Turn Your Creative Passion Into Profit
Pro Tips to Make Money Doing the Work You Love
Starting a creative business isn't easy. Running a profitable creative business is even more challenging. The trick is finding the perfect balance between fulfilling your creative passion and delighting clients, so they keep coming back. As a graphic designer, illustrator, and branding consultant who has operated a successful creative practice for four decades, I've learned to consistently produce work I'm proud of while serving as a valuable resource for my clients. It hasn't always been easy. I made a lot of mistakes along the road to success. I wrote this book hoping to help creative entrepreneurs avoid many of those pitfalls while achieving a healthy work-life balance. While written from the perspective of a graphic designer, these principles can be applied to anyone doing creative work for commercial clients, such as writers, photographers, fine artists, and craftsmen.
Here's What You'll Learn:
• How to start a small creative business
• How to keep creativity and business in proper balance
• Tips for dealing with criticism and rejection
• How to manage fear of failure and tame your inner critic
• How to plan your business and set it up for long-term success
• How to create a strategic business plan
• How to set up an efficient office space and work environment
• Determining how much money you'll need to get started
• How to find the niche where you'll be most competitive
• Tips on designing an efficient workflow
• How and when to use artificial intelligence in your work
• How to write a proposal that sells
• How to price your work and services
• How to manage your time
• How to manage profit, expenses, and cash flow
• How and where to find new business
• Marketing your skills and services
• How to sell if you're not a born salesman
• How to build healthy client relationships that last
• Contracts and legal matters
• How to become a trusted partner rather than a vendor
• Considerations for hiring and keeping valuable employees and contractors
• Knowing when and how to grow your business
And much more...
About the Author
Lauren Smith has been a successful graphic designer and brand consultant for more than four decades. His clients include Visa, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, PayPal, Cisco, Intel, SanDisk, and many other prominent brands.
Lauren’s work has received more than 200 awards for creative excellence from prestigious organizations, including the Art Directors Clubs of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, American Center for Design, American Advertising Association, Typographers International, American Institute of Graphic Arts, San Francisco Society of Communicating Arts, and Western Art Directors Club.
His work has been showcased in Communication Arts, Critique, Print, Art Direction, and Calligraphy Review magazines, as well as in American Corporate Identity Books, Graphis Books, and Print Magazine Books.
Available in paperback and ebook format