The Creative Professional's Guide to Money teaches creatives everything they need to know about the financial side of running a creative business.
Creatives - which include anyone promoting their own creative services (designers, copywriters, photographers, illustrators, interior designers, web designers, and more) - are great at their work, but when it comes to running the financial side of their business, most would rather not talk about it. This book focuses on proven techniques and resources used by a wide range of successful creatives to manage their business finances. Expert advisers are interviewed on topics such as accounting, taxes, contracts and financial planning. Using examples, case studies, and real-life stories from actual creatives, this book addresses:
How to build the financial structure of a creative business from the ground up
How to set up and achieve long-term financial goals and plan for a prosperous retirement
Common financial mistakes small business owners make and how to avoid them
How to handle taxes and insurance
How to perform day-to-day accounting tasks
How to create a budget and adhere to it
What to charge for work and how to determine a profit margin
How to talk about money with clients and prospects
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Ilise Benun is the co-founder of Marketing Mentor, as well as an author and national speaker. Her books include The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing, Stop Pushing Me Around, Designing Web Sites for Every Audience, and Self-Promotion Online. She has given presentations for national and international trade organizations, including The HOW Design Conference, American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association, AIGA, Graphic Artists Guild, Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario and NY Designs.
Ilise Benun is an author, consultant and national speaker, the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and the co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference.
Her books include "The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing (HOW Books), "Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive" (Career Press), "Self-Promotion Online," and "Designing Web Sites:// for Every Audience" (both HOW Books) and "The Art of Self Promotion." She also co-authored "Public Relations for Dummies, 2nd Edition" (John Wiley & Sons) with Eric Yaverbaum and Bob Bly.
Her work has been featured in national publications such as HOW Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Self, Essence, Crains New York Business, Dynamic Graphics and Working Woman, The New York Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, The Denver Post and more.
Benun has given presentations for international organizations, including American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association, the National Association of Women Business Owners, the HOW Design Conference, Freelancers Union, AIGA and Graphic Artists Guild, Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, Advertising Photographers of America, ASMP, Editorial Freelancers Association, NY Public Library, the NYU Entrepreneurship Summit, the 92nd St. Y and many ad clubs around the country.
From her home office in Hoboken NJ, Benun spends her days coaching creative professionals who are serious about growing their business, one-on-one and in small groups. She started her business in 1988 and has been self-employed for all but 3 years of her working life. She has a B.A. in Spanish from Tufts University. More info here: http://www.marketing-mentor.com
I picked this book up a little over a year ago, and it has sat on my desk right by computer since then. It's not that I didn't read. In fact I read it, flagged sections of it, and refer to it daily. "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money" is well written and covers more than just the management of money. Ilise Benun provides an easy to use guide that teaches you how to find the right clients for your business, how to talk about money, and even how to manage it. She provides many great examples of how to engage with new prospects that I've begun using for my own business, and I've already started seeing results with more qualified prospects. The flow of the book is logical in that she begans by making you self-examine your relationship with finances which allows you to create a gameplan to a healthier business. The book is thorough, and touches on a wide range of topics. It's an easy read and it will leave you rethinking the way you build your business. I highly recommend reading "The Creative Professional's Guide to Money" by Ilise Benun. Just make sure to clear a little spot on your desk to keep it close by as you work.
I found this book engaging, informative, and thorough. It is essentially the book that I have been seeking for years to walk me through - step-by-step - the fundamentals of business & money-management in a creative market. It is my go-to guide when questions arise in many situations, whether regarding negotiation, development of a business model, the most effective ways to convey the value of a creative product, or many other challenges in forming and maintaining a business brand.
Do you want to let the client decide how much your time and creativity is worth - or do you want to make money? Are you ready to make a few changes in your thinking about money and creativity and professionalism?
Ilise Benun shows you how to think straighter about money and its place with creativity. She's blunt but never rude. She expects you to think ahead of time about how you'll respond to a client. Her gentle humor shows she's been at this stage, too. Her taking-stock-with-what-you-know and blending it with what-you-need-to-know helps you keep reading and thinking with an eye toward making money your friend, ally and in liveable amounts.
She's up-front about marketplace attitudes regarding creative people. She uses several methods in this book to help you think straighter (nothing knee-jerk in here). These are just a few:
** sidebars (more like aside-notes) ** half-pages with self-evaluation boxes to mark in ** questions that you - as a creative professional - need to ask yourself or your client.
She does some of the work for you, by cluing you into what kinds of clients you can expect beyond the "excellent, good, fair and don't-want-to" and how they view your value. She shows you how to deal with them. She also gives you methods to work with professional clients and amateur clients.
Most of the information, however, is designed to get YOU to think about each step of building your career - with the end goal of making money for yourself. If you're looking for a chart that says, "charge this much for this kind of proposal", you won't find it here. Instead, in the "Setting Your Prices" chapter, you'll find her explaining what goes into (or what needs to go into) actually setting your prices.... As one side bar asks, "What exactly are you selling?"
Go ahead. Buy this. You owe it to yourself as a PAID creative professional!Read more ›
I loved this book for two reasons: It has great advice that was well-explained and NOT hard to understand; it was concise and presented in a way that's easy to read from start to finish, or just to skim. Kudos on a business book that helps creative professionals run a legit biz!
This book is a must have! It is the perfect balance for the right side of my brain. It is written with a professional style but simple to understand. The exercises and resources are perfect to DO the numbers and not only read. I really recommend this book to any creative who wants to have a real picture of where the business is going and how to plan and accomplish financial goals.
