Free Is Free

April 11, 2017

So let’s lay out an all too common scenario. Your favorite project length for your creative business is four months. You happen to be slow at the moment and for the next month but busy down the road, four months from now. The same client comes to you and says they have identical projects, one […]

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There Are No Guarantees

April 3, 2017

We live in a world where there are no guarantees. No promise that if you work hard, be a person, a business, of character, integrity and purpose you will win the day, the client, the game. I suppose we never did live in this world, however, we (okay I) could always cling to the illusion […]

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What Matters To You?

March 28, 2017

What matters to you, your art and your creative business has a price. The price is vulnerability. You will be vulnerable to those that will say what matters to you does not matter. Notice I did not say does not matter to them. I said it does not matter. Wholehearted dismissal of what makes your […]

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Strategy

March 13, 2017

Strategy gets a bad rap. Almost everyone in creative business goes about strategy exactly backwards. Usually, creative business owners start by looking at what everyone else is doing and then try to figure out what they should do to be different. Jane designer charges by the hour, I will charge a flat fee. Fred the […]

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Understanding Value

March 1, 2017

We only buy things if we think they are worth more (or at least as much) as we have to pay for them. For our purposes today, we will focus on money transactions. Value can be delivered with attention, timely decisions, etc., but it is just easier to make it all about the Benjamins. Here […]

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The Happy Business

February 21, 2017

Creative business is the happy business. Even if you do commercial work. You exist to transform. You transform by surprising, delighting, energizing, inspiring clients with what you intend for them. They live in the afterglow once your creation comes to life. So why oh why would you ever make the business of your creativity pure […]

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Be The Most In Your Category

February 14, 2017

So we are going to step it up today. I have offered a few challenges so far this young year – lose line item pricing, refuse to allow anyone to refer to your work as anything other than an investment. And while not easy, these challenges are specific actions that do not require a deeper […]

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When The Phone Does Not Ring

February 7, 2017

If you have been in business for a while (i.e., more than 3 years), you come to have expectations about how and when the proverbial phone will ring. For many creative businesses, that time is now. Holidays are done and we are looking forward to Spring coming next month. This is when corporations put their […]

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Make One Change

February 1, 2017

We all have visions of a better self. Better art, better business, better clients. We imagine that we will do what it takes to get to wherever there is. Grand statements are thought about and sometimes even made. The shiny new website, social media platform, office, even a new graphic look can be enticing as […]

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Please Do Better

January 25, 2017

As I am sure it has with just about everyone reading this, politics and what is happening in America has consumed me and made me really contemplate what is to come. Some of you see positive in what is to come, others not. I am firmly in the other camp. Apart from standing up for […]

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