What Do You See?

September 30, 2013

Creative businesses are almost never in the business they think they are.  Sure, you might take pictures, put flowers on a table, design furniture, install lights, but that is just what you do – the medium for your art.  The business is what lies underneath and supports multiple mediums if you would like it to […]

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Value Delivery

September 24, 2013

We all play chicken with value delivered and value received.  The desire to “lock the customer in” is everywhere.  Contracts on your cellular phone, gym membership, car lease, even your home mortgage are awesome examples.  The theory goes you want to protect yourself from interlopers and competition.  Creative businesses are right there too.  Big deposits, […]

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Time Pressure

September 16, 2013

When I was a kid, if I did not do my homework, I would not be able to watch my favorite show that night.  M.A.S.H., Man From Atlantis, even C.H.I.P.s are responsible for my ability to manage my time well.  With no VCR, DVD, DVR or Video-on-Demand, if you missed the episode, it was gone […]

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What Remains To Be Said

September 9, 2013

There are times when I feel like I have said all that needs to be said here.  I have written about my philosophy, ideas, passion for creative businesses and their success pretty thoroughly over the past three years.  And yet, as I now come back to the blog after a longer-than-anticipated break, I realize there […]

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Spiritual, Physical, Financial

July 29, 2013

When creative business owners stop and think about where they want to go with their art and their creative businesses most do it exactly backwards.  They start with money – what they should charge, how much they want to make, what things cost, etc. Then what work is necessary to generate the money they seek.  […]

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Learning To Say Goodbye

July 19, 2013

Fair warning, this one is a little out there.  I wrote it late one night a few days ago to myself.  I did not intend to share.  But when I re-read it, I realized that it does apply to creative business owners and their art.  How the move within is so painful given the idea […]

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Kill Hope

July 3, 2013

Hope this works.  Hope you have a great day.  Hope you are right.  Hope you know what you are doing. When you think about it, the statement “I hope…” is almost always about something external happening that may or may not directly affect you, but is certainly in your universe.  You have no control over […]

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Gay Marriage And The Supreme Court

June 26, 2013

Today is a landmark day for gay marriage.  The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited the Federal Government from accepting gay marriage and denied standing those opposed to the California lower’s court ruling overturning Proposition 8 as unconstitutional.  The result: States are free to allow gay marriage (or not) and […]

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Musings and Speculation — To What End Social Media?

June 19, 2013

Ernest Hemingway would fit right in with our social media world.  Storytelling in 140 characters would be right up his alley.  Although debated whether he actually wrote it, Hemingway is credited with a six word story: “For sale: Baby shoes.  Never worn.”  (34 characters).  More to the point, Hemingway would probably love to create an […]

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The Problem With Flexibility

June 18, 2013

The seeds of demise for your creative business are almost always borne in the generosity of compromise.  Harsh right?  You come from a kind, open place.  You just want to get/do the work, have the project go well and let your art stand for itself.  If you have to wait a little bit for that […]

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