When I spoke to musician Jaime Gibson, I was intrigued by the way he used Adwords for his business. There are many stories about how bricks-and-mortar and online businesses use Adwords to get leads, but it can be hard to operate under the same model when you’re a creative business.
The reasons for this are two-fold. First, many creative types simply don’t like the “business” part of it. But if you want to paid – and gain a sustainable income – for your creativity, you have to apply a business framework to what you do. Second, there’s a myth that the same rules don’t apply. But why shouldn’t they? If you run a creative business, some of your parameters might be different but essentially it’s about marketing, lead generation and conversion.
Jaime’s story inspired this week’s Enterprise post.
When you run a creative business, it can be easy to get preoccupied with the “creative” part. After all, that’s typically more fun, stimulating and exciting – especially if you are transforming what was once a mere concept into a tangible piece of art, literature, music or performance.
However, if you want to earn money as a creative artist, you actually need to run it like a business. Yes, I can hear thousands of creative types out there collectively yelling at me: “But I don’t WANT to run it like a business. That would suck the soul out of my creativity.”
Well, unless you have an inheritance you can draw on or a generous patron, you’re not going to make money from your art unless you have a structure and some kind of business framework around what you are doing.
I know it can be romantic to be a creative artist starving in a garret and, if that’s what you want, then starve yourself silly. But if you do want to earn an income, read on.
You can read the full post here.
Posted on 6 October 2011
