Will it work for a creative person working in advertising?

[AdGuy]

I work at an ad agency. I'm an art director. In the creative department you work in teams. 1 art director and 1 copywriter. Can anyone help me figure how to work remotely and liberate when my job depends on coming up with ideas with a partner. Also, I want to transition from employee to entrepreneur but I need clients who need advertising before that can happen. Any tips/tricks for attracting clients who need creative brilliance? How can you develop a service oriented business as opposed to a product driven business?

[KaitlynAliano]

I work at an ad agency. I'm an art director. In the creative department you work in teams. 1 art director and 1 copywriter. Can anyone help me figure how to work remotely and liberate when my job depends on coming up with ideas with a partner. Also, I want to transition from employee to entrepreneur but I need clients who need advertising before that can happen. Any tips/tricks for attracting clients who need creative brilliance? How can you develop a service oriented business as opposed to a product driven business?
Are you able to negotiate a work-at-home situation or partial telecommute with your current employer? That way, you are in control of the work you do and the hours you work (for the most part). Tim talks about approaching your boss and asking about this on a trial basis to start in the book.

Getting more work done in less time will help free up time for you to work on entrepreneurial pursuits (freelance work, lead generation, etc.). What do you think?

[AdGuy]

I'm not sure yet if I can negotiate working remotely. That is definitely in the plan. That said, the obstacle is that I work in a team. So getting an employer to embrace this idea knowing that it affects the creative collaboration that goes into our business is a tricky situation.

Yes, once I could free up time I can then dedicate time to entrepreneurship.

Tim Ferriss seems pretty confident in income generation for products. I'm not sure I fully understand how it would apply to starting an ad agency.

Make sense?

[Ceejee]

Some thoughts -

- Is your the type of work that you can begin doing freelance?

- The vast majority of people in internet marketing absolutely SUCK when it comes to the graphical design of their pages - think of those "squeeze pages" where they ask for an email/sell a product and are nothing but text. If they're feeling wild, they through in some <strong> tags and red text. I could see there being a large demand for people with an artistic flair to consult/redesign pages. Check out warriorforum.com.

- You can definitely develop a service or information based business - this is actually much easier than using a tangible product. This will free up your location, but not necessarily your time since you are still on the hook for creating the product. What could accomplish freeing up both would be using your expertise to sell e-books related to graphical/ad design or something along those lines.

[AdGuy]

Hmmm, some interesting thoughts for sure. You're right in a sense that I'd still be on the hook for the creative product. I really haven't thought about being freed up from everything. That said, I really enjoy the creative process and coming up with cool ideas in all media.

I guess my quandary is being freed up enough to build a successful agency and then be freed up enough to create beyond advertising.

It's easy for the creative mind to grasp the concept but when the details aren't spelled out it becomes a bit overwhelming at times. For instance, how can I generate enough to quit my job and get things rolling if my boss frowns on working remotely. You know?

[Ceejee]

Agree completely. Thankfully, I'm a student still in college so I do not have those decisions to make... yet.

I read these forums, and it seems that many people are simply pursuing LD 'just because'. Yes, it's possible to negotiate a remote working situation which will free up some time, but will you really be coming out ahead? If you do not have a plan to leverage that free time, you're only going to be hurting yourself since chances are this unusual treatment will hamper your career progression.

With that said, I think you have a unique skillset that can definitely be put to use. My only concern is that while you have more freedom in the sense you are working for yourself, you take on a lot of risk in trying to find clients, and secondly as I mentioned you are still on the hook for creating a product.

The way I see it, you have two options:

- Try for a remote working arrangement and leverage your free time to begin doing some freelance work on the side. I would suggest pursuing the freelance work to get a feel for it before going for the remote work arrangement. It may mean a few weekends, but the payoff could be worth it if you find that there is sustainable freelance work.

- Since your skill set is service based, you're going to have to find a means to leverage your skills and transform them into some sort of one time product that doesn't require constant involvement... essentially, an information based product. As I mentioned, most people in internet marketing BLOW HARD at design. I could a line of e-books/consultation service on proper graphical design mechanics being a huge hit.

Hope this helps. If it was me, I'm very conservative with my capital and such, that I would pursue OPTION THREE (3 for the price of 2!) which would be to maintain your current work situation, while using your free time to explore freelance options and begin the development of the mentioned design e-books.

[AdGuy]

Good thoughts indeed.
You gave me a lot to think about. I agree that option 3 seems pretty good. I guess the goal is to make sure that arrangement is temporary. Because that is a time consuming arrangement. You've, knowingly or not, challenged me to really think beyond the near future and truly think about LD for what it is, a dramatic life change for the better. That's a helluva lot easier said than done.

Well, you seem like a sharp person. If you end up owning your own business one day and need some advertising then look me up. Twitter: HelloLovechild For that matter, if you know someone now that needs some then get them to reach out.

[Ceejee]

Sure thing bud :D

I'm a complete skeptic in everything I do in life, so I've approached LD differently from many others. Sure, Tim makes it sound amazing in his book - and I'm sure it is for many others - but for countless others, like yourself, the costs and risks for pursuing it in full are so extreme that it's simply not worth it. Thankfully, being a student lets me explore all of this without much risk to myself. I'm a second semester senior so my academic requirements are nil, and I've got a job lined up for after graduation giving me a very nice safety net if every venture I undertake over the next 5-6 months implodes.

Another big question to ask yourself is 'What would I do with all this free time?' You say that you really enjoy what you do, so you really need to answer if it would really be worth upending your life and career to pursue some intaginble goal. My job after graduation is in technology consulting, and having interned with the firm last summer, I've come to realize that it's definitely something I ENJOY doing.

Yes, it won't mean being able to travel all over the world with such a career but... that's Tim's version of happiness, not necessarily mine or yours. If I'm able to have a career that I enjoy and happiness in my life, so be it.

In anything I do I require the end goal in mind - why am I doing this? If I don't have an acceptable answer, my motivation is liable to be complete shit. So, I have defined goals which would result from having the extra freedom as part of LD. What I have identified would result in 'higher net happiness' than working in consulting, so it's a solid kick in the ass to really pursue LD and make it work for me. This is a question that only you can answer - whether or not giving up your enjoyable career in advertising is really worth it.

[allouterbanksrentals]

AdGuy,

I work for an advertising agency as well and I can tell you negotiating a remote work agreement was not a big deal at all. Honestly, I get more work done working remotely than when I am in the office. So many less distractions and collaborating with a team is not a big deal. I either will "pop" into the office that day or we bounce ideas off each other by phone or email. The time away from "work" allows me to work on other projects that are for "me" such as www.allouterbanksrentals.com (in case you were wondering where my user name came from-LOL). Bottom line is it can be done, and if you need anything or want further advice to hesitate to contact me. Good Luck!!!