Articles

Most small businesspeople, especially creative ones, have a hard time separating themselves from their businesses. Often, the name of the company is “Joe Smith Photography” or “Betty Martin–Designer” which only enhances this connection. On one level, that can be seen as a positive–you are the creative force behind your creative business and so you want the world to know it’s all about you, Baby! When the creative part of the creative business is highlighted, all is well.

But it gets negative very quickly when the business part of the business needs to be in first position. When you need to get a business loan or talk to the Accounts Payable department of that deadbeat client, suddenly being the Creative doesn’t work. You need to be the Businessperson.

It’s also negative when you can’t not be working. That is, if you can’t turn off the work and spend (regular, repeated) time with your friends or family, then the you/work line is definitely gone and you are headed for trouble.

I tell clients (and especially students/newbies) that it is vital to make your business as business-like as possible for exactly these reasons. It’s a hell of a lot easier to put on your Businessperson hat and demand payment when you have separate business accounts at the bank, separate business credit cards, business stationery, a business accountant and a business lawyer, etc. Incorporating, if it is the right thing for your business financially and legally, can go a long way to helping this process.

When you aren’t at work, when you keep the parts separate, you are more likely to have healthier relationships with those you love and with yourself (mental health and physical). This makes you more productive when you are at work. Isn’t that nice how it works like that?

In my case, I think it is easier for me to keep my head in the right place at the right time because I have taken many steps to “separate” myself from the business I run. They are closely connected, but I am me and it is it. For example, I get up every day at the same time and go to work. Even though I work out of my home, I go to work–because I have a room that is the Burns Auto Parts office, it serves no other purpose than to be the office. So, I get up every day, get dressed (that’s important–don’t work in your PJs or your robe–it’s a real damn job and you should respect that), and go to work. When I’m at work, I (usually) do not answer the home phone (caller ID helps me decide if it may be an emergency or not). I have regular working hours and when someone calls outside of those hours, the call goes to voicemail; after all, I am not at work then. The business has its name filed with the relevant governmental offices and I pay a business tax to the city of San Diego, just like any other local business.

I am Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua. I work for Burns Auto Parts.
And I’m proud of both statements.

Who are you and what is your business? How can you make these two things less interwoven? Do you have all your accounts, insurance, etc., separated out? Do you get paid regularly from your business? What steps can you take today to respect yourself and respect your business, as two separate things?

Contests can be a good thing for your creative business, but not when they are actually el cheap-o rights-grabbing clients masquerading as contests. I came across one of those recently on the HOW design forums.

GenArt is a NYC-based company that has as its “mission” (according to their site, for which I refuse to provide a link) to help artists (visual, film, and fashion) get recognized, and yet it only offers a $1000 prize to the designer who submits the winning entry for their NYC film festival advertising contest. For that $1000, the winner has to sign over their copyright to the work. How smarmy is that?

Now, I’m not saying that GenArt hasn’t done some good in the arts community, it has gotten some people recognized, etc., but what bothers me about it is that the website does not list the company as a not-for-profit anywhere AND it’s making plenty of money so it should therefore pay more for the rights for this (and other) contests. In fact, it shouldn’t even demand the copyright but instead ask for an exclusive unlimited license of some sort, with no 3rd party rights.

These people make their money not off the art they “promote” because they don’t promote art–they promote the sponsoring companies who advertise at the events which are chock full of trendy young folk with lots of money to spend. Acura is one of the main sponsors of this film event and contest. You’re telling me Acura can’t pony up more than $1000 for (essentially) its own advertising?!

The GenArt folk have a smart business and I applaud their brilliance in its concept and management. I just wish they would treat their artists with more financial respect.

Lest ye forget about my upcoming speaking tour, there’s new info available on the BAP website. It’s got dates and prices and more details. It will have even more links as they become available from the different chapters.

Oh, and even though this program is written for photographers, you other independent creatives can learn lots from it. Most of the material is trans-discipline. It’s funny how so many creatives share so many commonalities…

There’s also a new manual available on the Manuals page. This one is about working with your clients.

Hmmm…there’s that word “with” again…methinks there’s a theme somewhere…

For a laugh (albeit a sad, twisted laugh), check out this “life in media in the UK” parody.

I came across this blog post and was astounded at how the points are not only true for love, they are true for finding/developing new clients too. Amazing how the ideas of love and work so often are shared.

