Google “Purple Couch” on your phone. You now have literally hundreds of options to choose from in less than ten seconds (including the time it takes you type “Purple Couch”).
Is this the death of design? What has your creative business done to evolve in this new world order?
Do you dig in and stick with what has worked in the past? If you are new to your creative business, who are you modeling your business after? Are you really thinking about why you do what you do and you should get paid for the why?
I have said it many, many times. Creative businesses that make their money on cost of production or percentages of production are going to face ever increasing challenges to their viability. Why? Everyone knows everything if they want to know it. So you trying to provide value with your knowledge or market access is a dying proposition. Oh, and the substitutes are closer and ever cheaper. If you sell a centerpiece for $500 today, good luck selling it for $500 tomorrow. You will forever have margin pressure and price resistance if you are all about the thing. And reducing overhead sucks. A lot. You will find yourself busier than ever with a thinner staff and less money at the end of the day. Work harder for less. So fun. Or you can set to figuring out how to evolve your creative business in the new world order.
The solution for creative business will always be the value of the idea. Knowing how to frame the idea, shape value around it and then ultimately execute on the idea is everything. It does not matter if you have been in business for a day or thirty years, you now face the challenge. The difference is that those that have longevity have the benefit of longevity and a portfolio to match. It is an edge only if those in the position remain steadfast in their value — their ability to create. All too often though, those with longevity are bitten by the curse of longevity: they have long since ignored looking at their business model and why it is relevant to their art and their creative business today. Simply, when there is slack on the rope, you worry less about it snapping. Then when it gets really tight you have no skill set to adapt to a rope that is never slack.
Design dies when value becomes uncertain. In the uncertainty, clients will reach for a metric they can understand – how much do I get for my money? For creative businesses, you cannot be in the same or more for less game. You have to be in the “we want to create this for you” game.
Therefore, those mixed messages have to go away. For interior designers, selling your discount is now a recipe for pain more than anything else. For photographers, who cares about how long you will shoot or many images you will provide? For graphic designers, I can get a logo for $100 and template website for almost nothing. For event planners, timeline and logistic tools are far better than your tried and true excel spreadsheet.
The only message that matters today is the idea that you can say to every client that comes before you: “I built this for you. You will pay me for our journey together at points I believe are most valuable to you. Each step will bring us to the next and I know the way.” The rest is just noise and I implore you to see it as just that.
In our world of instant everything, deliberateness of purpose and purity of intention is the answer. Then and only then will instant access to information serve your creative business instead of set the stage for its undoing.
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Brilliant. Thank you
On point as always, Sean. This was my, YES moment: “For creative businesses, you cannot be in the same or more for less game. You have to be in the “we want to create this for you” game.”