Creative people have a love/hate relationship with money.
We love it, because – well, who wouldn’t want it?
But we also hate it, avoid dealing with it, and avoid even talking about it. Here are some of the reasons why.
1. We Think It’s Not Important
And of course we’re right. There are more important things in life than money – love, art, justice, world peace and coffee being just a few.
We live in a world obsessed with money, where human beings are treated according to their bank balance, not their intrinsic worth, and we instinctively revolt against this.
Creativity offers a window on a different world, with different values. Art exists in a different, more meaningful dimension. In a world gone mad, it can serve as a reminder that money is not the be-all and end-all.
2. We Don’t Know How to Get It
The starving artist cliche didn’t come from nowhere. It’s no secret that many creatives don’t earn as much as they’d like. And it’s not much fun talking about something you don’t have.
If we were better at selling than making, we’d be salespeople, not creatives. Sales and marketing can feel like impenetrable mysteries – we don’t understand what makes people buy, so it’s tempting to retreat back into our comfort zone, doing the best work we can and hoping that will be enough.
3. We Don’t Know What We’re Worth
One obvious barrier to earning a decent living is not charging enough for our artworks, products or services. That might sound like a no-brainer, but many creatives simply don’t realise the value of their work to potential buyers.
To us, it’s nothing special. It’s just what we do. Looking at it with a perfectionist’s eye, we see all kinds of flaws that are invisible to the untrained eye. That’s great for perfecting your craft, but not so great when it comes to closing a sale.
Because what may seem barely good enough to us may well look utterly fabulous to a potential buyer. But if we price ourselves or our work too low, it knocks buyers’ confidence, and makes them assume there’s something wrong with it.
Believe it or not, many people are happier paying more for quality than shopping around for the cheapest option. Who wants to have a knockdown painting on their wall? Or to give their loved one a cut-price ring? Or to do their big launch or party on the cheap?
4. We Don’t Want to Sell out
One of the reasons creative people have a reputation for eccentricity is our ambivalent attitude to money and success. The rest of the world would jump at the chance for fame and fortune, but even when it’s laid on a plate for us, we hesitate.
We hesitate because we are terrified of selling out – selling our artistic soul to the devil, earning piles of cash by churning out commercial crap. We know that all the money in the world won’t compensate us for the loss of our creative integrity.
5. We Don’t Want to Look Greedy
We’re sensitive souls aren’t we? And we have to be, it’s part of our job. If you’re not finely attuned to the subtleties of sounds, images, words, textures, movement and/or rhythm, you won’t go far in a creative career.
But this sensitivity has a flipside. We tend to be shy and diffident, easily pricked by barbed words or the merest hint of criticism. So we’re not always the best negotiators, and can shoot ourselves in the foot by avoiding discussing money issues for fear of looking ‘greedy’.
6. We Don’t Know How to Manage It
Spreadsheets, balance sheets, cashflow forecasts, profit and loss sheets, amortisation, appreciation, depreciation, fixed costs, variable costs, cash cows, averaging ratios …
Have your eyes glazed over yet?
The language of finance can be bamboozling – let alone the actual numbers. No wonder many creatives do the bare minimum of accounting, often at the last minute, when the tax deadline is due. It just seems too complex, too intimidating, or too plain boring for us to get our heads around it all.
7. We Wouldn’t Know How to Spend It
The whole process of earning, collecting and managing money – while at the same time preserving our creative integrity – can seem so difficult that we never seriously think about how we would spend the money if we did succeed. In other words, we don’t consider the purpose of money in our work and lives.
Sure, we may daydream from time to time about winning the lottery or landing the big contract, but we stop at daydreaming. We don’t articulate our financial goals, set ourselves targets and make concrete plans for using money to bring us security, stability, freedom – and even to support our creativity.
So we creatives have plenty of reasons for looking down our noses at money, or ignoring it and hoping it will go away.
But deep down, we know this is dangerous. Money is a fact of life, it’s not going away. Sooner or later, we have to deal with it.
Because money is important. Not the most important thing, but maybe more important than we care to admit, when we avoid thinking about it, talking about it or doing something about it.
Money stress is no fun. It poisons every aspect of life. That’s true for anyone, but if your passion is creativity, then one of the biggest dangers is that worrying about money will kill your creativity.
As a creative, your headspace is your workspace. If it’s taken up by worries of any kind, it’s hard to settle to the task in hand, and harder still to get into the creative zone where you do your best work.
Does that sound like a reason to take money a little more seriously?
“OK so what do I DO about this?”
I’m glad you asked that. 🙂
The first thing to do is to visit this page and claim your free copy of the audio seminar I’ve recorded with Sarah: 5 Essential Money Skills for Creative People. It’s packed with practical advice to help you get a grip on your business finances and use them to support your creativity.
And if you want even more help getting on top of the finances of your creative business, check out Money for Creative People, our new course for creative artists, freelancers and entrepreneurs, teaching you the mindset and money skills that will help you succeed commercially as well as creatively.
What do you think?
Which of these seven reasons do you relate to?
What would you add to the list?
Do you agree that creative people could benefit from taking money more seriously?
About the author: Mark McGuinness is a poet, creative coach, and the owner of Lateral Action.
