How to Become a Successful Creative Entrepreneur in 2024: 5 Steps for Beginners
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This is not about "spend $12,000 on going to conferences and making connections with big names" or even "write blog posts daily until your fingers fall off and then repurpose that content onto every social platform". No.
Those things are not what you should be focusing on if you want to become a successful creative entrepreneur.
In fact, doing all those things is probably going to distract you and make it take longer for you to get to your goal.
So what should you be doing?
You might not want to hear this, but if you listen and actually do what I say, you will already be so far ahead of the competition — that, I promise you.
Most people when they start a business think “I need to learn the business strategy which will get me to multiple 6-figures” or “I need to read every blog post on how to land premium priced projects from Day 1” or “I need to start offering Day Rates because they're sexy”.
And the truth is, if you're just starting, none of those things are going to serve you because you're missing 1 vital piece of the puzzle first.
People always jump to the business strategy and the how they're going to make money and they're maybe even eyeing passive income strategies too. Which is fine because you're building a business, knowing some business strategy might seem intelligent, but here's the 1st key puzzle piece, if you aren't actually good at the skill of the service you intend to offer the business strategy really doesn't matter.
Let me say that again:
If you aren't actually good at the skill of the service you intend to offer the business strategy really doesn't matter.
If you want to be a conversion copywriter, and your copy doesn't convert it's not going to be long before word gets out. Or if you're a Social Media Strategist who can't get your clients social media to grow, it's going to be a hard road of unhappy clients, no referrals and always hustling on your marketing strategy of posting your entire life on Instagram and even then you'll still feel behind because almost no one is booking you.
So what REALLY separates the successful creative entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones?
Amazing quality work
Successful creative entrepreneurs produce amazing quality work.
People always ask me the hack to being a successful website designer and they say things like “okay, obviously building great websites that look really good aside, what do I need to do to be super successful as a website designer?”
And I'm like no... That's literally the thing. Building great websites is half the battle.
Yes there are other pieces of the puzzle, and we'll get to those in just a moment, but producing amazing work isn't some side note or afterthought, it's legit the essential foundation to being a successful web designer.
And again, this goes for any creative entrepreneurial venture.
Good luck becoming the talk-of-the-town, award-winning photographer without actually being good at photography.
Successful creative entrepreneurs are genuinely skilled at their service offering. There's just no way around this. If you spent 2 days learning to build websites and then weeks trying to market your web design services, you're spending your time on the wrong thing.
I can't tell you the number of my past students who got clients even before they even began marketing or had created their own site or had a proper portfolio because they learned the skill of website design so darn well through my Square Secrets™ course, and then, as those websites were seen by others, those site visitors started inquiring about their services.
Long-term, yes, you absolutely need a business strategy & marketing strategy, but don't put the cart before the horse.
Spend some time on learning the skill you want to offer, be that web design, copywriting, social media management, content creation, branding, photography, calligraphy, etc.
Get genuinely good at that first, then move onto this next bit.
Business Success
There are 3 circles to the successful business venn diagram.
You need to pick 1 ideal client. Not multiple idea clients. 1 ideal client.
You need 1 marketing strategy. Not multiple marketing strategies. 1 marketing strategy.
You need 1 offer. Not multiple offers. 1 offer.
You can build a million dollar business just from that.
Most people don't. Most people get some success with this and then start adding a zillion more things to their business, and drop the ball on the things which made them successful in the first place and find themself stalling and plateauing in growth.
But the easiest way to build a 6 figure, multi-6 figure, or million dollar business is by doing these 3 things and only these 3 things.
I'm serious when I say you pick these 3 things and then you serve that same Ideal client, you implement that same marketing strategy and you deliver the same offer again and again and again, for your first year and then a second year and a third year and so on.
After a few years, yes, we can maybe talk about adding a bit of complication, but trust me if you're watching this video for beginners, we're not there yet!
Now, if you're thinking about serving that client with that offer and attracting more projects with that marketing strategy you've decided on and your heart sinks, and you just can't imagine doing that thing long-term, then that's actually a good thing, because that indicates, maybe you didn't pick the right three for you.
Overnight Success
Most overnight successes took 10 years to get to where they are.
Fun exercise for you. Go pull up the profile/website/channel of the entrepreneur you're currently envying. Scroll back. How long have they been at it for? I bet you, I bet you, it's been at least 5 years. Maybe 10. Maybe 15!
Overnight success really really isn't a thing.
And it's important for you to know this because when you believe that's the norm, that you're supposed to start today and be a mega star tomorrow, you are going to feel terrible about yourself, you're going to feel discouraged, and you're going to give up too soon.
Look at Taylor Swift. Yes she's the biggest thing to hit music this year. She had a billion dollar tour. But I went to her Fearless concert when I was in the 11th grade. I got my ticket, there was no pre-pre-sale and register for 45 things just to basically be put in a lottery to maybe get a ticket like there is now. She didn't have the demand back then that she has now. She is the biggest star now, but she's been singing and touring and writing songs and working for over a decade.
All my OG Swifties btw who also went to the Fearless tour, good taste friend, good taste :)
Okay rant over - sticking with your chosen 3 for the next few years.
If you're not loving the idea of doing those 3 things you picked for years, you maybe aren't that stoked on that ideal client you chose, you maybe feel like that marketing strategy you picked just isn't your vibe and you only chose it because it's what all the other cool kid creative entrepreneurs are doing or maybe the service offering you've decided on, well, let’s just say you aren't the biggest fan of actually fulfilling that service.
Then good. Genuinely!
Because it's better to learn that now than years in after a ton of work.
It's okay to take the time to pick 3 things:
a client
an offer and
a marketing strategy which you would genuinely enjoy.
If the idea of any of those 3 and doing them for the next 7 years makes you want to cry, reevaluate now.
Because if you have your eye on being the go-to, crem de le creme in the industry, the most successful copywriter or graphic designer or whatever, that's what it's going to take.
If you need more help picking the right ideal client, marketing strategy & offer by the way, I have future videos coming out on those topics, then do subscribe to the channel to see those.
THE STEPS
Step 1: Pick the service you're the most excited by offering.
Website design, photography, calligraphy, branding, social media, etc.
Step 2: Get really good at it.
Improve upon the skill.
Step 3: Pick 1 offer, 1 client & 1 marketing strategy.
Step 4: Implement.
And if you're finding you have no clients, but the work you're producing is great, then take all that time you would have spent serving clients and put it into learning about & researching & improving upon executing your marketing strategy.
Step 5: Celebrate your action, not the outcome. And then continue implementing.
Number 5 is key because coming back to my point of, most people expect to be an overnight success and then are upset when it doesn't happen:
It's a flawed, incorrect idea in the first place that you would be a smash hit by now and
You're focusing on the wrong thing. When we focus on the outcome, we set ourselves up for failure, because there are aspects to our success which are outside our control. Focusing on the fact you're not a millionnaire by now is focusing on an outcome you can't fully control. Instead, start focusing on what you can control. You can control the number of times you implement your marketing strategy. You can control getting 1% better every day.
The most successful entrepreneurs are those who are good at delayed gratification. Those who continue working without any immediate positive feedback are the ones who go on to get outsized returns.
Of course, delayed gratification is different than never getting any inquiries from potential clients. If you're struggling with getting enough client inquiries, watch this video next and I'll give you the exact strategy for success.
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