Creative Business Handbook

Offering veteran insight and friendly, actionable advice from two self-made women who manage three six-figure businesses, this practical handbook acts as a roadmap to guide anyone wanting to build a profitable venture out of their creative passion. Figuring out how to make a living from your creative work poses unique challenges and obstacles. From choosing the right business model to building a brand, from managing your time to scaling up your production—starting your own creative business often means doing it all yourself. Enter The Creative Business Handbook by Alicia Puig and Ekaterina Popova, the dynamic duo behind Create! Magazine. With its conversational tone and accessible advice, this handbook lays an essential foundation for anyone wanting to earn a living with their art—no fancy business degree required! In addition to nuts-and-bolts advice based on the authors' real-life experiences, each chapter of the book includes an interview with a creative entrepreneur from a different background and craft, and ends with action steps that will help keep you on track. Written by creative business owners for creative business owners, this is the perfect book for anyone with a vision who is ready to hit the ground running. EXPERT AUTHORS: Informed by the authors' decades of experience founding and managing three successful creative businesses—as well as the lessons they learned from some projects that didn't stand the test of time—this book offers tried-and-true advice for artists looking to get their creative enterprises off the ground and achieve real financial success. Popova and Puig have also included interviews with other self-employed creatives across a variety of fields, giving you a window into the myriad paths available to you as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey. FOR ALL CREATIVES: This book offers real wisdom for starting and sustaining your unique creative business no matter your passion, whether you are a career artist looking to make a living outside of the gallery space, an experienced freelance writer interested in mentoring your peers, or a podcaster who dreams of sustaining yourself by making content that you genuinely care about. From advice about best marketing practices to striking the ever-elusive work-life balance, this guide will help you to understand the business side of your creative practice. Perfect for: Artists, designers, makers, illustrators—recent graduates and budding professionals—looking to start their own businesses Creative people exploring career ideas and looking for practical advice and inspiration Graduation, birthday, or holiday gift for artistic and entrepreneurial friends and loved ones Readers of Create! Magazine, Steal Like an Artist, Big Magic, and Untamed

A guide to starting and sustaining creativity-based businesses—from culinary to crafting to film to fashion and beyond. Many “creative types” don’t think they’re cut out for business—but Doug Richard, founder of School for Creative Startups, believes entrepreneurs are made, not born. In this user-friendly guide he shows how artists, chefs, designers, musicians, and others can turn their hobbies and passions into sustainable lifestyle businesses. Based on a unique ten-question formula, the book provides comprehensive start-up business advice in jargon-free style, brought to life with real-life case studies from a range of creative start-ups—and online resources that help you to develop your own business goals and plans. “This book helps debunk the myth that creative people and business don’t mix.” —James Boardwell, cofounder, Folksy

Every year the market for creative services expands -- but the competition is increasing even faster. Today, your success hinges not on talent alone, but on a thorough understanding of the business side of creativity. Now fully revised and updated, The Business Side of Creativity is the most comprehensive business companion available to freelance graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, copywriters, and agency or design-shop principals. Cameron S. Foote, successful entrepreneur and editor of the Creative Business newsletter, guides you step-by-step through the process of being successfully self-employed -- from getting launched as a freelancer to running a multiperson shop to retiring comforably. The appendices include sample business forms and documents to help put the information into practice. How should you organize? What should you charge? What marketing techniques yield the best returns? When are you ready to expand? What are the most effective strategies for managing employees? How can you build salable equity? The Business Side of Creativity delves into these questions and hundreds more -- and gives you practical, real-world answers. Book jacket.

The go-to guide for graphic designers who want to run their own shop and improve their bottom line. First published in 2001, The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business set long-needed standards as the first comprehensive management manual for the graphic design industry. Now brought up-to-date, it describes current, best-practice procedures for firms of all sizes operating in an industry that is both fast-evolving and increasingly competitive.

