Starting up a new creative business can be exciting yet daunting. Today I’m going to talk about the best things you can do for yours to ensure success and to avoid being one of the 6 in 10 businesses that fail in the first 3 years.

According to the Small Business administration statistics around 20% of start-ups fail in the first year. So how can you avoid being one of them?

1.      Lack of business plan

Creatives are often in business because they have arrived there by accident. They may have started selling their art as and when the opportunity arose, but there was never a clear intention to become a business. And that’s ok, not every creative outlet needs or wants to become a full time business.

But if you do intend on it becoming your main source of income then a vision for what you want your business to become, and how you plan on achieving that is really important.

We all know how fickle the world can be, with one thing being really big one year and disappearing to be overtaken by the ‘next big thing’ in the blink of an eye. So strategically planning for a sustainable business, business growth, doing your market research, and really understanding how many sales or leads you need each week or month to allow your income to be predictable and sustained is a vital part of the process.

Creatives especially are often drawn into the trap of reacting rather than planning ahead. And it doesn’t always have to be just financial either, it might be getting featured somewhere you admire and getting recognition for your talents, being invited to collaborate with your heroes, or being able to do something to promote and support your causes and beliefs.

2.      Lack of investment

This can be lack of investment in yourself, eg your skills, the tools you need to grow your business in terms of knowledge or the real physical tools that allow you to scale or improve. eg for me as a photographer being able to upgrade my kit as I add to my skills base and experience, or courses that teach me how to improve my artificial lighting abilities, or perhaps a marketing course, or business coach to help you get there faster.

This could also be investment in real terms such as a grant or business loan that enables you to get set up from the start. For this you will usually need a strong business plan with the SMART goals embedded.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Time-specific

3.      Lack of business know-how

One of the biggest reasons for failure is the simple lack of knowledge of what it takes to run a successful business, eg choosing the right business insurance, legal frameworks, sound financial management including how to do your accounts (even if that is outsourcing them), how to price your products or services, how to position then market your business effectively, your brand identity and market research (knowing your target market and what they want), and things like backing up your website or digital assets.

Creatives especially tend to focus on the creative side with no idea of how to reach potential customers and to create a coherent brand identity with USPs that speak to their perfect customers or clients. Visibility in the online world is vital for success for most businesses (although not at the expense of making real life in person connections!).

Charging too little is all too common too, mainly due to confidence issues or a general lack of investigation of what the market rates are for your niche. But remember people won’t buy something that appears too cheap – they will think there is something wrong with it!

To tackle this I suggest writing down what you consider to be your real strengths and weaknesses, being honest about where you might need help and support and the investing in those areas is really important for success. Burying your head in the sand about things like professional photography of your products, or not being able to build a converting website for your brand are all things that can make or break a business, but that you can easily find other experts to do for you.

Yes they will have an initial financial outlay, but what you get back in time. Time to create and time to focus on the things you’re really good at that will make your business thrive.

Try not to rely on one or two main customers, eg if you sell wholesale, or you have service-based clients. Cash-flow can be a fine line to tread, so having plenty of irons in the fire is always a good plan, eg passive income streams, and varying sizes of client base. That way if you lose on of your big customers overnight, your business will survive.

Analytics – understanding your data. Again creatives often tend to avoid analysing their sales and bookings, but if you don’t understand how and why you made those sales how will you replicate or build on those successes? I highly recommend looking at your website analytics and email open/click rates as a minimum, and really delving deep into how any form of advertising you’ve taken out works for you. This is key if you don’t want to overspend or underspend. Knowing how many ‘leads’ you need to generate to maintain an income level can really take the worry out of wondering how to get customers each month.

4.      Mindset

This is one of the easily overlooked but vital parts of running your business. It can be an emotional roller-coaster, for so many of us our business is wrapped up in our own sense of self-esteem and worth, and a bad month of sales, disappointing job or customer can really dent our self-confidence.

Valuing ourselves, our time and setting clear boundaries (I have a blog post on that!) is a really important part of structuring any new business.

Most creatives find the ‘selling’ aspect of their business icky. But if you don’t ‘sell’ you don’t have a business, so finding ways that you can promote your products or services is an intrinsic part of what you need to do to create a successful enterprise.

If you don’t tell people what you do or sell enough then how will they know to go and invest in you?

Creating consistent, good content around all aspects of your business is the best way to connect with your ideal audience, grow your following and make those all-important sales.

So think about the ways in which you can do this most effectively – where do your strengths lie? Perhaps you can create amazing imagery, or your write really well, or you love talking – what channels could you maximise your skills in, eg podcasting, blogging, YouTube channel and so on. It’s best to start out with one or two main channels that you put lots of effort into, then branch out as you master them and see results.

Fear of failure can be paralysing too, but almost no successful business has risen to great heights without some sort of failure along the way. So recognise that you might stumble but know it is all a learning curve and as long as you learn from your mistakes you will always take that net step on the rung to where you want to be.

Thinking we know best! It takes courage to really listen to what your customers want – to follow up on feedback, particularly negative feedback. We tend to avoid it because it makes us feel bad about ourselves and our business, but fixing tiny things on a product or service can often have huge impact on client satisfaction and hence then on referrals and more work generation.

So I’d love to hear from you – what pitfalls worry you the most? Where will you be putting time in over the next few weeks on your business to support success? Let me know by commenting here on the podcast or DM me on Instagram.

You can book your free discovery call on my website at www.katecullen.co.uk/coaching.