5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship

This audio guide helps you accelerate the mastery of business skills for your creative services practice. We discuss business concepts, systems, principles, and practices so you can maximize the time you have to create. Episodes are organized around the five business themes of Money, Minutes, Marketing, Management, and Motivation.

Marketing for Clients and for Control 10/19/2021

Marketing for Clients and for Control When you get control over your marketing, you’ll no longer be subject to the variable winds and waves of a fickel referral networks. Instead you’ll gain the stability that comes from a steady stream of qualified leads. And when you have plenty of leads you get to decide which clients and projects to take on. Those might include the clients with the best creative opportunities, or the best budgets, or both. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20763284

Data Driven Marketing? 10/12/2021

Data Driven Marketing? Professional services are not sold in the same way as consumer products. Professionals sell through reputation and trust. And cold, technical digital marketing methods don’t help with that kind of effort—in fact, they’d more likely hurt. So you can ignore 90% of the fast-paced, technology-driven, methods. That said it's still essential that prospective clients find out that you exist, and keep you in mind for projects when the time is right. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20763263

Marketing Transformation Takes Time 10/05/2021

Marketing Transformation Takes Time The time table from the first steps in forming a marketing program to the time you start enjoying its fruits can take up to eighteen months. Now it is possible to shorten this timeframe through fast decision making, and extra exertion in the preparation involved. But other aspects of a new marketing program can’t be rushed. And so the sooner you start the sooner you’ll get to that harvest! /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20698565

Three Marketing Resolutions 09/28/2021

Three Marketing Resolutions In the introductory session of my new course, Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs, I review the three essential resolutions that are necessary for any successful marketing program. Like a three legged stool, if any one of these resolutions are lacking the other two stop working, and your marketing efforts will fall flat. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20598638

A New Course on Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs 09/14/2021

A New Course on Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs Welcome to episode 100 of 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship. To mark this milestone. I’d like to let you know about a new digital course I’ll soon be releasing called Marketing Mastery for Creative Entrepreneurs. And at the end of this episode, I’ll have a special offer to all my podcast listeners. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20215976

Dealing With Downtime Desperation 09/07/2021

Dealing With Downtime Desperation Your total compensation is capped by available time, multiplied by your hourly rate, minus overhead. But what happens when you have available time, but no billable work to fill it? Downtime for the creative entrepreneur can be deadly. Every creative practice will experience gaps in their project calendars. The question is, do you have a plan to make the most of your downtime? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20215940

Crushing the Joy Killers in Business 08/31/2021

Crushing the Joy Killers in Business Creatives don’t go into business to make a killing, we still want to be well compensated for the value we deliver to clients. But while making good money from our work is great, that’s not the only reason we’re in this business. We’re drawn to creative entrepreneurship because we love the work, as well as whatever financial rewards it might deliver. But when we combine our love for the creative process with the realities of running a business, that joy can soon turn into sinking grief. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20215898

How Lucrative Can Creative Entrepreneurship Be? 08/24/2021

How Lucrative Can Creative Entrepreneurship Be? When creative entrepreneurs launch, they don’t imagine massive cash infusions from investors, or of taking their company public. More often than not creatives pursue creative control, and better creative opportunities. For creatives business is more of a lifestyle choice than as a business investment. But do creatives need to be content with mere income replacement, or can creative entrepreneurship deliver higher returns? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/20215847

The Mechanics of Time Reporting 08/17/2021

The Mechanics of Time Reporting Managing time is essential for creative entrepreneurs since our services are so often sold by time and materials. Becoming accurate in estimating is a necessary skill in this business. The only way to improve these skills is to build a data source that helps you keep a birds-eye view on project performance. But once you start building all this valuable data, how exactly do you use it? And how can you use past projects to estimate future ones, especially since no two projects are exactly the same? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19917050

Time Warps that Distort Your Business 08/10/2021

Time Warps that Distort Your Business Humans have an interesting relationship to time. While the clock ticks by at a perfectly constant rate, our experience of time is highly variable. Vacations seem to fly by. But if you’re laid up with a bad back, time slows to a crawl. There are similar perception-based time distortions in running your creative practice. And when your profits come from the use of your time, these business time warps can seriously distort your performance, and undermine your profits. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19917032

