The Creative Business Coach: Posted on 12 August 2012 14:24
We eagerly awaited the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony - masterminded by Film and Theatre Director Danny Boyle - and it did not disappoint!

The Closing Ceremony tonight promises to be just as awe-inspiring.  The hand-picked Creative Team has been drawn from Theatre, live television and international production, and is headed by Kim Gavin.

Stephen Daldry CBE, Executive Producer (Creative), has won innumerable Theatre awards in London’s  West End and on Broadway . His production of stage musical Billy Elliot won 10 Tony Awards on Broadway, after an acclaimed London run.
 
Mark Fisher, (Production Design), designs the most amazing live entertainment events, including Cirque du Soleil’s scenery and acrobatic effects for their productions at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.   His credits also include the Beijing Olympic games opening and closing ceremonies (2008), and numerous spectacular big-name rock concerts.  He has long been a recognised expert in the field of stage lighting and live performance design. 

Mark says “I never had any vision (for my future) beyond wanting to have a fulfilling creative life. Working in entertainment has allowed me to pursue my design interests and have a lot of fun.”  (source: tpimagazine.com).

Hamish Hamilton  (Broadcast)  is a highly accredited live television director, brought in to make sure that the creative ideas for the ceremony are designed to work on television.
 
Catherine Ugwu (Production) has been a consultant for some of the world’s largest international arts festivals and high-calibre public events.

(Sources of this information and photograph include the official London 2012.com website)
With such a massive undertaking, the success lies in putting together the right team each playing to their strengths, but dovetailing together to produce a whole.   We can learn a lot from this about running a creative business, or putting together a creative project for our business. 
 

For more information, see my earlier blog on creative business lessons to be learned from the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, part 1 and part 2.

Creative Business Consultant: Posted on 08 August 2012 12:22

Give them a taster -  the ‘Pringle’ effect
 
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, the internet has ‘moved the free line’ – customers are able to find more free information than ever before, so this has raised expectation.  Prospects now need to have an average of 10 interactions with a business before buying from you.  They have to ‘knowy ou, like you, trust you’ ... and only then buy from you.  So, find something which is low cost to create but represents high quality and value to the customer, and give it away. This can be a free sample, or information - tips, tricks and resources relevant to your business and something your customer needs and will appreciate.  They will remember you when they are ready to buy.   In exchange for the free information, you can collect details of prospective customers – their name and email address at minimum.   This is the beginning of your customer list which can then be used to offer further products and services later.
 
Theatricality – not drama!
 
Be theatrical in your creative business, be dynamic, be attractive to your customers ... but remove the ‘drama’ from the purchase process, and make it as smooth and easy as possible for the customer to buy from you.   Make sure your ‘customer service’ supports the whole process every step of the way, including ‘after sales’.
 
Work as a team
 
The Olympic opening ceremony was an incredible exercise in team work.   Despite most of the 10,000 volunteers being untrained, they attended 100’s of rehearsals to learn to movese amlessly in unison.  Apparently the show Directors used specialists in ‘crowd movement’ to organise the movements of all those people with mathematical precision – resulting in the smooth flow of the action witnessed on the night.
 
All elements of your business should work together.  Marketing should dovetail with production - if you can’t produce the item the marketing department directs customers to, the customer will soon go elsewhere.  If customers are flooding to a special offer but the sales department is not staffed well enough to handle all the sales, the same will happen.  All this applies even if *you alone* are the production team, the marketing and the customer service department all rolled into one!
 
Leave happiness in your wake
 
The 80,000-strong stadium audience left the opening ceremony on a ‘high’ after the amazing spectacle they witnessed, and audiences around the world endlessly discussed it with friends and colleagues the following day.   A business needs to go the ‘extra mile’ to delight their customers nowadays, and keep them coming back for more.   It is 5 times less expensive to sell to a current customer than to find a new one.  So nurture your customers consistently, and keep them coming back for more. 
 
Depending on the type of business, you could follow up a month or so after a purchase to find out how things are going, or offer them an upgrade or complimentary product which would dovetail with what they have bought.  Many businesses even go so far as to send customers a birthday card – this is an especially good idea if your business offers something to do with ‘life events’ e.g. birthdays, anniversaries, weddings,  event management,  gift supplier,  and so on.

