Business and Brand Strategy for Established Female-Founder Businesses

Web Designer Lucy O'Reilly from Designs For Growth

You’ve built the business. Now decide what you want next.

A strategic process for experienced female founders who know they don’t want more of the same - but aren’t yet clear what the next phase should look like.

Together, we decide what you want to build, what you want to be known for, who you want to work with and how to position your business to get there.

Web and brand designer Lucy O'Reilly working at her laptop, with a stylish blue bag in the background

You don’t need more ideas. You need to know which ones are worth pursuing

When you’ve been in business for years, lack of opportunity usually isn’t the problem.

You can do a lot. You’ve accumulated skills, services, clients and ideas. But that can make it surprisingly difficult to decide what deserves to lead the next phase.

Maybe you're known for work you've outgrown. Your services have multiplied. You know you could be doing higher-value work. Or you simply don't want to spend the next ten years building more of the business you have now.

You don’t need to know what comes next before we start. Figuring that out is the work.

Lucy of Designs For Growth with a pantone book for brand design work
Person flipping through a photo magazine with various images and color palettes on a table.

From lots of possibilities to one clear direction

The Next Phase Strategy helps you make the decisions that everything else depends on.

You’ll get clear on:

  • what you actually want from the business now

  • which of your skills and expertise deserve to lead

  • who you most want to work with

  • what you want to sell — and what to leave behind

  • what you want to become known for

  • how to position yourself for the work and opportunities you want next

You leave knowing what you're building, who you're building it for and what needs to happen next.

How we get there

My 5 step Brand Strategy framework gives us a structure for making those decisions.

Purpose - What do you want this business to give you now?

Personality - What makes the way you work distinctly yours?

People - Who do you want to build the next phase for?

Positioning - What do you want to be known and chosen for?

Planning - What needs to change to make it happen?

This isn't strategy for the sake of producing a strategy document. Every decision needs to lead somewhere.

A person typing on a laptop at a cluttered desk with a white mug, a smartphone, colorful binders, and a blue bag, with a background of pink lilies and green plants.
Lucy O'Reilly of Designs For Growth, wearing a black long-sleeve blouse, smiling at the camera.

I work from the business outwards

I don't start by asking how we should market the business you have.

I start by asking whether it's the business you still want.

I bring together business thinking, positioning and brand strategy to help you distinguish between everything you could do and what is actually worth building around.

And if the strategy reveals that your messaging, identity or website needs to change too, I can take that thinking all the way through into your brand.

Business first. Brand second. Design when we know what it needs to say.

Is Your Brand Working As Hard As You Are?

What’s the #1 thing holding back your business growth right now? What should you invest in and what can wait?

Take the free Brand Authority Score and identify the support you need.

“Lucy really helped me gain clarity and focus. She is very attentive, listens for your particular talents and anchors that into reality.”

Dympna MacAloon, Coach

A woman with brown hair tied back, smiling and standing with arms crossed in front of a stone wall, wearing a black athletic sleeveless top and a fitness tracker on her left wrist.

“Lucy first advised me to tackle my whole brand strategy before remotely contemplating logos or colours - such spot on advice! ”

Tracy Byrne, The Wellbeing Edge

"Lucy has a great ability to take lots of different ideas and turn them into something clear, straightforward, and genuinely reflective of who we are."

JSA Architects

What do you want the next five years of your business to look like?

You don't need to have the answer yet.

You just need to know you're ready to make some deliberate decisions about what comes next.

Talk to me about your next phase →