The Business of Being Creative

I stressed in my post yesterday how important it is to be uncomfortable, to refuse to live in your own bubble.  Seek out those who would challenge your worldview and question the foundation upon which you have built your kingdom.  My presumption is that the bubble is caused by the relative isolation creative business owners too often find themselves in.  But, as Sony shows us, the bubble can also be a direct function of power and ego.  The more you have of each, the less likely you are able to recognize the world as it passes you by.

Imagine if you had a business that dominated music delivery (Walkman), home entertainment (television), games (PlayStation), and home video (Camcorders).  Now imagine that you owned one of the world’s largest collections of music rights, film libraries and production.  You would be Sony in the 80’s and 90’s.  So how would you wind up being very close to losing it all?  Sony has not made any money since 2008 and lost $6.4 billion in 2011 alone.  It is worth 1/30th of what Apple is.  And yet Apple should never be what it is today.  WIth all of its resources, Sony could have outdone the IPod, never let ITunes become the gatekeeper or allowed rivals like Samsung to outengineer their televisions.  The reasons why history unfolded as it has thus far is the stuff of business school case study after case study.  However, for creative business, the one most powerful to me is that Sony lost sight of its core.

My favorite line from the New York Times article that summarizes Sony’s demise is this one, referring both to Sony and the Japanese electronics industry as a whole: “Sony’s woes mirror a wider decline in Japanese electronics. Though executives here are quick to blame a strong yen, which hurts exports, a deeper issue is that once-innovative companies seem to have run out of ideas. And when a nation can no longer compete on abundant labor or cheap capital, ideas and innovation are paramount.”  Sony has so many fiefdom’s with absolute power in each that it is virtually impossible to act like a cohesive whole.  Steve Jobs was a galvanizing force putting forth the simple statement – design and control the user experience from end to end.  Sony did not stand a chance.

So here is the lesson(s) from Sony for creative businesses:

1. Everyone in your business represents your business and if you allow more than one voice to speak, a creative business with one voice will kick your ass.  There can only be one flavor of Kool-Aid – yours.
2. Better to be too early than too late.   You cannot tell me no one at Sony saw the world changing under its feet.  They just thought they had more time to adapt than they did.  Create, innovate or die. Challenge everything you assume to be true about your creative business every time you forget that you are assuming the truth of your beliefs.
3. Building on 1 and 2, know who you are, what you stand for and understand that that is your foundation, not your art.  There was a time we could not imagine a world without a Walkman, just like we cannot imagine a world without a tablet or smartphone.  Fall in love with your art at your own peril.  Ethos is timeless, stuff is not.

Now is the time when most creative businesses start getting really busy.  Clients want to talk about redoing their homes, weddings are around the corner and that re-brand has moved to the top of the list.  Spring has sprung.

Unfortunately, Spring is also the time that most creative business owners get sucked into the business’ day-to-day, working in the business instead of on it.  Not to say that this is not necessary, just that once you are in it, it is hard to get back to being on it.  So, to keep your eyes on the proverbial big picture, here are three things you can do each day to keep you mindful.

Marketing Budget We all think of marketing as the amount you might spend on advertising, PR, website, paper and digital collateral, conferences, networking, etc.  At the beginning of the year, you might even have assigned a number to what you are planning on spending this year.  All good.  Now how about assigning part of that marketing budget to when things do not go as planned for your client(s).  Most often, you will give too much (time, money or stuff).  Think of it this way: if you are willing to spend your money on that photo shoot to show off your latest project/idea, then you can also be willing to spend your money on a client.  And, make no mistake, spending extra time on a client is your choice.  Not accounting for the choice is a double-down, virtually guaranteeing you will do it again, losing all along the way.  Instead, commit to assigning a marketing number to the extra effort.  Then, be disciplined.  When you reach your budget, no more.  Not a promo, extra anything.  No conferences, networking, PR expense.  Done.  If you can do that, then my guess is you will question, in the moment, whether expending the extra resources for your client is worth it.

