Author: Leslie Burns

The more time I spend in my Business Organizations class, the more I am struck by just how poorly most creative businesses are structured and managed. This class is about the law of businesses, not the management of them, but we do spend a lot of time essentially observing management through the cases we read for the class. Far too often, I am very sorry to say, anything resemblances between a well-run business and a creative business, especially a photography business, are purely coincidental.

A few of the basics to consider…

• Do you keep your business accounts completely separate from your personal ones? That is, credit cards, bank accounts, loans, etc.? Just making a note at the bottom of a check (biz purchase) is not enough.
• Do you pay yourself a salary from your business? Regularly and the same amount?
• Do you reinvest in your business?
• Do you have a plan for what happens to your business if you get incapacitated or die?
• Do you have outside, non-photographer/creative mentors or Board Members (even you you are not a corporation)? They can give you important perspectives on your business decisions.
• Is your spouse/significant other involved in your business and if so do you have an employment contract with her/him? (you should)
• Do you have employment contracts with all your employees? (you should)
• Do you hire professionals to help you? (you should)

These are just a few of the kinds of things that a good businessperson, regardless of industry, will think about and do.

And my techno-wizbangery errors continue…for those of you who get the free Manuals in your email, I apologize for the duplicate send. New software and a sloppy operator (me). Mea culpa.

Here is another good blog to follow…a NY attorney (Stephen Filler) is blogging about photo-related issues and he writes in a very accessible style. Bookmark-worthy.

Seems like many people are posting good quotes on FB these days. There is a draw in the wise words of others and seeing the quotes posted made me start to go through a book of aphorisms I keep handy. Here are a few which seem fitting for creatives. Most of them, you will (hopefully) note point out the importance of making your own art. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for you to look inside to find the answers to what images to make.

I’m particularly fond of the Eugène Delacroix one in that is points out that yes, “it” may have been done before, but not by you in your own unique way.

Enjoy!

W. Allston
The painter who is content with the praise of the world in respect to what does not satisfy himself is not an artist but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic, for his time and not for his art.

He also wrote
There is an essential meanness in the wish to get the better of anyone. The only competiton worthy of a wise man is with himself.

E. Delacroix
What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

J. Cocteau
What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

A. Corn
Life wounds everyone. Besides blood, though, the artist also sheds light.

A. Gide
Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

A new Creative Lube is available. Get it here or on iTunes.

UPDATE!!!
I had screwed up the link when I first posted the podcast–it is now corrected BUT at last check, iTunes still had the wrong podcast. You can get the right one from the link above, but for now, iTunes is hosed. I will post when (if?) I can get that fixed. Sorry for the confusion!!!!

UPDATE, part 2
It’s been fixed on iTunes as well. It should appear as Creative Lube 31a. Thanks for your patience!

While I can’t stand the spelling (yeah, I’m weird and want it to be Night), Photo Nite is a local gathering of photographers and others who want to see their work. It’s not organized by one of the professional groups–it’s much more organic than that with the photographers themselves putting it together (particularly Kat W.).

Saturday I went to the 4th Photo Nite and it was great to see the crowd of people. Lots of interest and appreciation. Lots of camaraderie and support. None of the snippiness and back-biting that people claim they sometimes find in a community of photographers.

Me, I think there is a lot less of that negative all around. Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I think that photographers actually like each other, mostly. I think they are interested in each other’s work and if we could get past the isolationism of the profession, the openness and dialogue I witnessed Saturday night (and which I have seen at APA and ASMP events) could help each of them in their businesses.

It is no longer about “managing in a downturn,” said Thomas L. Harrison, chairman and chief executive at the Diversified Agency Services division of the Omnicom Group in New York, but rather “leading toward the upturn.”

This is from an article in the NYTimes about what is happening in the advertising industry now. The timing is funny–just yesterday I was talking to a potential client and I told him that I thought things would be making the turn this Fall. As I explained, I’m no economist or anything–this is just my hunch. Then this article appears–maybe I’ll be right.

Regardless, there will be an upturn eventually. For those who are working now at their marketing, they will be better positioned to take advantage of the turn. When the clients start opening their wallets, these people will be top-of-mind when the projects get greenlighted.

What are you doing to be one of them?

I like what CPB had to say in the article–that they’ve never been a company that plays much defense. In my opinion, that’s smart business. You can’t grow if you are too busy protecting. Risky? Yup. But business is risk.

It is also reward. Go for it.

Heather Morton has a series of recent posts about promos. You NEED to be following this. Here is the latest one, the Honourable Mentions (note the Canadian spelling), but look at the submissions and read the comments. Note quality of images and of materials and design.

This is what your promos are up against! How does that cheap, quickie postcard you whipped together last week feel now? Think it has a chance of breaking through?

Promos take time, thought (concepts!), money, and a team to put together. You can’t make butter with a toothpick (a favorite Southernism) and you can’t make a great promo by yourself with your Mac and for minimal printing fees. These days you need to think video/multimedia/sound & fury along with fabulous images… and don’t forget campaign. All these pieces need to reach out and, as Douglas Adams might have written, slap the target upside the head with a lemony-fresh, tasty gold brick.

It’s time to rethink for many of you. Let go of whatever is keeping you from going for it. As I posted to my BAP Facebook page earlier today:
When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. -Cynthia Heimel

I spent yesterday evening with local San Diego photographers at a casual APA event. Somewhere between a roundtable and a bunch of comrades meeting in a bar, I think it was a successful experiment for how to encourage dialogue between photographers.

There was a loose agenda and gentle moderating/leading by Greg Lambert, but mostly it was good, naturally-evolving discussion. The topics last night were very much about marketing, so I ended up talking way too much of course (as I have a tendency to do–seems to go with the lawyer-thing too, btw), but everyone contributed. People listened and took notes and asked questions and offered their perspectives. I think it went quite well.

I have only one complaint about the event (okay, 1.5–the .5 was that venue was a tad loud): not enough photographers showed up. The event was free (buy your own drinks–it was in a bar after all) and it was promoted appropriately. And yet, only about 10-12 people showed up. This drives me nuts. Photographers everywhere are clamoring about how they are struggling. Here is this wonderful opportunity to do something positive for one’s business, and only a few people showed up.

What do you want people? A magic business fairy to appear and tap you with her wand and make you successful? Won’t happen, of course. This is work! It can be joyful work, if you choose to make it so, but don’t let anyone fool you–it is work. You have to do your end of it to make it. Sitting back and complaining or burying your head in the sand won’t do any good. You need to get out there and keep learning everything you can to find your own best path.

Meetings like the one in SD are great. Meetings with other creatives are great too. Tony Blei from Arizona wrote me recently and I wanted to share part of his email (he gave me permission):

So I’m a member of a creative group that is so creative that there really isn’t a membership. We just know the secret handshake and know where to show up on the second Tuesday of each month. Last night the place was packed with designers and photographers.

I’ve been working to get to know as many designers as I can and last night I handed my card to a guy who had just gotten laid off. He said, “Oh! I just got your postcard.” The art director let him come in to use the company computer and check his mail. Poor guy. I bought him a beer and told him about Agency Access.

How much you want to bet that offering that helpful info and the beer will result in a gig once that AD gets a new job? This is the kind of thing that can happen when you reach out. Talk to people. Colleagues and targets. Open up. Good things will happen.

In the newsletter I just got from the Wharton School of Business there are two articles I think creatives need to read.

The first is about Guy Kawasaki’s Ten Commandments. Pay special attention to number 6.

The second is about how important right brains are in the new economy. Note the end of the piece where it talks about docs going to art museums.