Posted on 08 August 2012 11:44
 
What the Olympics Opening Ceremony can teach us - creative tips for running a business
 
With the superbly theatrical spectacle of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony behind us,  time to reflect on some parallels with running a creative business.
 
 
Create expectation
 
The build-up to the event was phenomenal.  For weeks beforehand we heard  how Danny Boyle – with his film and live theatre background  - was likely to produce some incredible surprises,  and we were not disappointed.   A buzz was created about the event in advance which led to high expectations and excitement.  I’m not a fan of sports at all, but I couldn’t wait to see the opening ceremony after everything I had heard. 
 
But ‘everything’ wasn’t very much – just a tiny, tantalising detail here and there, without giving the game away at all.   We were told that all 10,000 participants (and 100,000 people viewing rehearsals) had been asked to ‘keep the secret’ – and they did.  Quite remarkable in this ‘tell–all’ age … but I digress.
 
The point is that as small businesses we need to create a buzz of excitement about our products and services.  If you are launching something new, ‘drip-feed’  titbits of information about it in tiny chunks, beginning a few weeks beforehand – not so long ahead of time that everyone forgets about it in between, but just long enough to create anticipation. 
 
For example, you might be writing an e-book incorporating your knowledge.   Send your customer list an email or text to tell them about the writing process, the expected publication date and the type of information they will be able to learn from the book.   A while later you may want to give away sample paragraphs or a chapter, to whet the appetite.
 
If you are bringing out a new line of clothing,  tell customers little bits of information about the design process,  the preparations for the launch party, or a ‘behind the scenes’ preview of what will happen at the launch. 
 
In this way, customers (or prospective customers on your list – you do have a customer list don’t you?) will be eagerly anticipating the event and will be primed to buy when the time comes.
 
Tell a story
 
One of the best aspects of the Opening Ceremony was the very clever way in which Boyle interwove aspects of British History, to tell a story in a very visual way.  

Kenneth Brannagh(playing industrialist Brunel) read from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ over music evoking the industrial revolution, and actors dressed as characters from The Beatles’  ‘Sargeant Pepper’ marched past, mingled with the sight of a model ship representing the Windrush bringing the first Jamaican immigrants to Britain.  

Dozens of  Mary Poppins characters were flown in to vanquish evil doers from British childrens’ literature,  alongside a ‘Peter Pan’ based tribute to the NHS service formed in the UK after the second world war, and the delighted audience lapped it all up.  

People love stories.  Tell your customers the story of your business, how it came to be, what made you decide to come up with the new product or service you are about to launch soon.  Make them feel involved.

Creative Business Coach: Posted on 02 March 2012 19:49

Whilst watching the wonderful BBC2 series ‘The Story of Musicals’ at the weekend, I felt a blog post coming on!   

It struck me that as creative Entrepreneurs we can learn some business principles from the tales told in the programme, whichever industry our business operates in.
  
Despite a 25 year background in musical theatre and associated arts (and being an avid reader of books on the subject), I found some nuggets of information even I hadn’t heard before, which leads me to …. 
 
Principle No. 1 - Be a life-long learner: 
 
Things change so fast in the business world - particularly in the technologies we can employ in running our day to day business – that we always need to be on the lookout for the ‘next big thing’ and try to be ahead of the curve.    If we take note of what our customers and competitors are using and learn how to use these tools as well, then we can give our customers what they need and stay competitive. 
 
Principle No. 2 - Our past failures do not define our future:  
 
In the documentary Elaine Paige told us she was fired from a nearly role in the chorus of ‘Hair’ for smoking something dodgy on the roof of the Shaftesbury Theatre in the interval!  She later went on to find success and fame in ‘Evita’ and ‘Cats’, and also a recording career because she put her past transgressions behind her and they were overlooked in the light of her huge talent and suitability for future roles.  So, we can learn from our mistakes, move forward and focus on the end goal. 
 
Principle No. 3 - Test your business idea - start small: 
 
Similarly unsuccessful at first, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in the early 1970’s but the subject matter was controversial and they couldn’t convince anyone to produce or stage it.  The enterprising duo therefore brought out the recording to introduce the idea to the public, and when the staged version was then produced by the forward-thinking Robert Stigwood, it opened initially in the more liberal  arena of Broadway rather than London, before eventually transferring and taking the West End by storm. 
 
