What’s holding you back?

Almost all creative businesses feel that they could be doing better in some way or other. Growing faster, delivering better work, attracting different people or simply making more money. In many cases the leaders think they have a clear view of the opportunities or problems, but often they’re not focusing on the most important things. And rarely do they have a full picture of how the whole business could become much more successful.

Are you frustrated with a lack of progress? If your business feels as if it is stuck in a bit of a rut, you’re struggling to find a way to create the changes you’d like, or just don’t have the time to think beyond doing the day to day work - you’re probably in the majority of businesses in the creative world.

Competition is always tough, business is fluid, markets are unpredictable and your assets and skills are mostly intangible. So it’s no surprise that there’s not much chance to keep up with the latest benchmarks of good performance or to use these insights to gauge where your business has real potential to do better. It’s too easy to continue with unrealistic expectations, keep doing the same things, fall short and end up knocking the confidence out of everyone involved. With so many things to do, creative businesses really can’t afford to keep spending more time and money trying to solve the same challenges in the same old way.

But identifying the barriers and knowing how to address them is challenging. Creative businesses thrive on a range of connected elements, some working in harmony, others benefitting from healthy tension. It’s vital for you to know how your positioning, marketing and sales activities should work together. And whether your performance issues are related to resources or structure, processes or attitudes, environment or ambition.

So when you hit barriers that slow you down you really need to understand why - and have a clear approach to eliminate whatever is holding you back. Too many leaders have paid the price for sticking their head in the sand or failing to get the right help or guidance. You’ll always have challenges to deal with - just make sure you keep improving and don’t get left behind.