Woohoo! The Right-Brain Business Plan was mentioned in the August issue of Entrepreneur Magazine as an online business planning resource for creative companies. The article includes great tips on making a simple plan.

Name: Julie Benjamin
Company Name: Little Lane Studios
Website: www.littlelanestudios.com
Blog: http://littlelanestudios.com/wordpress/

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting my past client Julie Benjamin at her beautiful space Little Lane Studios in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. When we first starting coaching together more than a year and a half ago, Little Lane Studios was just a dream. Now, it’s a darling studio where children grow and learn through creativity, collaboration, and community.

Early on in our coaching, Julie made a vision board of the art studio she wanted to open up. It depicted the look and feel of the space, her values, and the essence of her business. Now her vision board hangs in her stunning studio! How’s that for manifestation?!

Little Lane Studios blends Julie’s background in teaching and education with her passions for artistic expression, nature, community, and designing beautiful spaces. The studio’s classes and workshops encourage children’s curiosity, creative spirit, and teamwork while they work together to complete a project. Julie approached building her business much like how she has her kids do project – she gathered a team of people together, she collaborated, and through a joint effort and shared vision, she brought the studio to life.

Classes range from mural making to print making, from gardens and botanicals to jewelry from natural materials. There’s painting, collage, and more. You can even watch Julie on View From The Bay as she gives a demo on how to use citrus fruit to make colorful prints. So fun and simple to do!

In Julie’s vision of her space, one of the central images was a large wooden table that symbolized community. A place where people could come together to create and collaborate. Her gorgeous tables of recycled wood are certainly a focal point in the studio.

Every nook and cranny is decorated with colorful art supplies that the kids can use…

… or with tiny plants and flowers that brighten up the room.  Nature is definitely an important part of Little Lane Studios. Julie has a class starting August 9th called Adorning Nature and Ourselves that sounds lovely!

And you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy Little Lane Studios. Julie offers other options for adults like a Wine Down & Relax evening where you can unwind and make art while sipping a glass of wine with friends. You can also talk to her about renting the space to host your own creative workshop. It’s definitely a nurturing, inspiring, and cozy place to get your creativity on!

Thanks, Julie, for doing what you do! You are playing such an important role in these young children’s lives. And by living your dream, you inspire other creative entrepreneurs to live theirs. Little Lane Studios is having a BIG impact!

Name: Violette Clark
Company Name: Violette’s Creative Juice
Website: www.violette.ca
Blog: www.freakflag.ca
Twitter: @violetteclark

Note from Jenn: I adore that artist and author Violette Clark invites us to proudly “fly our freak flags!” With playful wit and vibrant energy, Violette encourages you to unleash your inner eccentric.  Her fun book Journal Bliss is bursting with creative goodness, inspiration, and practical exercises.

I know you’ll be blown away by her sparkly, colorful, and eclectic Right-Brain Business Plan below. It’s full of surprises, humor, and inspiring goals and dreams. Thank you, Violette for shining so brightly and sharing your creative juice with us!

(All images in this post courtesy of Violette Clark.)

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

I am a mixed media artist, author and a creative catalyst.  I’m the author of the book Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash your Inner Eccentric. I teach on-line classes and workshops in my local area. The elements of my “unique” lifestyle are shown in my home, my lifestyle and my open and free spirited attitude. This offbeat way of looking at the world has captured the attention of the media – TV shows such as Weird Homes and numerous others.  I hope to impart my eccentric way of looking at the world to all who come in contact with my colourful life!

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

It was very powerful for me to see my plan in such a creative right brained way.  The tiny board book I decided to use to house all of my ideas, images and ephemera is like a pinata bursting with sparkling possibilities.  It’s like a fiesta! The very fact that it doesn’t close due to me stuffing it full of wondrous elements truly appeals to me and excites me to no end!

