By The Rebel School CEO, Simon Paine.
When it comes to starting a creative business there's a bit of a paradox; you have the opposite problem to lots of people.
So many folk struggle to come up with an idea but if I were to hazard a guess, your challenge is to choose what to do out of all of the creative ideas and talents that you have rather than having a blank mind.
One of the first things I’m going to tell you in this article is about focus – I can immediately feel your hackles raising.
So many times I’ve heard from creative business owners say “I don’t want to focus because that’s why I started a creative business in the first place!”. You probably get a kick out of playing with different ideas, making different things develop and expressing your creativity. Don’t worry me too!
Do you think it’s possible to do both?
Is it possible to have a successful creative business without having to focus on just one thing?
Absolutely! Here are the golden three questions to help.
- Out of all of your creative talents and ideas which of those ideas would excite you the most if you had to do it for eight hours a day (I’m not saying you have to)?
- Which of those ideas would also be something that it’s possible to start that you could start making money from?
- Out of all of your creative ideas which would help you stand out?
When you run through those three questions, I’m hoping that something will come to your mind that you can put at the tip of your metaphorical arrow.
I met a creative once who was a fashion designer, watercolour artist, pottery maker, recycling queen and 10 other business ideas and when she pitched to people and told them what she did for a business everyone’s eyes glazed over.
The three question exercise that you’ve just read is how to decide your first mini experiment. It’s not a business yet and it won’t be until a) It’s working B) you’re enjoying yourself C) your customers are enjoying what you do D) you’re making money and E) that you want to continue then you’re in a place to turn it into a business.
Up until that point treat it like it’s a mini experiment because you might not get it right first time. In fact you probably won’t! That creative I just told you about didn’t; she went through till three iterations before she figured out what to put at the tip of her arrow.
The difference between an experiment and a business
I met a creative once who was a fashion designer, watercolour artist, pottery maker, recycling queen and 10 other business ideas and when she pitched to people and told them what she did for a business everyone’s eyes glazed over.
The three question exercise that you’ve just read is how to decide your first mini experiment. It’s not a business yet and it won’t be until a) It’s working B) you’re enjoying yourself C) your customers are enjoying what you do D) you’re making money and E) that you want to continue then you’re in a place to turn it into a business.
Up until that point treat it like it’s a mini experiment because you might not get it right first time. In fact you probably won’t! That creative I just told you about didn’t; she went through till three iterations before she figured out what to put at the tip of her arrow.
Once you’ve got a product or idea to be your LEAD business you’re now ready to point it at your target audience. So next who is the customer most likely to buy? Go and find as many of them as you can as quickly as you can and see if they want to buy what you’re selling. You have to ask!
How one focus can allow you to create numerous creative businesses
Back to the focus thing for a second. Once your arrow has landed in the target and you have successfully sold something to a customer, that’s the time to tell them about the other cool things that you can do.
That’s your opportunity to turn a £10 into a £20 transaction into £100 transaction into a £500 transaction and so on. You don’t need to tell them your life history and universe goals upfront; the trick is to focus on one thing first and add the other stuff later.
Where the focus goes the cash will flow.
Talking of cash, creative entrepreneurs aren’t always the best at asking for sales or asking for money.
The number one skill that will make the biggest impact on your bank balance is sales skills. When it comes to selling, fire the artist and creative in you (temporarily!) and rehire yourself as head of sales. The mindset of selling is a little different to the mindset of creating but not entirely.
Think of sales like this. Sales is the art of transfer of excitement from you to someone else. And if you’re not excited by your creativity then no one else is going to be.
Here’s the cool bit.
You don’t even need to have something made before you can start selling!
What’s stopping you going to pitch an idea to people and see if they’ll pay for it in advance, either in part or in full?
As a creative business owner you also have the option of websites like, kickstarter.com where you can upload your projects, promote the page and get people to pledge money in advance for your creative outputs. As soon as you hit your target, Kickstart will pay you the money and you can go and make the products and deliver them to your new customers. Cool, right?
So to launch a creative business you’ve got to a) be prepared to sell b) be prepared to focus and c) be prepared for it not to work for you exactly how you want it first time.
Then, once you’re up and running you’re now ready to turn into a business.
So what’s your next step?
Simon Paine
Simon started the Rebel School (formerly Pop-Up Business School) with Alan in 2011.
As well as helping start-ups realise their business dreams, he has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.