The Art of Small Business

Written on the 17 October 2016

Broome and the Kimberley are well known, throughout the world for many things, including the art which emanates from our region.

Here at the Chamber we are very aware of the fact that Broome's artists and artisans are small business owners.  The recent "Artist Spark" event, which was a great success, is testimony to the creative talents we have here in our town. Now the Chamber is keen to bring recognition and assistance to those talents in the business sense.

Entrepreneurial artists have developed some great small businesses.
Take, for example, the thriving "Image Think".  Armed with coloured markers and giant white boards, the owners attend all sorts of meetings, brainstorming sessions and presentations listening carefully and capturing the highlights with notes and sketches.  By the end there is a visual record a story -book of all the ideas.

One of the owners of Image Think, Heather Willems, was preparing for a solo art show, waitressing to make a little bit of money. Whilst working, to entertain herself, she would hear conversations and interpret them on napkins the creative start to a very successful business! Contracted by the IBM Software Group to handle graphic facilitation at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit, Image Think, is clearly demonstrating the strengths of bringing right and left-brain thinking together! The company has also been involved in the New York Times Small Business Summit capturing the ideas of small business owners in both words and pictures.

Spending time creating is what artists need to do, but time must also be spent on developing the business if jobs such as waitressing, cleaning, gardening etc. are to be avoided!  UK based firm The Design Trust has come up with a strategy and believes that the following time allocations are needed for success:
40% creating
40% marketing
10% administration
10% professional development

The Chamber is keen to continue to assist the art community and we are currently in discussion with North Regional TAFE about the potential to bring some talented teachers to Broome to run workshops for artists here.  We will also be researching how we can help local artists to develop small business skills around those wonderful creative talents watch this space!