Jennifer’s Right-Brain Business Plan has freed up my oh-so-very-right-brain to think of possibilities using the language that spoke to me. I felt, during the creation of the book that I imbued it with the energy of my business.  I let it organically tell me what to do next, what to add etc.  I even felt guided to add a small doll I had previously created.  This doll ended up tucked into the back of the book – she’s the creative spirit.  This little book keeps calling to me, making me pick it up and carefully turn the pages as if I was examining a priceless treasure. It has become an ambassador for my colourful business plan.

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

I finished the book the other day, so I have not had too much time to accomplish  a lot however I have noticed a shift in attitude towards my business and the ability to see that my dreams are do-able.  This has been powerful.  I was encouraged to sketch out my plan in a right-brained kind of way …. and it worked out beautifully! The clarity I’ve gained about the individual components that make up a business plan during this process has been priceless.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

I let my intuition guide me when I ‘m stuck so that I’ll move to the colors, images and drawings that are right and perfect for that moment. This is what I did with the tiny doll which is in my board book.  I do the same when I blog – I let my intuition guide my blogposts.   Most of my favorite art pieces have been guided by my intuition….when I heed it’s call that’s when the magic happens. Intuition plays a HUGE part in my work.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

My Right-Brain Business Plan is fashioned from a child’s board book.  It has tiny windows that open up which were a perfect spot for me to insert the essence within the respective page.  Since the book was on animals I left a few pictures of animals untouched and painted around them – it seemed to perfectly fit in with my goals.  I used acrylic paints, painted papers, glitter, my art and my own fanciful lettering to embellish the pages.  Feathers beckoned me to be a part of the plan too so in they went adding to the carnival-esque feel of the artwork. I wanted my plan to evoke a feeling of joy, exuberance and unlimited possibilities.  Since I’m known primarily as an art journaler I decided to use some images of my journal pages shrunk down and incorporated them into my book. It has a very “me” feel to it meaning I will look it over from time to time, leave it in a conspicuous place as a reminder of who I am and what I want to achieve.

What’s your vision for your business?

My vision is to expand my reach – to reach at least one million women and teens and help them to embrace their creativity. I hope to empower women in the process and help them to feel better and excited about who they are. I hope to do this through my online classes, my book (and more books! Hooray!) workshops and inspirational products.

What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

I always say it’s important to go within oneself and listen to your heart.What gives you juice? What puts that light in your eyes when you talk about it and participate in it? What gets your creative mojo going when you are certain that there is no more juice left inside of your weary body? I ask these questions because I know in my past when “life happened” and I felt as if I had no more energy left then had to do an interview for TV or a newspaper – suddenly I’d have a rush of energy and would come alive as I spoke about creativity, making art and inspiring others to grab on to the proverbial brass ring.

So, at the end of the day, always be true to yourself! You have something unique and special to share with the world!

Creative Resources

Want more creative inspiration from the lovely Violette, then take a listen to Kimberly Wilson interview Violette on her Tranquility du Jour podcast.

Name: Michelle Casey
Company Name: Collage Your World
Website: www.collageyourworld.com

Note from Jenn: Michelle Casey is a talented artist and workshop leader. Her mixed-media collages are gorgeous and haunting as you can see from three of her journal pages from her “Pieces of Me” show. Michelle participated in a class with me last year. I love Michelle’s enthusiasm, willingness to stretch out of her comfort zones, and her commitment to growing her creative business. Read Michelle’s thoughtful reflections to find out more about her inspiring journey as an artist and creative entrepreneur.

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

I create, exhibit and give workshops relating to collage/mixed media art.

I developed the Collage Your World series of workshops to inspire people to create their own unique personal visions of their world through art.  Ones that reflect their personal histories, beliefs, values, wishes, dreams, etc. as well as being something they can share with others.  Pieces created in the workshops are one-of-a-kind objects (greeting cards, journals, commemorative objects, creative touchstones, etc.) that may be used for many purposes in one’s everyday life.  As a woman of colour of mixed east/west heritage educated in the fields of contemporary art, popular culture and oral history, I believe I have a unique perspective to offer students.  Coupled with my education, my practice in the worlds of contemporary and craft-based art give me a vast array of insights to draw from, and offer students, in terms of strategies they can use to develop their own distinctive visual narratives

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

Upon graduating from art school, a decade ago, I feared any talk of business and art.  In art school it was a common belief that making art and making lots of money didn’t go together: one did art for sacred social/political purposes and talk of money defiled those purposes.  As well, having very little knowledge of how a business works, I didn’t have the confidence to imagine starting one of my own.

