Transition

There comes a time when we all have to shift, to transform into something other.  Like it or not, we all mature.  Now, whether we learn a few things along the way, that one is totally up to us.  For creative business owners, however, refusing to learn is the surest road to obsolescence and an inevitable demise.

At around the five to ten year mark, you, your art and your creative business will no longer be the new new thing nor yet be the icon you aspire to be.  At the same time, there will be new new things nipping at your heels while the icons remain, not quite ready to hang it up.  So you will have to choose who you are going to be – either perpetually youthful like you were at the beginning or a more sophisticated, focused you, on a new, clearer path to becoming the icon you seek to be.

Choosing is never easy.  We all so much want to just keep going as if there is a there there.  We also hate saying no, especially if yes was your answer yesterday.  The only thing you owe those that got you where you are is acknowledgment that you would not have gotten where you are without them, no more, no less.  Eventually, the best, highest praise you can give your patrons (clients, employees, colleagues, partners) is to let them go if you are meant for something else.  Just as you would never dress your six year old in a onesie, neither should your biggest fans want to see you stay where they are in the name of loyalty.  The whole point of a creative business is to share your art, your artistry, your vision with as many fans, existing and new as possible.

Your next act is everything.  Inevitably, it is about finding your own truth.  Five to ten years as a creative business owner should be measured in dog years. And at thirty-five to seventy, you should have the wisdom to know that change is necessary and the wherewithal to live with your own new set of yeses and noes.

Examples abound.  For wedding planners (tis the season after all), when will you give up the day of service that feeds the kitty and drains the soul?  Interior designers, where is the premium for your time?  Thirty percent over three months is not the same as thirty percent over two years, even if the budget is bigger.  Photographer – at what point will you value the disc of digital images?  Would you ask Picasso to make originals for someone else to sign?  Graphic designers – when will every project be all encompassing – about the ethos of a brand far more than the stuff behind it (i.e., logo, website, social media, etc.)?  Event designers – when will you charge for, ahem, design instead of the result of that design (i.e., the items that make up the design).  Florists, same thing.

No one is ever going to tell you when you, your art and your creative business crosses over, when you have earned the right to say no.  In fact, quite the opposite.  Then again, getting to the next level is as much embracing the idea that you belong as it is actually being there.  It is one thing to share the stage with an icon, it is quite another to know you will be the one everyone will remember.  Such is the difference between technicians and artists.   Great technicians exceed expectations with their talent, even their experience; artists define them.