The Business of Being Creative – Page 17 – Practical business advice for those in the business of being creative.

Commissions Are Not Kickbacks

seanlow

-

April 5, 2018

I have heard for years that commissions are devil-spawn. Nobody should take them or give them. They give all creative business a black eye. Nonsense.

Kickbacks, hidden vendor discounts, and all things under-the-table, these are devil-spawn and give all creative businesses a black eye. Why? Because the client does not know what they are paying for. And make no mistake, if kickbacks are involved, margins in all creative businesses are just not there to say that the client does not bear some of the cost of the commission. A $200 flower arrangement with a fifteen percent commission may not be $230 but it is certainly more than $200.

So let us keep our terminology straight. If you charge or pay a percentage and the client knows about it, you are paying or receiving a commission. This is true even if the client is paying said commission by way of a percentage on the cost of the project. If you charge or pay a percentage and the client does NOT know about it, you are paying or receiving a kickback. Rely on the ostrich idea that the client is not affected is a great way to get yourself your very own fabulous orange jump suit.

With terminology in hand, we can just focus on a real conversation about commissions – getting paid on the cost of production, what commissions mean today and where we are headed in the future.

Artists are going to have to get paid what they need or they are going to die. Get paid straight up by saying, “I need $x to do this project”. If there is a percentage component, there will be increasing pressure to finalize what the project cost is going to be upfront or at least with certainty prior to any presentation of budget. The reason is simple: no client is going to trust you if you do not do this work. The days of a client thinking they can spend $100 to have their project completed but then wind up spending $1,000 are coming to an end. And good riddance since this very notion of bait and switch, of preying on a client’s ignorance as to the reality of their vision in your hands is the very reason most creative business owners are not taken seriously as business people. You are the expert. You know what your work costs to complete — your way. Once you are comfortable with the work you are going to do for any particular client, you have to also be comfortable sharing what the cost of that work is going to be. Period.

Which all gets me back to commissions. If you charge a percentage of the cost of production and if there is certainty as to the actual cost, then the commission conversation disappears. You need to make the amount you need to make to do the work. The bigger the project, the more work there will be for you, the artist, to undertake on the client’s behalf to bring the project to life. Notice, “bring the project to life”. Commissions, because they are based on the cost of production, HAVE to be related to to, ahem, production only. When commissions become part of design, you are sunk and also a liar. Whether you charge a fee, get paid by the hour or in some other way, design has nothing to do with commissions since you have not made it up yet. Yes, part of design is narrowing and ultimately pinpointing what your commission will be. If you conflate the two, how exactly are you going to get your client to trust you? After all, the bigger the budget, the more you will make so how do I, the client, know that the $500 floral arrangement is really what is needed or just how you plan on making the money you need to make? You cannot. So keep the cost of design separate from both the actual cost of production and what you need to make the cost of production happen.

If we can go down this road as creative business owners, we will get closer to defining how much each of us needs to do the work we do. This will be a defined range. For instance, interior designers between thirty-five and forty-five percent of the cost of a project, wedding planners/designers between eighteen and twenty-five percent (not including the sale of any products). Those in the business of selling product, in addition to the percentages, should make an additional fifty percent on the actual products sold. This will then be how kickbacks will be undone. Clients will become smarter and smarter about what creative business owners need to earn on their projects and will become ever dubious when the numbers do not make sense.

An example: if there is a $300,000 wedding and the planner involved is charging a $30,000 flat fee, clients will, rightly, assume there are kickbacks happening since the planner needs to make at least $54,000 to undertake the project. The $24,000 has to come from somewhere and clients will be able to be wise to that if only we first acknowledge that commissions are not a bad word, but simply a mechanism for how to be paid appropriately to bring a project to life.

Last, one way or another, a client pays commissions. Whether they pay directly or through the increased vendor cost, they will foot the bill. So saying that client paid commissions are somehow better than vendor paid commissions is an exercise in mental masturbation, at best, self-aggrandizing delusion at worst. The way out is certainty. Certainty as to the actual cost of production and what you, the creative business owner, needs to do your best work.

There will always be shady people who want to both commissions AND kickbacks. To those who would do this, participate in or even condone such activity, you deserve all of the shame you get when you are inevitably exposed. Charge what you need to charge. Be proud of your value and get what you need straight up and leave the “getting-over” for dead, where it belongs.

How Do You Approach Your Busy Season?

seanlow

-

March 29, 2018

0

Chop wood, carry water. Head down. Just get through it all.

Maybe farmers enjoy getting up at four in the morning to milk cows. Every day. Or maybe they just see it as a sense of duty and responsibility. Not much emotion either way.

We are fast approaching the time when all creative businesses are going to be busy — either bringing projects to fruition or being deep in the throes of getting ready to be done.

So this is also the time many creative business owners say to me that they are too busy to talk. Too busy to take the time to think. They have to get sh_t done don’t you know.

