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Competition

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If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that my mantra is to do things your way.  Do the work to understand not only the art you want to create, but the ethos behind it.  Make sure that your clients understand how you have come to your process.  If you shoot film, why.  Why you present your completed designs in one thought (i.e., do not allow your clients to talk during your presentation).  How come you install all at once, instead of over time.  Be iconic only to yourself.  Why?  The overall empowerment any artist (or human being for that matter) gets from being as true to themselves as possible often yields the greatest rewards.  This much I have spoken of many times.  But what I have not focused on is what it would be like to be your competition.

In a perfect world, potential clients would only talk to you about their project and no one else.  Reality though says that we live in a shop and compare culture.  Technology has almost made it an imperative.  Thank you Amazon, Expedia and all the other aggregators out there.  If I want to investigate the top ten of any creative business in a category, it will take just a few minutes.  Compare this with 15 years ago, when the same endeavor would take days, if it were possible at all.  So when you take the time to explain the how you are going to take an intangible (I want a fabulous wedding, design, picture, dress, etc.) and make it tangible you put unbelievable pressure on those who do not.

Imagine you are a social photographer and you insist either on receiving an image of your client’s home or actually visiting it.  Why?  Because your image is meant to live in their space – permanently.  If you can explain the importance and your (potential) client gets it, what does your competition say? “Oh, we do that too.”?  Do not think so.  Simple – the more iconic you are, the harder it is for your competition to say “me too but better” without looking like a poor imitation.  The only other thing competition can do is attack the hows and whys of what you do.  Not necessary to go to your home or see a picture of it, it is just a photo after all and up to you what to do with it.  Hard to believe you will persuade a client who has believed in the importance of your process to be so easily dissuaded.  No, the only way to compete with you will be to be iconic themselves, even if the deliverables are similar.

Ultimately, then, this is how all creative businesses can change the game and relegate those without conviction and courage to the sidelines (dare I say, where they belong).  Focus not on deliverables – how many meetings, drawings, flowers, images, designs a client will get for the money, but on how you will go about creating those deliverables.  Yes, sell trust to earn the right to deliver and get paid for your artistry.  When the destination is a given, the journey is all that matters.  If every artist had to defend their journey, there would be no room for those who chose to sidestep the discussion.  Their only alternative will be to essentially make it about price.  I may be naïve, but intrinsic value beats price every time.  Your work has to be to know and believe in the value of your artistry.  Your art will speak for itself.

Letting Clients Go

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We have all heard the horror stories – nightmare client abuses anyone and everything in your creative business.  From bullying, non-payment, screaming, berating, demeaning emails/phone calls/meetings, the wrong client can sap the very life force out of you, your employees, even your art.

Too often, the wounds are self-inflicted.  If you do not pay enough attention to defining who and what your creative business stands for, the specific art and ethos behind the art, then it can not be a surprise when someone who really does not want or value what you offer becomes a client.  Such is the price of trawling and, for those of you in this camp, if you quintupled the price of working with the wrong client, maybe you would invest more (read: Mount Everest more) time in finding the right client.  However, even if you have worked diligently to put yourself out there and to find the clients that best suit you, your art and your creative business, misfires can still happen.  Simply, a client might lie (mostly to themselves) about what it is they actually care about, pretend to be something they are not, or just have a manner that does not fit with yours.

No matter the reason the wrong client became a client, a serious consideration has to be whether to let the client go or not.  Most certainly, the decision is easier if you have worked to define who you are to your client, but even if not, the decision does need to be made.  Like cancer, continuing with the wrong client will spread and infect every aspect of your creative business.  Better to think through all of the permutations and costs imposed by the wrong client before you decide to barrel through.  Before I go through three of my top considerations, I will say that, in most instances, letting go of the wrong client is almost always the right decision.  You do not need the money that badly.  Your self-respect and that of your employees is invariably worth more than they are paying.  Better to say goodbye to a bad fit with integrity than keep on and watch your integrity walk out the door with a client that does not deserve it.