Were You Able to Take a Break This Summer? 08/03/2021

Were You Able to Take a Break This Summer? When you run your own business as freelance creative, you might find it difficult to take time off. If you shut off your phone and close your laptop, there’s no one else to take over. And if you charge by the hour, taking a day off means no revenue. But everyone needs to rest. So if you find it hard to take time off, let me make some suggestions to help you free yourself up for a much needed vacation. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19917005

Creativity: The Struggle and The Gift 07/27/2021

Creativity: The Struggle and The Gift Creative entrepreneurs not only face external struggles, we also face the struggle within. The creative process is marked by struggle. We agonize to find that perfect solution. This angst ridden process is baked into creativity and adds an extra layer of difficulty to our form of entrepreneurship. In order to push through all these challenges, it can be helpful to remember the incredible privileges we have in our creative callings. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19916981

Must the Hustle and Grind Last Forever? 07/20/2021

Must the Hustle and Grind Last Forever? There’s no question that being a creative entrepreneur is not the easiest path. Going into business for yourself demands considerable effort, diligence, determination, and plain hard work. When you’re just starting out you may need to hustle and grind. But that can’t last forever. Eventually you need to get strategic, and find a more sustainable path. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19614443

How to Avoid a Budget Sneak Attack 07/13/2021

How to Avoid a Budget Sneak Attack Does your company’s operating budget adequately anticipate infrequent future expenses? Planning your budget based on our known monthly expenses, doesn't prepared you for when an expensive annual software license comes due. You need to regularly set aside revenue to cover unanticipated future expenses. If not, you might end up facing a budget crunch that can crush your business. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19614392

How Methodology Can Boost Profit Margins 07/06/2021

How Methodology Can Boost Profit Margins Last time we explored the topic of creative methodologies, and how they can improve your sales and marketing. A proven methodology that focuses on solving specific problems not only boosts your sales game, but it also leads to efficiencies that enable you to increase the margins you retain from your project fees. A well-oiled methodology will make you more profitable, significantly increase client satisfaction, and improve the impact of your work. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19614338

Marketing with Your Methodology 06/29/2021

Marketing with Your Methodology If you’ve been listening to this podcast for very long you’re probably acquainted with the five motifs that structure 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship: Money, Minutes, Marketing, Management, and Motivation. Well there is a sixth motif that could be added, and conveniently it also starts with the letter “M.” Your creative Methodology can be a powerful addition to your marketing and radically improve your closing rate on sales opportunities. But only if your methodology is truly unique. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19614287

How to Compete Against Upwork 06/22/2021

How to Compete Against Upwork Throughout history new technologies have always had beneficial, yet disruptive outcomes. The printing press put many scribes out of work. Photographic typography ended the careers of linotype operators, and digital photography has put tons of pressure on professional photographers. Today, the Internet’s enabling of world wide crowdsourcing, is having similar effects on creative freelancers. How are you supposed to do battle with Upwork, and win? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19277795

The Dangers and Rewards of Service 06/15/2021

The Dangers and Rewards of Service The creative service business is made up of two main parts. Creativity and service. Obviously. But the path to bringing these two things together professionally is neither obvious nor simple. Providing any kind of professional service is challenging. But if you can learn the skills of excellent client service, you will reap the rewards that come from establishing trust and deepening the value of your professional creative services. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19277726

Manage As If You’re Going To Sell Your Firm 06/08/2021

Manage As If You’re Going To Sell Your Firm Very few creatives launch their practices planning to cash out with a big exit down the road. We get into our trade out of love for our craft, not so much for the financial rewards. But if you were planning to sell, like a typical entrepreneur, you would pay much more attention to your bottom line. And so managing your practice, as if you were going to sell it, could help you improve your profits, and would lead to other positive outcomes. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19277624

Building Your Marketing Muscles 06/01/2021

Building Your Marketing Muscles Back in episode 23 I talked about how marketing is a marathon, not a 100 yard dash. I’ve been thinking about that analogy recently, and I need to revise it slightly. Really marketing is more like training for a marathon than actually running one. If you want to run a marathon you would need to make a plan and stick with it. Marketing, like exercise, demands discipline. It depends on building new habits, and keeping them up for months, and years at a time. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/19277537