Sundays I read the New York Times (and do the crossword puzzle). This week, there was a whole section devoted to real estate. Now normally this wouldn’t be of any great interest to me (I’m not interested in NY real estate, being in California) but I couldn’t help but be blown away by the front page’s main story: Selling on the Web–Making Every Pixel Count. Above the fold there were two pictures of the same property–one done by the agent and one by a pro (more examples inside the section)–and the differences were striking.

The article discusses how most buyers use the ‘net to house shop and of those who did, how they “rated photographs as the most useful tool in their search.” Later in the article, Lauren Cangiano of Halstead Property in NY is quoted saying “When you look at the difference between professional photos and ones taken by brokers, it’s not hard to see that you get what you pay for” (emphasis mine).

While a little later on they also interview an agent who shoots his own, I think what he says actually proves that hiring a pro is a better idea:

Mr. Neuwirth takes his own photographs, but he has bought high-end equipment and will spend hours trying to capture the perfect angle “to make sure the pictures tell the story the right way.”

He tries to take pictures using as much natural light as possible. “Shooting at night is always a mistake because the light will come out dreary, and a flash that bounces off a window is just horrible,” he said.

Regardless, the point is that real estate people, who rank at or near the bottom in “cheap client” lists, understand how vital good images are. They get how valuable they are. So, the next time you get a cheap-o client who wants it for free or practically, show them this article. And price your work appropriately.

Alternately, you could send them to this little animated gif (hat tip to Jane G. for the link).

I firmly believe that–creativity is motion towards; it’s positive, even when based in pain and struggle, it is, at its essence, a positive act. Creation isn’t destruction, even when its deconstructionist; then it is a re-building. I just can’t find a place where creativity is a negative-based entity.

So why the hell are so many creatives so negative?!

The easy answer is fear, but that excuse is getting tired. Everyone is afraid–we have that hard-wired into our primitive monkey brains, self-preservation and survival of the species above all else–and yet there are so many of us who are happy and, therefore and not coincidentially, successful. What is the difference?

Think about it–how many successful people do you know who are dark, solitary, and negative? Who let their fears dictate their lives? With the exception of Howard Hughes (who suffered from all sorts of mental illnesses apparently), I can’t think of any (and even he made his fortune before become dark and solitary). I certainly can’t think of any successful creative professionals who don’t put themselves out there and overcome their fears every day.

With every moment, we have the choice to let the fears dictate–to be negative and defeatist, or we can choose to be positive, hopeful, reach out with our art and our selves and to work towards a better future. For example, today you may be told “we never have anyone expect 50% up front” and you can choose to let the fear of being different and the fear of not getting the project win, or you can choose to say “Well, that is my business policy and the way I do business, I hope you can respect that.” You can not win a project with Client A and not let it stop you from trying again with Clients B-Z. You can choose to do a self-assignment rather than take a bad deal. You can make your best art rather than caving in to what you have been told is the “right” kind of art to make.

At every moment, choosing to be positive is simply another way of saying “I choose to respect myself, my art, and my business.”

Can’t wait for the iPhone? Make your own!

Okay, so it’s made out of paper and doesn’t function as either a cell phone or an iPod, but it can sit on your desk and make you excited about the future…in that totally geeky way so many of us can relate with.

I had a photographer call me today because he didn’t know what to do. While he’s not a client, I have spoken with him a few times in the past, and I guess he thought I might be able to help him with his situation. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone really could.

See, he was talking with a potential client, a large company with whom he really wanted to work, when they started talking about how much it would cost to shoot the project. Now, rather than telling the potential client “Let me go over the information and write up a detaled estimate–I’ll have it for you within 48 hours” he did what some creatives have been known to do. He told the client that he’d have to talk with his business manager “Betty” (not the name used). The client said that would be fine and that, in fact, they’d very much like to talk with Betty themselves, “Have Betty call us back.”

Here’s where the trouble lies–there is no business manager, no Betty. He lied because he wanted the company to think his company was bigger, with staff and the like.

“What should I do now?” this photographer asked. I told him he had two choices: come clean now or continue the lying and make a bigger hole for his business, because the truth would eventually come out. He didn’t sound thrilled with either choice. I recommended calling the client back and being completely honest: say that he was so excited about the project and so wanted to work with this company that he was afraid that if he didn’t have a staff that they would reject him out of hand; he should also apologize for not trusting that they would not be that shallow and for lying to them.