You Will Not Win.  First among the considerations to lose a wrong client is to forget that it will all work out in the end.  It will not.  The wrong client will never value your art.  You will have to compromise somewhere.  Money will be an issue as it always is when the thing is not worth the art behind the thing.  The ink and paper is never worth the art they create, even if it is gold and diamonds.  Either the end result will be something you are not proud of or it will cost you dearly for it to be so.  In some instances, you might not get the credit you are hoping for.  You will definitely not get the rave reviews you need.  The best you can hope for with the wrong client is that you get through it relatively unscathed and, like a silly romantic comedy, everyone forgets the project almost immediately after it is done.  Most likely, there will be significant damage – even if you do not realize it immediately.  Underwhelming performance or over-taxed effort come at a heavy price to your reputation and good will.  You only have your name after all.

The Right Clients Suffer.  The dream client lets you do what you do.  Design just flows, process is respected, you do your best work and your client believes in you.  The wrong client is the exact opposite – they do not believe in you and do not trust you.  Ironic, you will almost always have to work harder for the wrong client than the right one.  Ironic because you should be working twice as hard for the client that actually respects and cares about you and your art as opposed to the one that does not.  In almost every respect then, continuing to work with the wrong client, especially if they are paying the same amount as a great client, cheats the great client.  Were that you had limitless resources, but you do not.  What do you think your great client would think if they knew you were working twice as hard for someone else?  Why choose to devote the majority of resources to try to satisfy someone you cannot?  Better to work harder on delighting those who love you.

Keeping The Wrong Client Is Arrogant.  The wrong client for you is the right client for someone else.  If you come from the place that you want your client to have the best experience/art possible no matter who they are, then trying to do what you do not is mean.  Whether it is ego, fear or delusion (see first consideration), keeping a client that wants something other than what you do robs another artist of the opportunity to shine.  What is soul sucking to you is life-affirming to them.  In your belly, if you know someone else would do a better job than you, then ask yourself why you choose to deny your client the experience.

Rather than choose to end a relationship with anger, why not go another way.  Continuing on with the third consideration, humility dictates you knowing that you are not able to meet the goals of your client.  Why not do everything in your power to ensure that you put them into the hands of someone who will?  Will it be a hard conversation?  Of course.  However, approached well, with a sense of integrity of who you are and what you care most about, you will be able to reach your wrong client.  For instance, it could be that your client just cares about getting more for less and your goal is to design to the appropriate budget.  Taking the time to explain what you are all about (whether or not you have done it before) and then taking even more time to find your client the right home speaks volumes about you, your art and your creative business.  Your client may not ever appreciate your decision to let her go, but others will.  No one said integrity was easy.

A Different Perspective

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We are all programmed to perceive things with our own bias.  If someone says to you, “Wow that is really expensive”, what do you do?  Try to justify the price?  Negotiate?  Smile? Snicker?  Now what if someone says, “I am not sure I understand”, what do you do then?  Most of us would try to do our best to explain ourselves better and do it gently, calmly, patiently.  Here is the kicker: for 99% of all creative businesses, it is the same question.  You just choose to hear it differently.

Everyone these days wants to get to the lowest common denominator.  Whether it is all about price, what is included, or some combination of the two, the race to the intelligible sound bite is never ending.  Your client can understand what you are selling and you do not have to work so hard to describe your art – other than, “it is like the other guy, just better”.  I see it everywhere.  Packages, list of services, investment, even every seal of approval known to graphic design – this list, that top ten, this best of.  Except it is all noise, a distraction from what lives underneath – the implied contract between you and your (potential) client that they can trust you to bring their vision to life beyond their wildest expectations.  So when they question your price they are telling you that they do not trust you to create for them.  Which is much closer to I do not understand why buying these ten roses will make the statement I am asking for than it is you are ripping me off.  Yet, most creative business owners choose to hear the latter and respond accordingly.

So here is an exercise.  Imagine there was no internet, no fax, telex, phone.  You just landed your most prized client and you want to tell your best friend who lives across the country.  Your best friend knows nothing about what you do but adores you and is your biggest fan.  She also loves details in a story.  Write her a letter telling her how it all came to be, how you plan on handling it, what you are thinking of doing creatively, how you will make it come alive and even what you want to do to say goodbye.  Tell her with all of the passion you have for the art that you create.  You are excited because it is all that you want and she needs to hear the excitement leaping off the page.  Truly, it does not matter to me whether you have been in business 15 minutes or 15 years, your story is your own.

