Somebody asked (emailed) me what do I do to keep myself in business? In this market, it is is tough. You are linked with your pool of clients and their failures are you failures to a certain degree. When a client goes under I feel it. I am a small shop, I can’t not feel it. However, there are five things that I try and keep consistent that I believe contribute to the over all health of my business. (This applies to my illustration as well as advertising clients.)

Be service oriented: Treat yourself like a plumber with a pen. People come to you to get a service performed; to fix their visual communication pipes. They come to you because you are the expert. If they could have done the job themselves, they would have. Treat your clients with respect, listen to their ideas, and foster an attitude of service. It will win the client’s loyalty and keeps them coming back.

Be approachable: An air of superior aloofness may foster an image of artistic aptitude, but being a friendly, approachable, down to earth person of character is something that you can take to the bank. Unfortunately, art programs often don’t teach this positive skill set. A lot of artistic types are loners, and not apt at being overly sociable. This may cause an outward appearance of aloofness, when you are in reality standing behind a protective wall. As much as I sympathize with this, it is bad business. Do your best to be open and approachable. Your clients will find it refreshing and frankly it is a lot more fun to be around.

Be deadline focused: An acceptable job done “on time” is worth more than a stellar job handed in late. This is a carry-over from my work in publishing and illustration but it applies to advertising too. More often than not you are not the only person in a workflow. Copywriters, editors, printers, designers, illustrators, photographers, publishers, distributors, are all in the boat with you. A small delay on your part can equal thousands of dollars in overruns for your client and cause problems for the others who are depending on you to do your part professionally. This is no excuse to do mediocre work. Do the absolute best you possibly can, within the established deadline.

Be flexible: Stuff changes. Clients ideas evolve. Better ideas sometime take a while to incubate. For whatever reason, the work that you do and the reputation that you secure will hinge greatly on your ability to adapt to what the client wants today not what the brief outlined two weeks ago.

Be grateful: I worked for a number of years as an in-house artist and art director. I also worked day-labor for a few years before that. Sitting on my backside while I attempt creative greatness is the best job ever. Doing it for myself, on my own time on under my one direction and schedule is about as good as it gets. I have know some great art directors and creative directors at some high powered agencies and companies. Without fail, all of them have said that despite the downsides of begin self employed (there a a few) nothing beats owning a small to mid-sized shop under your control picking and choosing the work you want to do.

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