The Dress Rehearsal Getting lost in the work you do is essential.  Your art is your art and you need to make a statement with each and every project you undertake.  No such thing as a throwaway.  However, your client is not the only person in the room, so is your next client or the person that can extend your art to another medium.  How are you talking to them?  You can be quite literal as Bryan Rafanelli is and ask to be introduced to two potential clients (love it) at each event, or you can simply make sure that you and your art are speaking to those people you most care about.  Knowing that your client’s project is a dress rehearsal for your next project, whatever that may be, is a great way to keep perspective on the why of your creative business.

The Experiment You have a formula that works, otherwise you would not have any business.  However, nothing is perfect.  Ever.  Paraphrasing Liene Steven’s post on change this week, you have to always be tinkering if you hope to make substantive change.  Of course, I believe in ripping off the band-aid and making huge changes.  I just do not believe in making that big change while you are in the middle of a project.  Little shifts are what is on order.  No, you will not communicate via text 500 times a day.  We will have a ten minute Skype call every other day.  I will not deliver piece-meal. Yes, you can and should be willing to introduce a whole new process to future clients.  So why not use existing clients as the petri dish for how you are going to deliver on that process.  Who cares if you are not getting paid specifically to present?  Do it any way.  Test the change you hope to make.  Do it not to validate it, but to hone it.  Call it your new process in beta.  Hopefully, the tinkering will inspire and cement the new process your future clients will enjoy.

Your success as an artist and creative business owner depends on perspective.  To have perspective you need to be mindful always of where you are and where you hope to go.  Practicing the Marketing Budget, The Dress Rehearsal and The Experiment will, of course, not guarantee perspective, but my prayer is that it will keep you from a few potholes as you speed down the road during your high season.

I like talking about 15 years ago.  Why?  Because the creative business icons we look up to today, for the most part, hit their stride (or made their first big splash) right around then.  Whatever creative business you are in, just think of who you adore and admire and, in all likelihood, they were busy building their businesses fifteen years ago.  The lessons they learned then are what they share with us today.  Understanding how those that have come before and blazed the trail did what they did is invaluable and, often, timeless.  Principles of integrity, artistry, vision and unyielding desire to share their gift with the world should be in the very fabric of every creative business and branded into the psyche of its owner.  No matter where the world evolves to, these principles, nee ethos, will never waver.  However, the world has indeed evolved in the last fifteen years and in particular the last ten.  Seismic shifts have happened literally under the feet of almost every creative business I can think of.  The response has been, well, a response, trying to shoehorn new technology into the old model.  Such is the inertia of change.  But in the paradigm shift, the old model is, at best, limited in the growth it offers and inevitably unsustainable.  Better to create a new model that is a deep reflection of the world as it now is.

Here is what I am talking about.  Think about how you as a consumer would compare musical acts, photographers, any kind of designer, florists, etc. fifteen years ago.  If you were lucky enough to live in a major urban area, you could spend the day visiting each and seeing what they could do.  If not, these artists could mail you a DVD (remember, not everyone’s computer could read DVDs in 1997) or a portfolio for you to look at.  Clearly, if you were going to do a lot of research, it was going to take a long time and a lot of effort.  The result was a somewhat closed circle where those in the position to refer you had tremendous power as did the size and breadth of your portfolio. There was a premium on working.  The more you were seen, the more you were likely to be seen.  So no wonder the focus was on the product and not the process.  Clients drew comfort from the portfolio and had to trust that they would be similarly pleased.  Clients knew how expensive a presentation was and did not expect much beyond a rudimentary understanding of what they were going to get.  Not shocking that the world was a “trust me” world, 50% deposits and all.