Now you have your perfect world.  Your manifesto.  To which, I would ask, why is not your real world?  Why not use the letter to describe the ins and outs of what it is that you do.  Edit, of course, but do not apologize.  When faced with questions about price, process, intention, you have your answer(s).  Once you have your letter and have integrated it into your creative business, then for one week, hear EVERY question that comes your way as, “I do not understand, can you please explain it to me”.  Do not answer with justification or excuse, but simply with your best effort to teach whoever is asking the answer based on your manifesto.  Those who are rooting for you will listen.  Forget about those who will laugh, they are irrelevant and their laughter makes their position plain (what a favor).  If the practice is successful for you, then why not challenge yourself to hear other places with different ears, see things from another perspective.  There are no short cuts to honest, exposed communication, but the rewards more than justify the effort.

Meaning

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Think about why you do what you do?  Ego?  I want to be the world’s most famous, fabulous, richest [designer, photographer, sculptor, baker, etc.] on the planet.  Love of the art?  I would just die if I could not [design, take pictures, sculpt, bake, etc.].  Or some combination of the two?  But maybe it is something more.  To make a difference, to define a moment, to change people’s minds.

Lost in the every day of serving, producing, doing business is the notion that art simultaneously has no purpose and is everything that we are as human beings.  Nobody needs his or her picture taken, a pretty logo, fancy copy, cool furniture, a blowout party or a beautiful cake.  Yet, when we permit ourselves the luxury of self-expression, the world benefits from the spirit of creation.  We are simultaneously inspired and grateful for the statement.  We see beauty through your eyes as an artist, the way you would have us see it, the way we never could alone.  In the freedom of your expression, we may be able to know ourselves differently, even if only for a moment.  And in that moment maybe lies transformation.  The impossible possible.

When, as a creative business owner, you become jaded with the work, you lose the underlying notion of your purpose.  You knock out your thousandth wedding, your millionth picture, your gagillionth floral arrangement.  No matter the accolades (peer and/or client), the light goes out behind your eyes because you now have a job, with all of the headaches that come with it – bills, payroll, employees, all things corporate.  You do not bother to really see the client, employee, colleague across the table from you other than as a means to an end – what do they want and how can you give it to them as easily and cheaply as possible.  It will become very easy for you to say that the art you create is not like brain surgery, insulting your client and yourself in one shot.  If you have not lost it already, the notion that you make a difference gives way to the idea that you provide a great service.  Again, insulting both you and your client in one shot.

If this is you or becoming you, consider this – you are tasked with creating a defining moment or series of moments.  In that moment, the depth of meaning your client seeks from you is no less important than brain surgery.  Whether it is the moment they walk down the aisle, see your images, hear your music, experience your design, they want everyone (themselves included) to blink their eyes to the reality you are showing them.  If you miss the moment, it is gone forever.  You might be able to go back to fix things, but the original moment is gone.  In its loss so to is your client’s ability to experience your grace (your gift, your vision), to be moved by something beyond their own comprehension.

If you lived in 1912, an IPad would be magical, godlike in its creation.  You would be hard-pressed to believe that it was something humans created.  So how do you think we got from there to here?  Moments when impossible was no longer.  Knowing that your art and your creative business are the ones primarily responsible for these moments, why would ever allow yourself to become jaded with what you do as just another [you fill in the blank]?

No one needs to take themselves too seriously, even brain surgeons.  Just honor the responsibility you have been given as something more than a task, a service.  In the responsibility are meaning, integrity and faith that you and your creative business are paid to make a difference.  To create.

Self-Respect

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Creative business is about self respect, setting the course for the journey you will take your clients on to arrive at your art.  In this way, creative businesses and their owners stand apart.  Those who sell defined products or services have already pre-determined the journey – buy the specific product or service or don’t.  It is what it is.  Creative businesses, by definition, sell the opposite – the “it” does not exist until a creative business creates “it” for its clients.  Getting to the “it” is the entire reason creative businesses exist.  Yet, all too often the focus is on the proverbial destination rather than the journey, as if you were selling interchangeable widgets.  Why?  Plain old fear.

There are two kinds of fear – rational and irrational.  If someone puts a loaded gun to your head, that is rational fear.  You should be scared and something would be very off if you were not.  However, being afraid that the Moon is going to fall out of the sky and hit you on the head is irrational.  It is not going to happen and worrying that it will is a distraction (larger psychological issues aside).

