I recently attended the Association of Small Business Development Center’s (ASBDC) annual conference. I had a great time. My presentation, Ten Steps to Business Success for Creative Entrepreneurs was very well received. I was quite happy to see that they had to bring in extra chairs as the room was filled to capacity! I knew my topic was important – I’m very aware that business advisors are faced with new creative entrepreneurs and their questions daily- but I wasn’t aware there was such of information out there for those who want to help. The audience was so receptive and I could see we had a lot in common: we all faced challenges on how to help creative entrepreneurs who don’t respond to traditional business advice. Here were the main tips the audience enjoyed the most:
1. Helping a creative focus is very important as they are often all over the place and are distracted by all of their ideas.
2. Advisors can help creatives charge enough money for their product. Creatives tend to under price and don’t make enough money to cover all of their expenses.
3. Creatives can use and benefit from very basic financial information- it doesn’t have to be fancy or complex.
The main comment I received after the class? “Thank you Jackie for showing us an alternative business model for our creative entrepreneur clients.”
I look forward to the conference next year. I will need a really big room!
Jackie
