How To Start Business For Creatives
What Is A Creative Business ?
It is our business to help and advise creative startup businesses. We deal with all types of creatives, while specialising in fashion and textiles. But what defines a “creatives business” ?
Creative businesses are generally design and arts based enterprises, including visual arts, design, advertising, fashion, textiles, photography, media, architecture, music, food and publishing – And teaching any of the creative subjects
Running a creative business is as much about passion for your chosen field as it is about making a profit. Having that passion can make an enormous difference to your success or failure. Your customers will instinctively know if your heart is not in it, or if profit is your only motive.
But, If you dont match that passion with financial awareness, you are bound to fail sooner rather than later. Creativity and financial awareness rarely go together. The creative entrepreneur needs to be able to keep themselves in check.
How Much Does It Cost ?
Generally, creative businesses have a restricted budget, with lower starting costs than other types of business. But each genre has its own specific costs. Some creative businesses can be started with virtually no money, using the right business model.
If you are lucky enough to have particularly valuable creative skills, your customers may be happy to pay good money in advance for your product.
The easier and cheaper it is to start a business, the more likely you are to have loads of low cost competition. Unless you aim to compete just on price, you need to add value to your brand, using your own valuable talents and skills.
You may be especially talented as a designer or artist. Or you have a unique idea that creates a unique selling point (USP).
Securing Funds.
It can be pretty difficult securing funds for creative startups. Whatever direction you take, people want to be sure that you are a good investment. It is better to start out using your own funds, maybe with the help of friends and relatives.
If you do manage to convince people to invest in you, then you are likely to have a particularly good product, or you are good at selling yourself. Either way, you could be on to a winner.
If your ideas are a bit wacky, or you are not great at selling yourself, you really do need to get that experience under your belt to earn yourself some credibility.
Once you have had built up some experience in business, you become a safer bet for potential investors. You wont necessarily make a profit from the outset, but you will learn quickly from your mistakes.
Getting Started.
Once you have decided what type of business you want to create, the most important thing about getting started is to start. To learn everything about starting and running a business would take a lifetime, so you may as well dive right in, and learn as and when you need to.
If you are in a full time job it is rarely advisable to give this up to run a new business. Instead it is more sensible to start your business as a part time concern. If you are not in full time work, and you have a little money set aside, then it may be worth going all in.
We have worked with thousands of startups over the years, and we run a very one-to-one startup workshop for anyone who would like a short introduction to setting up and running a creative business.
How Do You Succeed As A Creative Startup ?
To succeed as a creative startup entrepreneur you need to be offering something more than your competitors.
Our Start A Creative Business Workshop.
We run an extremely popular one to one startup workshop for potential creative business entrepreneurs. Topics for include the following topics :-
- Trademark
- Brand values
- Unique Selling Point
- Emotional Selling Point
- Functional purpose
- Brand adjacency
- Pricing structure
- Cash Flow
- Suppliers
- Manufacturing process
- Focus group
- Marketing Mix
- Photoshoots – Editorial & E-Commerce
- Photography
- Non Disclosure Agreements
- Contact List
The Importance Of Learning.
We cant over emphasise the importance of learning quickly once you have embarked on your new venture. The more you learn, the better your chances of success. You cant possibly learn everything though, so you need to decide what areas to prioritise, i relation to your own skills.
If you are creative, your skills will probably not be related to finance, but you will still need to have a basic understanding of the subject.
Brand Ethos.
Ethos refers to the character of your business. If you are running a creative business then your brand ethos is extremely important.
If you have no ethos apart from the profit motive it shows. But you still need to be make a profit.
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Teaching Creative Subjects.
A creative business can involve teaching any of these creative subjects, either through face to face classes, or through the internet via Zoom.
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