Principle No. 4 - Innovate:  
 
The same two composers happened to enjoy writing musicals with subject matter which would appeal to a worldwide audience, so Stigwood spotted an opportunity and pioneered the idea of rolling out a successful production quickly all around the world. This had not been done before but today is standard practice for Producers such as Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh, to name but two.  This also illustrates …. 
 
Principle No. 5:   
 
To find a viable business idea, consider ‘transporting’ a product or service to your area or market sector which has already been seen to work in another setting.
 
Principle No. 6: 
 
Do what you love and are good at - the money will follow: 
 
Lionel Bart started with a band in the 1960’s but was passionate about writing music and lyrics, both of which he was brilliant at (despite being unable to write musical notation).  He changed the future of British musical theatre by penning ‘Oliver’ using traditional British themes and cultural references, to rival the hugely successful American ‘West Side Story’ (which incorporated New York street culture). 
 
Principle No. 7 
 
If something works, keep doing it!   
 
With the same ‘blueprint’ as the JCS launch, Rice and Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’ was brought out as a recording first to test the water (with Julie Covington singing ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’).  After the resounding success of the record Elaine Paige was subsequently cast as Eva Peron, the production launched to great acclaim at the Prince Edward theatre, and the rest – as they say – is history.      

 
Lloyd Webber’s outstanding career as a world-renowned producer continues today based on his proven formula for success – either familiar, well-loved shows with a new twist (including public casting via TV) or innovative specially-written spectaculars (Phantom, Love Never Dies) with a universal theme suitable for transporting to worldwide audiences.
 

Watch this space for future blog posts.

 I look forward to sharing more tips, information and resources to support you on your exciting business journey!

To your creative success!

Ann :-)

Posted on 22 February 2012 17:46
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Today I took a rare 30 minutes off to do some gruelling physio exercises for my poor old hip (don’t ask!), and needed to watch something engrossing to take my mind off the pain.  In the absence of an afternoon TV thriller I channel-hopped and stumbled upon an interview with James Caan. 
 
The former star of Dragon’s Den gave two tips on starting your own business, with some important questions to ask before plunging in.
 
1.  Is your idea really a business – or just a hobby?
 
2.  Have you spoken to potential customers who are prepared to buy?
 
When brainstorming business ideas with my clients, I always say that these types of questions are vitally important because however much you believe in your idea, if it will not bring in enough money to cover all your costs and make a profit, then the venture is not a viable business.  But if it doesn’t make the grade completely there’s no need to be disheartened, you might be able to try the idea ‘on the side’ to give yourself another income stream, maybe on top of a part-time job.
 
Looking into the likely demand from potential customers who will actually buy your product or service (not just Auntie Flo who will say anything to be supportive!) lets you assess whether there is a market for your idea.  
 
I would say the best way to test it out is to rent a market stall, for example at a craft market, table sale, boot fair or seasonal fair.  Another good idea is the ‘pop-up’ mall.  I know that the latter are springing up in various locations in London (I recently heard about one near Hoxton – a particularly creative area)  where a stallholder is resident for 3 weeks and then another business takes over the unit for a further 3 weeks.   
 
Any of these options will allow you to interact with potential customers, give them the chance to try out your product and – most importantly of all – ask for their feedback. 
 
Do they like the product, the flavour, the size, the packaging, the price? 
 
If not, what would they like to see instead?  Get as much information as you can from everyone who stops by the stall.  Give them your contact details for re-ordering, and preferably take their details so that you can put them onto a mailing list and keep in touch with them. When you have incorporated all their suggestions, have perfected the product and are ready to start your business, then you can inform them of the ‘relaunch’ and invite them to buy.  Make sure they know that you have listened to all their suggestions and have created the product for them!
 
Of course there are many more questions to ask, and a lot more planning to do before launching your idea into the world.
 
If you need friendly, down to earth advice on starting your own small business, brainstorming a business idea, testing it for viability or marketing it on a shoestring budget, get in touch!  

Email:   info@thecreativebusinesscoach.com   or leave a comment on the 'Contact' page.  

