retainers and ongoing creative-support arrangements rather than automatically pricing every requirement as an isolated project.
We also worked through live commercial conversations, including how to structure proposals, negotiate rates, clarify scope and deal with expectations around on-site support.
The objective was not simply to secure the work.
It was to make sure the work was worthwhile.
Creating Greater Visibility
As the commercial proposition became clearer, we also looked at how DBC demonstrated the quality and value of its existing work.
Tim already had positive client relationships, completed projects, testimonials and reviews.
The opportunity was to use that evidence more effectively.
We therefore identified practical actions around developing client case studies and turning existing work into stronger website, social media and LinkedIn content.
This creates a straightforward cycle:
Do good work. Capture the evidence. Communicate the value. Use it to create the next opportunity.
Outcome and Impact
The most significant evidence of progress has been commercial.
Tim began the coaching relationship with a relatively modest monthly target.
He now regularly performs well above that original ambition and has exceeded even the higher projections we later established on a number of occasions.
That growth matters, but the numbers only tell part of the story.
The more important shift has been in the way Tim approaches the business.
There is now:
- A clearer understanding of the income the business needs to generate
- Greater ambition around what DBC Creative can achieve
- More focus on commercially valuable work
- Increased confidence in pricing and negotiation
- Greater willingness to question low-value opportunities
- More emphasis on recurring client relationships
- A clearer service proposition
- Greater attention to converting successful work into evidence and future opportunities
Tim has also progressed discussions around potentially significant ongoing creative-support relationships, including opportunities where conversations have moved beyond a single piece of work towards broader scope, payment structures and longer-term support.
Why Coaching Made the Difference
Tim did not need someone to teach him how to be creative.
He already knew how to do that.
The value of coaching was providing the space to step outside delivery and look objectively at the business behind the work.
Sometimes that meant challenging an assumption.
Sometimes it meant asking whether a piece of work was really worth doing.
Sometimes it meant questioning whether a target that felt comfortable would actually create the outcome Tim wanted.
Those conversations helped move the focus from simply generating enough work to keep going towards building a business capable of providing greater financial security, choice and opportunity.
Tim’s original income target felt achievable, but it did not fully account for what DBC Creative needed to earn to support him. Coaching helped him set a more commercially meaningful target and use it to guide decisions about the work he accepted.
That shift brought greater attention to pricing, the value of Tim’s time and the potential for longer-term client relationships. DBC Creative now regularly performs above his original target and has exceeded the higher projections established later in the engagement on several occasions.
Small business owners often set targets based on what feels achievable.
But achievable, sufficient and sustainable are not necessarily the same thing.
A revenue target can look perfectly reasonable until you consider everything that target has to support: costs, tax, investment, financial commitments and the life the owner ultimately wants to create.
Sometimes the role of coaching is not simply to help someone reach the target they have set. It is to help them recognise that the target itself may need to change.
For Tim and DBC Creative, the starting ambition was modest.
The business is now regularly exceeding those early expectations.
More importantly, the ambition behind the business has changed with it.
Business performance
Strategic targets
Organisational change
Relationship-led growth
Tim’s experience shows why a busy creative business is not always a sustainable one. Once he looked closely at what DBC Creative needed to earn, he could make more deliberate decisions about the work he accepted and the clients he wanted to build lasting relationships with.
Armour Coaching helps business owners step back from day-to-day delivery and examine the decisions shaping their future. If you are questioning whether your business is working as well for you as it could, book a confidential conversation with Bob.