The Business of Being Creative

Know How Your Customer Finds You

I love the Internet and its power to connect us all.  A creative business' ability to show off itself and reach a vast audience is unprecedented.  Easy to make the leap that you have to have a website, blog, be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, take out Google Adwords, advertise on the various design/wedding sites, etc. for your customers to find you and to be competitive.  Not so fast. 

If you are a business like ABCD Design or Weddings Costa Rica, sure.  Take a look at all that Amy does to stay connected.  I get tired just reading it.  But her blog/site is how she tells the world about herself and her business and how she finds her clients.  Same for Larissa.  Do you think the same holds true for a local wedding planner, designer, florist, or any artist focused on a local market?  While the information has to be there for the potential client to see what the business is all about, using the web (and doing all the work Amy, Larissa and the rest of the technorati do) as the primary way to generate business is a colossal waste of time and money.

For those of you focused on your community (which most of you are), it is far more important to HAVE a drink with those that matter than to blog about which one they should be drinking.  Not everybody needs to go global, especially those that can do quite well in their backyard.  Take a look at Bentley Meeker.  If you don't know who Bentley is, his website is certainly not going to make your heart skip a beat.  But that's the point -- everyone in the NYC event business or connected to it (no matter how remotely) KNOWS Bentley.  For him, personally touching vendors and potential clients is what counts.  As much as he is selling his art, he is selling himself and the fact that you can rely on him and his business to deliver.

Vendors and venues are fantastic building blocks, but expand your universe by cross-marketing with creative businesses in other fields (event designers with interior designers, stationers with florists, graphic designers with architects/interior designers, bakers with potters, etc.).  Unexpected alliances breed opportunity.  Grow those that can know you and talk about you.  Some clients need the global rock star, most really want the local star that is a rock.

Brand Essence and Its Expression

Preston Bailey -- one of the finest event designers in the world, master of transformation on a grand scale, creator of majestic visual theater.  Vicente Wolf -- one of the finest interior designers in the world, whose work crosses boundaries of time and culture to create singular spaces unique to Vicente's modern vision.  Sylvia Weinstock -- wedding cake master -- the first and best baker to take a traditional wedding cake and turn it into high floral art.

Every creative business and artist has to have a sound bite -- a sentence that defines who you are and what you do.  I call it your Core Value Proposition (CVP) because it should tell the listener all that they need to understand the essence and expression of your art and your brand.  The essence of a brand is the universal truth which you and your business embody and to which you want your clients to embrace.  Many businesses, creative and not, will have the same essence to their brands.  Take Oprah, Martha, Rachel Ray, Suze Orman, Tony Robbins, and The Biggest Loser -- the essence of each of these brands is to "live your best life".  The expression of a brand is what the business offers that both captures and legitimizes its essence.  For Sylvia and Preston, their essence is the joy of celebration.  For Vicente, the creation of home.  The better the CVP, the easier its listener will be able to decide whether they are your customer or not and, if they are, why they NEED to be working with you.

Words like "finest", "best", "master" are subjective to the listener, but should be pre-requisites for you.  You have to believe you are the best at what you do.  First of all, why would anyone want to do business with you if you didn't think that of yourself and your art?  Second, your goal as a creative business is to inspire your clients with what you provide them.  Hard to do if you don't believe what you offer isn't all they seek.  Have the courage to put yourself all the way out there.

If what you do is make blue dolphin ice cubes, make sure your listener knows THAT and not just that you make ice cubes.  If you won't distinguish your art and what it embodies, you open the door to those who will.

Business Triage 101

Of late, I have spoken to many creative business owners who are just overwhelmed.  For some, their businesses are booming, some sinking, all feel completely out of control with no sense of what to do.  My response?  Customer service first, pricing and production issues second, operational issues third.

Why customer service first?  No customers, no business.  You can fix your operations, pricing and product/service delivery all day long, but once customers leave, they are likely gone forever.  Yet, what so many creative business owners forget when they get in the weeds is that clients (the right ones anyway) are on their side.  Clients will likely forgive your failings so long as you give them the respect they deserve: talk to them, acknowledge what hasn't been done, tell them what you are going to do address (as opposed to fix) the situation and when.

When you establish who you are marketing to, how you close the deal and how you set out your business practices to a client, you define the product/service you are going to provide.  Done well, your customer service plan sets the road map for the business:  what you are going to do, when you are going to do it and the steps needed to get from sale to delivery.  Done poorly, there is confusion and mis-communication, both to the client and internally. 

