Tips for surviving the holiday season in a creative business
The silly season is here! This time of year can be a busy and stressful time in a creative business. Here are some useful tips on what you can do to survive the season and come out the other side feeling healthy, refreshed and energised
The silly season is here! This time of year can be a busy and stressful time in a creative business. Here are some useful tips on what you can do to survive the season and come out the other side feeling healthy, refreshed and energised, from Sally Cumming, director at Engage Health, a provider of mental health, resilience and injury prevention programs.
Plan ahead
Being organised in the busiest of times can make you more efficient and less stressed. Planning and organising the tasks in advance will leave you time to concentrate on what you need to complete at that time.
Be mindful
Mindfulness meditation is very effective in reducing stress levels and changing pathways to improve thought patterns. It also activates the right side of the brain, which enhances creativity—something that can benefit you all year round.
You can learn how to do this by listening to guided mindfulness recordings. (We love the free Smiling Mind guided meditation app.) Try practicing mindfulness meditation during everyday routine activities, such as cleaning, cooking, shopping, brushing your teeth and showering. Notice when your mind wanders away from what you are doing and gently bring it back. Over time, this will create new neural pathways in the brain, enabling you to remain more focused, calmer and less likely to react when the tension rises.
Recognise stress
With practice, you can learn to recognise and identify your stress triggers, helping you stay in control when the pressure builds. Like any skill, mindfulness takes self-exploration, discipline and regular practice. We all have the ability to remain calm and to avoid burnout if we learn how to recognise the early signs of stress and how it affects us.
The first step is becoming aware of our triggers. How does stress manifest itself in your body? Do your neck and shoulders appear tighter? Does your mind race, your heart beat faster or your stomach feel like it is in knots? These are all common physical sensations associated with the stress response and are different for each person. Paying close attention to these early signs of stress will allow you to stamp it out early.
Come to your senses
It is important to recognise that the body’s ‘fight, flight, freeze’ state is a hard-wired physiological response to a perceived threat. The body can also overreact to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as work pressures, traffic jams, and so on. The good news is you can outsmart this overactive physiological stress response by engaging the five senses. The practice of using your senses immediately sends a signal to the brain’s limbic system to let the body know it is safe from harm and danger. This rapidly stabilises your emotions and will calm and ground you in the present moment.
Learn to relax
We all need to find balance. It is not always easy to remember that taking the time for relaxation and/or exercise is just as important as getting work done. Each morning when you wake up, try staying in bed for five minutes and doing gentle breathing to allow the mind to become still. This will elicit the relaxation response, lower your blood pressure and release any muscle tension.
To de-stress at any time, try this simple relaxation exercise: breathe in through your nose for a slow count of three, allowing your belly to fully expand with air. Breathe out through your mouth for a slow count of five. Continue for five minutes. Follow the breath as it comes into and leaves the body. Be mindful of any unhelpful thoughts and let them pass through the mind.
Be active
Try to do some exercise every day. A brisk walk, light jog, bike ride or swim will do wonders for your mind and body. Being active will also relieve stress, improve sleep and increase your energy levels. Aim for 30 minutes of aerobic exercise five times a week. If you are already doing this, increase it to 45 minutes. If you exercise three times a week, move it up to five times a week. Studies have proven aerobic exercise suppresses the stress hormone cortisol, which has also been linked to excessive weight storage around the midsection, so suppressing it could benefit you both ways.
Be safe
Slowing down and being mindful will also protect your body from harm. If you are at markets packing boxes for delivery or lifting heavy objects, always ensure your spine and body are in the correct position. Before lifting, make sure there is an obvious ‘S’ shape in the spine and avoid undesirable ‘C’ shaped curvatures. Maintaining a lumbar curve is extremely important to ensure the lower back does not take unnecessary load or strain. To do this, widen your stance and stick out your bottom (similar to sitting down onto a chair or a weightlifter’s squat). Always brace your abdominal muscles and use your glutes and leg muscles to lift the load. Regular stretching and flexibility exercises will ensure your spine stays in a healthy position.
