How To Start a Creative Business

How To Start a Creative Business
Author: Doug Richard
Publisher: David & Charles
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013-05-19
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 9781446302736

This book is an invaluable resource for any creative with a great business idea. Starting your own business does not need to be a complicated and daunting process and serial entrepreneur, Dragon's Den investor and business educator Doug Richard, shows you how. He sets out a ten-point plan teaching creatives how to shape their startup business into a success. Written in plain English, without the dense text and technical jargon of other business books, and illustrated with visual cues to help the message stick, Doug's practical advice is accessible to all. Real-life case studies are interspersed throughout from successful creative startups that include, Tatty Devine, Paul Smith, Time Out and LoveFilm, which expand upon the theory and bring it to life. In 10 chapters, Doug asks the fundamental questions any aspiring creative entrepreneur must answer. By following the questions from start to finish, and working through the get your hands dirty activities, you will get the theory first and then apply that theory in a practical way to the real world and your own business. By the time you reach the last question, you will have the foundation of a very solid creative business. You will answer: What do we do or need that people need or want? Who is our customer? Who is our competition? What is our pricing model? And more! Doug walks you through the process for researching, answering and, ultimately, overcoming the challenges posed by these questions for your own business plan. Whether you are passionate about craft, design, advertising, antiques, film and video, music, performing arts, or any other creative field, this fantastic guide will help you start your business today!

Creative Truth

Creative Truth
Author: Brad Weaver
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1317541553

Creative Truth is your playbook for starting, building, and enjoying a profitable design business. Whether you’re a solo freelancer working from home or a small group of creative entrepreneurs ready to get to the next level, this is your roadmap to success. You’re the CEO, CFO, CTO, Secretary, Janitor, Office Manager, and everything in between. Finding a balance between running the business and doing great creative work is a constant struggle. From learning how to price your work and manage your time, to setting up your business and defining your market, Brad Weaver covers everything designers need to know to run a studio without losing heart. Highlights: • Real numbers, real tools, and best practices in a toolkit that you can start using immediately in your business. • A companion website that offers up-to-date resources, articles, tools, and discussions, allowing readers to continue learning as they grow. • Practical tips for getting clients, being more profitable, building your network, managing your operations, getting things done, hiring help, managing contractors, and finding joy along the way.

How to Start a Creative Business

How to Start a Creative Business
Author: Doug Richard
Publisher: David and Charles
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2013-04-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1446360741

A guide to starting and sustaining creativity-based businesses—from culinary to crafting to film to fashion and beyond. Many “creative types” don’t think they’re cut out for business—but Doug Richard, founder of School for Creative Startups, believes entrepreneurs are made, not born. In this user-friendly guide he shows how artists, chefs, designers, musicians, and others can turn their hobbies and passions into sustainable lifestyle businesses. Based on a unique ten-question formula, the book provides comprehensive start-up business advice in jargon-free style, brought to life with real-life case studies from a range of creative start-ups—and online resources that help you to develop your own business goals and plans. “This book helps debunk the myth that creative people and business don’t mix.” —James Boardwell, cofounder, Folksy

Company of One

Company of One
Author: Paul Jarvis
Publisher: Mariner Books
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1328972356

What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better--and smarter--solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that. Company of One is a refreshingly new approach centered on staying small and avoiding growth, for any size business. Not as a freelancer who only gets paid on a per piece basis, and not as an entrepreneurial start-up that wants to scale as soon as possible, but as a small business that is deliberately committed to staying that way. By staying small, one can have freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis. Paul Jarvis left the corporate world when he realized that working in a high-pressure, high profile world was not his idea of success. Instead, he now works for himself out of his home on a small, lush island off of Vancouver, and lives a much more rewarding and productive life. He no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output, and more growth. In Company of One, Jarvis explains how you can find the right pathway to do the same, including planning how to set up your shop, determining your desired revenues, dealing with unexpected crises, keeping your key clients happy, and of course, doing all of this on your own.

