CMU School of Drama


Friday, July 13, 2018

Step by Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan for Creatives

mymodernmet.com: If you think you don't need a business plan because you work in a creative field, think again. Business plans aren't only for multimillion dollar corporations or startups seeking investors. They also offer great ways to have a handle on your business, whether you are selling goods online, starting your photography studio, or working as a fine artist.

2 comments:

Mitchell Jacobs said...

Though it is not something I would have ever thought of, it makes perfect sense for people in artistic fields to have business plans. The first thing that comes to mind for me is the benefits of having a reference to keep your career on track. Though everyone's artistic work is important and worth sharing, most creative fields are highly competitive, so I think it would be important to have a "roadmap" to make sure you aren't falling behind on the future you want. Also, if you do become successful early in your career a roadmap is important so that you don't get lazy. Another good part of the business plan outline in the article is figuring out how you will be unique in a competitive field surrounded by people with the same passion and even some of the same experiences. Though the plan in this article might not function for everyone, I will definitely refer to this article once I start my career. As a person who lacks and craves organization, I see no drawbacks to sitting down for a bit and figuring things out.

DeKlyen said...

Coming from a business-targeted background, it was interested to look at another approach to a familiar concept. I wouldn't have thought of creating a personal business plan for someone in the creative professional field. It would be a very interesting thought exercise to go through in order to boil your passion down into a roadmap towards your personalized success. It was also really refreshing to see the layman's version of a business man tutorial. I'm so used to see very wordy and unintelligible professional jargon describing the how and why behind business plans. However, this article's easy-to-read format with questions and simple breakdowns made it easy to understand it fully and critically. It would be interesting to see theatre companies' business plans to see how they may compare to other professions. Although I wouldn't think their overall appearance nor content may be extremely different, I wonder what specifics may a theatre company must include while other companies may not. And what a individual creatives may look like versus a full company.