Thus, upon graduating, I felt, if my talent as an artist was great enough, then things would neatly and magically fall into place – somewhere along the line, I would attain a fairy-godmother-like figure who would take responsibility for the business end of my career.  That wasn’t the case, however, and a few years later, I decided to take a course for emerging artists wanting to turn their careers into a viable business.  This course was very good for a start but it lacked one vital thing: the creation of a living, breathing business plan to constantly guide me along the path to consistent success – although I was able to make some headway here; it was always short-lived.

What attracted me to the Right-Brain Business Plan course was that I learned creativity played a key role in creating a business plan.  Having no shortage of that, I became excited about constructing one.  When I began to visualize and physically materialize my business dreams through a collage piece, I was really motivated to move on to the next step to create a more comprehensive written business plan with a goals, strategies and actions list.  Once this was accomplished my confidence grew stronger and I also felt more enthusiastic about doing market-related research that would help me find and establish a strong client base with which to grow my business.  Once I began to reveal my plans, visual and written, it wasn’t long before my friends and art colleagues sought to help me accomplish them in any way they could.  As a result these people have enabled me to action a number of goals on my lists.  One friend introduced me to all the art/craft-based organizations she knew in the city; another is getting together a group of friends to take one of my workshops and yet another, a recently appointed director of a cultural centre, is anxious to have me submit my workshop proposals to her institution.  It’s like the Right-Brain Business Plan started a very positive chain reaction of events to help me build my business further.

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

My main goals were to develop a series of workshops/courses I could offer; to exhibit my art through a creative alliance and design a website to increase my exposure as an artist and instructor within a year.  In the last nine months, I have had one show; scheduled two others locally; am three-quarters finished my website and have devised a twelve-week course as well as four half-day workshop proposals which I have sent out to various organizations in the city.  I have several workshops scheduled throughout the year.  I am amazed at accomplishing so much and the year is not even over!  If you would have told me I could have done all these things in less than a year last April, I would have never believed it!

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

Intuition plays a vital role in my working process… I don’t fully plan my collage pieces anymore because I trust that my inner voice will help me find the right fragments to relay whatever story I need to tell through my work. I rely on my intuition to delve into my subconscious and retrieve the stories buried deep within me. I have found when I let my intuition guide my work it never fails to surprise and delight me. While I do plan some basic elements of the work (i.e. I research background information, determine size or form of the piece ahead of time, etc.), I have given up planning every single facet of the work; sometimes I even change the form of my work if the imagery/narrative I’ve created demands it. Following my intuition is one of the most important discoveries I have made in the process of art making.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

My visual plan is an image of my desire to dream big: to have my own art school one day. Even if I don’t do this, I will be happy just to be teaching somewhere and imparting my passion of art to others.

