Successful Art Business, Planning and Marketing Tools and Techniques You Can Use

Creatives and Business is about helping artists and other creative professionals become more successful in the world of business.  I will provide you with tools and techniques to help make your creative enterprise more successful and sustainable.  I will also let you know about new ideas and resources in the creative business sector so you can learn about what other successful creatives are doing.

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In Colorado our creative sector is fifth largest part of our economy in terms of employment. Many of us who support the creative economy are involved in efforts to increase awareness of the State’s creative talents and help this important sector grow.

Two of the companies in our local area that are helping to promote our creative sector are denverarts.org and Modern In Denver magazine. Their efforts may give you some ideas on how you can promote the creative sector in your area. To read more check out the article – “The book end of the creative sector”

If you are reading this article I probably don’t have to convince you that business skills are an important part of any creative career whether you are in business for yourself or you work for someone. The business world has changed and many of the things that have worked in the past may be less effective or not effective at all. Having a good grasp on how business works will help ensure the success of your creative enterprise and make you more valuable to your employer.

How Do Artists Get Business Skills?

Well you probably are not going to get them in art school! A few art programs have business as a part of their curriculum and more seem to be adding them. If you are in art school and they offer business courses you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t take advantage of them. For everyone else here are a few ideas:

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I am a supporter of the Creative Economy and feel that business has an important role to play.  Artists and other creative professionals need business skills and the help and support of the business community.  Likewise the business community needs the creative economy to help in its economic development efforts, make our communities more enjoyable and viable and to provide a source of creativity.  Here is a recent article which appeared in several venues in the Denver area.

Neil McKenzie Pounding the Creatives and Business Drum

In Colorado, the creative sector is the fifth largest part of our economy in terms of employment.  The South Metro Chamber of Commerce where I am a member is starting an initiative to help promote the creative sector in our part of the Denver Metro Area.  As chief instigator of the the effort I have been fortunate to be able to talk to our community’s top political, business and arts leaders to garner support.  In a recent article for Colorado Biz Magazine I discussed the difference two organizations are making in our local economy.  I encourage you to start a similar effort in your part of the world.

Read more of the article: The creative economy in bloom

One of the many things that is necessary to have a successful art or creative business is to build your brand. For many artists and creatives the brand is you! OK, you need to develop a business and marketing plan, you need to surround yourself with people who can inspire and help you. Where are all of these activities leading? – To build a brand which is sustainable, authentic, and memorable.

An important part of your brand are the images you use on your website, business cards and becoming increasingly more important, your social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. Your headshot is perhaps the most important image of all.

When I am not teaching Artrepreneurship at the Center For Innovation (MSCD), conducting workshops, writing articles for Creatives and Business or Colorado Biz Magazine, my other day job is photographing people at Neil McKenzie Photography. I specialize in business and personal brand photography; I don’t do weddings, pictures of flowers or scenes of the mountains. I combine my marketing and market research skills to get to know my clients and then create images which support their brand.

I recently had the opportunity to photograph Gina Schreck who runs a company called Synapse 3Di based here in Colorado. Gina is nationally known for putting technology to work for organizations to help them to communicate, collaborate and perform better. She has written several books on social media under the “Gettin’ Geeky” title and is recognized as a true expert.

We spent some time prior to the photo shoot to come up with some ideas on how best to portray her brand – I think we accomplished our goals. Funny thing about the photo shoot is that Gina is about as far away from my idea of a geek as I can get – more like a fashion model shoot!

After the shoot she decided to do a “Getting’ Geeky” episode with me using one of the gadgets she brought along. Check it out; there are a lot of tips on creating a great image to portray your brand.

If you are an artist or other creative entrepreneur you are involved in the world of intellectual property whether you know it or not. Intellectual property deals with the things that are created and gives them certain rights and protections under the law. These include rights for artistic, musical, film and literary works, the creation of symbols, designs and phrases, inventions and processes. In general, these types of intellectual property fall under the categories of copyrights, trademarks and patents.

In working with the creative community it never ceases to amaze me how little understanding and how much misinformation there is on the subject. Recently I asked my students what they have been taught about copyrights – “Well you can copy up to 30% of someone else’s work to create your own”. Really, let me get this right, you can copy up to 30% of a portrait I created?” “Which 30%, the bottom, the top how about the middle 30% with the face?” Trust me, if you copy the middle 30%, the part with the face, there will be trouble and you may lose.

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There is a lot of buzz right now about how the US is in a creative crisis.  According to the recent  Newsweek article The Creativity Crisis  – “Kim(Kyung-Hee Kim) found creativity scores had been steadily rising, just like IQ scores, until 1990. Since then, creativity scores have consistently inched downward. “It’s very clear, and the decrease is very significant,” Kim says.”"

Charlie Rose also had a segment on Creativity which featured Ashley Merryman who co-authored the Newsweek article as well as a couple of other creative guests.  I suggest you check out both the Newsweek article and Charlie Rose video – very interesting!

Even businesses are getting into the act as a result of the poor economy and the uncertain future.  In the recent study conducted by IBM –  ”2010 Global CEO Study: Creativity Selected as Most Crucial Factor for Future Success” executives cited creativity as the key to success – “More than 60 percent of CEOs believe industry transformation is the top factor contributing to uncertainty, and the finding indicates a need to discover innovative ways of managing an organization’s structure, finances, people and strategy.”

Clearly this is a broad application of “creativity”.  The world has changed and what worked in the past may not work now.  It will be interesting to see how businesses try to nurture and implement creativity into their organizations.

Some ideas on developing and harnessing creativity:

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Wow - check this out!

Recently I visited the Santa Fe Arts District 1st Friday Artwalk in Denver with two of my fine art photographer friends Jeff Taylor – Uncommon Photography and Zach Singer – Zachary Singer Photography with the purpose in mind of checking out our local art and getting some images for this blog.  Denver’s many 1st Friday Artwalks attract thousands of visitors each month and this month was no exception.  One of the things I noticed was that some galleries were getting noticed by the crowd and others were not.

Some ideas on getting noticed: Read more

You can help them — and they can help you

In the first article I discussed how the creative sector is the fifth-largest sector of the Colorado economy, directly employing over 122,000 people-plus another 75,000 supporting these creative enterprises. This puts it slightly behind biotechnology/biomedical, IT and telecommunications and larger than defense/security, agribusiness, food processing and technology in terms of employment according to a recent study by the Colorado Council on the Arts.

So what is the creative sector? The study described Colorado’s creative enterprises as: “The creative enterprises include nonprofit cultural institutions, commercial businesses that are producing and distributing products in which the creative content defines their market position, and, finally, the thousands of individuals who are self-employed.” Broadly speaking the creative sector includes businesses and occupations in the design, film & media, heritage, literary and publishing, performing arts and visual arts & crafts fields. Read more