Remember to laugh
Laughter is one of the best ways to reduce stress, so don’t forget your sense of humour. The times when we start to lose it are the times we need it most! Try to enjoy this busy season and plan effective strategies to help you stay in control and stay safe.
Happy Festive Season!
Sally Cumming is the director and lead corporate wellness consultant for Engage Health. She is a certified mindfulness practitioner with the Mindfulness Training Institute of Australia as well as an ESSA-accredited exercise physiologist. Follow Sally on Instagram (@engage_health) or LinkedIn.
Jes Egan is a ‘practical creative,’ doing the business in a digital agency, being an artist and an university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram (@paper_chap).
Time management for creatives
It is so easy to get swept up in what you are doing, losing track of time whilst you’re creatively busying away. Try these time management tips to see if you can become more productive and efficient and make the most of your workday.
It is so easy to get swept up in what you are doing, losing track of time whilst you’re creatively busying away. Try these time management tips to see if you can become more productive and efficient and make the most of your workday.
Schedule
Before you get stuck in what you are creating, use the first thirty minutes of each day to plan which tasks you need to complete and briefly review the rest of the week ahead. Give yourself a break every 90 minutes to refresh your brain and keep yourself going.
Positive task lists
Write each task in your to-do list in the past tense, as if you’ve already done it. So instead of ‘Design research and concepts,’ call it ‘Research and concepts submitted.’ Help yourself succeed before you start. Think about each task you’re about to begin and work out what you want to achieve in the set timeframe. At the end of each task, review it to see if the desired result was achieved.
Priority order
Group related tasks together and do the most important tasks first. The most important thing might not be the most enjoyable, but that isn’t how you are prioritising the list. Try doing this first thing in the morning, when most of us are the most productive.
Time limit
Put a time limit on your tasks, giving yourself a maximum of 90 minutes to solidly work on each one at a time. If you work longer, make sure you have a break every 90 minutes. Setting constraints will make you more focused and, hopefully, more efficient.
Avoid distractions
Focus completely on the task at hand and train yourself to ignore distractions. Practice not answering the phone or emails. Turn them off and focus. If people are coming up to you, send a ‘do not disturb’ signal by putting on headphones, posting a sign, or going into a different room.
Use your calendar
A calendar isn’t just for scheduling meetings. Put in your deadlines and blocks of time to focus on certain tasks. Take responsibility for each hour of your day by scheduling what you need to do where and when, then follow it. Even if you don’t feel like doing it at that allocated time, just start it and follow your plan.
Be early
Approach your deadlines by planning to complete and submit the creative at least a day early. Put yourself ahead before you even begin.
Emails
Don’t spend ages sifting through emails. Speed up your communications by having your inbox organised. File messages into folders that suit you—such as by clients’ names, ‘urgent,’ ‘needs action,’ ‘complete,’ and so on. If you’re using Gmail, try installing Boomerang, which enables you to write emails in advance and schedule them to be sent at a later date. You can also put a hold on emails coming in whilst you’re working so you don’t get distracted.
Do less
Only do what is important; don’t focus on unimportant details. Don’t try and multitask, just do one thing at a time.
Move
Keep your body moving. You don’t have to be a gym junkie—it can be as easy as going for a walk or taking the stairs instead of the lift. Not only does movement clear your head and enable you to focus, but studies have also linked a healthy lifestyle to better work productivity.
Jes is a ‘practical creative,’ managing the business end of a digital agency and working as an artist and university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram (@paper_chap).
Project management for creatives
There are many project management strategies to help you reach your creative project goal and delivery. Here are a few of my tips to keep your creative project moving in the most successful and efficient manner.
There are many project management strategies to help you reach your creative project goal and delivery. Here are a few of my tips to keep your creative project moving in the most successful and efficient manner.
Define the project
Before you even start working the creative side of the project, define what you are delivering. This can be done as part of the quoting process, scope out the deliverables with the client so you both have the have the same understanding on what you are delivering and what you are not. This can include milestones and invoices as well as the creative product.