By the same token, doing that which is antithetical to your being as an artist, creative business owner and even your own sense of humanity is equally irrational.  And being scared of doing otherwise is not real fear.  Bunny Williams might be able to fake loving Zen minimalism once or twice, but it is not who she is.  If her creative business refuses to acknowledge that she does not do Zen, what does it say about what she does do?  When you layer onto your creative business all of the things you and it are not, you are expressing your irrational fear that what YOU do is not enough.  Same goes for your business process.  Any creative business that does things the way everyone else does even if it does not work for them is, well, not very creative.  And if your business process is boring and disconnected, how exactly are your clients supposed to get excited (i.e., pay you) for the journey to arrive at your art?

All of which brings me to the illusion of choice.  You might think you can do what you do not, act in a way that belies you, your art and your creative business, but you cannot.  Pretending to be something you are not is unsustainable, not so much because you cannot fake it well, but because you will pale against those who are the real deal.  If you cannot make a sustainable creative business doing the art you want to do, in the way you want to do it, then you simply do not have a business.  However, before you get to that place, the effort first has to be to strip away all the things you are not, focus solely on what you are and charge appropriately for that journey.

For instance, go read the copy on your website.  If it says anything that cannot be true in the opposite (i.e., our business is all about fantastic customer service), then you are saying nothing.  So take it out.  Same goes with pictures that tell the viewer nothing about what you stand for.  Leave the pretty pictures for Flickr.  If a fifth grader cannot understand how and why you do things (i.e., they won’t get that that is just the way it is done), then change it so they can.  Work to find disconnects and then fix them (i.e., spending hour(s) with a prospective client and then sending a draconian contract you would not wish on your worst enemy).  Be ruthless with the truth of who you, your art and your creative business are.  Do the opposite of apologizing and hiding behind art and process that are not you.

If you still cannot make it, then you have your answer.  My guess though is that self-respect will be its own reward.

The Cost Of Creation

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Since it is the beginning of the year, why don’t we time warp back fifteen years to January 1, 1997.

Sony introduced the first commercial digital camera, The Mavica.  It used floppy disks to store images.  Mark Zuckerberg was twelve.  We were four years away from the first IPod, two years away from Blackberry, ten years from the IPhone.  Amazon was two.  Google would not start for a year and a half.  Oh yeah, and blogs were called weblogs.

Almost everything we take for granted today was either not created yet or just in its infancy.  This in a mere fifteen years.  If the tech wave were a teenager, she would not be able to drive yet, but would be able to Skype with anyone on the planet – for free.  Just some perspective on how far and fast we have come.  What do we believe impossible or unthinkable today that will be a given fifteen years from now?

Technology is a great equalizer.  Every creative business has benefitted.  The cost of creation has plummeted and is, in many instances, rapidly approaching zero.  The only obstacle to creation is our own self-limitation.  And yet more and more creative business owners use technology to shift responsibility for their art to their clients.  If it costs nothing to give more, then why not?  An average photographer delivering 500, 600, a 1,000 images for a client to choose from.  A videographer posting multiple videos within 12 hours of an event.  Graphic designers delivering designs in a matter of days, even hours.  Interior designers and architects providing multiple choices for just about everything they are thinking of.

The argument goes, if I can provide a wider range of choice for my client, isn’t that better for everyone?  Uh, no.  Your clients pay your for your art, your artistry, your opinion.  There is a fine line between authentic presentation and copping out.  What if every image cost you a $100 to show your client?  How many would you show then? What would you show?  How about if you had to hand draw each rendering?  When I ask photographers how many images they believe are important, that they are proud of, after a shoot, the number is always (yes, always) lower than the number they actually deliver.  When I ask why they would put out sub-par work, the answer is because they feel like that is what their clients want.  Such is the price of technology if you let it be.  Your choice.

Unless you impose a cost to the next image, drawing, rendering, design, video, etc. that you deliver, you will feel compelled to deliver more and more.  And make no mistake, there is a price.  If you deliver something you are not convinced is of your highest quality simply because it does not cost you anything to do so, how can your client value the work you are truly proud of.  What you are doing is introducing noise while you are trying to sing your song.  As you debase the value of your art, you will be paid only for the cost of its creation, a number that technology is helping to bring to zero.  Much better to use technology to tell your story, not the other way around and enjoy the ride on where it will take us next.

