The Creative Business Podcast. Build a better, more successful creative business for yourself.

This week Marcus asks the question; "Are we screwing our business by being a nice guy/gal?". We also look at hiring... Is it possible to take on a new team member without messing up, and in my case, without playing the "manager"? All this and more on this week's episode of The Creative Business Podcast.

This week Marcus and I talk about the power of airline companies, how taking a break from it all can leave you ready to come back fighting and the ups and downs of remote working. Is it all it's cracked up to be?

Talk about the GDPR is everywhere at the moment, and with good reason. European businesses (and those who deal with Europe) are scrambling to be compliant by the May 25th deadline. We look at what Nusii is doing to be compliant and how this new law can affect even the most unsuspecting of businesses. We also dig into a listener question on rights and terms and conditions as they pertain to a proposal or contract.

This week Marcus and I continue the conversation about sales proposals. A few areas of special mention are: Perfecting your pricing and why listing your services is a bad idea. We look at 'Next Steps' and why your customer needs to know how to proceed. And always a point of contention... the design and layout of your proposals. Is it the be all and end all? Today we discuss this and much, much more.

It's all well and good to sit here and wax lyrical about building a better business, but if you simply aren’t winning that business in the first place then it's all for nought. Winning new clients is at the heart of any growing business. And in today's show, Marcus and I discuss some of the most common mistakes we see in the world of sales proposals. We want you to win more business!

Have you ever had the feeling that a project just isn't going as it should? Is the work becoming a chore? Is your client becoming plain unreasonable? And perhaps more importantly, is the relationship slowly deteriorating before your eyes? These situations happen more often than we care to admit. Often things are left unsaid and eventually the walls come crashing down. So what happens when you need to fire a client? Today we answer a listener’s question about just this topic and discuss our personal experiences with firing clients, and even firing ourselves!

We all know that running a business is anything but calm seas and smooth sailing, but what happens when things just seem too much and you wish you stayed in bed? Getting on a downer about work is incredibly common. Whether you run your own business or work for someone else, it's guaranteed to get too much at some point. How often depends on how you're wired. In this week's show, Marcus and I discuss our own battles with running a business and ways in which we keep the "Oh woe is me" demon at bay.

Being addicted to work is not a badge of honour many of us enjoy wearing. Unfortunately it's a badge that both Marcus and myself have worn over the years without even knowing it. An obsession with work creeps up on you. In fact the ones who usually see it first are your friends and loved ones. So in a society where success is so closely associated to long hours, what can we do to escape this need for more?

Running your own business is the dream of many. And often this dream begins whilst working as a full time employee. Perhaps you find your first freelance client, word gets out and before you know it you don't have a second to breath...but it's not always so easy. Working 'on the side' can sometimes go on for years! So how do you know when it's time to go all-in on your creative business? Listen in to this week's episode to hear our thoughts on the subject.

Regret is not something we should dwell on. By definition it's a negative emotion. But what if we could take what we've learned over the years and apply our findings to the past? Would we be in a different place right now? In today's show Marcus and I reflect on what we would like to have done differently and go deep on some of the biggest lessons we've learned over the last decade (or so) as creative entrepreneurs.

Asking ‘difficult questions’ while talking to clients can be scary. So scary in fact, that often we fail to ask them at all. In today's episode we discuss some of the essential questions we use in our own interviews and how we get clients to open up to 'sensitive' subjects such as the 'Why' behind their project and how much they're willing to invest!

Running a creative business can be challenging. Throw into the mix the fact that your team members can come from any number of technical or creative backgrounds and things can get downright tricky. In today's show we talk about how to get the best out of your creative team members and the lessons we've both learned as creatives and team managers.

Have you ever dreamed of building and running your own SaaS? For some, the promise of recurring revenue is just too much to bear. They throw their heart, soul and not to mention their savings into building a product that could well fail within months...Today we talk about what it means to run a SaaS. The ups and downs, the good and the bad. Our own SaaS, Nusii has been helping creative business owners write and manage their client proposals since 2014.

In this week's episode of The Creative Business Podcast we talk about what it means to build Authority for your business. We look at why you'd want to be one in the first place and what it can mean in terms of growth. With real world examples of how others have carved a name for themselves and some of the ways in which we've gone about it ourselves. In short, if you want your business to flourish, you need to be seen as an authority!

This week I'm joined by my new co-host, Marcus Blankenship. We talk about setting realistic goals in both our professional and personal lives. Not as easy as it might sound... We also look at over-reaching and how Nathan's addictive personality has spread him thin over the last couple of years. Oh, and Marcus spills the beans on his personal goal for 2018.