The Shamrock Organisation, proposed by management guru Charles Handy, is a useful model for businesses in the creative industries and other industry sectors. Charles Handy has written about a ‘Shamrock Organisation’ of three parts. Firstly there is a small core of permanent key employees who keep the company operating and developing. Secondly is the ‘contractual …
Tag: creative business guide
Strategic Marketing avoids Bad Customers
Not all customers are good customers! Strategic Marketing will avoid and deter bad customers. Customers can be bad customers for all sorts of reasons. They can be unprofitable or troublesome. They can waste your time or cause stress. Some interfere too much. Some aren’t worthy of including in your portfolio. Others pay late, or never. …
‘T-Shirts and Suits’ published for Creative Industries in Ukraine
David’s book ‘T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity’ was published in translation in Ukraine and launched at an event on 22 September 2015. His book on creative entrepreneurship in Ukranian will help develop the creative industries in Ukraine. David Parrish speaking in Kiev about the Ukrainian translation of the book …
PRIMEFACT Checklist for Internal Analysis
Classic ‘SWOT Analysis‘ involves evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses within a business or organisation, ie an ‘Internal Analysis’. Strengths and Weaknesses – or Characteristics It’s important to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our business, focusing particularly on strengths, especially strengths which competitors do not have. These relative strengths are an essential element of your …
The ‘3Ms of Marketing’
The best way to illustrate the technique of using the 3Ms of Marketing most effectively is to use a true story. Julie, a jeweller, asked me for some marketing advice. With a limited budget for marketing communications, she couldn’t decide whether to invest in a better website or in a printed brochure to promote her …
Don’t be a ‘busy fool’ – act strategically
Are you a ‘busy fool’? We avoid doing difficult things by occupying ourselves with trivial things. We deal with urgent trivia instead of what’s really important. Keeping busy like this allows us to avoid having to make important decisions. In my work, advising and training hundreds of businesses all around the world, I see too …
Your Competitive Advantage
What’s your Competitive Advantage? Knowing what you can excel at in relation to competitors – and then building your business strategy around that focus – is probably the most important element of any successful business strategy. If you are competing in a market place by offering the same thing as many other rivals, then you …
Word of Mouth Marketing : Not ‘proper marketing’?
Word of Mouth Marketing. Some people think it’s not ‘proper marketing’. Pedro, an entrepreneur in Colombia, told me he wasn’t able to do any real marketing because of a lack of budget in the early stage of his web design business. He assured me that once he had generated some profits he would devise ‘a …
The Curve: from Free to Superfans
Download and read the free eBook ‘10 Ways to Make Money in a FREE World‘ from Nicholas Lovell, author of The Curve. I’m recommending The Curve to my consultancy clients in the creative and digital industries. This free eBook is a great short introduction to the The Curve. It contains specific references to creative industries …
How to Price a Service or Product in the Creative Industries
Pricing policy has both immediate and long-term consequences on a creative business and has an impact not only on the economics of the enterprise but also on the perception of its products and/or services. In the video and article below, David Parrish offers his advice about how to price a service or product in the …