Trust

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In my last post, I posited that trust is real, as real as the air you breathe.  Creative businesses sell trust above and beyond their art.  Trust to earn the right to deliver their artistry.  But how to bring the notion that trust is real down to the practical?  What is trust and how do you incorporate it into the process of your creative business?

For me, there are four key components to trust in your creative business: Emotion, Communication, Relationship, and Respect.

Emotion – Your willingness to reveal yourself. If you are creating something for the right client in a process that has intrinsic integrity (more on that later), she has to be able to hurt you.  When she says, “I hate it”, it has to sting, feel like a punch in the gut.  Why? Because if you are not willing to say this is who I am, this is the art I create, and this is how my creative business sets about creating it, you might as well be selling widgets.  And since you are in the business of creating art, you need to be willing to be judged for that art.  Not by just anyone, but by those who you have worked diligently to make sure appreciate you, your art and the process of your creative business.  When you stand naked with your work, clients can clearly appreciate its meaning (or not).  Make no mistake, your job is to deliver meaning, front and center.

Communication and Relationship – How well you listen and then translate what you have heard.  What I do in my consulting work is easy compared to what you as artists and creative business owners have to do.  I get to listen to what my clients tell me and then tell them back in words what I have heard.  Once they know I have heard them I can give my opinion on what they have said, again in words.  Sure there is subtlety and sub-context, but it is all about being present and responding in the same sense.  However, as artists, what you have to do is hear the words your clients say to you (even if they do bring in some pictures, inspiration boards, materials, etc.) and then translate it into another sense.  What do they mean when they say they want cherry red?  Vintage?  A layered look?  A relaxed, comfortable feel?  How you communicate that you have heard your client and deliver your interpretation is everything.  Simply, you cannot do enough to show your client that you have heard them however you can.  Over and over.  Why I think sending a proposal in a vacuum to get a job is antithetical to creative business.  You should get paid modestly to present your translation and then handsomely once you have demonstrated (i.e., proven) that you can, and will always, hear your client.  When your clients says, “you really get me”, you smile knowing that you hear them and have taken a major step in earning their trust.  Why wouldn’t you want to do that over and over?

Respect – Fortitude, Integrity and Conviction. You do not respect your client by giving them a price before you are ready, nor by erasing your boundaries in the guise of customer service, or by changing your process to suit their needs instead of the other way around.  No, you gain and give respect to your client (vendors and employees too) by having the integrity to say that you have looked inside and firmly believe in the way you do things.  You then have the fortitude and conviction to see it through despite the critics, naysayers and friends that would have you do otherwise.  It is incredibly arrogant to say you do it this way just because.  Confidence comes from your belly.  If you believe that the way you do things yields you the best result regardless of whether you have a year, a month or a week to create your art, then you will be able to share your process freely and with impunity.  Your clients want you to be a leader, to guide them through and get them to the other side.  Who cares if your competition would go the exact opposite way if that way would not work for you or your creative business.  If you, your staff, vendors and colleagues drink your Kool-Aid, your clients will too.  And in that space they will feel safe, trusting you to take them where they want to go.

If you can imagine the freedom that exists with earned trust, then certainly you can imagine the resonance you and your creative business will have as you go about the work of delivering both your artistry and your art.  Trust is real and your goal has to be incorporate it into the micro-fibers of your creative business.  The more you earn trust, never forsake it or assume it, the more you will be paid.

What Do You Sell?

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Twice a year, I am honored to have the privilege of speaking at Rebecca Grinnals’ Engage! conferences.  As she fashioned this installment in Grand Cayman after the TED Talks, I need only say that TED is in good company. Engage! is a remarkable experience for remarkable wedding professionals.  Others may try to compare, imitate or duplicate. They cannot and will not.

In my 22 minutes, I took the opportunity to ask the question:  “What Do You Sell?”

To me, it is actually two questions.  What do you sell to the world to get your clients to come to your door and ask to come in.  The second being what does your business actually sell once they are in the door.  The answer to the first question I leave to the marketing geniuses out there, Seth Godin and Rebecca among them.  However, to the second question, my answer for all creative businesses (wedding or not) is artistry, not art.  Trust, not “pretty”.

