The Creative Professional's Guide to Money: How to Think About It, How to Talk About it, How to Manage It

225 Pages·2011·0.89 MB·English

by  Ilise Benun

THE CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL'S
GUIDE TO
MONEY
How to think about it. How to talk about it.
How to manage it.
Ilise Benun
founder of Marketing-Mentor.com
THE CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL'S GUIDE TO MONEY. Copyright ©
2011 by Ilise Benun. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights
reserved. No other part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval
systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer,
who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by HOW Books, an
imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236.
[phone]. First edition.
For more excellent books and resources for designers, visit
www.howdesign.com.
Distributed in Canada by Fraser Direct, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown,
Ontario, Canada L7G 5S4, Tel: [phone]. Distributed in the U.K and
Europe by F+W Media International, Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon,
TQ12 4PU, England, Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail:
[email protected]. Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link,
P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756 Australia, Tel: [phone].
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benun, Ilise, 1961-
The creative professional's guide to money / Ilise Benun.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4403-0243-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
eISBN 13: 978-1-4403-1519-0
1. Artists—Finance, Personal. 2. Self-employed--Finance, Personal. 3. Small
business—Finance. I. Title.
HG179.B423 2011
332.024--dc22
2010045261
Edited by Amy Schell Owen
Designed by Grace Ring
Cover photography ©iStockphoto.com/DLeonis
Production coordinated by Greg Nock
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ilise Benun is an author, consultant and national speaker, founder of Marketing-
Mentor.com, and 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 (HOW Books), Designing
Web Sites://for Every Audience (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., Self, Essence, Crain's New York Business, Dynamic Graphics, Working
Woman, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, The
Denver Post and more.
Benun has given presentations for international organizations, including the
American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association, National
Association of Women Business Owners, HOW Design Conference, Freelancers
Union, AIGA, Graphic Artists Guild, Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario,
Advertising Photographers of America, American Society of Media
Photographers, Editorial Freelancers Association, New York Public Library,
NYU Entrepreneurship Summit, 92nd St. Y and many ad clubs around the
country.
From her home office in Hoboken, New Jersey, 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 three years of her working life. She has a B.A. in
Spanish from Tufts University. For more infomation, please visit:
www.marketing-mentor.com.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing is thought to be a solitary activity, one person alone with a blank piece
of paper (or a blank screen these days, although I still like paper). But that's not
how this book was written. This book represents my most collaborative effort to
date. I sought out as many people as would agree to participate, and they were,
in the end, numerous: from clients who shared their experiences and stories with
me to subject matter experts, whose ideas I absorbed as we talked. They all
shared perspectives that complemented, strengthened and sometimes also
conflicted with my own.
I can't list everyone here but I will try. It all started with a conversation
between me and Peleg Top, my co-author of The Designer's Guide to Marketing
and Pricing. Our friend Tom Tombusch of Wordstream Copy drafted the first
proposal. Amy Owen and Megan Patrick at HOW Books helped us shape it,
accepted it and then trusted me to deliver when it started to morph into
something else entirely. Thank you both for your trust.
During the research phase I talked to colleagues and industry professionals
who took the time to share their experiences, including Susan Chait, Emily
Cohen, Monique Elwell, Cameron Foote, Galia Gichon, Rick Gould, Kit
Hinrichs, Lee Jacobson, Maya Kopytman, JP Lacroix, Dana Manciagli, Frank
Marciano, Jennifer Neal, Mona Patel, Shel Perkins, Jean Perwin, Jennifer
Rittner, Lee Silber, Michael Steger, Andy Strote, Mikelann Valterra, Petrula
Vrontikis, June Walker and Jon Weiman.
Near the end of the writing phase, my ad hoc editorial team read pages of
unfinished thoughts and sent me their comments and, in one case, went over
them with me, line by line. Those generous people were Jonathan Cleveland,
Doug Dolan, Nina Felshin, Galia Gichon, Aaron Joslow, Dana Manciagli,
Patrice Robertie, Rhonda Schaller, Alan Seiden.
There were a few who went further: Dyana Valentine, the worksheet queen,
There were a few who went further: Dyana Valentine, the worksheet queen,
got out of her sickbed one Saturday morning to brainstorm better worksheets.
Besides everything he'd already done, Doug Dolan was on call near the end of
this process to stop everything he was doing to give me feedback on a new idea
for the introduction. And James Tricarico gets a month of homemade dinners in
exchange for hours spent explaining accounting basics to me.
I have come to depend on the F+W Media gang as we work on more projects
together and their effect on my business deepens. In fact, I realize that if it
weren't for this almost twenty-year association with F+W, a lot of the people I
cite above wouldn't have found their way to me in the first place. So a big thanks
for any peripheral (and future) support that has seeped into this book project
goes to Bryn Mooth, Beth Dean, SueAnn Stein, Larry Zimmer, Cory Smith,
Gary Lynch and Kate Rados.
Also at F+W Media and mostly behind the scenes has been book designer,
Grace Ring, who I trust to take my words and make them easy to read. And, of
course my editor, Amy Owen, who has shepherded this project through with
patience and encouragement.
I certainly wouldn't be where I am today without my support system behind
the scenes: copywriter extraordinaire, Deidre Rienzo (you're the best!), Kathleen
Harrington and David Tornabene, Cathy Baehler, Pamela Strell, The Haas
Family, Maria McKenna, Luz Ossa, Dr. S and all of my sisters.
It's new for me to be grateful to so many people for so much, but I am truly
awed and humbled by the generosity of everyone who contributed to this book,
whether you knew it or not.
I thank you all.
ABOUT MARKETING MENTOR
Marketing-Mentor.com is a resource for creative professionals who are serious
about growing their creative business. We help you focus on pricing, marketing,
time management and general business development, plus how it all fits into the
rest of your life.
Working with beginners and veteran creative professionals, solopreneurs and
small firm owners, we offer one-on-one coaching, group coaching and
workshops to teach you how to structure the business that meets your needs, how
to get the clients you want and, hopefully, how to have more control over your
life.
We help you set realistic goals, show you how to reach them and then keep
you on track until you do. We act as a sophisticated sounding board while also
providing resources, then we point you in the right direction so you can do what
needs to be done. With Marketing Mentor by your side, you'll learn how to make
your creative business work for you.
In our online store, Marketing-Mentor-Toolbox.com, you will also find tools
and information products you can use to stay on track and take your business to
the next level, including the Start Anytime Marketing Plan + Calendar and its
electronic counterpart, the Marketing eCalendar.
Visit www.marketing-mentor.com to take advantage of the free half-hour
phone mentoring session—don't worry, it's not a sales pitch. It's just a way to get
a taste of how Marketing Mentor can help grow your business.
MARKETING MENTOR