Self-employed creative? You're a business!

I’ll be honest, the business side of my career hasn’t always been my strongest side. 

I was taught so many amazing skills in my education about the creative aspects - and without my university course I would definitely not be where I am today - BUT not so much about how to deal with non-creative management and accountants, accounts, personal management, how to hold my own in negotiations and financial agreements, bookkeeping, taxes… the list is endless!

It’s something I’ve worked on over the years. If I only had half the amount of business knowledge I do now when I first started out, I probably would have been able to avoid a few missteps and deals I would never agree to now.

I would describe myself as both a business person and a ‘creative type’. Working in the live music industry as a Wardrobe Supervisor for acts such as Beyoncé and KISS, I need to mix both my creative side and my management side every day, working with budgets one minute, directing tour and local wardrobe staff the next, followed by a meeting with artist management, and then back to my sewing machine to finish the look for the artist to wear on stage that night! I am also one of the owners of a limited company, and I co-founded Go For Wardrobe, a business providing freelance costumiers and wardrobe staff to theatre shows and music gigs across the world.  

I’m about to tell you something I don’t remember being told when I was at university, preparing for the big world of self-employed work, and it’s probably the the most fundamental thing you need to know about.

When you are self employed you are a business.

Revelatory, right?! Being self employed means you’re a business!!! You’re not just faffing about putting pretty things on a stage, you’re actually running a business. Wow. Thats grown up stuff right there. 

So if you’re a business, you really should act like one.

I cannot stress to you how important it is to carry yourself like you’re a business. After all (quoting gov.uk) YOU are responsible for your businesses success or failure. That  means YOU need to take responsibility for every part of your business. The way you speak to people, the way you present yourself to people, punctuality, organisation - these are all things that people you work with see and form an opinion about whether they want to give you their business.

Nobody wants to hire or work with unreliable people, they are hiring you to make their life easier! These are simple things; be on time, be organised, be reliable, be dressed appropriately for the work you’re doing. This is self-promotion of your business. Your first line of marketing your business!

You are supposed to be a professional, so act like it.

Would you buy a meal in a restaurant where the waiter was rude to you?  Or would you hire somebody who was regularly late? Of course not!

It’s not always easy for everybody to think like this. I definitely had to make that mental adjustment towards how I thought of myself. Once I changed that thought process though, I felt much more confident when speaking with management I’d previously been a bit scared of dealing with, finding myself on a more equal footing with them. I found myself being able to hold my own with production accountants who were saying I couldn’t have the money for that thing the artist (not me!) wanted. I found myself pursuing opportunities with large clients rather than just waiting for them to come to me. And probably the most significant of all, thinking of larger scale plans. If it hadn’t been for this, Go For Wardrobe wouldn’t exist right now, and I probably wouldn’t be sat here writing this.