Creative businesses are not department stores. You do not have something for everybody. Your clients are only those who place a premium on the value that you offer. Everybody loves options, but having a smorgasbord of services actually devalues your creative business. Your clients are not experts in what you provide and therefore have no basis to truly understand what you offer. Asking them to make a choice from your “menu” of services ultimately boils down to a function of price and not the intrinsic nature of your business. Not a place you want to be.
Moreover, it is almost impossible to understand what is being offered when confronted with multiple businesses at the same time. The confusion, best case, puts the right client in the wrong box, and, worst case, the right client in your competition’s box. For instance, if you are an interior designer and you offer full design services based on a set fee/percentage and hourly consulting services (sound familiar wedding planners that offer full service and day of?) and put them on the same website, you allow those who would want your full design services to consider your consulting business. Those clients who would have been happy with consulting services if they didn’t know about full design services are now bummed that they cannot afford full services. I hate rules, but this really should be one for all creative businesses: always upsell, never downsell. Yet, by putting everything you offer in one place that is exactly what you are doing.
If you can view everything you offer as its own business, with you and your art being the common thread, you will avoid creating chaos in the minds of your clients. After all, the model underlying each of your offerings IS different – consulting (day-of) is based on volume, full service on in-depth personal relationship – and each deserves its own light. Today’s technology not only makes it possible, but almost demands that you make the distinction. Here are a few businesses that, in my opinion, are very much on the right track: Laura Kirar’s Trudesign and Laura Kirar Licensing, Vicente Wolf’s VW Home and Vicente Wolf Associates, Jennifer Domenick and Mary Gardella’s Love and Life, and Daniella Faget’s Bella Signature Design and Varmala. Each of these creative business owners understand that the value is in the art, who it is intended for and how it is delivered. A defined thought for the right client is their mantra and it should be yours.
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Wow, Sean, thank you. You have inspired and encouraged me to do what I wanted, when I didn’t know how. Not only have you showed all of us the ‘why’, but also the ‘how’, and that we should do it NOW. (yes, I rhymed on purpose – I have kids, what can I say). Thank you for all the wise thoughts you share with us.
on point, as usual. thank you!