July Retrospective: Back in July 2014, I wrote a daily series exploring the realities of navigating the creative economy. Twelve years later, looking back at these entries (and my original awful hand-drawn illustrations!), I’m struck by how the core truths of a creative career remain completely timeless. Each day this month, I’m opening up the archive to share these foundational lessons—with a few modern reflections layered in.

If you’re a new creative graduate looking to find your footing in the creative economy, a Gen X looking to pivot into a creative business, a side-hustler or someone who just wants to up their creative business game, there’s something for you in this series. Just don’t judge my drawings 😉

The first thing to get crystal clear on if you are looking to make money from a creative business is: what exactly are you selling?

There’s really only two options: goods or services.

Goods are any kind of physical product – a book, a painting, a poem, a CD, an Ebook, a cupcake,a dress, jewellery,  etc.

Services are you doing something for someone – coaching, acting, dancing, singing, directing, choreographing, teaching, cooking, fortune telling, card reading, etc.

If you are looking to launch a creative business, or wondering why your creative business isn’t doing well, are you clear about what exactly you are selling? If you want someone to give you their hard earned cash, you gotta understand clearly what it is that you’re offering them in exchange.

It might be that you offer a mixture of both goods and services. You might sell your custom made jewellery and you might also offer classes on how to make your own jewellery. That’s a product and a service.  Or maybe you sing at weddings and parties and you are also selling a CD or download. Maybe you are an author and you are selling books, ebooks and consultations with people who want coaching on writing their first novel.

Be clear about what you are selling.

In my experience performers struggle with this. They often are unclear of what specifically they are offering.

If you’re an actor, you’re not selling a finished performance (product). You’re selling your abilities as an actor (a service) to a director or producer who is creating a performance (a product).

If you are also wearing a producers hat, and creating and marketing your own work, putting it in front of an audience and charging them, then you are creating a product (your show) to sell.

However if someone else is producing and selling the show and you are receiving payment for being in it, then you are selling a service. With me?

You can’t market yourself clearly until you know exactly WHAT is for sale!

Action: Make a list of all the ways you make money in your creative business. Then next to each one write whether you are selling it as a good or service. Then create two master lists: your goods for sale, your services for sale.

Longevity in a creative career isn’t accidental—it’s built on strategy.

While the landscape shifts, the core principles of thriving as a creative freelancer haven’t changed. For deeper, modern frameworks on building a sustainable creative practice:

• Read the Book: Looking for a step-by-step field guide to building a resilient career in the creative economy? Pick up my recent book The Thriving Creative: Successful Freelancing in the Creative Economy available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and from my publisher Routledge.
• Stay Connected: Join my community and to receive the complete 31-day hand-drawn playbook as a single PDF at the end of the month. Sign up below.