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 😉

Make a Business Plan

If you’ve been following the July Challenge, you’ve been developing all of the things that will go into a business plan.

It’s worthwhile creating a business plan for yourself mapping out:

–        Your overall vision for your creative business

–        A couple of individual goals or targets (try to make them measurable – make more money is different than make £10,000 more)

–        Break those goals down into projects – the major components

–        Projects are broken down into tasks or steps

–        Identify your target customers

–        Identify your major products or services and any new products/services you plan to introduce

–        Sketch out where your income will come from

–        Identify any major risks to your business and what you plan to do to minimise the risk

–        Identify any major opportunities to your business and how you plan to make the most of them

–        Add anything else you want – it’s your business plan, there is nothing set in stone, so make it a document that has meaning to you.

The format can be anything that works for you. Written on paper, post-it notes on a wall, a word document on your computer, a series of paper files. The format doesn’t matter, what matters is making decisions and setting a plan for yourself. 

Once you create your business plan, use it.

Revise it annually – updating and adding where necessary.

Review it quarterly to see if you are on track.

Anytime you feel lost, or confused, or frustrated, revisit your business plan. Use it as a touchstone to reinforce the path you are travelling.

Action – put together your business plan. Even if it’s scribbled out on both sides of a piece of paper, the format doesn’t matter. Any business plan is better than no business plan.

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.