Consistent art is an oxymoron.  The whole point of a creative business is to create something different every day.  The quality of your art is a given.  You would not be a creative business owner if you did not believe you were a great artist.  So to say that you are consistent in your ability to create great art is really saying nothing at all.  And by saying nothing what you are saying to your client is “trust me, yours will be great too.”

How does this manifest?  The focus is on the sale.  You show pretty pictures, drawings, recaps, etc. of your past work, maybe some testimonials and press clippings.  Your client is enamored and says, effectively, “I want that”.  You say, “Sure, that will be $X, half now, half before delivery.”  Precious little happens during the gap (abyss?) between sign-up and delivery.  And because you are that good, your clients are wowed (most of the time) by your art.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Your creative business is a glorified lay-away plan.  Except you do not sell Lay-Z-Boy chairs, you sell creative genius.  A disconnect if there ever was one.

Many of you, particularly those who have had some success operating selling pretty, would challenge why they need do anything else.  My response: great art is not unique, great artistry is.  If you rely on your great art to carry the day, you are going to be compared to those that go further and invest themselves and their clients in the experience of their artistry.  At a certain point, your margin of greatness will evaporate.  The days of being excused for being “the crazy artist” are drawing to a close.  Simply, there is too much great art out there and too many great artists to believe that your art (i.e., the stuff you make) will be enough to stand apart.

My advice?  Sell trust to earn the right to deliver and get paid for the experience of your artistry.

Trust is real.  Every bit as real as the air you breathe; the flower, invitation, logo, music, lighting, food, interior design, and photograph you create.  Just as you would never let a fantastic rose sit untended for a day (let alone a few hours), neither should you ignore trust.  If you see trust as real, then the statement, “Trust is earned, never assumed, never forsaken” hopefully takes on new meaning.  You can tangibly incorporate specific activities into the fabric of your creative business to bring the statement to life.  Could be something so simple as shifting when you get paid (i.e., get paid when you have earned your client’s trust) or telling your client always what comes next and when.  I will delve deeper into what the key components of trust are for a creative business in my next post, but so you have them now, they are: Emotion – your willingness to reveal yourself to your client; Communication – how well do you listen; Relationship – how well do you translate what you have heard; and Respect – fortitude, integrity and conviction in why you do what you do how you do it.

Once you have established how you are going to sell trust throughout your relationship with your client, you can then set out charting the path of your artistry.  If you imagine your end product sitting high above your client when they walk in your door, your artistry is the path you will take, holding their hand, to get them there.  The difference between art and artistry is that art is a thing.  Today there are too many absolutely amazing, wonderful things created by absolutely amazing, wonderful artists to have the art be the end all be all.  Artistry, on the other hand, is yours and yours alone.  How you get your client to experience your artistry is all that matters.  Yes, the journey matters more than the destination.  Why?  Done well, the destination is an inevitable result (side-effect) of the journey.  Your clients pay you for the journey because you are the only one that can deliver it the way you do, even if the end result looks frightfully close to others around you.

Going Radical

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Photographers (basically) giving their work away on Groupon.  Wedding planners offering their services for next to nothing on Gilt Groupe.  World famous photographers offering a chance to win a portrait session for a “like” on Facebook.  Every vendor under the Sun giving it all away to be part of the Kardashian free-for-all.    These are radical statements designed to put the world on notice of how far you are willing to go to get people’s attention.  I am no marketer and maybe this strategy will create sustainable business traffic.  However, from my naïve eyes, it looks like bubble gum – super sweet for five minutes and then forgettable forever.  And from a business perspective it seems, well, best case, silly, worst case, a recipe for implosion.

On the other hand, going radical with the very fabric of your creative business is an awesome notion.  Think about Craigslist.com.  It has about 30 employees (mostly techies) and does over a $100 million per year.  Not flashy, no marketing, no desire to “scale” bigger.  And because it consciously chooses to not push the envelope it turns the traditional model of growth for growth’s sake on its head.  Not to say that always going radical with your business is the best move.  Just look at Reed Hastings and his (now scrapped) idea to split Netflix into two businesses, streaming and DVD.  Pissing off your core tribe by telling them you just do not see a future with them will not win you a lot of love when you try to raise your prices to the moon.  However, going radical with your underlying business model, win or lose, is its own reward.  It tells the world that you are your own duck and comparing you to “competition” will be fruitless.  Better to evaluate you on the merits of what your creative business, and your creative business alone, offers.

