This article was written by one of our amazing contributors! Content may include promotional links.
The growing demand for creative services means there are a lot of opportunities to start and grow a business in this industry. Writers, designers, photographers, videographers, and other creative workers are actively establishing their businesses, expanding their clientele, and growing at a faster pace in today’s economy.
Simply creating a business from the work that you do as a professional, however, is not enough. Once you establish a business, you need to treat it as, well, a business. This means separating personal and business finances, expanding the team and boosting output, and finding ways to operate more efficiently in the creative industry.
More importantly, you cannot simply focus on the creative work. The business side of the equation needs to be managed properly too; you have to be a good business owner to do that. If you want to boost your ability as a business owner, here are the 5 things you should try.
Go Back to School
A lot of designers and creative workers go back to school in order to acquire business-related skills. Going back to school is not a difficult thing to do, especially now that you have online courses from reputable universities to choose from. For example, you can earn a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from the Central Christian College of Kansas without having to attend classes or leave your work.
Online courses are handy for professionals who want to master a particular subject – and earn a degree in that field – while still servicing clients or working a fulltime job. Flexibility is hugely beneficial to business owners too. As long as you can allocate one or two hours for studying every day, you can pursue any degree you want.
Going back to school is considered a great way to boost your basic skills as a business owner, and there are some very good reasons for that:
- Online courses are more up to date, so you can expect to acquire skills that are useful in the field.
- At the same time, the curriculum is standardized, the learning process is well-defined, and you have a program to follow. All of these aspects make learning and mastering new skills easier.
- Online courses are also perfect for networking. You can connect with industry experts (lecturers) and your fellow students. Use the opportunity to find new leads for your business.
- Online courses are more affordable than their equivalent offline counterpart. You can save up to 40% on tuition. You can also save a lot of time since most online courses are designed to be compact.
Learn from Others’ Mistakes
The last thing you want to do as a business owner is make mistakes. One business mistake can be catastrophic to the entire organization; this is not the kind of risk you want to take. In the old days, this risk was not avoidable. Today, however, you don’t have to make the same mistakes yourself.
There are plenty of online resource centers, forums, and communities to tap into. You can find case studies, discussions, live conversations, and even mentors to guide you through the difficult path of becoming a good business owner.
For example, you can learn how to maintain a healthy cash flow from other digital agencies or creative studios with more experience. It is easy to find owners of these businesses sharing their thoughts and case studies online.
Leverage Cloud Tools
Another thing you can do to become a better business owner is to implement good systems. After all, business management is more about known workflows and style than it is about creating new processes. Yes, you can make adjustments to the workflows you want to implement within your organization, but standardized ones aren’t so bad either.
To adopt a well-designed set of processes and workflows, you can now leverage cloud business solutions and tools. If you want to manage your creative projects better, you can use Trello, Asana, or other project management tools to guide the process. These tools usually incorporate the Kanban methodology and they work well for creative projects.
The same is true for other parts of your business. Using a journaling tool lets you tackle accounting easily. A good bookkeeping solution will help you keep your finances in order. Online HR suites and tools are at your disposal if you want to start expanding the team, building a culture, or managing rewards for team members.
Cloud storage is also important. After all, you will be storing a lot of files and digital assets. The best cloud storage options on the market right now are:
- OneDrive for Business
- Egnyte Business
- Google Drive Enterprise
- Dropbox Business
- Citrix Content Collaboration
That last one – the option from Citrix – comes with tools that let you collaborate on projects in real-time and in the cloud.
Becoming an exceptional business owner takes practice; you earn your stripes through experience running your own business. With the tips and tricks that we discussed in this article, however, you can speed up the process and start doing things right from the beginning.