Sell by Fall Series: Why a Business Built on Creativity will Succeed

Creative businesses are thriving. Just look at Entrepreneur.com,  Etsy’s success stories, and the rapidly growing pool of information geared towards the small arts and crafts business owner. How can that be so in a time when every other word invokes the idea of a dismal economy?

To answer that question, I started reading A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink, who argues with clarity and insight as to why we are starting to see growth in creative sectors, and will continue to on an even larger scale in the future. I am, unarguably, a right-brained thinker, so much of what he says gave me moments of wanting to break out pom-poms and cheer, though I never entertained myself a cheerleader before. Seeing patterns in how creative businesses are rising to the top helped me create this list.

So here are my top 9 reasons why a business built on creativity will succeed:

1. Businesses built on creativity fill a need. Creative thinking is needed urgently in areas of business previously thought to be incompatible with creativity. More and more it is becoming obvious that in order to make your product, service, or company stand out you need good creative thinking.
2. Your art teacher was right. Everything we see has been designed and created. If you gave yourself the luxury to take an art or design class in high school or college, congratulate yourself because you may have gotten more business skills out of an intro to graphic design course than you realize. More on this in coming posts on the design process. 
3. Creative businesses focus on the local and the global at the same time. Creative businesses tend to support their local community more than others by hiring and manufacturing close to home, which allows for sustained growth locally. By making their community more healthy, they are free to sell their product or service in nearly unlimited ways online, attracting those near and far. 
4. Fluidity, flexibility, and freedom are built into creative businesses from the onset. Working non-standard hours from virtually any location in the world, creative businesses can be available while other brick and mortar shops and business cannot. Creative businesses are more likely to tailor to their customer’s needs and encourage customization. They also have the freedom to say yes or no to a project, while other sectors may not.
5. Creative businesses notice details. From signage with misspellings to websites with confusing fonts, colors and irrelevant information, a creative thinker looks for those details and makes it a priority to iron them out.  These detailed-oriented folk are going to be needed in vast quantities to work side by side with enterprises and organizations otherwise thought of having nothing to do with creative industry. 
6. Thinking creatively generates change. An afternoon of brainstorming can translate into a fresh perspective on a business model, a new way of developing machinery, an interactive method encouraging customer participation, or even rebuilding of infrastructure to make it safer and more user friendly. A dose of creative thinking can transform a product or project stalled or problematic into one that is highly sought after.
7. Creative businesses thrive on teamwork. Whether a solo entrepreneur, or a small business with a handful of employees, people in creative fields naturally reach out to others for collaboration, support and guidance. This habit of connecting on a sincere level with others working in the same vein builds a strong structure for growth. 
8. Small budget? No problem.  A creative enterprise can sometimes thrive under unusual circumstances or with a tight budget. Give a creative thinker a set of parameters – say, $100, 3 hours and a roll of masking tape, and see what they can come up with. For others this might mean a home-based business is not only practical but also essential. By saving money on expenses in this regard, a creative business can weather rougher times more than others. 
9. Creative businesses know what matters. Being more likely to focus on customer service, a creative business realizes that at the heart of every transaction, business deal, or even return, is making the customer feel secure and welcome back again. 

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Previous post in this series: Starting Now: Sell your product or service by Fall

by Rose