Closer to home, there are creative businesses out there that have chosen to scrap the tried and true and go it their own way.  For instance, I have spoken with a wedding planner/designer that charges a fee (not radical) and then produces all of the décor (save draping) at cost (totally radical).  If she pays $10 for flowers, that is what her client pays her.  Everything she makes is in her fee.  Oh, and her average wedding is north of $150,000 with décor budgets of $30-50,000 (her cost).  Translated – she is providing for $30,000 what most other designers would charge $60-$75,000 for.  Crazy?  Yep.  Except it works.  She has no desire to run a big business only do big events.  Her fee is large enough so that she gets what she needs (both in number of events and dollars) to sustain her business.  Her fee will go up only in that she wants to get bigger events.  However, the premise will always be that the larger the budget, the cheaper she will get (but, ironically, if her fee is too low relative to budget, she will be too cheap and will face serious trust issues — i.e., too good to be true).  By definition, her business is unscalable.  The moment she adds layers of infrastructure, the more untenable it will be for her to live on her fee.  But who cares?  She is the Craigslist of her market and her radical business model wins her business on its own every day.

The idea that your creative business can go radical should be fun.  Restaurants, yoga classes, etc. that are pay what you will; auctioned anything; dining clubs are other examples of creative businesses gone radical.  It might work and it might not.  Your commitment and faith to the value of the model is what matters.  I, for one, would rather do business with a creative business owner that is constantly searching for the best way to provide both of us with the most value than one that is willing to literally give it all away just so I will stick with the tried and true.  Dare your creative business to make sense only for itself.  Figure out how to be the next Fab.com, not the next Fab.com offering.

The Worst Of The Best

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It is not megalomania to say you are going to be the next so and so.  Why not you?  Presuming talent, desire, fortitude, courage and a heavy dose of good fortune, making your vision a reality is a distinct possibility.  To which, I am amazed at how low the bar most creative business owners (and their businesses) set for themselves.  Be it money, icons, volume or quality of work, the relative value between you and them makes no sense to me.  Why would you want your business that does $200,000 now to make $350,000 in 3 years?  If you are happy with the $200,000 then you need not want $350,000.  But if you want $350,000, then $1,000,000 would be more appropriate.  Irony of all ironies, you are far more likely to put the effort necessary to get to $1,000,000 than you are to $350,000 so your chances of getting the $1,000,000 are far greater than getting to $350,000.  Your first million is impossible, your second inevitable.

And although I am categorically against looking into someone else’s wallet or their lawn, if you must, make sure it is worthy of your envy.  You may marvel at the price a fashion designer can command for couture gowns, but take no note of how badly her reputation for service is in the industry.  What glitters on the outside, probably does not on the inside.  You cannot eat sparkle.

All of the comparing, contrasting, self-flagellation, self-aggrandizement, and posturing, makes me wonder what league you want to play in?  I just watched the first episode of The Next Iron Chef, Super Chef’s edition.  In the episode, Spike Mendelsohn, who came fourth in Season 4 of Top Chef, lost his cook-off to Marcus Samuelsonn, one of the greatest chefs of this generation and winner of Top Chef Masters.  Spike has come a long way since Top Chef and cooked an amazing dish.  Marcus was just better.  Disappointment?  Sure.  Shame?  None.  Of course, this is television.  However, you only have to read Anthony Bourdain’s last book, Medium Raw, to understand how competitive chefs as a group are.  Spike wanted to win and thought he could.  Being worst of the best served Spike well and will most certainly only help his career in Washington, D.C.

We all must seek to be better.  If we refuse to work to improve, we will suffer our own ennui.  However, if we move only to say we caught the turtle, we are kidding ourselves.  Dare yourself to play with the big girls.  You might get squished but probably not.  Either way, you will learn what it takes to get where you want to go.  You may discover that you do not want to be there at all.  That is actually better than good.  Then you can set about staying where you are, living there, savoring that you are there.  The point is to find your focus, be truthful about your and your creative business’ purpose and to deliver it.  Floating around on talent is its own myopia.  So is turning a $200,000 creative business into a $350,000 one.  Dare yourself to be better than your hopes.

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