Partner with Other Business Leaders to Gain Access to Savings and Secrets

: Creative Business Picture by Ltljtlj at Wikipedia Commons

The lists of projects, telephone calls, meetings and sales materials you have on your agenda to start and finish might, at times, appear to be never ending. You can hire employees to divide the workload; you can also form a different type of winning team. To flex your occupational, marketing, government regulations and sales muscles consider banding with other creative business leaders.

There were nearly 281,300 writers and editors in the United States in 2008 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of course, when you consider the numbers of magazine, web-based, journal and book writers who work on one or more projects every day absent pay, the numbers of writers and editors in the country increases drastically. As much as 70 percent of writers and editors are self-employed. However, writers and editors aren’t the only creative business leaders that can benefit from banding with other creative business leaders.

Industries With Largest Numbers of Self-Employed Professionals

Other occupations with high percentages of self-employed workers are attorneys (26 percent), financial advisors (37 percent), psychologists (25 percent), chiropractors (58 percent), podiatrists (44 percent) and construction managers (46 percent). If your creative business operates in an occupation that has a high percentage of self-employed workers you may not receive all of the protections full-time and part-time employees working for other employers receive.

For example, you might have to shop around and negotiate to get reasonably priced healthcare coverage that meets you and your family’s needs. You also might have to pay travel agent fees to get your airline tickets, hotel reservations and other travel needs finalized. Furthermore, you might spend more on every day services (e.g. print and copy services, office supplies) than you would if you banded with other creative business leaders.

Take Advantage of Money Saving Discounts as a Creative Business Leader

Check with nearly any hotel, airline, office supply store, etc. and you may likely discover that costs on their products and/or services decrease when you purchase items in bulk. Of course, there are office supply stores like Staples that give discounts to small business owners regardless of the numbers of products the business owners purchase from the store. But, with most stores the discounts generally come when you purchase in bulk.

This is one of the benefits you gain when you join unions for freelancers. Many unions are designed to cater to certain industries (e.g. medicine, real estate). Other unions work to meet the needs of certain occupations (e.g. book writers, construction workers). There are also unions that support local, state-wide professionals. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce for a list of unions in your state or region. Types of unions available for you to join include:

Freelancers Union (www.freelancersunion.org)
National Writers Union (www.nwu.org)
Office and Professional Employees International Union (www.opeiu.org)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (www.aftra.com)
American Federation of Musicians (www.afm.org)
Communication Workers of America (www.cwa-union.org)

Other creative business leaders can find support at places like:

National Small Business Association (www.nsba.biz)
Small Business Association (www.sba.gov)

As with other business ventures, before you join a professional union for creative business leaders find out what (if any) union membership dues are required, benefits union members receive and discounts you receive on products and/or services you purchase as soon as you become a member. If you join a union that provides items like sample contract templates, legal documents, state-by-state licensing policies, etc. you can save yourself the time of creating the documents and researching the legal files yourself.

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Sources:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos320.htm (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: Authors, Writers, and Editors)

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jan2009/sb20090123_156963.htm (Bloomberg Business Week: A Guide to Self-Employment)

http://www.jist.com/shop/web/best-jobs-lists/the-25-fastest-growing-jobs-with-the-highest-percentage-of-self-employed-college-graduates (JIST Publishing: The 25 Fastest-Growing Jobs with the Highest Percentage of Self-Employed College Graduates)