Work out your requirements
Work out what you need to do and complete and what you need your client to supply or confirm. Do this early, give yourself and your client time to collate what is needed and ensure that it is ready for when you need it.
Be systematic
Break your project down into manageable bite sized pieces and tackle it in a logical manner. Have client feedback and approvals at regular intervals and ensure they are having input at each step where it is important.
Make a plan
Map out the entire project, from beginning to end, bite sized piece by bite sized piece and include your clients / stakeholders review and approval times in it. Once you have these written down you know the next steps at any point of the project. There are many project management tools out there that can help with the mapping it out, creating gantt charts etc. Find one that suits you if you want to use one.
Review your plan regularly
Review your project plan each day as you track through the project, before you get your head stuck into the creative side, take five minutes to review the plan and create the day’s tasks. Your creative project may move and sometimes you need to shift with it and adjust to keep it moving, this can be easier if done daily.
Manage expectations
Continually keep your lines of communications open with your client and stakeholders. Schedule in regular catch ups and send them updates at least once a week. Keeping them in the loop and up to date with progress can help them to feel confident in the delivery and ensure that any unknowns or assumptions are found early.
Avoid scope creep
You don’t ever want to under deliver and it is just as important that you don’t over deliver either. Make sure when you have defined what your project is you keep reviewing your scope and you stick to what you said you’d deliver. If more is required, you have somewhere to refer back to, making sure you have additional budget and time is allocated for the additional deliverable.
Quality, budget and time
It is often said that you can have two out of the three when managing any project. Keep an eye on these three main elements when completing your creative, they are all equally important and can easily slip.
Revisit
Each project is different, each outcome is different. At the end of each project take some time to review what worked and what didn’t. Then apply these learnings to the next project. Then you can spend your time focusing on the best part of each project: the creative work!
Jes is a ‘practical creative’, doing the business in a digital agency, being an artist and an university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram.
How to future-proof your business
Anticipating what will happen in the future is difficult, however, it is something you may want to consider doing to protect and grow your creative business. By considering what future possibilities lie ahead, you might be able to minimise the effects. It may seem like an overwhelming thing to tackle when you’re in the throes of running a creative business, but a little thought and planning can go a long way toward keeping your business running and possibly helping it grow.
Plan Having a business plan is a great place to start, but it isn’t something to “set and forget.” Your plan may need to change as your business grows, markets move, and audience evolve. In your business plan, set goals and don’t forget to track your progress.
Review Don’t get complacent; always keep an eye on what you are offering. Can it be improved upon? What is the market doing? Where are trends going? What and where are opportunities for improvement? You may be onto a good thing now—and hopefully still will be in the future—but markets, trends, and audiences can change, so make sure what you are offering remains relevant and meets the demands of your customers and the market.
Ask your customers regularly what they think. You may think what you are offering is great, but does your audience still think so? Listen to them and watch their behaviour. Is there anything you can do better? Is there something they’d like that you are not currently offering? Ask them face to face, put a survey on your website, do follow-up calls, and so on, to get this information. You’ll gain great insights and can then apply those learnings to your business.
There may be situations when your customers cannot tell you what they want, especially if you are in the innovation space. Think about the iPhone. We didn’t know we needed a device we could use to make a phone call, take photos, play games, and do our banking, but now we need to do all of these things on our phone. Innovating a product that your customers don’t yet know they need is a great way to grow your business and open new market spaces. As Henry Ford famously said, “If I asked people what they wanted, they’d tell me a faster horse.”
Rethink your acquisition strategy regularly. Ways in which you’ve gained new customers in the past may not work for you in the future. Review this often so you can keep adapting.
Watch Observe competitors and your marketplace, watching what is happening around you. Do this by following competitors’ social media feeds (both locally and internationally), reading blogs and industry publications, setting up Google alerts, and so on. If you already have your eye on your own competitive space, start looking at other industries, too, as learning from one industry can be adapted to another. Having an understanding of what is happening around you will keep you and your business on its toes.
Depending on what business you are in (but especially for creative industries), following trends can also be important—even more so if you are riding on them. Watch trend forecasts, keep in touch, and, if needed, adapt your offerings to keep riding that wave.