While I can appreciate the desire to immerse yourself in your projects and to make sure you do all that you can to execute as well as you are able, I also want to say that, too often, chaos and responsibility are justifications for staying stuck. No, the time for making deep strategic change is not when you are in the throes of busy season. Look at the “game film” though.

Taking an hour out of your week to think offers the opportunity to see what you can learn from the moment, to take inventory of what is going right and why. And if you have done the work of honing your story, your message, your one thing, it will be about checking in to make sure you are walking the walk of the new you.

If you have done the work to truly define your one thing — the thing you have to have in order for you to do your best work, now is the time to test where you can see your one thing and how you can bring it to the fore in what you are doing. This cannot be random or, worse, assumed. Instead, it has to be intentional — planned for, tested, evaluated and then adjusted. Over and over again. The whole point is to be better at being busy than you were when you started the season. The only way that can happen is to have a singular purpose of what you want to be better at (hint, hint: defining and living your one thing).

An example: You have made a point of highlighting the power of details and your need to plan each moment for your client. To do that you need vendor sign-off, not just on design but on flow a full thirty days before your event. In addition, you need better tools for communication. In the past, you just assumed your vendors would “have your back” and they knew what they had to do. Sure, there was always a stray player but you could bring them back. Clients also knew to stay out of your way except they always had their panic moment when you need to sit down with them to talk them off the ledge.

Having decided to be outrageous with your need for detail, you are feeling pushback from everyone. Why are you adding on so much to everyone’s plate? You hear them, except you are much more calm than usual since you have all that you need now to do your work better. So you are caught. Do you go back to what you have done before, something that does function, or stick to your (new) knitting and remain committed to the idea that you will have a superior result? How exactly is that going to happen when you are in the trenches? Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, you will ask yourself (and your staff) how you can set intention with each interaction your creative business has with each other, the client and colleagues/vendors.

What if each interaction was monitored as to why it was done as much as what, how, when and where? The result would be a growing sense of purpose, a conviction to the mission as you have defined it. Details are awesome, they make magic. Rinse and repeat over and over until you are done.

This, of course, is where the rubber hits the road. One of my favorite quotes is from Mike Tyson — everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Creative business is no different and when busy season hits with the “new” you, you are going to get punched in the face. Do not kid yourself to think that you have dealt with getting hit before. You have, just not in this way.

Developing a great strategy, creating an awesome foundation that really speaks to the story you want to tell with your art and your creative business is fantastic and incredibly necessary. Just as important though is walking the walk. And this is where it gets incredibly hard — you know how to walk, just not this way, so you delude yourself to think that if you just tweak how you already know how to walk, the foundation, the theory, the strategy will take over. Does not work that way. You have to stay with the intention of what you created and appreciate the diligence it takes to maintain your conviction to your one thing.

Which brings me to the point of the hour a week to just think. For twenty minutes, just take stock of what you and your team have done well to deliver the one thing. For the next twenty minutes, how can you do it better. The last twenty is to fix what has not gone well. In that order. And write it down — how things were said, when they were said and what was effective and what was not. This is how you learn to walk the walk. Leave the decision whether to walk a different (or the old) walk for later.

The point of being busy is to create awesome art for clients that care. Let it be more than just about getting done though. Let it be about getting closer to what matters — purpose, intent, conviction. This is how you will leap forward into each busy season to come. Or you can put your head down, chop wood and carry water. Your choice.

Is It Ever Okay To Fire A Client?

seansblog-admin

-

March 15, 2018

0

The issue of whether it is ever okay to fire a client was the topic of my bi-weekly column for Editor-At-Large this week. Here is the link.

All I can say is that nothing pushes creative business owners’ buttons more than this topic. My thoughts in the column were no exception. I have received comments all across the spectrum from calling my words trite and uninformed to insightful and valuable. What it shows me is that we are at a crossroads as to the definition of integrity in creative business. Is it finishing because that is what you are paid to do no matter the abuse you have to endure? Or is it being unwilling to cross a sacrosanct line you, the artist, determine no matter where you are in the project? And if we are willing to value the line, will the industry (whatever your creative industry may be) reward us for having the integrity to stand up for what is intolerable to them or shame us for not being willing to “suck it up”? Clearly, I am of the “own your line” side of things.

Even if you have not done a good job expressing your process and the value of each step of your journey with your client, you still do not deserve abuse. Even if you have not talked about your thermonuclear line and why it exists for you, your art and your creative business, you do not deserve fundamental disrespect from a client, colleague or employee. Even if you are (partly) responsible for the mess that may have happened, you do not deserve to have your future as a creative business placed in (dire) jeopardy.

So yes, you have to do the work of communication and honoring your process as I talk about in my column, but you can never put yourself in the place of having to do what you do not or not being able to do your best work. Far more than just a lofty sentiment, it is also fundamental to your creative business.

