University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way
Book

Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way

Sustainable Success for the Creative Entrepreneur

Jennifer Lee
New World Library, 2014
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Many creative people look at starting a business and think, “I can’t do that.” Creativity is a right-brain activity – based on inspiration, passion and experimentation. Business is all left-brain stuff – spreadsheets, sales projections and distribution channels. Consultant Jennifer Lee counters that running a business has a lot in common with painting a picture. She guides the business-shy artist or creative person through a right-brain approach to launching products, winning customers, increasing income and hiring staff. You won’t mistake this for a marketing textbook. It’s playful, with quirky buzzwords, exuberant illustrations, and activities involving colored paper, scissors and paste. Lee’s approach may not be for everyone, but getAbstract recommends her cogent, fun-filled advice to creative entrepreneurs in any field.

Summary

Right Brain, Left Brain

If you’re creative, you’re comfortable with the intuitive, organic process of your craft, with its stops and starts, unexpected detours, and trial-and-error methods. You know your creative work generally evolves along a “circuitous, nonlinear” route. But when you think about going into business, you believe you must squeeze yourself into a “left-brain, linear” structure. You assume that you must follow a careful, sequential plan, and you feel frustrated when the plan breaks down.

However, even in business, events careen along a “nonlinear and organic” path. You progress as if you’re painting a picture: You try ideas, see what works and what doesn’t, and make refinements. You certainly utilize some left-brain thinking to track your progress, but progress itself comes from right-brain, creative activity.

Your “Core Message”

Why are you in business? You want to make money, but that’s not the fundamental reason you started your venture. You felt passion and wanted to share it with the world. That central vision – the imperative that drives you to create – is your core message.

Determine how to articulate your core message to...

About the Author

Business consultant Jennifer Lee founded Artizen Coaching. She is also the author of The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success.

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