Experience What can you do when others are offering something similar? How do you stand out from the crowd? Don’t just sell a product or service, make sure to give your audience an experience to remember. It doesn’t have to be elaborate; perhaps it’s the packaging for your product, or how you call the client after delivery to see if everything was okay. Customers are more likely come back if they had a good experience, and repeat business is always good.
Diversify Don’t depend on one section of your business to account for all of your revenue and growth. Find ways to diversify your product folio. If you manage to diversify your offerings, the additional revenue streams can help support your business.
Consider risks Identify and manage risks, both for now and in the future. You can’t predict all future problems, but consider potential risks and map a way to manage them if they do happen. Not sure how? Start with a simple “SWOT” analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and go from there.
Your day-to-day creative business may keep you incredibly busy, but take some time to think about the future so you’re equally busy—if not more so—down the track.
Jes Egan is a “practical creative” and very busy lady, doing the business in a digital agency, being an artist and a university lecturer. Follow Jes on Instagram (@paper_chap).
Tax basics for small creative businesses
Just want to be creative and not think about your tax? So do most of us, however there are many administrative tasks to running a small business and sometimes they can get in the way of being creative and doing what you love. Unfortunately, most of these tasks are important and avoiding them can land you in trouble. Tax is definitely one of those things, admittedly one that a lot of people find the least enjoyable. Here are some tips to help you prepare for your tax.
Business versus individual It can be really easy to lose the distinction between “your” money and “the businesses’s” money, especially when you’re just starting out or are a sole trader. To make tax simpler, ensure that these are clearly defined. A simple way to do this is to have a business bank account in addition to your personal bank account, and make sure all funds going in and out for the business are coming from here. It’s not a bad idea to have a few business accounts, such as a savings account, a credit card, and a GST payment account (if applicable) that you can transfer funds into as sales are made.
Be ready Don’t leave it to the last minute; it is much easier if you prepare yourself as you go throughout the year. When it comes to your tax, you need supporting documentation. So instead of scrambling to find your receipts at the last minute, file them as you go. The ATO will accept electronic or paper receipts, so either scan and file them on your computer or put paper receipts into a folder. Find a system that works for you and is easily retrievable. The types of documentation that you are required to have are:
- Sales receipts
- Expense invoices
- Bank statements
- Credit card statements
- Employee records (wages, super, tax deductions, contracts, etc.)
- Vehicle reports
- List of debtors and creditors
- Assets purchases
Not great at filing as you go? Get a tray or plastic folder and just put them all in there. Then set yourself up a regular calendar reminder to spend thirty minutes each week or month doing your filing. That should be enough and will make tax time much easier.
Don’t forget, the ATO requires that you keep your records for five years, so make sure you keep your files once lodged.
Doing it yourself If you decide to lodge taxes yourself, you can use myGov as this is now for individuals and sole traders (e-tax has been replaced). This is an easy, quick, and secure way to lodge. Once you’ve opened a myGov account, you will get access to a number of useful calculators and tools. (Note: if using a tax agent, speak to him or her first before opening a myGov account.) There is also an ATO app that will help you record deductions, access online services, find key dates and set reminders, lodge and track your tax return, plus many other useful things. Find it in the Apple app store, on Google Play, or in the Windows phone store.
Small business tax concessions If your business is earning less than two million dollars (that’s gross income, excluding GST), you may be eligible for small business tax concessions, such as immediately writing off purchases under twenty thousand dollars. To see if you’re eligible, talk to your tax agent or check out the ATO website for more details.
Need more help? Get assistance from a small business qualified tax agent for peace of mind. There is no harm in knowing when to outsource help. Each business is different, so get a specialist to help you or have a look at the ATO’s digital services for small business tools; they may be helpful.
Being organised throughout the year will help with most aspects of running your business, and will make tax time, especially, more seamless and less stressful, allowing your creative juices to flow freely without added tax-time stress!
Jes Egan is a “practical creative” and very busy lady, doing the business in a digital agency and working as an artist and university lecturer. Follow her on Instagram at @paper_chap.