For the most part, creative businesses are constantly selling to the next client. Some creative businesses have repeat business that they can rely on, but most have to find the next crop of new clients who have yet to experience your work. These new clients look to what has come before to decide whether your art is for them. If you are in the position of having to do that which you are not ultimately proud of and/or worse act in a way counter to what you most care about, who do you think is going to show up at your door next?

That said, I am actually completely against firing clients unless it is absolutely necessary. I define absolutely necessary as when you are unable to do what it is that you actually do and/or do your best work. Notice I did not say challenging or difficult or even Herculean. I said impossible. Usually, this boils down to one, maybe two, things you have to have — whether effective decision-making, timely payment or both for example. The reason is that the one thing is usually reflective of the foundation you depend on for your art to be what you intend. Without the one thing, everything crumbles and you do not have a business.

Of course, clients need to know the one thing and they need to be told more than once. If they decide to challenge your faith/conviction in your one thing, you also need to live your faith/conviction no matter what. I appreciate how hard this is, but ask what other choice do you have?

At the end of the day, what you put into the world as an artist has to matter to you first, your client second. The reason is straightforward: if you cannot create what is meaningful to you, you will stop doing work that matters, if not stop altogether. When that day does come, we are worse off.

Instead, why not go the other way? Celebrate your line, live to it because it more than worth it. Then we can start as other artists to join in the integrity and start being intolerant of those artists that do not live their line. Rather than calling those who would walk away “unprofessional”, we would honor the difficulty of the decision and applaud the conviction. And even if that day is not yet here, it will come if those with intrinsic integrity to who they are as creative professionals breathe the value of having the integrity. If you do not see this conviction around you, your art and your creative business, give yourself permission to lead. A world with better art is a better world. And make no mistake, conviction makes for better art.

Chicken or The Egg? Self-Confidence or A Solid Foundation

seansblog-admin

-

March 8, 2018

0

The idea of The Impostor Syndrome has gotten a lot of presence of late. You feel like no matter how much you have done with your art, your creative business, that you just do not belong. The table was not meant to include you. The feeling then goes that the intimidation prevents you from manifesting the fullness of your true self. Whether by self-sabotage or simply by keeping yourself and your creative business stuck in a familiar rut, the “next level” remains ever elusive.

Without being overly dismissive of the issue, I have another take. Without a solid foundation of a business that supports the art behind it, celebrating what you, the artist, care most about, you are exhausted by your own creation. Literally, the bigger and stronger you and your art get, the more most of your business competes with both you and your art. Another way of putting it — the more you envision bigger, the more your creative business calls you a fraud.

No wonder, then, you can never feel satisfied by the effort, nourished by the experience. Instead, your business is the voice in your head saying you do not belong since it is only by luck that you were able to accomplish what you did.

Instead, what if you started with intention? With an appreciation of the value you offer? With a deep understanding that you simply cannot build your business on the end result, but only on the integrity of the journey?

To dive deeper into the integrity of the journey, a little review. Write down every step of your process from the moment a client comes in until the moment the project is done. Could be ten steps, could be a hundred. I do not care. Now group these steps into categories that matter to you — say design, production, installation, performance — whatever sings to you. With the categories and sub-categories in hand, we can create percentages of value. First, as a percentage, how much is each category worth to you? Yes, it has to add up to one hundred percent. Second, how much is each step in the category worth to the category? Again, it has to add up to one hundred percent.

Now you have your actual value proposition. Not some in the air, get paid what you are worth sentiment, but a real statement from you saying what your creative process is worth at each and every point along the way. Time to get paid for each step. Getting paid is not just money, it is also permanent decisions by your client, often both. With your value proposition in hand, you have to make sure you are getting paid the value each big step (the category) merits with each smaller step (the subcategories) building to the ultimate payment.

Presuming you know what you need and how much you want to work, you can now have your business nourish what you care about. A straightforward example: You need ten thousand dollars. Your reputation is worth twenty percent, design forty percent, pre-production thirty and installation ten. Other than reputation and installation, if design, pre-production each have two equal steps, then you have it. Your deposit is $2,000, Design is $4,000 and requires two steps, Pre-Production $3,000 and requires two steps, Installation $1,000. Scale that however you want to given what you need for your art and your creative business.

My vision is that this has nothing to do with confidence or the ability to express your self-worth (i.e., avoid the impostor syndrome). Instead, it is about recognizing that the path matters and communicating the value of that path matters more. Sure, you might hide from expressing your value this way for fear of being perceived as being different or being an outlier from the rest of the industry (local and/or national). Then again, you are an artist and isn’t non-conformity the whole point? There can be no debate that the value proposition I am challenging you to create (and then refine as you grow) is the truth of who you are as an artist and creative business. Call it what you will, but anything else is a lie. While you might not consider yourself less than authentic, having no integrity to your value proposition sure does undercut the statement.

