Creative in Work vs Creative in Business

What the heck does it mean to be "a creative"? Let's just start there. Creative small business owner. Creative entrepreneur. We throw these terms around a lot, but something about them has never sat right with me. Honestly, I've always found the term creative entrepreneur a little cringy. I think I've finally figured out why.

Being creative in your work and creative in your business are two different things, and one doesn't imply the other.

Creativity, to me, means you're doing something that might not work. It's not proven. There's no guarantee. You're doing something in a way that hasn't been done before.

So you can be creative in your work—you can be a photographer or a web designer or a ceramic artist—but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're creative in your approach to business. Your Instagram feed could be mistaken for another wedding photographer, or you could be mirroring someone else's marketing, pricing, or social media tactics. You're using a proven model that you've seen elsewhere. You're following the rules.

On the flip, you could have what's not considered a creative profession—you could be an accountant or a lawyer or a financial planner—but be creative in your approach to business. You don't look and sound or feel like every other accountant. You're using social media in an unexpected way, or you've created a new business model. You're not doing what people expect someone with your job title to do. You're changing the game.

When we look at creativity in this way, we can see that it's a lot broader than painter=creative.

Creativity is an approach. It's a posture. One you can apply to your work, your business, and of course, your life.