Many creatives turn to entrepreneurship to make their unique ideas into reality. This step can be an exciting and joyful extension of a creative person’s passion. However, it can also lead a creative person to make a misstep as they leap into action without following standard business practices.
This happened to Odette D’Aniello, an incredible baker and cake decorator, and founder of Celebrity Cake Studio. In a recent interview, Odette shared her journey from her mother’s bakery in the Philippines to opening a successful designer cake studio here in America. After many twists and turns, Odette’s success ultimately came from both her talent and her ability to build processes into her business.
Listen to the full podcast interview to hear Odette’s story and learn from her journey. The article below focuses on one aspect to which Odette credited much of her business success. That is: using processes as a boundary-setting tool to keep her creativity flowing and her business running.
Processes as a Boundary-Setting Tool for Creatives
If you are a creative, and many entrepreneurs are, you constantly have ideas for your business. You want to take your business in one direction or another – and new thoughts about where you could go from here spring into your head throughout the day.
Of course, no business can run with someone pulling it in multiple directions simultaneously. That would cause chaos. In our interview, Odette shared that boundary-setting was her most valuable tool, and processes allow her to set boundaries and forget them, so her business keeps running while she creates.
Here is a how-to for building processes that can set reasonable boundaries within the business and keep your creativity focused and on track.
1. Find a system that works for your business.
Once you find a system that works for your business, document it and train your team on it. Encourage them to stick to it and to remind you of the system anytime you come in and try to make fundamental changes.
2. Determine what would free your time for creative ideas.
Often, setting up systems so that the business will run without an owner’s daily input is the best way to free up time for creativity. However, everyone is individual, so if you have a different time block, determine how you can remove the obstruction or create a process to overcome the challenge quickly.
3. Surround yourself with people who will give you boundaries and provide you with data to back them up.
While you don’t want to surround yourself with negativity, pushback and protecting what you’ve already established are vital to the growth of any creative company. Encouraging your team to use successful processes and asking them to share data with you to keep you motivated to stick with these systems can help keep your business on track while you continue building it.
4. Set boundaries that push your vision forward.
You likely recognize what pushes your vision forward – and what doesn’t. If that is too vague for you, look at the metrics and data around your business. What has caused its growth, and what set it back? Determine the boundaries that will block setbacks and push the vision forward.
5. Test your boundaries and systems every six months or so.
Consistently run through your business systems and ensure your boundaries are held. This will keep your systems fresh and help you determine if the limits you’ve set are too restrictive, not restrictive enough, or somewhere in between.
Are you a creative business owner who needs to establish business systems and build boundaries? Talk with the systems experts here at Business Success Consulting Group. We are here to help you document your effective systems and create new processes that support business growth as well as your creativity.
