Listen up beaut, today we’re talking rules. If you know us at all, you know we’re no strangers to a little rule-breaking and bending when it’s necessary - especially within the creative workplace. We’ll keep unusual hours, spend way too much time on social media and even occasionally work through weekends if that’s what we feel is best for us. Rules be damned.

However! There are a few guidelines that we’ve built up over 10 years in the creative biz that have come to act as kind of personal ‘codes of conduct’. We’re going to share these with you today in what we’re calling the ‘Creative Business Commandments’. Enjoy!

Commandment 1: Thou shalt favour no socials over Instagram

We may be showing our older Millennial side here, but when it comes to promoting a creative business on socials we believe Instagram has then all beat. The combination of visual medium with social interaction opportunities makes it the perfect spot for creatives online. Pinterest is fantastic for visuals & traffic driving, less so for engagement & community building. Facebook & Linkedin are great tools for networking but lack that visual portfolio element. That’s why Instagram is taking our top commandment as the primo social network for creative businesses.

Commandment 2: Thou shalt not make false idols of other biz owners

Be honest, how often does the green eyed monster rear it’s ugly head when you’re met with the creative work of others? When was the last time you doubted or even changed your strategy because of what someone else was doing? Or told yourself everything would be great if you could just be as lucky as someone else? Truth is, you never know someone else’s real situation, especially not when you’re viewing their life through the lens of socials and self-promotion. Focus on your own work and your own journey, using others for positive inspiration when it feels necessary. But don’t ever put another creator on a pedestal or compare yourself negatively. We’re all just doing out best, their reality is probably a lot more similar to yours than you realise.

Commandment 3: Thou shalt not take the name Canva in vain

Ok, we’re about to out ourselves as massive design snobs here, but we definitely scoffed at Canva when it was an emerging app. As super serious Adobe certified designers (don’cha know) we just couldn’t see many people using Canva. Why would they bother when they could just spend £600 and waste months of their lives on training blogs to use Photoshop?! As you can see, we’ve very much eaten humble pie and are now gratefully bowing down before Canva in all it’s wondrous & creative glory (plus, we cannot get over how much better the background remover tool in Canva is to anything available in the Adobe suite. How have they done that?!).

Commandment 4: Remember your days off, keep them sacred

Doesn’t mean your days off have to be a weekend, or any set day at all for that fact. But you have to take them. Your creative brain needs time to rest, recharge and come up with new ideas. Otherwise you’re gonna end up burnt out, miserable and likely giving up. Take your days off!

Commandment 5: Honour thy workspace and thy playlist

Sorry creative kids, your mothers have arrived. Clean your bloody desk! Neither of us are ‘tidy’ people (especially me, Naomi, because I still love to write everything down on paper and post-it notes and pile them up randomly around my office) but you have to make an effort to work in a calming, happy-place. Same goes for your playlist. Curate that shit to perfection. Music is such an important element to the creative process, the right tunes can really get those neurons firing.

Commandment 6: Thou shalt not cry at your desk

This is a commandment that’s been brought with us all the way from the bar & restaurant days of our early 20’s. No crying at work. Even if you do have a 40-something-year-old chef tantrumming in your face for having the audacity to ask them to cook (you know, their job). Even if you’ve just missed out on a project that sounded perfect for you. Go get yourself some fresh air, let it out somewhere neutral and peaceful & come back to your desk with renewed perspective ready to crack on all over again. It’s all about cultivating & maintaining that happy space that makes you feel strong, proud and on-top-of-it. Because you are.

Commandment 7: Thou shalt not abandon great ideas

Did you know that once Stephen King finishes a piece of writing, he puts it into a drawer and forgets about it for at least six weeks? Sometimes even up to a year! He knows that during the creating and finishing of creative work, you’re too close to see it objectively. You need to create some distance before you can edit and perfect it. Before you give up on your next amazing idea, write it down (or take what you already have) and put it away somewhere. Make a note to come back to it in a few weeks or even maybe a few months so that you can improve, edit and perfect it with fresh and objective eyes.

Commandment 8: Thou shalt not use unlicensed stock images

Just because that Pinterest image has the perfect ‘aesthetic’ for your latest project, doesn’t give you the right to use it without permission. How would you feel if someone pinched something you created just because it fit their vibe? There are so many amazing free and paid stock image and graphics sites like Unsplash and Shutterstock, so rely on those.

Commandment 9: Thou shalt not believe everything you read online

Not to be negative nellies, but people tell fibs online all. the. time. Next time you’re stressing about being the only biz online not earning £10k months (a statistical impossibility) just remember that not everyone runs their businesses on ethics and good vibes. Exaggerations and outright porkies are rife on social media, so focus on the goodness in your business and work on the things that will truly make you happy.

Commandment 10: Thou shalt not create a life you don’t love

If you’re gonna be your own boss, the least you could do is be a boss you actually like. This means that you stop taking on projects that bore you, stop accepting money from clients that don’t respect you and stop competing in a rat race that doesn’t interest you. It takes a lot of bottle to do things your own way, but if you’ve got the skills and the resources to build a life that lights you up then you owe it to yourself to do it! So start being the cool boss, start respecting yourself and your time and start building the life of your dreams rather than just another ‘job’.

We’d love to know some of your hard and fast rules for running your own creative business. Leave them in the comments - you never know, we may even end up switching up our list!

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Stay creative, babe!

Naomi | Lucky Night Studio