To your creative success!
Ann :-)

Posted on 14 February 2012 19:19


with Valentine’s Day and Easter just around the corner,  this time of year would not be complete without a mention of Chocolate which has been associated with Valentine’s day since time immemorial.

 
 If you have ever wanted to set up your own chocolate-making empire (and who hasn’t?) here is some inspiration:
 
See more of these CREATIVE CHOCOLATE DESIGNS from Designno.com

Edible i-phone and accessories on walyou.com  website :-
 
50 creative chocolate packaging designs at pixel77
 
 Finally, some CHOCOLATE QUOTES:
 
 “Man cannot live by chocolate alone — but woman can”!
 
 “A balanced diet is a chocolate bar in each hand”
 
“Nobody knows the truffles I've seen!”
 
 
Enjoy!


For lots more 'chocolate art' photos and inspiration,   follow Creative Business Coach on Pinterest.

Posted on 31 January 2012 20:38


It’s a good idea for anyone starting or running a business to keep an eye on the latest emerging consumer trends, as these may offer inspiration for coming up with your very own ‘Eureka’  product or service.   
 
Ideas which are being put into action abroad or    in another part of the country can possibly be transferred to your local area with profitable results.

 I recently heard about some Trends which are well worth a mention. 

 1.  ‘POINT & KNOW’.  
 
Apps are taking the world by storm. There are 1000's of examples, but this is fun:  the ‘Roamler’  App for iphone lets users  (in the Netherlands) earn between 2 and 4 Euros (and points) for carrying out small tasks in the local area.  
 
Roamler’s clients specify what tasks they need done and where, and the work is offered to the App users nearest to the required location at that moment. Appazing!  
 
Sticking with Apps, an example of the 2012 trend for ‘DIY Health’ is the new ‘skin scan’ . This app scans and monitors moles and alerts the user to any suspicious changes over time.  
 
2. ‘RE-COMMERCE’
 
continues to be a big trend for 2012 – ‘trading in’ is the new buying - with exchange schemes, brands buying back used goods to recycle them, and consumers making the most of online market places to release value from unwanted items. 
 
3. The ‘RED CARPET’
 
is being rolled out around the world with tailor made services and products aimed at wealthy Chinese visitors. 
 
4. DEAL-HUNTING
 
is a growing trend, with consumers avidly searching for bargains not only to save money but for the thrill of the ‘find’ and the ‘smart’ status they will gain in the eyes of their peers. 
 
5.'GROW YOUR OWN'.
 
Urban gardening is a growing trend (sorry!), and  UK-based 'Allot in a box' sells limited-edition boxes, filled with organic seeds and helpful products for growing vegetables at home, in space-challenged areas. 

 
Food for thought?
 

How can we creatively incorporate 2012 consumer trends into our business offerings or come up with new ones which cater for customer's appetites? 
 
 

Posted on 25 January 2012 18:11

 
If you have ever fancied designing your own wallpaper (the kind which is pasted onto the wall, rather than your laptop screen), now is your chance.
 
It's nearly time for the Ideal Home Show 2012,  and under the creative eye of Interior Design guru Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen anyone can submit their wallpaper design for judging, with the winning entry being manufactured for sale online at wallpaper.com.
 
The competition last year involved submitting designs for a room refurbishment, and was judged by Linda Barker.  I entered the design from my recently refurbished house (all done on a shoestring budget!), thought no more of it, and was shocked and pleasantly surprised to be awarded 'Ideal Interior of the Year'.  The attractive trophy (in the shape of a small house made of engraved solid glass) takes pride of place on my hall table.  
 
My parents had taken me to the Ideal Home Show annually as a child, and despite having very little money they managed to be very 'house-proud' and worked hard at keeping the decor stylish and current.  I entered the competition really as a tribute to them more than anything.  Winning the trophy was a bonus. 
 
This is a photo of the 'after' version of the kitchen  (I'm too embarrassed to show the 'before' version, but let's just say that Linda Barker was suitably impressed with the difference to award me first prize!)
 
So,  go on - exercise your 'creative muscle' and enter a wallpaper design.
 
What better way to kick-start your interior design career?
 
Click here to go to the Ideal Home Show website and find out more details.
 
 
http://tiny.cc/IdealHomeShow