A great example: two stationers are bidding on delivering invitations and collateral for a wedding.  The first shows select samples of her work (beautiful to the client) says that all of her work is custom, that she needs at least three months to produce the work, and will need approval of artwork not later than four months before the delivery date of the item.  She tells the client that she can do rush work, but it will result in a 30% surcharge, and she can not entertain work to be delivered in less than six weeks.  She goes over pricing and payment dates.  She finishes with establishing the dates for the creative process -- client's vision, concept presentation, sample approval and printing.  The other stationer shows a book of her work, which is amazing too, doesn't discuss the "business" at all.  She says that they can get to business after the clients sees samples.  When asked about prices, the stationer tells the client not to worry -- she knows the budget and they will work it out.

Not clear which stationer the client will go with given similar products and pricing.  But which one do you think will be more organized and responsive?  And which one do you think could find themselves overwhelmed when the business grows?

By giving your clients direction, you give it to yourself and your business.  And once you have direction, you will know what needs to be done to get where you and your business want to go. 

Competition Quicksand

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article on the rise of competition among wedding photographers and how many are diversifying into other areas (boudoir, casual day after, and other life events for their couples).  The underlying statement was that technology has created unsustainable competition.  Digital photography eliminates barriers to entry and the Internet places competitors, experienced and not, on an almost equal footing.

Can't say that I disagree with the NYT article -- wedding photography as a stand-alone business will not survive.  Those of you with established reputations may continue on in the short, and even medium term, but the foundation is crumbling -- just too many of you chasing after the same dollar in the same way.

The answer?  Diversification, brand integration and shifting the focus to capturing smaller annuity payments over a life cycle (as opposed to a single payment at a moment in time).  The layers of this income over time will compound and, in itself, become sustainable.  For instance, if you start to shoot a life-event each year for a wedding client and you add a new wedding client each year, in the first year you have only the wedding, but by the fifth year, you have a wedding and four life-events.  

The key will be integrating your different offerings so that you use each to capture the other. Take turning your wedding clients into family clients.  Why not include first year anniversary pictures in the cost of photographing the wedding?  Throw a dinner party for the couple that you can shoot?  Give your clients a good digital camera and offer to spend an hour teaching them how to use it well?

The stronger your brand identity and client retention practices, the longer the life-cycle and the more valuable the annuity.  In the face of competition quicksand, you need to shift your focus to owning tomorrow's business today.

Are You Forgetting Something?

My biggest mistake as a business person is to write a list of questions or tasks, hand it to somebody, get a response, then try to figure out what I forgot to put on the list.  Or, worse yet, not write the list at all but try to get the information I need by asking all of the questions from memory.  You pick it: obsessive-compulsive, Type-A control issues, and micro-managing -- guilty as charged.  Luckily, I have had to suffer the consequences long and hard enough to know the irony of such behavior -- chaos, seriously limited multi-tasking and only the smallest potential for growth.

Creating art is singular, the business of creating art is not.  Like any business, creative businesses require systems and structure.  Your business' ability to grow will depend on the flow and certainty of information.  It will also depend how you can deconstruct the information into distinct tasks to reach the desired goal.  

Think of Star Trek's Teleporters.  To get from one place to another, a person is broken down into her smallest components (molecules) which are sent to a specified location to be reconstructed in the same manner that they were broken down.  If each of your projects are body parts (no comment on which ones), then the process of deconstruction and reconstruction and how it happens virtually instantaneously at the right time (in Star Trek's case, at the same time) is the information flow I am talking about.  By inserting uncertainty into the information flow with my controlling ways, I stop (or at least seriously slow down) the ability to get from one place to the other.

The bigger point though is that if information flow is not defined, it will be really hard to figure out where the real flaw in your system is.  Take pricing for example.  In most cases, you are marking up your materials and labor to reach your price.  If your mark up is correct, but your are still missing your expected margin, then costing is the issue.  And if you don't know what goes into costing on a consistent basis, finding the culprit will be one tough exercise.  About the only way you will be able to do so will be to set the information flow and then observe it in action.

Seize The Moment

The relevance of any business is wholly dependent on its moment in time.  The confluence of technology, social trends and government determine whether your business will succeed in the long term.  You can have the best sales, marketing, and social media strategy in the world, but if what you do is not relevant (or will not be relevant soon) your business will fail if you do not evolve.

