Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Creativity and Running a Business--and a Business Tip


{My dad Jack Lee and daughter Roan drawing together}

I come from a family of artists and creative people. Both my parents are artists; my mother has been a craftsperson since I was a child, first as a fiber artist (spinning, dyeing, weaving), now as a papermaker and bookbinder. My father is a fine artist as well as a commerical illustrator--and of course I was surrounded by their creative friends growing up. Being an artist sounds infinitely more romantic than being a business person or an entrepreneur (at least to me)--it sounds more poetic, more heartbreaking, more sensitive, more human, somehow. But I am discovering that the entrepreurial impulse is just as human, just as primal--as Muhammed Yunis (founder of the Grameen Bank and pioneer of microfinance economics) has said, people are inherently entrepreneurial--and I think this impulse is another manifestation of the drive to create.

I have been surprised at how much I love running a business. Obviously, I love my goats, and I like making my product, but I am finding the business-running part to be the most exciting and fulfilling--because I find it so creative.

In other words, running a business is not just accounting, working on the computer, figuring out how to make a product efficiently and earn a profit, etc. In a dynamic and juicy process we entrepreneurs pull all the pieces together into a whole vision, we breathe life into it--making it more than just a product or a service. Our customers encounter our business (or our product) as an experience, as an entity that they can relate to personally and emotionally. This is not shallowness--trying to sell a product through emotional manipulation--but when done from a place of authenticity and passion, is actually real, meaningful and fulfilling--for both the entrepreneur and the customer.

So! Here's my tip of the day (full disclosure: as first recommended by my friend Barbara) for running a business: take an afternoon off and go to the bookstore and just browse. My latest favorite thing is browsing through business magazines, or design journals. Today I discovered HOW Magazine, which had a great article called "The Creative Process Illustrated." The article focused on three (all male) ad designers and how they come up with ideas--how they allow the creative process to flow. Great stuff. One of them said repeatedly "don't think." Also, to reiterate my own tip, another designer pointed to how much he seeks other influences of all kinds: listening to NPR, seeing movies, visiting galleries, reading, etc etc. It's all grist for the creative, business mill. I have found this to be true in my own life and business, but thought I was letting myself get distracted at worst, or at best that those activities were merely "personal"--when in fact it feeds my business!

Other great tips from these creative thinkers:
Think with your body
Muzzle the critic
Don't think
Go see a movie in the middle of the day
Allow your mind to work on the idea as you sleep--and be prepared to get up in the middle of the night and take notes for yourself
Listen to the feelings

etc etc

Your ideas?

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