The chicken or the egg then? We have spent an enormous amount of time and energy to giving credence to the impostor syndrome, driving you to focus on capturing your worth, living your core values, understanding your why. All worthy efforts to be sure. How about we let our creative businesses speak first and for us for a change? Own the truth of what is most valuable and when about your art and your creative process and then allow the faith in yourself and your vision follow suit. If the truth will set you free, I, for one, would like to see where it takes you, your art and your creative business.

Perception Does Not Make It So

seanlow

-

March 1, 2018

0

We are arriving at the ten year anniversary of the financial meltdown later this Summer. At the time and for several years after, we heard of how hard things were for luxury businesses, especially creative businesses. Clients just did not want to spend money on events, design, art, etc. and creative businesses had to cut their fees or face bankruptcy. Something like that — you fill in your own doom and gloom story.

Except history tells a different story.

Let us just take one example, LVMH — owner of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Moet Champagne, etc. — arguably the premier ultra luxury brand in the world. Should have cratered in the five years after the meltdown right? Not so fast. Have a look at the numbers. Revenue actually grew faster than any other period in company history, profits too. Why? Because, while there were, in fact, devastating losses and a global crisis, not all was lost by those who had so much to begin with. And those with the means invest in those things that matter to them will find a way to do just that. For those of you think that LVMH products are not substantial enough to compare to a home or a wedding. Fine. Then cars like Bentleys should plummet in a crisis. In 2009, you would be right but then wealthy people remembered that they can still buy what they love and sales started to explode in 2010 and they have not looked back.

Here is the lesson history is trying to teach you — you are not your clients. While you may have in fact suffered terribly (and possibly permanently) from 2008, your luxury clients clearly did not. Even if they did, their suffering did not persist as yours did. LVMH and Bentley show that while you were feeling the pain of 2008 in 2010, your high luxury clients were not.

Second, as you were worried about the financial crisis, the mobile age was dawning with the iPhone in 2008. By 2010, creative businesses were talking about how they could not recover from the crisis while all things digital was upending the world we all knew. Yes, your luxury clients were starting to search everything you told them literally seconds after you told them. The value of your idea plummeted if its delivery was not impactful. But it was the crisis don’t you know.

I am, not for a second, refusing to acknowledge the short-term pain so many creative businesses felt in 2008-2009. The pain was severe and highly traumatic. However, for too many it was also the crutch that justified apathy in the face of opportunity. It is one thing to weather the storm, it another thing to build a better boat. For those of you who were around then, think about where you would be if you had invested in all things digital, worked harder to understand what your clients actually needed, what they really wanted to pay for your art to do for them. In other words, what really mattered.

Even though it may not feel the same, the chaos of our world today has created a distraction to opportunity leaping at us. I would venture to say that ninety-five percent of teenagers today know more about virtual reality than any creative business owner out there. Make no mistake, virtual reality is going to upend almost every creative industry in the next five years. You can say your work is too simple, straightforward, understated, etc. to justify learning about virtual reality right up until you get run over by that very same teenager five years from now.

We hear all the time about how anybody can call themselves a wedding planner, interior designer, graphic designer, you name it. Some are screaming for professional standards. Sure, why not? But far more important, how about we acknowledge that we are not talking about the same thing unless that newbie looks like you and your creative business.

And that is the thing. While everyone is complaining about the competition and how it hurts all creative businesses, the reality is that the world is changing under your feet once again. You see the problem that requires a new solution. I see a waste of time. Go find a new problem to solve. Here’s one for you to chew on:

What does custom mean today? Is it in the plan? The ability to distribute it? To say you had it first? How micro can it go? Will there be a day when almost anything can be created custom for your clients or even just for your creative business? Like sneakers?

Of course, you can ignore the challenge and worry about how the used car salesperson of a creative business is out to eat your lunch. Your choice. My hope is that you will not give into the perception of solutions to fading problems, and instead get to work on creating new problems with even better solutions.

Your turn, what are some new problems you can dream about?

The Commitment To Uncertainty

seansblog-admin

-

February 22, 2018

1

We have all learned to live in chaos. We are bombarded, literally, by a deluge of information — personal, political, business, entertainment, etc. — every minute of every day. To stop the deluge, we have to consciously stop looking when we are being programmed to do anything but look away.

The issue has become so prevalent that people are focusing on how we can get back to the idea of deep thought and deep work in the midst of the chaos. Deep Work is a great book on the subject. It is a testament to the times that we have to be taught how to focus our attention to get great ideas born.

And yet.

In the midst of the search for the solution, the answer to your issue confronting you, your art or your creative business, there is less time devoted to being lost, to sitting with the discomfort (pain? torture? humiliation?) that you just do not know. We have all been there. The feeling of not knowing which end is up, the right way to go, the solution to the problem, or really the actual problem you are facing.

