Back from an amazing and restful trip in Vermont. For me, time away is incredibly important. I get to recharge, think and enjoy being with my family. There are some wonderful pictures on Cate’s blog, Tribeca Yummy Mummy. You can see for yourself why there has only been one post in the last two weeks.
However, while I was away, I did manage to read Seth Godin’s blog and was really inspired by his post, “Competing With The Singleminded“. The post was about trying to (or thinking you need to) keep your current methodology when your competition is willing to go a whole other way. What I took away from the post is the exquisite irony I see in so many creative businesses: the older and more established the business, the safer the art and the more undefined the brand.
For whatever reason, Fortune 100 businesses don’t have this fear and do, on occasion, put it all out there and fail spectacularly. Take New Coke, The Edsel and Tropicana’s New Packaging. Hindsight says they should never have been undertaken. Nonsense. They all got more in failure than they might have gotten in success. The demise of New Coke deeply engrained America’s desire for its own sense of history in Classic Coke and lead to Coke’s biggest surge over Pepsi to date. The Edsel taught Ford the perils of bureacracy and ego out of touch with the consumer. And Pepsi will probably have a “New Coke” with its Tropicana debacle. Yes, you learn more from failure than success, but, for creative businesses, the more important lesson is that the more you succeed, the more you should dare to fail.
Creativity is (re)invention. The story your business tells needs to evolve, just as your art does. Staying with your current pricing, marketing, or operational strucuture, just because it is the devil you know is not good enough.
Could you lose all of your business if you didn’t do your “day of” package, your hourly consultation, your pay for results program? Sure. Will the market accept that you won’t “throw in” additional prints or sessions like your competitors do? Probably not. Will your vendors lose your number when you won’t pay commissions any more or let them mark-up your proposal? Yep. Do it anyway.
If what you are attempting to do is speak a better truth for your creative business, you really don’t have a choice. Keeping the status quo is like a beach house on an eroding beach. Not a question of if the house is going to fall down, just when. Better to build a new house while the old one is still standing.
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Absolutely Brilliant (as always). I am so glad I’ve taken the leap to change the business structure, change the way I work, change the way I present my company and what I do. I must admit, at first I didn’t think the change of the business structure would work in my market – it was completely different approach than anyone else in my field locally. I was worried potential clients at a consultation would look at me and say “what?” with that particular frown. Instead, I’ve had one “I don’t understand, explain more” and the rest “That’s fabulous, makes sense” with a sign on the dotted line right then and there. The client walks away excited to see more, and I walk away exhilirated knowing I am going to get paid well to do what I love. How fabulous is that?! Thanks, Sean. New website half-way done!
“Creativity is (re)invention. The story your business tells needs to evolve, just as your art does. Staying with your current pricing, marketing, or operational strucuture, just because it is the devil you know is not good enough.”
WOW. That is exactly what I need to hear right now. I am in the process of trying to “move things to the next level” and these words really hit home. Thank you!
Sean, this post speaks to me particularly because I’m at a crucial ecision-making point in my Business. It is true that sometimes we gotta take risks and hope for the best. We might be better in the end than we were before or not, but at least we tried!
Thank you for the insight.
How true… It’s impossible to know if an idea will be successful or not, but in order to be successful we must be willing to fail. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that I need to accept the fact that what works for others might not necessarily work for me. My greatest successes to date have been the result of doing things differently; the greatest challenge continues to be educating potential customers about how being different is good.
Great post. I saw Seth’s post and also immediately thought about the wedding industry. I constantly try to tweak and modify my business to suit what I need as a businesswoman while also meeting the changing needs and expectations of clients (which can definitely be difficult/scary when you feel like what you have now works even though you can see the writing on the wall that needs or preferences are changing). About a year ago, I did a major overhaul of some of my business structure. It ended up being incredibly successful and had not only been a structure that’s been more personally rewarding for me, but also, I believe, more satisfying for my client. I have been struck by how many wedding professionals I’ve talked to who say things like it “would never work for them.” That may be right for their situation, but for me, taking that leap and making those changes have helped to further refine and target my ideal client, which in turn has led to better (both in number and just general fulfillment/likability) bookings.
I’m new to you blog, Sean. It’s very well written, with a lot of excellent points.
There is a lot of discussion going on currently regarding learning from failure or crisis. And those willing to embrace evolution, and learn and restructure business models that are no longer working have a much better chance of success. From personal experience, I have been fortunate to be a part of a management team who has spearheaded a “brick by brick” restructuring that has proven quite successful.
As you state-“Creativity is (re)invention”. This is exceptionally true in design related fields, and the event production industry especially. Art, and the processes of producing art, is constantly changing. Think of digital imaging and photography, sophisticated graphic design, and even the way flowers are purchased from wholesalers or growers. These are but a few of the ever-evolving elements in the event business that have shifted core business in new directions.
Creative industries are exciting! Sound business and management principles combined with the dedication to traditional as well as emerging art forms, increase the chances for long-term success exponentially.