I can work on a piece for days or weeks. Especially if it’s a public piece I know I am going to share with others. However, when I was making my visual plan, I purposely set a time limit to see what I could do if I just went with my gut and not allowed the perfectionist in me to take over. Because the course came at a time when my personal life was in a shambles, and seemed like the Right-Brain Business Plan course was heaven-sent, I trusted that if there was some additional magic at work that I would have all the pieces I needed without my usual fussing. And, as I tore through one magazine after another, it seemed so – I could always rely on finding the right words and images to use – ones I felt truly captured the spirit of my fervour to start a business. In my visual plan, images of or by women artists I relate to, are important. Impressionist sculptor Camille Claudel (in the centre) and surrealist painter Frida Kahlo (at top right) are artists whose legacies have survived despite the personal struggles they endured. Along with them is also a figure of my ideal client (left side) (I also did a collage of my ideal client) taken from the painting of a favourite contemporary painter/mixed media professor of mine, Angela Grossman. These women remind me of the importance of transforming the art world in my own small way. My minimal, grid-based collage was fused together in Photoshop in a few hours. I use it as a screen saver for my PC and Blackberry. Now generating the same power as the hundreds of ads I am bombarded with every week, my visual plan reminds me on a daily basis as I use my PC or Blackberry to believe in my own dreams and to invest in myself.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Another reason my Right-Brain Business Plan worked so well is because I also took up the challenge of working with a creative cohort. When Elaine Coombs, a Right-Brain Business Plan colleague in San Francisco, asked me to become her accountability buddy I had some misgivings. A part of me wasn’t sure if I could be responsible enough to take on this role with a complete stranger. But I was at such a desperate point in my career as an artist – having established no art career at all by age 44, I realized it was awesome that someone like Elaine, a more seasoned artist and inspiring entrepreneur, would want to connect with me. Communicating with and developing a rapport on a weekly basis with Elaine has played a crucial role in the positive, progressive development of my art business plan as well as given me greater confidence in my role as an artist and fledgling instructor. Together, over the last nine months, we have cheered and celebrated each others accomplishments, empathized with each other in times of rejection and reassessed our failures to view them in a more positive light. We have been each others trusted editors and constructive critics and advised each other in areas we were unsure of. It is truly a heaven-sent friendship which blossomed thanks to the Right-Brain Business Plan. Elaine is such an important role-model for me.

Lastly, the course has taught me to rely on the help of others. Initially I was doing everything on my own. I learned through the course that I needed to sometimes hire people to help and also establish a team of friends/family who would support my business efforts. As seen above, friends have lead the way to possible teaching venues and also helped to edit my artist statements/bio/resume. As well, I hired a web designer (recommended by another Right-Brain Business Plan colleague) to build my website and a great photographer to document my portfolio. My husband too has been a great supporter of my business continually offering editing, technical and emotional support when I need it. As a result, through advising me to reach out to others for help, the Right-Brain Business Plan has revealed I had more resources at hand to help me establish my business than I previously thought.

Name: Amy Egenberger
Company Name: Spirit Out!, Inc.
Website: www.spiritout.com

Note from Jenn: Amy Egenberger is an insightful, intuitive, and creative coach, educator, artist and facilitator. I had the pleasure of having Amy as a participant in my last Right-Brain Business Plan e-Course and it’s been so cool to see her taking inspired action and getting so clear about who her perfect customers are — she even created clever names for them!

She’s got some awesome offerings coming up, including an Artist’s Way teleclass, so please read on to learn more about this wonderful creative entrepreneur.

Thank you Amy for sharing your wisdom!

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

Spirit Out!, Inc. offers coaching, classes and learning tools that help creative educators and entrepreneurs find inner strength, self-knowledge and personal joy to energize their own creative journey.  What makes Spirit Out!, Inc. unique is the insight, passion and real experience that I bring to the liberation of spirit because I am on this journey, too.

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

Even before the plan was completed, the process of articulating what had been cloudy in my business by using colorful, visual and artistic approaches that are fun for me truly energized my business.  I had been stuck in a limited way of thinking about my work and this set me free like a real-life jail-break!  I felt very affirmed and inspired by what the tasks revealed about me and my coaching practice, and by what others in the class were sharing.

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

Getting clarity about my ideal clients has made the biggest impact on my business so far.

I am more open to the people I meet and can more easily describe who I work with.  I set the goal to have three more clients by the end of the month and I already have two!  I have teamed up with another coach, who during the course of the RBBP class transformed from competitor to collaborator, and we led a playshop together.  This has made me more open to the support of other co-professionals, and another coach have since teamed up as well.

Naming and claiming retired teachers who are longing to be of creative service is a relief.  I find that I open conversations differently, and have come to realize that I know many influential retired educators who are connected to many more.  I’m already slotted to be a potential speaker for my city’s association of retired teachers!

