10 practical tips for running a creative business your way
Creative businesses aren’t small versions of corporate ones. And yet most mainstream business advice is built for businesses that optimise for scale, predictability, and output. Not for creativity, energy or long term sustainability.
That’s why so many creative freelancers and founders end up doing everything ‘right’ on paper and still feeling like something’s off.
I’ve seen the same patterns with myself and my coaching clients. The businesses that feel clear, confident and commercially strong aren’t following standard advice. They’re adapting it and running a creative business in a way that reflects how they actually think and work.
Here are ten tips that have helped the creatives I work with build stronger, more sustainable creative businesses with greater clarity and confidence.
1. Build a business that supports your life
Most creative founders aren’t struggling with effort. You wouldn’t suddenly be happier in your business if you just worked harder. Friction usually shows up when your business doesn’t match who you are, how you work, or what you actually want.
Start with those three points. They can guide how you build your business, instead of defaulting to what a business ‘should’ look like.
When you’re clear on who you are, how you work and what you want from work and life, decisions stop feeling reactive. Without that clarity, choices get made in isolation and the bigger picture shrinks. And that’s usually when the ‘life’ part starts disappearing.
2. Plan in seasons, not for the next 5 years
Read anything about business planning and you’ll be told to create a five year plan. For many creatives, that feels overwhelming and restrictive.
You do need direction. But that’s where knowing what you want from your business becomes powerful. It becomes your north star.
I’m a big believer in planning in seasons. A shorter timeframe is more realistic and gives you room to change direction if you change your mind, or if life happens.
Seasonal planning also works with your natural energy throughout the year. You’re not built to operate at the same intensity every month. Planning this way sets realistic expectations instead of creating constant guilt. And it forces you to check in regularly, giving you space to review and reset if needed.
3. Define what success means to you
Success for you probably isn’t just about the amount of profit you make. It might also be about having time to be creative, or having a business that fits around your life.
It’s important to define what success means to you and return to it regularly. When you do, you can make decisions based on whether something will genuinely make you happy or not. That might mean turning away a type of client that drains you, or choosing to change how you work.
Without that definition close to hand, it’s easy to get pulled into the ‘shoulds’ of business and end up feeling like you’re not successful. But if your business exists to give you time to be creative, and you’re actively protecting that time, it may completely reframe how you look at things like your finances, client list, or the work you say yes to.
4. Understand your finances
When you do creative or bespoke work, advice about stability and recurring revenue can feel wrong. But stability starts with understanding your finances.
When you understand your finances, you can plan properly. Seeing what’s coming in and going out over the next few months relieves the pressure of constantly feeling like you’re in survival mode. A regularly updated sales forecast gives you control.
More importantly, it gives you the confidence to say no to the wrong work instead of taking anything that comes your way out of fear.
Understanding your finances also helps you plan time off.
A couple of years ago, my client Lauren wanted to take August off but wasn’t sure how to do that without losing income. With the help of a sales forecast, she realised she was earning more than enough in the run-up to August. That clarity removed the pressure to keep working throughout the summer holidays. With this foresight, and by communicating clearly with her clients, Lauren could properly enjoy the summer holidays with her little girl.
5. Embrace all that you love to do
You don’t have to ‘niche down’ to one audience or one type of work. Niching shows up in different ways. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a niche as:
a job or position that is very suitable for someone, especially one that they like
I see a lot of creatives tying themselves in knots because their skills don’t look connected. But there’s usually a common thread. You’re a whole human being. Of course your interests intersect.
The idea of niching can feel restrictive. Being creative often means having different interests that influence each other. If you embrace the different parts of your work that you genuinely love, and build your business around them, you’ll not only enjoy it more, you’ll likely find your niche without forcing it.
6. Focus on your value
One of the most common challenges I see in businesses of all sizes is shifting from talking about what they do to why they do it. This is where, as a creative, you can harness your value.
Clients value your creative thinking because it’s often not their strength. When you clearly communicate the value you bring, it influences more than the clients you attract. It affects how you price. People pay for outcomes, not output.
That value can become your niche. Not what you do, or who you work with, but what your creative brain enables your clients to achieve.
7. Do one thing at a time
Juggling everything can be a challenge for anyone. When you’ve got a creative brain constantly generating ideas, it often becomes overwhelming.
Focusing on one thing at a time is one of my biggest tips for creatives. It’s also the one I have to remind myself of regularly.
I came to this off the back of managing brand projects, where you focus on one area, then move to the next. When I applied the same approach to my own business projects, I noticed things happening quicker. Instead of half-finishing multiple ideas, I started seeing real progress.
I’m not saying don’t explore other ideas. That’s part of being creative. But having one clear focus when you’re working on your business lightens the mental load and makes everything feel more achievable.
8. Choose evolution, not perfection
A practical way to choose evolution over perfection is to give yourself permission to change your mind. You don’t have to make decisions in your business and stick with them forever. Evolving doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’ve grown and your business needs to grow with you.
As creatives, we’re trained to check and perfect our work before sending it out. Letting go of that mindset in business can feel uncomfortable.
Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you launch. Small businesses get stuck there. If you apply the same creative thinking process you use with clients to your own business, iterating as you go, not only will things move faster, but they’ll also evolve with you as you and your interests evolve.
9. Get to know how you work
Being self-employed is one of the biggest personal development journeys you’ll ever go through. Spending time understanding how your brain works and how you prefer to work is crucial.
Do you work best in small chunks?
Do you learn visually or verbally?
Do frameworks help you, or do they feel restrictive?
There are countless tools and techniques available. When you understand how you work, you can choose the ones that genuinely support you instead of battling against ones that don’t fit.
10. Give yourself time to be creative
You're creative. And it can be hard when creativity becomes your job. You may find you rarely get time to create for yourself.
Block out regular space in your calendar where nothing’s scheduled except creative exploration. This could be for your business, or could just be for play. You might need more than one slot so you can choose a time that fits you each week. But if it’s not scheduled, it’ll slip.
Your creativity is what makes you valuable. It’s what other businesses need from you, so keeping it alive isn’t optional. It’s essential.
Running a creative business on your terms
Creative businesses rarely struggle because their owners lack talent. They struggle because they’re applying models that were never designed for them.
When you work in a way that supports how you think, gives you structure and protects your energy, your business becomes simpler to run and more enjoyable to grow. Decisions feel clearer, pricing feels grounded, and momentum feels sustainable.
You don’t need more advice. You need advice that fits.
And that starts with deliberately designing a business around how you think, create and live.