Marketing Boost - Guest Authoring 05/25/2021

Marketing Boost - Guest Authoring The best approach for marketing a creative practice involves PinPoint Positioning followed by a consistent content strategy. The long-term benefits of this approach pay huge dividends to creative entrepreneurs. Of course executing on a content strategy requires a significant time investment. If you make weekly or monthly deposits into your content investment portfolio, you may want to consider some additional opportunities to diversify and extend the impact of those contributions. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18936668

Marketing Boost - Speaking 05/18/2021

Marketing Boost - Speaking Mastering the basics of marketing your creative practice can take many years. So you might not be thinking about what comes next. But when you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level—start thinking about finding speaking engagements. Speaking opportunities can be extremely powerful ways to deepen your position in your chosen market. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18936656

The Art of the Cold Call 05/11/2021

The Art of the Cold Call We all hate time-wasting intrusions of spam marketing. And so we surely don’t want to be counted among those that use such irritating methods. And yet, at a basic level, much of your marketing involves reaching out to prospects who don’t yet know you. Is there a way to approach a cold prospect and not be immediately lumped in with the spammers? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18936635

The Essential Marketing Method for Creatives 05/04/2021

The Essential Marketing Method for Creatives As creatives we help our clients by producing media that they use in their marketing campaigns. In many cases their marketing channels include advertising, direct mail, and other mass media broadcast channels. When we spend so much time focusing on broad business-to-consumer marketing methods for our clients, it’s no surprise that when it comes to our own marketing, we think along the same lines. But business-to-consumer marketing tactics don’t work for creative practices. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18936614

How to Hire Team Members That Fit Your Firm 04/27/2021

How to Hire Team Members That Fit Your Firm Over the past few episodes we’ve considered growth in the light of the goal of remaining involved in creative work. While this is a common goal, it’s not a common outcome. Without a carefully planned hiring process, the path of least resistance will lead you away from creativity, requiring you to become a business manager instead. But how can you find the right people to fill your carefully designed roles? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18590972

Crossing the Perilous Growth Gaps 04/20/2021

Crossing the Perilous Growth Gaps Should your first overhead hire—and be a client facing account manager, or a market-facing account maker? If you try to economize with one person for both roles, you may end up struck in the growth gap. But that’s not the only gap you’ll face in growing your creative business. There are other points along the path that have similarly difficult obstacles, which, if you aren’t prepared to maneuver, can likewise get you stuck. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18590936

How to Remain a Creative and Grow Your Business 04/06/2021

How to Remain a Creative and Grow Your Business Growing a business is one of life’s greatest challenges. There are millions of people, with business training, who have failed to accomplish this dream. If building and growing a business is hard for people who’s entire training was toward that end, what chance do creative entrepreneurs, without business training, have to establish a growing practice? And if we do succeed, will the demands of running a business take us away from the creative work we love? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18590879

Don’t Cross the Sales and Service Streams 04/06/2021

Don’t Cross the Sales and Service Streams When your creative practice takes off, your inclination will be to hire other designers to lighten your load. This sets off a chain reaction. Soon you’ll find yourself consumed with managing projects more than doing creative work. And you’ll feel the pressure to keep work coming in. If you prefer creative work over business management, you’ll need to hire someone. But should it be for sales, or for client service? /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18590927

Episode 76 - The Problem of Growth 03/30/2021

Episode 76 - The Problem of Growth As creatives begin to build up a client base, and demand for their work starts to grow, we inevitably face the question of what to do when we’ve tapped out our own personal time resources. Do we simply say “no” to new clients, or do we expand our capacity by hiring help? This is a pivotal decision. Because without intentionality, and careful planning, growth can quickly turn from the fulfillment of all your dreams, to your worst nightmare. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18215471

Episode 75 - Did the Lockdowns Cancel Your Creative Practice 03/23/2021

Episode 75 - Did the Lockdowns Cancel Your Creative Practice This past year has been tough on many small businesses. Certain sectors of the economy were entirely shut down. If you’ve been listening to 5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship for very long you know how important PinPoint Positioning is to marketing a creative practice. But what if your industry focus was in the live entertainment space, or the travel industry, or event management? If you focused on any of these areas, this past year may very well have been your last. /episode/index/show/ericholter/id/18215456

5 Minutes on Creative Entrepreneurship

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