Author: Leslie Burns

My blog post about letting creatives create (see January posts) has been republished as an article on the Creative Latitude site. While there are no significant changes to the original post, I share this info to help promote the CL site (they’re good folk).

Also, there is a recent-ish photo of me accompanying the piece. So, for those of you who keep wondering (and nagging!), this is what I look like when riding a cable car on vacation in San Francisco.

On one of the forums on which I participate, I had a recent back-and-forth with a creative who didn’t mark up several of his expenses. This wasn’t the first time I’ve had this debate, but it does make me so frustrated that I thought I’d rant here.

Creatives have a double-barrel guilt shotgun pointed at them when it comes to making money. On the one hand, we have the culturally-ingrained image of the starving (or at least struggling) artist (or, as I like to think of it, artiste). This image perpetuates the idea that somehow, if an artist is financially successful, s/he is either a very rare fluke or, more likely, a sell-out. Make a profit? You can’t be a real artiste, we tell ourselves.

On the other hand, there is the self-imposed perception that a creative’s work is less valuable than others’ work. Doesn’t matter if it’s a dentist or a brick-layer, that person is doing “real” work, whereas the creative is getting to do drawings or take pretty pictures or whatever–and none of that could possibly be considered “real” work. Getting paid well, making a profit, isn’t deserved because it isn’t “real” work.

Of course, both hands are full of crap.

If you are a creative professional, not working as an employee for someone else, you are in business. As a businessperson, it is your duty to generate a profit for your company (actually, as an employee it is too). Businesses cannot survive, much less grow, without making profits. There is nothing evil or dirty about it.

Knowing your CODB and using that as a starting point is a great first step. But to maximize your business’ success while NOT screwing over any customer/client, marking up your costs when you bill is absolutely a necessity. The best way to do this fairly is to mark up everything by the same percentage. That way if a client says “I know I could get that widget for $100, but you billed me $125!” you can say that you mark up everything you provide for your clients by 25%–as is standard practice. That’s a much better response than “Well, I didn’t mark up the photos so…” which makes you look less than professional.

So everyone, repeat after me: Profit is not a dirty word.

Okay, someone made a post on APAnet that, well, pretty much said that in his segment and his “world” usage was a load of crap. I (quelle surprise!) decided to take issue with the original author.

Just to be clear, about standing up for our best interests:
Easy? Hell no.
Doable? Hell yes.
Necessary? Abso-friggin’-lutely.

I am no fan of Viacom, but I love them today. They are suing Google and YouTube for copyright infringement…for one billion dollars. Billion…with a b.

I think this quote is dead-on accurate and important for all the creatives out there:
In a statement, Viacom lashed out at YouTube’s business practices, saying it has “built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others’ creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.” 

The only thing that would be more accurate would be if they had said how Google/YouTube exploit the creatives who make the content. It most assuredly is exploitation. No question.

Every time you have a client asking you to do it for free or for less, think about how they are making their money. What value does your work really hold? Is your creative product the content that drives the financial cycle for the company? Then it has got great value. Price accordingly.

Every day we consumers buy stuff. What do we buy? Lettuce and cars and houses and envelopes and pens and cat food and gas…the list is pretty much endless. But what do we actually buy?

Well, in the case of lettuce, we usually buy whatever looks fresh and, often, what is on sale. Envelopes are bought at Costco or Staples, the cheaper the better. Gasoline is over-priced all over (especially here in SoCal), so I usually look for the cheapest…but not too cheap because that stuff might be tainted and gunk up my engine.

Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Truth is, more of what we buy we do not buy based on price first. Beautiful houses in less desirable parts of cities are much cheaper than their counterparts, but people pay more for the location. I buy a more expensive cat food because my vet says it’s better and I want my cats to be healthy, and I am not alone in this (over $34 Billion was spent on US pets in 2004). Even the lowly pen–I can’t stand the feel of ballpoints so I buy a certain brand of rollerball or even get ink for my fountain pen, thus paying much more than I need to…and this from someone who is not a “spender.”

So what kind of car do you drive? Was it the cheapest you could get, or did you spend more for a certain brand, certain amenities, or a certain level of “quality” or even prestige? Why did you do that instead of getting the cheapest? We make the rationalization of “price to value” or claim a need that really isn’t a need but a want (like an iPod plug-in or leather seats…or even power windows, if you want to be brutally honest) and we make the purchase. Buying is much more about how we as humans feel than we might want to admit.

The good thing for us is that our clients think generally the same way the rest of us do, and so that means that even when they say they are buying based on price, they aren’t really (mostly).

That means you don’t need to compete on price ever. Instead, find out what they really want, what will make them happy and give them that at your price. If you can find a way to give the impression of quality before the sale, to fulfill your potential client’s need during the sale, and back that up with a quality product to build trust with a potential client after the sale, you will get sales…no matter what your price.

Those of you who have read my forum posts, Manuals, and other writings, know that I am a vehement copyright protectionist. I have said repeatedly that we are at a crucial point in the recognition of the power and value of intellectual property and that if we don’t defend it now, we’ll lose it soon (and with it many creative pros will have no way of making a living).

