Since starting our site, Chica and I have consulted many resources on the how-to’s of a creative business. One of our favorite resources is the book The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real, by Lisa Sonora Beam (Quarry Books). This book looks at the business process through a visual journaling method which is quite appealing to the creative thinker. I had never before considered doing our marketing brainstorming in such a way that it would be almost a piece of art itself.

The book takes you through all of the steps of thinking about your creative passion in a business manner. Each section offers plenty of thinking questions, example pictures and small chunks of very heavy information that doesn’t feel cumbersome when surrounded by everything else. This is not your typical business book, but serves the same purpose as some of the drier versions of the same topic.

For example, her section on SWOT Analysis explains how to get a clear picture of the trends in the marketplace that you can capitalize on while minimizing threats. SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By going through this exercise, Chica and I were able to pinpoint some of our weaknesses and areas where we could conduct some basic research and make changes on our site. The picture below represents one artist’s journaling of her SWOT Analysis. I told you the images were stimulating! I don’t remember getting to do anything like this in Marketing 101 in college but I seem to have learned more from this exercise than I did during that whole semester!

The other chapter I want to touch on in this review is the one on promotion. This is an area where Chica and I are focusing quite a bit of time and energy right now. Beam starts the section explaining that you must first identify your customer before you can create your promotions. That seems like a no-brainer but have you really thought about your customer? She gives a list of thought questions to help you zero in on your customer such as: “How do they learn about and shop for products like yours? What media do they consume? What experts do they follow? Where do they look for advice?” These questions, among many others, helped us really narrow down who our readers are and start thinking about how we could tailor our site to better fit them. Beam explains that this step is crucial before you start creating any kind of branding or promotional items. The picture below depicts one woman’s visual representation of her customer. This visual could easily morph into a branding scheme or a basis for a promotional giveaway. It’s fantastic to see how all of the business concepts flow from one to another.

I could go on and on about the benefits we’ve already reaped from this book but I don’t want to rewrite the entire thing! In addition to checking out her book, be sure and look at Lisa Sonora Beam’s Web site for lots of updates and to sign-up for one of her workshops. You can also follow her on Twitter!