Fast forward to today.  The same comparison that was virtually impossible fifteen years ago, takes fifteen minutes today.  Thank you Google.  Not only does everyone have a website, blog, etc., your work is online almost instantly thanks to Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Try as you might, you cannot control your portfolio.  Clients often know as much about your recent work as your employees do.  So now how powerful are the gatekeepers?  And how about just working to be out there?  Do you really want to just be out there with sub-par work (i.e., working for too low a budget or for the wrong client)?  With the virtual sea of work out there for consumers to evaluate, how are they to know how much better (or different) your art is to your competitors.  Especially if you are all about the end-product? Even if your work, to use a technical term, sucks, technology can make it suck a lot less.  Pretty pictures that were once the lifeblood of creative business are now but a mere baseline.  Still want to have a “trust me” business?

What is more, your clients know the cost of presentation is approaching zero and what is certain to follow is the expectation that you show (i.e., awe them) with your creativity before you deliver the final product.  The spotlight has shifted to design as apart from the result of design (i.e., products) because technology has made it inevitable.

While some icons understand the paradigm shift and relish in the idea of living in (and getting paid for design), others less so.  And why should they? At a certain point, their base became so broad and their work so good, they can get away with it. But you cannot and copying their model is a sure way to oblivion. Instead, see that the spotlight has shifted and know that the premium is now on your ideas above and beyond all else.  (Re)construct your creative business to get paid for those ideas specifically.  Live in the paradigm shift.  Relish it for what it affords you: the opportunity to get paid for your vision and see just how far that vision can go with your clients.  Or you can choose to believe that the inertia to change is permanent right up until it is too late to do anything about it.

Your work as an artist is not to translate someone else’s vision for them, but to take it further then they could ever have imagined themselves.  The difference between a fashion designer and a seamstress, an architect and a draftsperson, an interior designer and renderer.  Yes, your client is commissioning you, but, if you hope to get paid, it has to be about your work not their vision.  Translated – your creative business has to be focused on making the subjective real, the intangible tangible, far more than it has to do with delivering great art (i.e., stuff).  While not everybody can produce great art once designed, I bet there is someone out there who can do it for less than you can.  In today’s world, those that can produce amazing copies is astounding.  As such, the value of production is plummeting relative to the value of creation.  Thank you global communication and technology.  If it is about the thing, you are (or soon will be) bounded by what others will charge to deliver the thing.  And that number is only going lower.

I spoke last week at Event Solution’s Idea Factory and the week before at W.I.P.A.’s launch of its Phoenix chapter.  Incredible professionals in each room with a deep desire to work hard to be better at what they do.  I talked about the importance of process, of making the intangible tangible.  I gave the example of just how much work interior designers working on commission have to do in order to get paid.  I mean why would anyone pay 35% more for a couch than they would by just walking into a store?  (Answer: because without context, the couch is just a couch).  Also, an architect presenting his vision for a house or hotel. I then asked the room if they thought what they did to present their vision rivaled either an interior designer or an architect.  Crickets – no hands and a lot of blank stares.  Just not what they felt like they had to do to serve their clients best.  Better to focus on budget, on what their clients want, and to deliver on their expectations.

Here’s an aggressive statement:  Those artists and their creative businesses that dare to set new expectations for their clients will survive and thrive in our new world order.  Everyone else will be left behind.  The new expectations will be based on the size and scope of making the intangible (i.e., all of the incredible art swirling around in the mind of the artist) tangible well before the actual art is delivered.  Amazing delivery is assumed as it should be and is therefore irrelevant to the discussion.  If I want to see the work of the top 15 florists in my area, it will take me minutes to compare and see just how good everyone is.  Creation (ok, ideation) and everything leading up to actual delivery is what matters vis-à-vis your competition. Whether you are a designer (graphic, event, fashion or interior), photographer, caterer or musician, how you put your vision into your client’s hands months before actual delivery is the time you can spend giving them confidence in your ability to deliver joy.  The journey more than the destination, yes, but really a better map.

Ask yourself how much money you spend on all things social media, advertising, accreditations, etc. as opposed to investments in presentations and the skills/staff necessary to make them better.  Better not relative to your competition but to other industries dependent on them.  Clients value your vision most of all.  Rewards (i.e., real profit) will go to those that work hardest to translate, communicate and honor that vision long before it ever comes to fruition.