Creative Entrepreneurship Basics: Creative Housekeeping Necessities

I thought I’d devote today’s post to shedding some light on creative entrepreneurship “housekeeping” items. I hope you don’t mind. I know . . . I know. It’s not the juiciest stuff, but it’s real talk, nonetheless. So, I’m going to try to not be long-winded, but I definitely want to throw a little nugget of truth your way before we part.

And here it goes:

If truth be told, planning and organization are needed all throughout your creative process to make sure you’re headed in the right direction with your creative efforts. (No frills or thrills, just plain and simple stuff we already know to do but don’t always give enough attention to.)

Let me shed a little bit of that light right about now. (And I promise it’ll be just a “little bit”, as I need to get off this computer and get to working on the very subject matter I’m discussing with you.) I have a lot of creative irons in the fire and I haven’t been doing so well on the housekeeping end, which is probably why I’m a little stalled in my progress at the moment.

So, here’s what I really should be doing at this point, so I can get “unstuck” in my rut with all these new creative ideas I have floating around in my head . . .

Create a process outline (documented process) that includes a framework for how the product/service will be built, when looking to start a new creative entrepreneurial journey. The framework may look something like . . .

• Who is the product’s/service’s target audience/customer (who is the product/service for?). The “Who” also represents the individual who will actually be purchasing the product/utilizing the service. Whose hands do you want the product to land in? Who do you want the service to serve?
• What represents the description of the product/service itself. What is it? What does it do? Regarding the product, what is it comprised of (supplies, materials, handcrafted and store-bought items used)? Regarding the service, what know-how, skills, and physical resources does it require?
• Where identifies the location(s) where the product/service can be found and purchased/utilized.
• When provides a timeframe in which the potential customer can expect the product/service to be available for purchase or to be offered.
• Why explains the reason for the product’s/service’s existence. Why does its existence create value for the customer? Why did you decide to bring it into the world?
• How is the behind-the-scenes story of how the product/service came into fruition. (The “How” is the accumulation of the “Who”, “What”, “Where”, “When”, and “Why” before it.)

Now, this process outline, including the framework, will essentially formulate the plan used in developing the idea and bringing the product/service to life.

Plan. Plan. Plan.

Indeed, planning is an important component of the creative entrepreneurial journey. You really can’t go very far without it. Plans help to organize the ideas. They help you to focus in on the steps needed to move you forward in your creative journey, which is precisely why I need to set some plans in place. Plans get the momentum going and the creative juices flowing.

Here are 5 tips about starting and ending your creative entrepreneurial journey with a plan:

1. Plan out EVERYTHING! At least everything that you can humanly plan. Your plans may not go 100% according to the way in which you lay them out at the onset of your creative entrepreneurial journey, but you have to start with some similitude of a vision, direction, or goal.
2. When creating your plan, consider it more of an outline than a blueprint. NOTE: Outlines are made to have some flexibility built into them; while blueprints are made to be followed to the most minute detail. (I can say with a certain amount of certainty that you will more than likely find yourself updating/tweaking your plan from time to time throughout your journey.)
3. Set deadlines for accomplishing the tasks that make up your plan timeline. Aim to hit each deadline milestone and only adjust when it’s not in your power to control timing outcomes.
4. Plan out tasks waaaaaaaaaaaaaay in advance of the date you want to GO LIVE with your product or service. (This tip works in conjunction with tip #3. Deadlines for accomplishing milestones should be set as many months prior to the GO LIVE date as possible.) There are a lot of pieces that you will need to take into consideration in new product/service development, such as:
   • the time it will take you to actually create your product or be knowledgeable in your service. (Be realistic in the expectations you set for yourself, because you’ll need to account for all of the factors that you can control as well as those pieces that you have no control over).
   • the budget you’ll need to cover all expenses. (More often than not, expenses will be more than you guesstimate, so give yourself an additional cushion on top of your best expense projection, if possible.)
   • the help you’ll need to enlist from others in creating your product or service offering and their availability and time limitations in assisting you with your various creative needs.
5. Write down or type up your plan of action and amend as needed. It should be structured but flexible and officially documented in some organized format. Having a formal plan in a centralized repository where all of the details are housed is helpful for your sanity. You’ll know exactly where to refresh your memory on all of the particulars in order to stay the course of your creative entrepreneurial journey. You know what happens if you try to leave everything to that short-term memory bank of yours, don’t you? (NOTE: typing up your plan and saving it in your computer (and backing that up on an external hard drive) is probably the most preferable method to safely store your information and to create a system for easy updating on an ongoing basis.

I said I was going to try to not be long-winded with this one, but my fingers couldn’t stop typing. Oh well. I have more that I could easily say, but I’d better go ahead and stop here. Perhaps, I might revisit one or two or more discussion points from this post (or similar ones to it) in a future “Creative Entrepreneurship Basics” installment. You know that’s how I roll.