BizCraft: Professional Practices for Creative Entrepreneurs

These posts are organized around the five topics of Money, Minutes, Marketing, Management, and Motivation as they are applied in creative entrepreneurship. If you find them helpful, please share them with your colleagues.

Find breathing room by avoiding the perils of perfectionism

Getting your creative practice into solid shape, from a profitability and business perspective is not...

27
Dec
What if there were a Shark Tank for creative startups?

What if there were a Shark Tank for creative startups? Of course there is no...

19
Dec
“I don’t have time to market,” is not an excuse. It’s a symptom.

Do you struggle to find time to market your creative practice? Well you’re not alone,...

12
Dec
Is “wholesale” freelancing limiting your future?

If you were selling a physical product, rather than a creative service, you would have...

06
Dec
Creatives have much to be thankful for…

Being a creative in 2019 puts us under a tremendous debt of gratitude for the...

28
Nov
Don’t Let Cash Flow Problems Drown Your Creative Practice

Have you ever worked harder than ever, and yet your finances don’t seem to reflect...

21
Nov
3 Habits to Revitalize Your Creative Practice

Hashima Island in Japan was once a thriving city. But when the coal mines, which...

14
Nov
The Secret Identity of My Insidious Chief Competitor

I mentor creative entrepreneurs helping them to learn and apply business disciplines to their creative...

06
Nov
Can a Designer Become a Business Owner?

Creative entrepreneurs face unique challenges adapting to the business aspects of running a creative start-up....

20
Oct
Disregarded Disciplines of the Design Trade

Creative professionals must master the disciplines of their trade. Graphic designers, for example, are students...

16
Mar
Help! I Hired Help!

As a professional mentor for owners of creative service practices, one of the most common...

14
Feb
How and When to Increase Your Rates

What’s your ideal hourly rate? I bet it’s higher that you’re charging today, right? You...

09
Feb
No Time to Read This Post?

If you don’t have time to read this post (or finish reading it since you’ve...

02
Feb
Is Your Blog Juice Not Worth the Squeeze?

“I really need to get that new blog post out. It’s been a month, maybe...

26
Jan
Where is Your Freelance Path Leading?

Creatives often stumble into entrepreneurship. But there some important things to consider before heading down...

19
Jan
Finding the Time to Think

When I was transitioning from the start up phase of my web design company to...

12
Jan
5 Ways to Kill Your Design Firm

I review a lot of creative service firm websites. Sadly, the frequency with which links...

05
Jan
Creative Startup Branding: Time to Hang Up the Beret

When a fine artist goes into the studio to paint, their first thought is not...

29
Dec
Creative Services Branding: Artsy or Artisan?

In my last post on positioning I made the case for how sharp, narrow positioning...

22
Dec
Taking Your Creative Startup’s Vitals

There are many benchmarks that can be helpful for monitoring your creative service firm’s health....

22
Dec
Solving the Cash Flow Crisis

Contending with cash flow can be one of the more frustrating aspects of managing your...

15
Dec
The Sharp Edge of Positioning

“If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,he must use more...

15
Dec
The Wall Between Control and Communication

Back in 2104 my wife became very ill. For about six months she did not...

08
Dec
Detangle Your Design Firm Partnership

Here’s a sobering rule of thumb. The easier it is to enter into a business...

01
Dec
Unprofitability: Striving After The Wind

The book of Ecclesiastes begins, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain...

24
Nov
The Details of Tracking Time

In my post Time, A Nonrenewable Resource I pointed out how tracking time is fundamental...

17
Nov
Time, A Nonrenewable Resource

Back in 2000, one of my employees at Newfangled produced a Gantt chart of our...

10
Nov
What’s Your Real Hourly Rate?

Whether you’re a freelancer or an agency principal, setting your firm’s target hourly rate is...

03
Nov
Five Reasons Creative Service Firms Should Not Hire Salespeople

Over the 15 years I owned Newfangled, I made the mistake of hiring a salesperson...

27
Oct
5 Reasons Why Marketing to Everyone Will Kill Your Creative Business

Millo, a website dedicated to helping creative service freelancers improve their business practices, published one...

24
Oct
Is Your Balance Sheet Making You Dizzy?

Dealing with your creative services firm’s financial reports is probably not the most enjoyable part...

13
Oct
The Key in Ecclesiastes

The key to maintaining joy in work is set forth in the ancient, time-tested book...

06
Oct