Business Process

I was in Las Vegas last week attending the Las Vegas Market with my long-time client, Vicente Wolf.  Vicente was being honored as a Design Icon by the Market and gave a presentation to a crowd of designers and furniture manufacturers.  During the question and answer session, Vicente was asked repeatedly about his business process.  The crowd was incredulous that Vicente did not show any work (other than from past designs) or provide a proposal before he was hired.  And then, this past Sunday, while watching Mad Men, there was a scene where Don met Conrad Hilton who asked him to evaluate his potential ad campaign.  Don refused, but then acquiesced giving just a taste of his opinion.  When asked what he wanted, Don replied that he wanted a chance at Hilton’s business.  Hilton questioned why Don didn’t ask for more – to which Don basically responded: one step at a time.

The integrity of what you do as an artist has to be reflected in how your business operates.  Simple enough, but so much easier said than done.  How many of you send proposals before you are hired?  Provide design after you write your proposal?  Don’t clearly establish the boundaries of your time?  Even more important, how many of you don’t have an established, written operating structure?

The hunger to please and show your work is a very powerful mistress.  The irony is giving into the seduction actually belittles the work.  Your business process has to reflect the value your creative business offers to its customers.  It is linear and it builds on itself until the final product is delivered.  As Don said, one step at a time.

Once your core process is established, you build a solid foundation from which you can go anywhere.  And, for me, new business development is where it really gets fun.