With answers at our fingertips to almost anything, uncertainty has become a badge of shame, to be avoided at all costs. So much so that we pay and devote ourselves to the benefits of meditation to clear our minds only to race to our phones when we are finished.

Instead, how about we go the other way? How about we go deeper into the uncertainty? Break through the walls of what we believe to be possible? Of what could come to exist? And most importantly what we can manifest? The power of improv is that it ironically applies structure to the moment to give the performers ultimate freedom within the structure. What a beautiful thought for creative business.

The responsibility upon all of us then is to share what we know of course. Give freely the knowledge you might have gleaned from your work, your study, your life and business experiences combined. We all stand on the shoulders of giants big and small. However, let us all go further. Let’s push deeper into the abyss. Actively encourage the discomfort of not knowing, of what is completely foreign to you, your colleagues, your world. Let the uncertainty marinate for a little while longer.

Here is what I have come to know:

If you let the uncertainty linger, to accept the angst that comes with feeling lost, inevitably “Why Not?” bubbles to the surface. In the “Why Not?”, for me at least, is a whole new way of being, behaving, thinking about creative business and what it “should” look like. So much so that the very notion of “should” becomes absurd. Instead, we all get closer to “can”.

Go ahead then and teach all that you know to whoever will listen. Whether you get paid for the effort is beside the point. But please let’s as a group go deeper. Encourage not confusion, but disbelief. Actively promote thinking as to what is profoundly personal — I do not know why I feel this way, but I do, with the specific bent that we are talking about creative businesses and how they run. Not my place to comment on other areas of anyone’s life beyond their creative business nor is it yours unless you are specifically trained to do so.

There is always a better way, better than what I might offer, what you might offer. Who cares? There is no end to better, only the work to get to the very place you will never reach. When the delusion of better resides at your fingertips, we give up the search and the meaning of the search itself. My question then is how can you go beyond what you know and push those around you to linger a little while longer in uncertainty? To be committed to formulating new solutions, or, even more, new problems that require innovation and risk heretofore either unheard of or considered. This is how we change lives, transform creative businesses, make a difference. No better day than yesterday to get to it.

Noise Noise Noise

seanlow

-

February 15, 2018

0

Fear is a powerful dream killer, bottleneck, myopia-inducing wall creator. Fear helps us define the possible and live with the notion that “not for us” is good enough good. I watch it happen over and over and over again. Artists living with a feeling that what they want is just out of their grasp. So they charge less than they should, work too much on projects that do not speak to them. And when told there is another way, the answer invariably is a mix of incredulous, fanciful possibility, until the resignation of “not for me” takes over, sometimes with the indignation of you cannot possibly know what you are talking about when it comes to me and my creative business.

Then there are the well meaning “experts” who say charge what you are worth, be confident in yourself and your art, buck up bucko. As if a pep talk is anything more than a sugar rush. The “expert” feels great since they rallied the troops and “inspired” their audience/clients to go for it.

I, on the other hand, am heartbroken. If you flip the keys to a Ferrari to a kid who just got her license, it is a thrill to hear the engine roar and the power of speed at your fingertips, that is right up until she realizes that it is far beyond her ability to really enjoy and appreciate. The “expert” who only throws the keys to the Ferrari is hoping that those who love to drive will figure it out. Of course, some will. Most, however, will just be terrified and bide their time until they can get into any regular car that is not a Ferrari, capable of getting them where they want to go, reliably and safely without much fanfare.

Would it not be better for those who actually know how to drive a Ferrari to show and teach those who care enough how to actually drive the car? To talk about the effort it is going to take to master what the machine can do? The willingness to understand that driving a Ferrari is at once dangerous and expected. Dangerous because the machine demands the operator to be on the edge, expected because that is what it was built for in the first place.

I know many will say that there are great creative businesses out there that are regular cars doing reliable, safe work that clients value. To which I say, let us not mix metaphors. All creative businesses are Ferraris. They are meant to be dangerous and expected because what is to come does not yet exist, yet will come to life as you, the artist and creative business, intend. If you live in the reliable and safe, certainly you are valuable, but you are not indispensable and that makes what you are doing NOT a creative business, but a business possibly in support of either a creative business or creative endeavor. Those who sell art supplies to the artist are possibly creative,wonderful support but noone would confuse the shopkeeper with Picasso. Ever.

