Can business be creative and successful? Absolutely. In fact, it’s something we are rather good at here. But in our globalised, always connected world, there’s no easy roadmap to glory.
“What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to anyone running a creative business today?”
No matter how good your business plan, and how well defined your proposition, there’s no silver bullet that guarantees financial success and creative stardom. How you get there is down to you – the people you gather around you, and the insight and experience you pick up along the way.
When it comes to our mentors’ tips for success, here’s their Top Ten:
- Be an expert in one thing
Know the score, know your patch, know what you’re good at – and focus on it. Don’t try to conquer the world all at once.
- Create a plan... change the plan... get a new plan...
Develop a clear vision for your business and articulate a sense of where you’re heading, even if you might need a couple of diversions en route.
- Roll the dice
If playing it safe is what everyone else does, then do the things others wouldn’t do and be a risk taker. Break the cycle. Change the conversation. Get noticed.
- The bottom-line: your bottom line
You’re running a real business and employing real people. And profit definitely isn’t a dirty word. So remember to keep an eye on the numbers and always watch your cashflow.
- Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate
Engage the brains around you and build a culture of collaboration and partnership in your business (and with clients and suppliers too) to help stimulate and evolve new ideas.
- Great ideas are worth protecting
Ideas – and your expression of them – are everything. They’re the value you’ll be building up over the years to come, so protect them... and be prepared to defend them.
- Start digital, stay digital
Connect. Engage. Like. Post. LinkIn. And don’t just think and act like a business from East Anglia. Or even the UK. By putting digital at the heart of your thinking, your market can be the whole world.
- Be tenacious
If at first you don’t succeed, curse under your breath and keep at it. Business success is as much about perspiration as it is inspiration. Don’t give up.
- Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Failed pitches, bad client meetings, prototypes gone awry, IT foul-ups... they’re the stuff of every business, not just yours. The trick is to find out why things went pear-shaped and move on...
- Find the fun
You’re running a creative business, remember? So don’t forget, if it doesn’t feel like fun, find the fun in what you’re doing.
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