Five Tips for Building Your Creative Business
Some Clarity For Your Creativity
Here in the UK its a Bank Holiday weekend which means that some people get a three day weekend. This seemed like a good time to take stock and offer some insights and advice that I hope will provide value for those of you starting out or running creative businesses.
I spend lots of time helping creatives to develop their businesses. There are those starting out who have vision and energy but might need help getting their thoughts in order or building some structure. There are creatives who have been working for a while but not making the money they should or others that are doing well and need help getting to the next level.
I have created new concepts and pitches, directed shows, audited programmes and even updated branding for creative businesses so in this article I am going to share the five most important and common tips that will help you achieve the success you want and deserve for your creative business.
1.Start with the WHY not the HOW
The top of the tips is to work out WHY you want to do this. I always start my work with this question because it helps business owners discover their purpose. Purpose is the foundation of your creative business and it gives meaning to all the hard work you put in to achieve success.
Before your business runs away with you take time start with WHY you want to do it and write it down - make yourself accountable. Once you are successful check in with yourself; is your purpose still the same? It is fine to change your purpose but not good to work without one!
2.Make a Plan
So often performers become producers, artists become gallery owners, and entertainers become agents not because they planned it but because there is an opportunity. If you know why you want to do something then make a plan of how you will do it. What are the steps you will take? What are your personal, professional and business objectives? How much time will you be dedicating to this business? You might need to learn new skills - so plan in the help that you think you will need.
Don’t let the plan put you off and never ignore the problems you think you might come across but use the discovery of potential challenges to create solutions.
Remember Benjamin Franklin’s famous phrase; “failing to plan is planing to fail”
3.Its Better to Network than Not Work!
Nobody is an island and our industry is all about people. Talk to people who can help and advise you about starting a business - you will be amazed at how much you can learn from a plumber and how much the can learn from you! Talk to people who might buy your product and find out what they need talk to people that might work for and with you and people that might supply you. You will also find that as you explain your idea to more people, you are not only spreading the word about your new exciting project but also that your idea will become clearer and more developed for you - see step 4
As legendary TV Presenter and Founder of The Waffle Club professional network Steve Blacknell says “Its better to network than not work!”
4. What Is Your Business?
The clearer the idea is for you the clearer it will be for your clients! As your creative business develops it will also transform and you may find yourself drawn in different directions. This is entirely normal, especially at the beginning of your journey when you could be looking for ways to diversify your income sources and will be open to a variety of offers. The key here is to understand and be clear about what your core business is and ensure that your principal creative focus remains on that. As a creative your vision will be useful in many areas but it is most useful in the area that you want to focus on, in the discipline that you want achieve success in and the work that you are passionate about.
5.Let Your Creativity Lead
The world’s most influential rock star, David Bowie, said ‘trying to second guess the audience leads only to failure’. Once you have your vision and concept clear and you know what your business is about do your research, understand your market and then apply your immense creative talent to finding the solutions that will wow your clients, customers and audience. Somebody else can always do it cheaper, bigger or more sparkly than you but nobody can do it the way you do it.
Bonus Step!
Now you have your creative business successfully up and running there is one final step to consider. How will you exit your business? We often visualise what success will look and feel like and we manifest our ambitions into being. I have worked with small creative businesses who are ambitious on a global level - which is a scale of objective that I always applaud. No matter the scale of your ambition I encourage you to also take the next step and think about how you will exit your business. Are you thinking of building something that will be sold? Will it continue to be run by others when you decide to stop or is is something that ends with you? This way of thinking might sound abstract but , as in all good writing, by working out the ending in advance you have a much better chance of getting there!
