Control YOUR business destiny

The ever-present and near universal lament of all creatives — not just photographers:

“They [businesses] only want to give us ‘credit’ for our work. Where’s the Money? Pay us in real currency; a legitimate value. We need Money!!!”

There is a reason WHY this cancer-to-creative-talent continues to exist. It is time WE the Creatives fess up to the reality biting us in the billfolds.

WE have allowed it. Yes, WE have allowed it.

In the days before the Internet — way back in the ‘olden days of 1994’ — to get your creative content published the creative-person had to jump a series of very laborious and costly hoops. That was then. But why are WE still doing this now? Simple: We Creatives Have Allowed it to Continue.

Business is an art, every bit as much as painting, writing, photography, sculpting, dance, music, etc. But the unfortunate part of this, is that most who are creative-talent fail to understand this point. Business is seen as some esoteric workings of the Right-Brain and is somehow anathema to artistic freedom. Such confined thinking only stymies growth and lessens opportunity for success, leading to the vast majority of creatives, to run screaming from the idea of ‘business’.

A huge mistake.

Art is all about nuance. So is business. Art is about creative thinking. So is business. Art is about setting destiny. So is business. The reality is simple. The links are as tight as their respective letters in the alphabet: A, B, C, D: Art + Business + Creative + Destiny = $ucce$$.

Thus we see why there is sound reason for the old joke/lament/prophecy, Starving artists sale.

There are two ways to solve the problem:

1. be your own business operator or
2. buy the services of a reputable business operator

Yes, two, seemingly distinct conditions, but they are not as disparate as it would appear. For both conditions require of the creative-talent, the same basic tenets of knowledge: a working understanding of business principles.

To be a business operator, you must understand HOW to conduct business. Basically put, how to keep more money IN your pocket than what goes OUT; doing it legal; doing it regular; doing it at all.

To be successful in hiring an honest and reputable business operator, then maintaining an accounting of their process/progress, requires at least a cursory understanding of business principles. Basically how to keep your money and intellectual property in your possession in quantity that allow you to call yourself, ‘profitable’.

Granted, there is much more that actually goes into the ‘doing of business’, but these basics are pretty much the essential bottom-line. Do them and you will not be part of the ‘Starving artists regime’.

How does this coincide helpful to the idea expressed by the photo credit poster display, posted by Grace Lee on Medium.com #PhotographerProblems?

Again, quite simple.

If you — the photographer (or other creative talent) — whom wishes to break free of the lament, expressed in the poster, are serious about it: breaking free: then… Take Control of Your Business.

The old Rule of 80/20, screams loudly here. And if you are not familiar with this Rule, then you are derelict in your business education.

A brief explanation and example.

The Rule of 80/20 simply states, “Eighty percent of the time only twenty percent of business operations succeed, because the remaining eighty percent of businesses who fail, failed to ask-for, or conduct-themselves, in a successful (business-wise) manner.”

The Rule of 80/20 turns out to be a universal formula for being savvy.

For instance, “Eighty percent of the time there will be an open parking place up near the front of the store, but only twenty percent of the population will know about it, since they are the only ones who check it out.”

Another example, “Eighty percent of stock wins go to the twenty percent of traders who were prepared to take advantage of an opportunity: planned or serendipitous.”

And on it goes. But why? Is there a correlation that will allow a member of the 20% to rise into the 80%? The answer is, ‘You bet your sweet bippy there is!’

That answer is not some super secret formula or dance-through-hoops or mystic mumbo-jumbo. No, it is the application of good sense: proven approaches that work when applied.

So what is the correlation? The answer is KNOWLEDGE.

There is good reason why all people, heavily invested in bringing solution to the great world problems of hunger, poverty, strife, war, social calamity, and more… continue to repeat the statement, Education is the key. For they know, that an educated populace is a populace who have become enabled; a populace who gains control of their own destiny; a populace who is no longer dependent upon the whims of whatever dictatorial force in their environment. Through education a human being has the ability to gain, expand, deepen, widen, increase their knowledge of-and-about everything. Then literally, only the sky is the limit to what they can do.

Just as education is the key to self-determination, it is the power of knowledge, that will make such self-determination a reality. But these powers are not without obligation. This is a rub (hindrance) .. problem .. for many. And is another big reason success is often nothing more than a fleeting dream to many.

Once we become ‘aware’ of where we are, what we are doing (or not doing as the case may be!), we also have opportunity to become aware of WHY we need to do; WHAT, WHEN and WHERE we need to do it; in order to become successful in whatever direction we proceed.

To embrace knowledge is to know success. Or as I like to “mantratize” it …

Know Knowledge, Know Success. No Knowledge, No Success.

So, do you want to break free of the no-money-for-creative-effort curse?

Then, take charge of your own destiny.

To do that, you really need to

• KNOW the INs and OUTs of business, related to WHAT you are doing;
• Knowledge does not happen by fiat, it requires putting-in-the-time to learn; to be educated;
• Practice daily what you have learned, so you know it; forward, backwards and every direction possible;

If you really know it well enough, you will become successful in whatever endeavor you are so involved. Additionally, if you truly know your business well — both on the fiduciary side as well as the creative side — you can teach it to others. And THAT, is another vast landscape of opportunity for those who take control of their destiny.