If your business hasn’t been well designed, you could be making a crucial mistake.

That’s the advice from business design adviser David Schloeffel, who has been helping businesses improve for more than 35 years.

Schloeffel will give the lowdown on business design and how to deliver a better customer experience in a free CCI-Department of Industry, Innovation and Science presentation on January 23 as part of the Entrepreneurs’ Program.

While many businesses are borne out of the passion and expertise of their creators, they may miss the crucial question of ‘is this a good business design’ in the rush to get their product or service out to market.

“Then they then go ‘ta-da, hope you like it, hope you’ll buy it’. But what we are talking about at the centre of business design is nine out of 10 times you are creating a solution instead of looking for a problem to solve.”

He says businesses that have created a solution without looking for a problem need to go back and look at who their users and customers are, whether they are the same and what they are actually looking for to solve their problems.

“You can have a beautiful piece of furniture but if it’s bloody uncomfortable then it might belong in an art gallery and not your office or house because it doesn’t work,” he says.

“Design is how things work, business design is how businesses work and we’re about helping businesses design themselves better.”

Melbourne-based Schloeffel joined the Entrepreneurs’ Program as an adviser in 2010 after working in brand, advertising, communications and as business practitioner for more than 30 years.

He’ll give an overview of the key pillars of business design and how to implement a ‘double diamond’ design process.

Innovative small and medium-sized businesses can benefit from the Entrepreneurs’ Program, run by the CCI and the Federal Government, with matched grants of up to $20,000 on offer for eligible participants.