I say this not to throw shade on those who consider themselves creative but celebrate safety and reliability, only to acknowledge the paradox and the contradiction. And this paradox and contradiction is what bites so many creative businesses in the butt. Instead of learning to drive the Ferrari by actively seeking out teachers, cohorts, communities that live to drive Ferraris, they come to see the simple, the practical, the digestible as the way. Then these artists are horrified when technology comes along and replaces them; when “newbies” flood the market and kill any chance of making a decent living (so they have to have a “side hustle” to make ends meet); when clients do not understand all they bring to the table. These artists want to believe those “experts” that tell them they are special snowflakes and then redo everything to tell a better “brand” story, focusing on their core values, blah blah blah blah buhblah. All the while they bathe in the safe and reliable because they have no clue, no real strategy as to how, exactly, to define what they are worth. When the sugar rush of the “new you” wears off, the reality of their non-existent, eroding foundation returns, as will the frustration, anger and resentment. How I wish it were not so, but you do not need to look far in the creative business landscape to see how prevalent the sentiment actually is for so many creative business owners.

Life is a choice. If you are in the business of safe and reliable, fabulous wheel greaser, live there. Own the idea that you will be facing competition from everywhere — new entrants, technology, etc. – and you will just have to be better at being better. Volume, mass, the power of dilution. You might command a premium to the market but please do not expect the rewards of driving a Ferrari, even if you talk like you do, since you do not, in fact, drive a Ferrari. Appreciate the value of tried and true and make promises that fulfill that reality and none other.

Now, to those who wish to believe themselves to be driving Ferraris, do the damn work. Awake to the changing world around you and know that your creative business has to be a reflection of the reality that you get paid, really paid, for what NO ONE (and I mean NO ONE) needs. If what is coming out of your proverbial mouth does not match the story your creative business is telling, change the story. Your clients have to want what you do — why, when and how – so much so that it becomes a need. Make ever-growing radical promises and then keep them. When you do keep your promises, get paid for them – every time. Rinse and repeat until you create and then manifest great art, all so you have the right and ability to do it again (and again).

Everybody is afraid, the question is what are you going to do with it. At a certain point, you have to acknowledge to yourself whether you want to drive the Ferrari or whether that is just too much.

As I told my twelve year old daughter the other day, talent and a quarter gets you a gumball, everything else is a function of showing up and doing the hard work of getting better. The age of platitudes, randomness, doing it because that is the way it has always been done (or, the other lovely, because that is what happens in my market) is dead. Thank goodness. Design can only be marginalized if the artist lets it be, willingly giving up its value for the sake of a sale. Nature abhors a vacuum and, the biggest risk to all creative businesses is if artists abdicate the value of design to the consumer and/or to technology.

How about we all agree that this is self-inflicted pain we should all collectively say a big fat NO to? Good. So today, not tomorrow, or next month, or next season – today – what are you going to demand (not ask, not inquire, not wish for – demand) of your clients to do better work for them. The one thing that will change your world and theirs. The one thing the client has to do to honor the one thing that matters to you, your art and your creative business. Do that.

Controlling Time

seanlow

-

February 8, 2018

0

One of the questions I often get asked is, “If I were your client, what is the first thing you would have me work on/change?” Easy. You have to control time better and the only way to do that is to have a business model that respects time in the way you want to control it.

We have to break it down though. There are two aspects to time that matter: absolute time and relative time.

Absolute Time — It is what you think it is — the definitive length of a project. For event businesses and all other creative businesses with a hard deadline, absolute time should not be an issue since there is a definitive date to a project’s completion. For other creative businesses where the end is not so clear, say interior design, architecture, even graphic design, controlling absolute time is a very big deal. The reason is straightforward: a dollar earned in six months is worth a lot more than a dollar earned in a year – twice as much.

The issue is not that projects extend, it is that they extend without additional compensation or without adequate compensation. The simple statement above proves the point. If your client agreed to pay you a dollar for six months worth of work and you did that work, how are you going to get them to pay you another dollar to do much less work? And an important and obvious caveat, absolute time matters if you are not the cause of the delay. If you are, you did the crime, you do the time. If not, then you earn less because of someone else’s issue. Should not and cannot be your problem. But but but you say, how can I ask my client to pay my creative business the same amount for SO much less work? Why can’t I just charge an hourly fee for the extra time I have to spend on the project?

Every. Single. Time. I hear this answer I realize the creative business owner in front of me has no idea about the difference between subjective and objective or the difference between profit and return. If you want a refresher on these concepts, have a listen to a podcast I recently did for This Week In Weddings. Basically, though, it means that the idea that every project a creative business takes on is constrained by time and has to have a price to use the resources of the creative business for that time. A project has a dollar number associated with it. Extend the time, extend the number proportionately, regardless of what work has or has not been done.

Practically then, for those creative businesses where absolute time is a risk, know how much a project needs to generate, divide by the number of months of the project, then multiply that number by 1.25. This is the fee your firm needs to charge for every month the project completion is delayed through no fault of your own. You are not going to like the number and your clients will think it is nuts. A) I do not care and B) client, do not delay the finish date or think that you will not have to pay a creative business commensurately for the delay.