Architect + Entrepreneur

Architect + Entrepreneur
Author: Eric W. Reinholdt
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Architects
ISBN: 9781511750172

Part narrative, part business book; Architect + Entrepreneur is filled with contemporary, relevant, fresh tips and advice, from a seasoned professional architect building a new business. The guide advocates novel strategies and tools that merge entrepreneurship with the practice of architecture and interior design. The Problem:Embarking on a new business venture is intimidating; you have questions. But many of the resources available to help entrepreneur architects and interior designers start their design business lack timeliness and relevance. Most are geared toward building colossal firms like SOM and Gensler using outdated methods and old business models. If you're an individual or small team contemplating starting a design business, this is your field guide; crafted to inspire action. The Solution:Using the lean startup methodology to create a minimum viable product, the handbook encourages successive small wins that support a broader vision enabling one to, "think big, start small, and learn fast." It's a unique take on design practice viewed through the lens of entrepreneurship and is designed to answer the questions all new business owners face, from the rote to the existential. Questions about: - Startup costs - Business models (old and new) - Marriage of business and design - Mindset - Branding & naming (exercises and ideas) - Internet marketing strategies - Passive income ideas - Setting your fee - Taxes - Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - Securing the work - Client relations - Software - Billing rates - Contracts Building a business isn't a singular act; it's a series of small steps. Using the outline found in Architect + Entrepreneur you can start today. The chapters are organized to guide you from idea to action. Rather than write a business plan you'll be challenged to craft a brand and you'll sell it using new technologies. Follow the guide sequentially and you'll have both the tools and a profitable small business.

Creativity

Creativity
Author: John Cleese
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-06-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781529157529

____________________________ We can all be more creative. John Cleese shows us how. Creativity is usually regarded as a mysterious, rare gift that only a few possess. John Cleese begs to differ, and in this short, immensely practical and often very amusing guide he shows it's a skill that anyone can acquire. Drawing on his lifelong experience as a writer, he shares his insights into the nature of the creative process, and offers advice on how to get your own inventive juices flowing. ____________________________ 'Humorous and practical ... Whether you're hoping to write a novel or paint a masterpiece, you're sure to feel inspired' OK Magazine 'His candor is endearing ... An upbeat guide to the creative process' Kirkus 'A jovial romp ... Cleese fans will enjoy, and writers and other artists will breeze through, picking up a few nuggets of wisdom along the way' The Festival Review 'A sincere and thoughtful guide to creativity, and a very useful book' Graham Norton 'Wise words on the serious business of being silly' Sunday Business Post

How to Write a Great Business Plan

How to Write a Great Business Plan
Author: William A. Sahlman
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Total Pages: 73
Release: 2008-03-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1633691314

Judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you'd think the only things standing between would-be entrepreneurs and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, bundles of meticulous-looking spreadsheets, and decades of month-by-month financial projections. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, often the more elaborately crafted a business plan, the more likely the venture is to flop. Why? Most plans waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to information that really matters to investors. The result? Investors discount them. In How to Write a Great Business Plan, William A. Sahlman shows how to avoid this all-too-common mistake by ensuring that your plan assesses the factors critical to every new venture: The people—the individuals launching and leading the venture and outside parties providing key services or important resources The opportunity—what the business will sell and to whom, and whether the venture can grow and how fast The context—the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, and other forces shaping the venture's fate Risk and reward—what can go wrong and right, and how the entrepreneurial team will respond Timely in this age of innovation, How to Write a Great Business Plan helps you give your new venture the best possible chances for success.

The Creative's Guide to Starting a Business

The Creative's Guide to Starting a Business
Author: Harriet Kelsall
Publisher: Robinson
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2018-09-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1472141083

WINNER OF THE BEST START-UP INSPIRATION BOOK AWARD AT THE 2019 BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 'A book to devour from start to finish - easy to do as it is accessibly-written and oh so fascinating - and then to dip into later for reference.' - Joanna Reeves Do you have a passion for making beautiful objects? Are you wondering whether you can take the next step and turn your creativity into a career? This inspirational guide offers easy-to-follow advice from talented and creative industry experts. There are practical exercises that will help you sell your creations, choose the right time to start your business, and guide you through as you do so. With The Creative's Guide to Starting a Business, you will discover the best way to: Create pieces that sell Write a business plan Identify and reach customers Research the competition Price products and test the market Promote the business successfully Packed with interviews, encouraging real life stories, and tips from successful entrepreneurs who started with a passion and turned it into their own successful, creative business, this practical guide will take you through the very first steps of defining creative and financial success to ultimately establishing a rewarding start-up.

Why Startups Fail

Why Startups Fail
Author: Tom Eisenmann
Publisher: Currency
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2021-03-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0593137027

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.