ARTpreneurs – spirit-minded people who have a creative calling, inkling or dream for making  a living who are ready for help and learning to move forward
EDuCREAtors – current and retired teachers who are spirit-based and longing to be of creative service in their lives ‘after school’

Having the visuals serves as an anchor for me that goes beyond language and logic to something stronger and whole inside me that encompasses my deeper purpose.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

I practice following my intuition throughout my entire workday.  From listing my to-do’s and timing my calls, I listen to the inklings that guide me.  Following the flow results in greater productivity and more ease.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

My plan is an accordion-fold book with pockets that hold cards, images and details for Spirit Out!, Inc.  I consider the other creations (vision & values collage, landscape bulletin board, in-flow/out-flow chart, goal maps, etc.) all part of my plan as well.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I am very grateful for the high quality and thoroughness of the materials, readings and assignments in the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Course and consistent encouragement from Jenn throughout the entire course.

What’s your vision for your business?

My vision is for Spirit Out!, Inc. to grow into an increasingly vibrant and vital organization serving creative educators and artists across the globe.

What advise do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

Bring what you need.  Listen to your intuition and experiences to determine what you are needing in your life and business right now.  That may be the very thing that you bring and can offer in service to others.

Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs

Amy is offering a brand new Artist’s Way teleclass starting July 14th! Visit her website for more information.

And if you’re interested in the Right-Brain Business Plan you can check out my e-Book or get notified when my next e-Course will be offered this fall.

Name: Ana Ottman
Company Name: Red Dress Studios
Website: www.RedDressStudios.com
Twitter: @anaottman

A note from Jenn: Stylish, savvy, and sweet are just some of the yummy words I’d use to describe the amazing Ana Ottman of Red Dress Studios. She is all about helping entrepreneurial women build their confidence muscles. I really love that she offers lots of valuable freebies like the Advice on Building Your Confidence Muscles e-Book or her Risk Autobiography. And I consider myself very fortunate to have had the pleasure of hanging out with Ana in person when I visited DC at the end of last year.

Thanks, Ana, for sharing your Right-Brain Business Plan and process with us and for being an inspiration to women everywhere!

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

Red Dress Studios is a one-stop shop for new entrepreneurs to help with the practical and emotional aspects of entrepreneurship. Through my customized consulting program, I help you simplify, energize, re-frame, and rocket-launch.

How has the Right-Brain Business Plan helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

Ohh, where do I begin? Knowing Jennifer and trusting her process with right-brain business planning led me to be okay with starting my business plan with a vision board. Inside, I’m thinking to myself, “This is too much fun, it can’t possibly help me create and grow my business.” And it totally did. Not to mention, it was an image on my vision board that gave me the idea for my business name, Red Dress Studios (how cool is that?).

What goals (big or small) on your business plan have you already accomplished or have made progress on?

Through my RBBP, I set marketing benchmarks (in a really fun way) that I’ve already made progress on. I have a worksheet that says “Ana Ottman, Marketing Ninja” at the top that I use to track my weekly marketing goals, such as connecting with people on Twitter and building my newsletter list.

How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

For starters, I used my creative intuition to create Red Dress Studios by following my gut with the kind of clients that I help best and with branding decisions. I use my intuition every day in my business to help figure out what blog posts to write, what to say during client sessions, what business owners to partner with, and what kind of clients I want to work with. That said, I’m still working on being able to tune out the “outside” voices and listen deeply to my internal voice instead.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your Right-Brain Business Plan in terms of what it’s made out of or how you made it?

It was created with materials that I already had in my office-recycled paper and images from magazines. It was important for me to keep it simple so that I didn’t follow the need to seek out or find the “perfect” materials.

What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

I’m a huge advocate of taking risks. They help you build your confidence to care for and grow your business. The risks don’t have to be anything to do with your business. It’s the practice of doing something you never thought was possible that will grow your business in leaps and bounds.

Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs

Ana is getting ready to launch some cool new resources for women entrepreneurs, so sign-up to have Ana notify you when they’re available.

And if you’re interested in the Right-Brain Business Plan, my next e-Course is starting next Monday, May 17th.  This eight-week interactive program will help you finally get your business plan done and you’ll actually have fun doing it! Find out more about the Right-Brain Business Plan e-Course and register here.