Relative Time — Relative time is far more subtle but equally as fraught with risk as absolute time. Every creative business has an extended relationship with a client — some several months, others up to and over a year. Embedded in the relationship is a process to get from idea to finished project. Timeframes and deadlines for each phase of the project has to be established and stuck to for there to be a smooth ride to the finish.

If absolute time can shift, relative time can have some play. However, when absolute time is set, relative time matters A LOT. For most event businesses, the three phases are design, (pre)production and installation/manufacture. If there are not definitive timelines and breaks in each of your creative business’ phases, you are asking for trouble. Even more, if you do not establish the price/impossibility of going back to a previous phase, you are REALLY asking for trouble. And just like hourly does not cut it for issues with absolute time, percentages do not cut it for relative time.

If your whole process takes six months from design to installation/manufacture, with design taking six weeks, installation/manufacture two week and (pre)production the balance (four months), then if a client wants to effectively redesign the event after design is done, then you will have roughly four months to do the work you originally had six months to do. Your price for the constrained timeline should be what it would cost for you to do this work as if it were a new project. For arguments sake, let us say that to do something in four months where you would usually have six is a thirty percent premium (forgetting for now the increased cost of production expense). So if your creative business charged one hundred dollars for six months, you would need to charge one hundred and thirty for four. If you are paid a percentage, are you really going to be able to increase the overall production budget by thirty percent to accommodate these changes? Usually, the situation is where the client is seeking to save money. Good luck with that. Needless to say, the closer you get to the end, the more your rate rises exponentially, and the worse things get by making what you do on percentages.

If you have not done the work of laying out phases and not only what clients are paying for but when, time to get to work. When clients can know benchmarks and the cost of not reaching or respecting them due to their own issues, they will appreciate what it means to allow you to do your best work. They will also understand that if you have to reallocate resources to meet their needs, that you will do so on what is necessary as if the project was that in the first place. Again, if the delay is due to your creative business, you did the crime, do the time. If not, then you have to be all about making sure your creative business is compensated for the work it has to do to do its best work. No client will understand or value why the investment in your creative business will skyrocket if they make changes after the fact. That part is up to you. And, yes, defending your value means knowing it in the first place.

Contemplating New Opportunities

seanlow

-

February 1, 2018

0

I thought we would pivot this week. I have spent a lot of time these last few months focusing on the distillation of your art and your creative business. The work has been about developing everything you do around what you most care about and getting paid for it specifically. Of course, we will return to the topic as having your art and your creative business tell a better story is a never-ending exercise. Today, though, let us talk about what happens when new opportunity manifests. How do you go about thinking whether what is on offer for you and your creative business is something you should consider and, if so, how you might best maximize what is (or could be) there for you, your art and your creative business.

The Benjamins – For most of us, no project is going to come along that singularly is going to offer “sit-on-the-beach” dollars. Therefore, the first thing to pay attention to is that any particular project has to set the stage for the next one. If you reach for all the dollars you can at the expense of the future, you need to be okay with the idea that there will be no future. Examples: mass market opportunities that really cheapen what you are doing vis-a-vis your core market. By the way, you do not have to be a nationally recognized creative business to have this apply to you. If you are hyper-local, as most of you are, it can be as simple as associating with the wrong venue or vendors as to cause concern that you are “selling out”. Which brings me to direct vs. indirect dollars.

Sure, you can get paid directly for the association (maybe a license, endorsement, product launch, referral fee, etc.) and if you have enough clout it might be worth it for the one shelling out the dollars. More likely though, you do not have the clout, at least not alone. So primary in the effort for any new opportunity is to balance indirect dollars that might benefit you, your art and your creative business directly.

An obvious example is PR, Marketing and Social Media support. Having someone else committed financially to growing not only the viability of your relationship but your name independently is a very big deal. Why? PR, Marketing and Social Media is expensive (in both dollars and time) and getting help that you do not pay for is incredibly valuable. Also, the relationship offers a perpetual story that can continue to grow and evolve over time. Last, if those writing the check see your desire to receive indirect dollars, they likely will feel your commitment to the project and will probably spend a lot more than if they were just going to pay you directly. And, let’s face it, the bigger you, your art and your creative business become, the better the next opportunity will be.

Layers – This one might be a little more controversial than direct vs. indirect dollars. If you cannot see your way to multiple revenue streams from the opportunity, you should pass. Having a home run license deal is like hitting the lottery and getting rarer and rarer every day. The digital age has taken care of that. We can see all choices at all times. Relying on you to be THE choice ala Martha is a relic of the analog age and not nearly as valuable as it once was. There will always be room for great products, just not THE product. What it means is that the opportunity has to generate multiple opportunities for you to be truly rewarded. Here is an example from the interior design world that I think can apply in many areas of creative business.

Say you are offered the opportunity to design an apartment building, or hotel or country club. Most times a designer will receive a consulting fee for their efforts and will provide input on public spaces, interior layout and possibly hardscape (fixtures, appliances (if applicable), floors, lighting, etc.). Just not enough to warrant participating.

