Business Tips for the Creative Person
Whether you are a writer, singer, poet, or other self employed individual, a few things you will need to help you succeed are necessary for your development. Organization is one of the key elements to help you transition to this life style. If you are not organized, you will not make it in this field as much as you should. I will break down each tip to get you started.
KEEPING COMMUNICATIONS
Communication is the key to your life. If you are providing services to clients, or working with other artists and authors, you need to check your email frequently. Answer each email in the importance. Follow up on phone calls, emails, and other inquiries. Keep yourself organized by using a palm pilot, or other organizational tool. The last thing you want to do is forget a meeting, a conference call, or event. At the bare minimum you should be using your online calendar features of Yahoo or other email service to keep track of your upcoming events. Please have alternative ways for your public (fans, authors, artists) to reach you. Most people use a cellular phone as an alternative contact. If you want to take it a step further, you might want to utilize a toll free phone number. This is a good way to have people contact you without them having your personal information. I would discourage using your personal telephone number. You never know if you are going to get a over zealous fan or individual. This is a way to protect you from unwanted attention. When communicating with individuals make sure to thank people, be gracious, and be professional. Whether you are speaking with a radio producer, a publicist, or a fan, just be very professional and let yourself shine!
BUSINESS MUST HAVES
If you are going towards a business phase of your upstart company, whether it be “book” or artist related, you need to have a workable computer, preferably with anti-virus or a firewall installed. Why? The last thing you want to do is have your computer hacked losing valuable data. Make sure that you have hard copies of your work, in addition to putting them on floppy discs or writable CD-R’s. This is very helpful if you have extra copies of important work. If you ever get hacked or lose the ability to log on your computer, you will still have your work and be able to reproduce by using a local printer like Kinko’s or Office Depot. Make sure to scan your computer weekly to ensure you don’t have any ugly viruses on your computer. Also when opening emails, be sure that you don’t accidently download a virus that way. Be careful when accepting emails from so called “pay pal” or other website link that says it is a business link to a bank or other institution. It could be a virus. If you need to find out where to get the anti-virus, check with your ISP for more details or search online to get that information. Another business must have is an all-in-one printer that has printer, scanning, and faxing ability. If you are very busy and are constantly having to use the local currency exchange or office store why not save yourself the money by purchasing a good all-in-one. Not only will you have the convenience of preparing your items at home, you will save on money and it is a tax write off, so save your receipt.
PROMOTIONS IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
Take care to get your name out there. Build a name – by having a catchy line from a book, or a quick name that people will remember to reflect you or your business. Get your name on as many things as possible like business cards, flyers, pens, or tee-shirts. Before you blindly buy items, create a budget and figure out what you want to promote yourself with, and price items before going totally crazy. You will figure out some items that you can make at home on your computer, but others you may want to enlist a professional to create for you. Set up a website, and links on the internet and submit your website/links to search engines so people can find you. Network with others in your specific field and find out what are good groups to be apart of. There are free forums on most web sites where authors or artists join and connect. Create an online group (like a fan club) and add those fans who have either purchased a book that you wrote, or have come out to see you perform. Those are the people who are interested in your career and they will be your foundation as you continue to build on your skills. Try to find places to highlight your work online at radio stations, or literary web sites. Create an online chat day for your fans and give them an excerpt of an upcoming project. Be very creative and figure out what you want to do – and stand out. Be an original and utilize your uniqueness. If you are thinking promotion can be overwhelming, you are right. But if you don’t promote you are defeating the purpose of you creating that great album, book or project. How will people know about it, if you don’t tell them? If you don’t feel like you want to handle all the promotions, just contact a publicist, or agent, or other media person to see what services they provide and find out their fees to see if they can handle your promotions for you. With your publicist, make sure to do a background check by asking for references and a client list. Reputable publicists, should be able to provide that at the bare minimum.
Create a good image for yourself by keeping all your clippings up to date and placing in your press kit. Press kits are the marketing tool most writers and artists can use to get themselves booked in venues, radio stations, and other appearances. Inside your press kit you should have a good head shot of yourself, biographical information, professional resume of achievements, clippings of news paper or radio appearances, and if applicable, linear notes, lyrics, sample of audio or written work. You can produce your own nice press kit if you have the time. If you don’t, you can give your base information to a publicist to handle on your behalf. Again, there are pricing issues, but in many cases may be worth it. When sending out press kits, make sure to not “blindly” send out press kits to people. Contact the interested parties first with an email, and then if they are interested, send a full press kit. After having the press kit sent, followup with an email or phone call to ensure it was received and find out the next steps.
FINAL NOTES ON ORGANIZATION
As you see, being organized, as a writer or artist can be a great thing, but you need to have a phone, access to internet, computer, and other things to keep things on target. You want to project professionalism and that will get you in the door as a force to be reckoned with. But if you don’t have a way for people to reach you, don’t return phone calls or emails, you might be considered very unprofessional. Sending out half done press kits, is not cool either. It doesn’t project the true you – a good writer or artist who is very talented. Your image should reflect the best you and using the many tools can help you achieve the success you are seeking.
(c) 2005 by Pam Osbey