I don’t know what he’ll do, but let his mistake be a lesson to all of us. When you lie in business (just like in life), it won’t make things better in the long run. Sure, you might get away with it now and again, briefly, but I’ve never not seen lying end up bad.

One thing he mentioned, as part of his thought process, was reading where someone had written that a photographer should say “My business manager says I have to price it this way” when defending one’s prices. I say that’s a lousy idea. It immediately tells the other party that you yourself do not even believe your numbers are what they should be–you are just “following orders.” Talk about losing your negotiating position! Instead show your strength and faith in your value and, thus, your prices. I like what Tim Olive (and others) said when a client tells him his is the most expensive estimate on a project: Yes! Woo hoo!

You must learn to be your own best advocate. If you don’t clearly have faith that what you are bringing to the table is special and valuable, how is anyone else supposed to figure that out? Can you imagine going to a fine restaurant and having the waiter apologize for the prices? No! Stand up and say “My work is worth the big bucks–I’m not cheap, I don’t work for cheap, and my clients get what they pay for.”

Yes, I’m using that term deliberately. It fits and it’s part of the title of a new book by a very well respected Stanford professor, Bob Sutton: The No Asshole Rule. While this book deals more with bosses and employees, as I understand it (it’s not out yet so I haven’t read it), the information Sutton provides on his blog often applies to our industries. I bet the book will too.

I’m particularly sensitive to this topic because I’ve seen some creatives be really quite lousy to other creatives, and it pisses me off. It’s hard enough making it in a creative industry–why should we make it harder on each other? For example, I personally had a boss (owner) who told his workers (about 6 of us) that there needed to be “belt-tightening” in the company. We all needed to “pull together” to get through the financial bad times, and vague promises of profit sharing in the future were offered. A few days later he showed up with (and showed off!) his new Audi. Interesting that he lost two key players (including me) not long after that.

Another place I see abuse is in the treatment of interns in agencies and assistants by photographers. These people are often treated like scum. I don’t mean that they are asked to clean the bathrooms (which they often are, but that can be okay if others do it too, like in a small studio or firm), I mean they are verbally belittled (a pro assistant being told he’s “just an assistant” even though he has lit and set up the shot for the photographer–or even called names!), paid grudgingly, late, or looked at like they’re nuts for expecting to get paid at all, and even not fed when everyone else gets lunch provided…things like that.

When, for example, a photographer talks on-set about his last trip to France and the AD shows off his new car and laptop, and the AE drives a high-end sports car and wears Armani, it is insulting to tell a highly-skilled digital (tech) assistant that s/he can’t be paid more than $250 a day because there isn’t any money in the budget. Then to say that you won’t pay the assistant until you get paid (same goes for agencies not paying photographers until they get paid) is beyond unacceptable.

When I ask creatives why they think it’s okay to do things like this, the answer I get most often is “This is how I was treated–they have to pay their dues!” That is the biggest bullshit answer, ever. You got kicked in the teeth, therefore it’s okay for you to kick the next person? No. That’s the same rationalization abusers give and it is does not speak to the fundamental fact that such behavior is, quite simply, wrong.

Bob Sutton points out that this behavior is directly connected to power. Getting power seems to turn people (if they are not careful) into assholes. When you become the boss, you are instantly transformed into a person with power. You then have a choice–to become a good boss or an asshole. For those of us in the creative industries, we may have a more difficult time overcoming the “asshole poisoning” Sutton refers to, as this article points out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it.

Were you forced to do scut-work or treated like trash early in your career? I am sorry you had to go through that. It sucks. Your boss was wrong to treat you that way. Tell yourself that–“My boss was wrong to (fill in the humiliation).” Imagine what you would tell that boss if s/he tried that on you today.

Now, don’t pass on that venom.

Each of us has the choice of how we act and react and can decide to stop being an asshole today. If you’ve been known to, say, stall payments to your vendors, write those checks today. Thank an intern. Tell your assistant that you appreciate her/his efforts. Take your crew out for cocktails, just to say “I know you work hard.” My prediction is that you will get better productivity out of these people (productivity increases with respect) and that you, as well as they, will be happier at work.