At minimum, I would also want the PR, Marketing and Social Media support noted above. Since there are probably third party purchasers involved, the designer would not be able to sell products to the developer of the project. She could however custom design certain elements for the project and either seek to retail them on her own after the project’s completion or license them. If you and your creative business (as some sort of high-end designer) happen to be in this space today where you might be able to create high-end product for a project that might have life after the project, you need to know about Kate Verner at KVA. No one better at making this product and its after-sale a reality.

Of course, if the project allows the designer to work at their core (say design finished apartments), this can be included too.

In sum, here is where the project might have started: Consulting fee for design advice on a commercial project.

Here is where I suggest landing: reduced consulting fee, payment for PR, Marketing and Social Media (both for the project and your creative business independently), opportunity to custom design elements for the project (to be independently distributed afterwards), and invitation to custom design (if applicable). Probably the same cost to the other side, but much better for you, your art and your creative business as to the how and why of the deal.

One last note. If the project is intended to become another creative business for you, your art and your creative business, then you have to consider all elements of the Perfect Egg. First the opportunity, then the new creative business.

Art transcends its medium. Your work matters and will be seen in many many lights if that is what you desire for your creativity. As with everything, see past the moment to set the stage for all of the moments to come. The rest will take care of itself.

What Does Being A Gatekeeper Look Like Today?

seanlow

-

January 25, 2018

0

Time was when if you wanted to know who to hire there were those who controlled everything and were the trusted resource for everyone associated with the project. Venue to wedding planner to wedding vendors. Architect or contractor to designer to trades (or shelter magazine to designer to trades). The whole point was a trusted resource became the authority on all things related to the project whether the expertise to refer was there or not. Gatekeepers controlled the information flow and who was “allowed in” or not.

Sometimes gatekeepers used their status to take commissions/referral fees, others simply controlled the product and pricing of items since they controlled the client.

Life was easy though. Become the gatekeeper or woo the gatekeeper. Those were really the only two roles that mattered for most creative businesses and mostly there was no crossover. If you were a high-end painter, very unlikely the end client would ever come to you directly, let alone know who you were. Set hierarchy made for easy decisions as to what to do to sustain being a gatekeeper (i.e., focus on PR, marketing, and advertising like crazy) or nurturing your gatekeeper (i.e., do whatever you could to support the vision and reputation of the gatekeeper without worrying about the end consumer).

Fast forward to today. Sure, you can find the old guard gatekeeper relationships still breathing and you and your creative business can still stay as the gatekeeper or nurturer of a gatekeeper. However, the lines have, in fact, blurred to the point of evaporation. The gatekeeper is now relational to the most trusted and cared about element of any project. If a client is a total foodie, perhaps the caterer becomes the gatekeeper for an event. If the custom cabinet maker is the trusted artisan, she will drive the project. And for those of you who think this is absurd — the makers market is sweeping interior design today and will soon be affecting every other related industry — from events to jewelry. These craftspeople will control many relationships for a creative project if they have not already.

Everyone has access to the client – social media makes it so. Everyone can tell their story and even if the gatekeeper wants you, your art and your creative business for the project, you have to do better than be the one the gatekeeper chose. You actually have to be in the business of validating the gatekeepers choice BEFORE you deliver your art. I suppose there was a flavor of this before all things internet, but today it is a prerequisite. Being the business that works with the gatekeeper all the time is not near good enough today.

So what does it all mean? You have to know your role and you have to know how to play the role you are given. Sometimes you are the star and sometimes the supporting actress. Nobody wants the team player if you are supposed to be the star and vice-versa. To be the star you have to know why you are recommending the support you are recommending far more than the how and the what. Your business has to be reflection of the certainty of that why and unyielding in the effort to provide cumulative amazing work based on the why. If you are the supporting actress, it does not mean you are subservient or are to supplicate your vision to the gatekeeper’s. Quite the contrary. You are there to deepen and support the vision of the gatekeeper’s creative business with your own. Please do not have a boring business model that makes it very hard on the gatekeeper to say why they chose you other than you will come through in the end. You can and, indeed, have to do better.

Here is the last thought. Hubris is a bitch and ego has no place here. Today the star, tomorrow the supporting actress. All roles invaluable and inevitable. Sure, provincialism is still here, but it is dying an ever accelerating death. Client access, direct and powerful communication of ideas and decisions, value points far beyond price and product, these are notions that are here to stay. Notions, by the way, that were unheard of fifteen years ago.

I have watched far too many for far too long believe the world of gatekeeper would never change. And therefore they never adapted to the other role they might have to play to remain relevant to the theater of a creative project. These are the creative businesses that are already in the rear view mirror. Do not be one of them. Learn to play the role you are given. Authentic value is the constant, its delivery the variable.