More than 82 per cent of companies believe creativity directly impacts results, yet few of us understand how it comes about or how to put it into practice. Some people say that creativity is about thinking outside the box, while others believe it is about being creative inside the box; but what if there is no box? The Creative Thinking Handbook argues that we need to identify and remove the 'box' around our thinking, so we canunlock unlimited streams of creativity for professional and business success. This book offers an integrated system of personalized insights, along with clear, practical tools and strategies - including the tried-and-trusted Solution Finder model. The authors show you how to develop your creative problem-solving skills to make better decisions with an individualized step-by-step strategy. Based on long-term research and testing of the creative thinking process, The Creative Thinking Handbook helps you generate more ideas and find brilliant solutions for any professional challenge.

Wish you could turn your talent for making lovely things into cash? Bored of the 9 to 5 and dreaming of starting your own crafty business, but not sure where to start? Then this is the book for you ! The Craft Business Handbook has ALL the information you need to get started making money from your crafts - NOW ! From setting up as a proper business, producing and pricing your goods for maximum sales and profit, to the various options for selling online, at craft fairs, trade shows and getting your products into retailers, right through to gaining magazine coverage, promoting your business online and managing your business as it grows, this is THE essential guide for any would-be crafty entrepreneur! Whether you're just considering getting started with a crafty business idea, or already selling your wares and looking for ways to grow your business ( think sales reps, fulfillment houses and more!), this handy book - written by craft business expert Alison McNicol - shares tons of insider tips, practical information, and shows how you too can achieve Craft Business success! PLUS - some of the most successful crafty business people around share their stories - how they started and grew their successful craft businesses - prepare to be inspired with in-depth interviews from some of your favorite crafty entrepreneurs around! About The Author Alison McNicol is a serial crafty entrepreneur who has launched several successful craft businesses, selling her products in stores worldwide. She is also the author of several successful craft and craft business books, and founder of The Craft Business Community.com, an online community that provides resources and networking opportunities for crafty entrepreneurs from all over the world. Alison is also author of Craft Business Heroes: How We Did It ( 30 Creative Entrepreneurs Share the Secrets of Their Success)- a companion book to the Craft Business Handbook, featuring 30 more interviews from leading craft entrrepreneurs - Amy Butler, Amy Karol, Sublime Stitching's Jenny Hart, Subversive Cross Stitch founder Julie Jackson and tons more !

'A book to devour from start to finish - easy to do as it is accessibly-written and oh so fascinating - and then to dip into later for reference.' - Joanna Reeves Do you have a passion for making beautiful objects? Are you wondering whether you can take the next step and turn your creativity into a career? This inspirational guide offers easy-to-follow advice from talented and creative industry experts. There are practical exercises that will help you sell your creations, choose the right time to start your business, and guide you through as you do so. With The Creative's Guide to Starting a Business, you will discover the best way to: Create pieces that sell Write a business plan Identify and reach customers Research the competition Price products and test the market Promote the business successfully Packed with interviews, encouraging real life stories, and tips from successful entrepreneurs who started with a passion and turned it into their own successful, creative business, this practical guide will take you through the very first steps of defining creative and financial success to ultimately establishing a rewarding start-up.

With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the 'creative city' became the new hot topic among urban policymakers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and urban environments. The economist Åke E. Andersson and the psychologist Dean Simonton are the other members of this 'creative troika'. In the Handbook of Creative Cities, Florida, Andersson and Simonton appear in the same volume for the first time. The expert contributors in this timely Handbook extend their insights with a varied set of theoretical and empirical tools. The diversity of the contributions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of creative city theorizing, which encompasses urban economics, economic geography, social psychology, urban sociology, and urban planning. The stated policy implications are equally diverse, ranging from libertarian to social democratic visions of our shared creative and urban future. Being truly international in its scope, this major Handbook will be particularly useful for policy makers that are involved in urban development, academics in urban economics, economic geography, urban sociology, social psychology, and urban planning, as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students across the social sciences and in business.