When I talk to creative entrepreneurs about their business struggles, at the top of every list is how to find new clients and projects. That’s why I focus most of my content on marketing, and why I created my online course Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs. Keeping your pipeline full of opportunities is indeed an …
Episode 104: Marketing to Find Clients and Gain Control Read More »
Having just launched my new online course, Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs, I’ve been reaching out to some of my connections on LinkedIn to let them know about its release. I’ve appreciated the positive response to the course, but one common reply to my message is that they are too busy right now to think …
Today’s marketing activities are trackable and measurable in so many ways, it can be downright creepy. Isn’t that right, Daniel, from Sioux City Iowa—I know that you’re listening right now while driving down Steuben Street on your way to buy a garden hose from Home Depot. Of course I’m kidding, podcasts are one of the …
Marketing automation is all the rage in our high tech, data-driven world. Platform after platform tempts us with advanced capabilities for click funnels, drip campaigns, and other automated capabilities. There are entire platforms, such as Zapier, that exist simply to integrate one automated platform with another. The capabilities are astounding, but also confusing and can …
When a farmer tills his fields, plants seeds, and fertilises the soil, he’s not doing all that work just hoping, just wishing for a harvest. No, proper agricultural methods dependably result in a crop. Of course every venture under the sun has risks, droughts and blights do happen, but aside from such rare setbacks, proper …
Episode 102: Marketing Transformation Takes Time Read More »
Running any business these days requires the use of digital platforms. Everything from basic email, to managing finances, to marketing and customer relationship management, all involve using digital platforms. And for each application there are so many options available it can be staggering! I’ve reviewed and recommended platforms for some of these various needs and …
In the introductory session of my new course, Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs, I review the three essential resolutions that are necessary for any successful marketing program. Like a three legged stool, if any one of these resolutions are lacking the other two stop working, and your marketing efforts will fall flat. In fact, as …
My new course, Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs, is now available. You can watch the first lesson for free. In the introductory lesson I make an analogy between marketing and farming. Farmers don’t till soil, plant seed, and fertilize their fields hoping that if they have enough luck they might get a crop. A harvest …
Transformational Marketing Takes Time (So Get Started Now!) Read More »
Welcome to episode 100 of 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship. For podcasters reaching the 100 mark is a significant milestone. And I’d like to take this opportunity to first thank you for listening. Secondly, I’d like to mark this occasion by letting you know about a new digital course I’ll soon be releasing called Marketing …
Episode 100: A New Course on Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs Read More »
The creative service business model is most often structured around time and materials. This means your total compensation is capped by simple math. Available time, multiplied by your hourly rate, minus overhead. But what happens when you have available time, but no billable work to fill it? Downtime for the creative entrepreneur can be deadly. …
In the last episode of 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship I talked about the maximum earning potential for creative entrepreneurs. While creatives don’t go into business to make a killing, we still want to be well compensated for the value we deliver to clients. But while making good money from our work is great, that’s …
Episode 98: Crushing the Joy Killers in Business Read More »
When startup founders launch a new business they pour themselves into it, fueled by hopes and dreams of building a new multi-million dollar company. When creative entrepreneurs launch, they don’t imagine massive cash infusions from investors, or of taking their company public. There may be, and ought to be hopes for increased compensation, but more …
Episode 97: How Lucrative Can Creative Entrepreneurship Be? Read More »
Managing time is essential for creative entrepreneurs since our services are so often sold by time and materials. Becoming accurate in estimating projects, keeping projects on track and on budget, and balancing project time with non-billable overhead time are all necessary skills in this business. The only way to improve these skills is to build …
About a year ago I ran a webinar class called Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs for some of my LinkedIn followers. My intention was to turn that webinar into a digital course. I had hoped to have it ready last winter, but my own creative practice got so busy that I had to put my …
Coming Soon: Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs! Read More »
Humans have an interesting relationship to time. While the clock ticks by at a perfectly constant rate, our experience of time is highly variable. Vacations seem to fly by. But if you’re laid up with a bad back, time slows to a crawl. There are similar perception-based time distortions in running your creative practice. Estimating …
Episode 95: Time Warps that Distort Your Business Read More »
Creative entrepreneurs dread downtime. If you bill by the hour, and especially if you also have fixed staff expenses, a stretch of light work can quickly eat up profits—or sink you deep in the red. Downtime is to Be Expected The first lesson in dealing with downtime is that you have to expect it, and …
The summer is quickly coming to a close, I hope you were able to take some well earned time off, or that you’ll still be able to squeeze in a vacation. But when you run your own business, especially if you’re a freelance creative, you might find it difficult to take time off. After all, …
Episode 94: Were You Able to Take a Break This Summer? Read More »
In my last article, I mapped out the maximum earning potential for creative entrepreneurs, based on the different business and pricing models that you can follow. While we all want to earn as much as we can from our work, creatives don’t choose this line of work because we think it will be extraordinarily lucrative—there …
How to Preserve Your Joy in the Creative Process Read More »
The majority of episodes in 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship deal with the challenges we face with the business side of creativity. Most of these struggles are external such as difficulties in marketing, in managing money, and contending with growth. But as creative entrepreneurs we don’t only face external struggles, but also the creative struggle …
Episode 93: Creativity: The Struggle and The Gift Read More »
When you’re hustling and grinding it out, do you push yourself forward imagining a future financial payoff? What are your financial dreams and aspirations for your creative practice? Are you moving closer and closer to those goals? Or are your profit goals slipping further and further into the future? There are many reasons why creative …
What’s Your Maximum Earning Potential as a Creative Entrepreneur? Read More »