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« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 8 Next »Simple way to define a money value to your work is to count the time you worked on it.
Then define a price for an hour.
Being able to remember the time spent on it.
Eg: You spent an afternoon working on a song, that's x hours of work. On top of that you add a ratio of the time spend learning and developing the skills that gave you the ability to make that awesome song.
You can add the time spent putting ideas together thinking about the lyrics at the coffee machine (break time is paid, Awesome !! ) and potentially a part of your sleeping time if you're creative in your dreams, and the time you spent running around trying to get a buyer or what not.
Creating a piece of art is much more than just the time spent making it happen, we can also value all the skills, thinking and hassle we've been developing to get there. Then in the end with a little accuracy, you can see it's a realistic and reliable way to gauge the money worth.
That's one way of doing it, and it can work pretty well in some contexts, e.g. some client projects. But as you point out, art is more than labour + time. And if you charge by the hour, there are only so many hours in the day, so there's a ceiling on what you can earn.
But supposing you own the rights to a song, and you either sell it yourself or license someone to sell it on your behalf - your income is only limited by the number of units you can sell. (Not to mention live shows, merchandise etc).
Actually,
Another way is to define
1) how much money you need
2) how much work you can produce
3) divide the 2
Maybe it's not defining how much your work is worth,
But it's another realistic even simpler way to work it out
I like this model better, again depending on context. When defining how much you need, it's critical to factor in all the costs of producing the work and running the business, not just the obvious ones.
And it's even better if you substitute 'want' for 'need'. ;-)
yeah that's right, i spoted the need at the same time i posted but it was too late. Of course want !
Thanks for this issue. Money is the number one important factor on averaging a creative success.
How about creatives that makes much money in the industry? What is there secret? Are they real creatives or just genius on making money with the brain of others?
I think money people make money, and art people make art. Doesn't mean they can't learn from each others.
I like that way of looking at it. A lot of entrepreneurs are very creative, and a lot of artists/creatives can get pretty good at the money side of things if they apply themselves - and their creativity - to the task.
I think creatives do need to take money more seriously. It is the method of exchange for goods and services. Its how we obtain basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. Not having enough makes life very difficult. It also becomes hard to be creative. Money isn't everything but we do need to know how to handle it.
Very good point - money is a way of facilitating exchange. If we didn't have money we'd still have to figure out bartering or swapping sea shells or whatever.
At the end of the day, any system of exchange is about relationships between people. And human nature isn't going to change any time soon.
your absolutely right. i found myself in all those points.
So what should we do about it?
I'm glad you asked that. :-)
More to follow starting later this week. Make sure you're on board...
Um... I know what I would spend it on:
OFFICE SUPPLIES!
and a pet dragon.
Emily, you have impeccable taste.
Green or red? (The dragon, not the office supplies.)
I think for me it would be mostly a lack of understanding on the business front and also a fear of failure/responsibility towards something when in my mind creating is a process that cannot be rushed, or pressured. I know I need to get out of that way of thinking and what angers me most about myself is that I am finding it very hard to consider what I do as work because it is so personal and FUN, so when I need money, I return to teaching which generally will never die for as long as people keep having sex. If I do teaching I get to be creative in other ways but lose my identity quickly. It's a fine balance but I am working on convincing myself that what I do is a career choice and that I am worth it.
Separating the work you do for love and the work you do for money isn't such a bad solution. We all do it to some extent. E.g. I like having poetry as a 'money free space' in my life. But I also have no problem earning money from doing work I love. I figure the more I enjoy it, the better I'll do, and the more value I create for my clients and customers.
The artists that make the most money from their art, also seem to be the ones that are not doing it for the money. I think that is important to keep in mind. The success of elite creatives encourages less dedicated artists to turn their art into a business. For the less talented, money becomes the driver, rather than the art.
That is why there are all the long sales pages on the internet with false scarcity tactics, strong emotional triggers and a general claim that we are inferior for not being in the fashionable in-crowd. There is no art in getting us to consume.
There is a delicate balance between creating value for others and extracting as much profit as we can. The prices we charge have little to do with the time or costs involved in providing the products or services and are more a function of the maximum price consumers will pay.
We all need to make a living so money is a necessary part of life, but I believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with trying to extract as much profit out of others as we can. That is a very industrial age mindset that I hope will change.
Real art changes the way we see the world. If that art allows us to earn a comfortable living, great. If not, that is still okay. Artists don't create art because they expect it to make them rich, they do it because they have to.
I agree that real artists do it because they have to, but I'm not sure there's such a black-and-white divide between art and business. Some people are good at art/creativity, some are good at business, and some are good at both.
And I don't think we can blame artists for all those long sales pages with yellow highlighter. ;-)
And it not that my parents didn't nurture the arts side, in fact they paid for my design school, yet it's interesting to note how my mother values what I do as a career, only when it is explained in terms she can understand will she accept it. She is a teacher too, and when I talk to her about a blend of teaching and art, she understands. I think she wants to see me have what I need and teaching is easier to calculate money wise to get what I need. But I am determined. I can't remember who quoted this but they said:
Finding motivation needs to be done daily, just like bathing. (I think it was Einstein).
Same goes for courage, persistance and resilience.
Very interesting topic.