Creative Project Planning 101

Creative Project Planning 101

How do you feel when you hear the word “planning”? Do you feel motivated? Confused? I personally get soooooo excited when I hear about planning sessions. I get my nerd on as I daydream about all of the problem-solving that’s about to take place. 🙂 A lot of artists I know do not get as excited as I do about making plans. You also may not find those details as fun as creating “the thing” either. But planning is how those ideas begin to live and breathe so that they can bless the world. Without a written plan, money and time wasted become a norm. So many disappointments on the creative journey could be lessened if a plan was FIRST created and THEN carried out. And of course, the project plan is tweaked and updated as you see more clearly along your project-creating journey. We have to remember that any great landmark that people flock to see began with a plan and a solid foundation.

Here is some wisdom from our Creator regarding planning:

Habakkuk 2:2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Luke 14:28-30  ²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Here are some steps to help you get started on a plan for your next creative project:

1. The Vision– This is the creative idea. It’s the foundation of the entire project. Without a clear vision, the entire work will disintegrate before it manifests. This vision must come out of your creative mind and land on paper so that your support team and tribe can help you bring it to life.
2. The Budget– This is a spending plan as you make the vision materialize. EVERYTHING that will cost you money should be included in the budget. This must be done before a single dime is spent on the new idea! There are many times when the details of an idea will change along this process, and you could spend money in an area that truly wasn’t needed if you spend before completing the budget. The second part of this step (once your realistic budget is on paper) is to determine where the money will come from. There are many ways to obtain money for your new creative project including income from employment, crowdsourcing, fundraisers, investors, your savings accounts, etc…
3. The Timeline– This is for building the system around your calendar for production accountability. Start with the ship date (the day you release your creation to the world) and then work your way back to the present day. It’s important to set your benchmarks in realistic segments of time. You are not one dimensional. You must consider your family calendar and your work calendar simultaneously in order for your benchmarks to be accurate. Also, consider the calendars of services that you choose to outsource. For example, if you have a deadline of March 15th to have your album mixed and mastered by, then you need to ensure that the person providing this service has time to work on it in that time frame. And also that they can have it to you by March 10th. Why? Because life happens, not just for you but everyone you work with. For this purpose alone, their deadline for a finished product must be BEFORE yours. Trust me, you will regret giving them the same deadline as you have on your timeline. Write your timeline down and put in parenthesis under each task what due date you gave the person you outsourced to.
4. The Marketing– This is how you present the vision to the public in a systematic way. If no one knows about your project, then all the planning was in vain. We create projects to serve and help people. One way of serving people is by writing a plan of how and when they will hear about your new project. People need to “hear” about something at least 7 times before they truly have an “aha” moment and buy-in to what you are advertising. Plan for them to hear often without being “spammy”.

If you have a creative idea that you are ready to start on and could use some specific project planning help, shoot me an email at Jeneil@freedommusicgroup.com.

Please share your favorite planning tips for creatives in the comments below!