There’s no question that being a creative entrepreneur is not the easiest path. Going into business for yourself demands considerable effort, diligence, determination, and plain hard work. A fellow entrepreneur friend of mine used to joke that the best part of being in business for yourself is that you get to choose your hours. You …
Episode 92: Must the Hustle and Grind Last Forever? Read More »
In my last article I argued that we desperately need accurate time data in order to correct our faulty and biased assumptions about how we spend our time at work. So many critical business decisions boil down to allocating our time properly. Whether that’s estimating how much time will be needed to complete an assignment, …
Does your company’s operating budget adequately anticipate infrequent future expenses? We can easily plan a budget based on our known monthly expenses, but are we prepared when an expensive annual software license comes due? Or, what if you had to hire a lawyer to help with a complex contract, or worse, to help resolve a …
According to Einstein time is relative. But unless you’re planning on traveling at the speed of light anytime soon, time is constant enough to be a dependable mechanism to help you operate your creative practice. In fact, time is the most fixed resource you have, and we all get the same number of ticks each …
Last time we explored the topic of creative methodologies, and how they can improve your sales and marketing. A proven methodology that focuses on solving specific problems not only boosts your sales game, but it also leads to efficiencies that enable you to increase the margins you retain from your project fees. A well-oiled methodology …
Episode 90: How Methodology Can Boost Profit Margins Read More »
* From the 1988 track by the Swirling Eddies It’s summertime and that means vacation. In fact, I’m heading out on one tomorrow, so this week’s article may be a bit shorter than usual—still gotta pack! If you’re a freelance solopreneur, taking a vacation can be tricky with nobody back at the office to hold …
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for very long you’re probably acquainted with the five motifs that structure 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship: Money, Minutes, Marketing, Management, and Motivation. Well there is a sixth motif that could be added, and conveniently it also starts with the letter “M.” Your creative Methodology can be a …
The overwhelming majority of my articles focus on the problems we encounter on the path of creative entrepreneurship. And there are plenty! So many of them threaten to undermine our ability to establish a stable, profitable, and enjoyable career. This week I want to take a breather from our troubles in order to refill our …
Contemplating “Creation” in Creative Entrepreneurship Read More »
Throughout history new technologies have always had beneficial, yet disruptive outcomes. The printing press put many scribes out of work. Photographic typography ended the careers of linotype operators, and digital photography has put tons of pressure on professional photographers. Today, the Internet’s enabling of world wide crowdsourcing, is having similar effects on creative freelancers. How …
There are two distinct avenues you can follow in developing your creative practice. The most trafficked avenue is Hustle and Grind. But the more scenic, pleasant, and stable path is Humble and Grow. As creatives seek to build a client base, they often don’t know where to start. When they reflect on how they’ve gotten …
The creative service business is made up of two main parts. Creativity and service. Yeah, obvious, I know. But the path to bringing these two things together professionally is neither obvious nor simple. Providing any kind of professional service is challenging. Clients can be a touchy bunch. They can sometimes be demanding, demeaning, and down …
This Spring my daughter graduated from Grove City College, got her first car, and her first job. As a new member of the workforce, and as a new car owner, we took some time to work on her budget. After all, it’s only a matter of time before she’ll need to have a radiator replaced, …
Very few creatives launch their practices planning to cash out with a big exit down the road. This is one significant difference between creative entrepreneurs and other startup founders. We get into our trade out of love for our craft, not so much for the financial rewards. But the very fact that we start our …
Episode 86: Manage As If You’re Going To Sell Your Firm Read More »
In my last article I began to describe how PinPoint Positioning can lead to highly refined processes that give even greater weight to your positioning and bolster the trust that prospects have in your expertise. Refined processes can really seal the deal as you describe them to prospects. But I also alluded to another benefit …
Back in episode 23 I talked about how marketing is a marathon, not a 100 yard dash. I’ve been thinking about that analogy recently, and I need to revise it slightly. Really marketing is more like training for a marathon than actually running one. If you want to run a marathon you would need to …
PinPoint Positioning is the foundation of marketing a creative practice. It’s defined by narrowly answering three key questions: “What you do,” “Who you do it for,” and “How that benefits them.” But once you’ve established your PinPoint Positioning, there is a fourth element that can be added by answering yet one more question: “How you …
The best approach for marketing a creative practice involves PinPoint Positioning followed by a consistent content strategy. The long-term benefits of this approach pay huge dividends to creative entrepreneurs. Of course executing on a content strategy requires a significant time investment. If you make weekly or monthly deposits into your content investment portfolio, you may …
How in the world are you supposed to thrive as a freelancer when clients have access to global crowdsourced platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and 99Designs? Is it even possible to build a freelance practice when the going rate for a logo is $99? Good News, Bad News Freelance platforms put downward pressure on pricing. This …
Is Upwork Dragging Down Your Freelance Practice? Read More »
Mastering the basics of marketing your creative practice can take many years. Just keeping up with your content strategy, and maintaining the habit of regularly reaching out to prospects is a huge challenge. So you might not be thinking about what comes next. But if you stick with the program, after a few years you’ll …
When you think about providing service to your clients, do you ever fear that you’re being regarded as a mere order taker? Have you ever felt pushed around by a client making demands to “just make the logo bigger?” There is a strong tension between the creative part of what we do and the service …
Putting the “Service” Back into “Creative Services” Read More »
Having just launched my new online course, Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs, I’ve been reaching out to some of my connections on LinkedIn to let
Marketing automation is all the rage in our high tech, data-driven world. Platform after platform tempts us with advanced capabilities for click funnels, drip campaigns,
Running any business these days requires the use of digital platforms. Everything from basic email, to managing finances, to marketing and customer relationship management, all
Your creative practice’s growth is fueled by marketing, but in order to achieve a balanced, sustainable, and profitable practice you may need help with other aspects of managing your business.
If you need help with a single issue business problem, whether marketing, financial, managerial, or any other aspect of running your business, we’re here to help!