5 Powerful Tips on How to Be a Strategic Creative

Credit: Pressmaster on Photodune

After well over a decade of working in agencies, freelancing, and running an agency, I’ve come to believe that there are really two kinds of freelancers.

• The ones who always seek to understand their clients’ core business strategies—and deliver based on them.
• The ones who appear to be unwilling or unable to understand their clients’ strategic business goals.

There are a lot of differences between these two camps. But there’s one that’s probably most important to you, the freelancer who’s always on the hunt for bigger and better clients.

The designers, developers, bloggers, illustrators and photographers who “get” their clients’ business strategies get something else. They get the most business, make the most money, secure the most long-term and repeat clients, and run the most successful and enduring freelance businesses.

Creative professionals who demonstrate that their work reinforces strategic objectives, and delivers on brand value, command the higher rates and the most respect.

They’re fatter and happier. Continue Reading