Well, the mainstream is really starting to understand and get it. DailyKos has recognized the need to avoid potentially violating copyright. Getty has been going after infringers in a very large way since they hooked up with PicScout, and the discussion about Google taking advantage of content providers is getting more and more traction.

If you are not registering your copyright to all your (copyrightable) intellectual property, start doing so now. Today. And defend your rights. Take infringers to court whenever you have doubt that the infringement was accidental. And educate those who accidentally infringe.

How often do you feel overwhelmed? It’s a common “disorder” for creative pros, that feeling that there is too much to do and no place to start and too many deadlines and…and…and.

Here’s a trick to help you begin to get a handle on your gigantic pile of stuff to do. Do something.

Okay, before you beat me, let me elaborate. Do something every day, repeatedly. Make yourself do something specific and work-related every day–the same general thing (make it something you enjoy usually), repeated. For example, if you’re a photographer, take at least one picture every day. If you are a writer, write a certain number of words or pages. Illustrator, sketch something. Designer, maybe do a variation of a logo, same logo, every day for a week or two.

Don’t spend more than an hour on this, and, in fact, it’s better to keep it to 30 minutes or less. In other words, don’t think, just do.

Now you’re probably thinking that I have just added to the ginormous pile of stuff you already have to do, but actually I haven’t. You weren’t going to do it all anyway so the same stuff you would have bumped to play a video game got bumped by doing something good for your creative business.

What this exercise does (among other things) is shows you that you can do essentially the same thing every day, for a brief period of time each day. That proves that you do have discipline and can do what you set out to do.

After you do this for a week or two, you can begin to expand it. Now do the one thing, and add one repetitive thing from your pile. Same basic rules–less than an hour, preferably less than 30 minutes of time (get a timer!) on the new thing. Don’t stop doing the other thing. In a week or two, add another repetitive thing. Repetitive things can be calling potential clients or bookkeeping or updating your database or the like.

When you start doing these things in little chunks over the week, you’ll find that you get a lot done in the 5 working days. Your pile will quickly get more manageable. Eventually you will be able to regulate your schedule more specifically, maybe doing bookkeeping on Tuesdays and Thursdays only or calling clients on MWF–just remember to keep the time limit to an hour or less (less is particularly better if you have ADD) and to simply do it.

Earlier today I read (and responded to) a question about email promos on a creative pro forum. The writer wanted to know what to write on his email promo and he wanted to know what everyone else was doing.

This is a perfect example of what I call Sheeple Marketing; that is, doing what everyone else done because “that’s what you do…baaa, baaa.” He was (I’m pretty sure) asking because he wanted to do what other people had already done with some measure of success. He wanted to follow the herd because what the herd does is safe.

Safe is not what you want to be in today’s marketplace. You want to be effective.

There is a ton of clutter out there. Clients, especially creatives who hire other creatives, get innundated with promos every single day. They have mental walls to block the mundane, the typical. They are fighting to get their clients to break out and be different, so why would they be impressed with you if you don’t show that same attitude?

I pointed out in my response that he should instead think about what might work for him. As a creative pro himself, and one who gets annoying spam (like all of us), what might work on him to break through the clutter? If he can’t get the data on what his targets definitely want, then the fallback position of “What would work on me, because I share commonalities with my targets?” is not a bad way to go. And it beats the hell out of trying the same-old same-old.

Might you come up with an idea that totally flops? Sure. It’s a risk. But if you don’t try you can’t break out of the herd.

Here’s something for you to try: say “yes” for a day–to every question where you could answer “yes” or “no,” say “yes.” Now that can be “yes, and” or even “yes, if” but the word “no” (in any form), should be avoided.

When you say “yes” you encourage conversation and connection; whereas saying “no” shuts things down.

For example, let’s say a client calls who wants a project done by you and wants it tomorrow, which is impossible for you to do as your schedule is booked. Rather than say “No, sorry” say “Yes, I’d love to, if we can move it to next Monday.” Or maybe you could say “Yes, if I can get another client to change their project deadline, I’d love to do it.”

Or, what about the client who calls up with a great project but wants to own the copyright for your work? “Yes, sure, we can do that if your budget can afford it,” or “Yes, I can do your project if we can change that parameter,” or “Yes, this is a compelling project I know I’d do a great job on, if we can work around the copyright transfer; I bet some sort of exclusive, unlimited license would cover your needs–can we discuss it?”

See how all of these answers encourages the dialogue to continue? You’re being positive, helpful, you’re acknowledging the client’s needs and seeking solutions.

Of course, you may eventually reach a point where you can’t make the situation work and will have no other choice but to say “no,” but by saying “Yes” from the start you are telling your client that you want to make it happen–you want to fulfill their needs–so when you finally have to say “no” they will not only understand that you have no choice, they’ll appreciate the efforts you made in trying.

The fine folks from Creative Lattitude are at it again. They have recently launched BoDo–the Business Of Design Online. This is a new resource for creative pros, especially designers, but all independent creative pros can find useful information on it. I’ve already contributed some bits and pieces and hope to be more active with them as time goes on.