ABSTRACT
Many creative people have known that they are artists, musicians, writers, designers and performers from a young age. They may have spent years at a university, college, art school or conservatory being inspired, finding role models and perfecting techniques. Whether creative individuals decide to work in an existing organization, start their own business, or both, they need to understand how to take the idea for a product or service and turn it into a reality by writing a business plan. The entrepreneurial process begins with exploring the consumer marketplace to discover how a product produced by the creative individual or organization provides a unique benefit that is different from the products of competitors. Being entrepreneurial is not unlike the creative process that an artist undertakes from the first inspiration to the completed artwork. The process begins with exploration of an idea, continues with creation of the object and then finally ends with installation or performance.