For creative businesses, your art is timeless, your medium is not.  Digital photography, AutoCad, color printers, and global delivery systems anyone?  And as your medium shifts, so too must your focus on who the BEST (as opposed to current) consumer of your art is and will be.  The evolution of your art and business will not necessarily be best received by your current customer base.  Your paradox will be to decide when, if ever, to let the former go altogether and embrace the new.  Think about the leather seat supplier for horse buggies.  When did he move to the automobile and how?

For those of you who don't think we are at another horse buggy/automobile level shift in time, you are wrong.  The availability, immediacy and supply of your art in the global marketplace is only going to grow exponentially as technology continues to improve our connectivity.  While this will certainly necessitate huge change and put huge pressure on you, it will also create immense opportunity to operate your business (and create your art) on a much larger stage.

Ultimately, there is convergence to a trend, meaning all horse buggy owners will become car owners.  All of you, I am sure, have a firm grasp on the trend in your business (and art).  Knowing which clients will go with the trend first is not the goal.  What you should be thinking about today is knowing when MOST (and new) clients will make the shift and what THEY will want.  You can then shift your current strategy to speak through your existing clients to reach those you want in the future.

Timing Is Everything

Most creative businesses capture clients at a moment in time -- wedding planner when the bride gets engaged, an interior designer when a home is bought, a graphic designer when the corporation needs some sort of branding work done.  Some of you have done a wonderful job of building your name and brand beyond your business so that your clients are literally waiting for the moment they can use you.  So it goes with the Prestons, Colins, Davids, Vicentes, Mindys and Sylvias of the world.  And as it may well go for you in your regional market.  Of course, earning your rock star status takes time, money and the right clients.  Very hard to get the last two without investing a whole lot in the first.  Each one of the people I cited have been in the business for more than 20 years.

Most clients are not groupies though and what they are really doing is just trying to fill their immediate need.  No doubt, you want your marketing strategy to be able to showcase who you are and what you do when the client's need arises.  However, please be aware that ALL of your competitors are doing the same thing at the same time.  The question you should all be asking yourselves is how you can capture the client BEFORE their need arises.  It can be something so simple as focusing your blog on something other than your core business.  A great example is what Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo is doing with her blog at ABCD Design.  Amy writes about all things design, of which her invitation business is just a part.  She is young and relevant enough to capture anyone interested in design (of which there are many)-- whether they are getting married or not.  When her brides get engaged, there is a fair chance they already know her from her design blog and think of her for invitation and paper accessories.

Morphing your art to serve other markets is the subject of another post.  My point here is that it is very hard to be heard when you are speaking when everyone else is.  If you can figure out how to talk to your clients when they don't NEED to listen to you, yours will be the only voice they will want to hear when they do.

Who Are You Talking To?

The person paying (or responsible for paying) the bill for your work is likely not the same person who wants and will enjoy it.  All over-generalizations, but for those in the wedding industry, bride vs. father-of-the-bride, even planner vs. bride.  For interior designers, husbands vs. wives and creative directors vs. construction managers.  For graphic designers, marketing vs. finance.

The value of what you do is appreciated by those that want to use you.  The mistake is in having these people sell your value to the person paying for your work.  Two reasons, emotion and language-barrier.  Your client (i.e., the one NOT paying the bill) hopefully has an emotional tie to your work that will probably not be shared (or wholly shared) by the person paying.  Because of the emotional tie, your client will probably not be able to explain why what you are providing is so valuable (i.e., worth what you are charging).

As a practical matter, your presentation of your business proposal should be as thorough as your product/service presentation.  It should be IN PERSON and directed squarely to those making the financial decision.  Make sure you understand and can speak their language.  If it is a corporate setting, think of ROI, initial and ongoing capital expense, longevity of the work, etc.  If it is a social setting, be prepared to defend your margins and to reconstruct your proposal (as opposed to lowering your prices) to fit a budget.  Show your proposal as base cost with additions.  Give choices with each outcome being a terrific result, but with choosing everything being the best.  Optimally, there is someone other than you performing this function for your business.  If it is you, then presume that the person paying the bill cares not about your art, but rather what it will do for them. 

I am a broken record -- people pay for what they value.  Your job is to explain and defend that value.  The person paying the bill may not realize that you understand and respect their position.  When you speak their language, you will be able to go so much further than if you had left it to your client to do the job.  In the end, it is the difference between an artist plying her craft and a business supplying the art of the artist.