“The worst thing you can do is stay unchallenged for too long”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question: 

“Is now a good time to start a studio?

My dream has always been to run my own creative business. I don’t want to build the biggest studio in the world. The goal is to run a business comfortably, surrounding myself with likeminded creatives who share a passion to make a part of our industry better.

Over the years I’ve freelanced in many studios and agencies, of varying sizes and specialisms. Recently, I’m feeling more and more confident in my vision of what a studio I help run could do, and what I think success looks like.

But here’s where the Virgo in me rears its ugly head. AI is washing everyone out. CEOs are protecting profits. Many clients want the security of holding their business in a holding company, yet want them to be as nimble and agile as an independent studio.

I want to start a business in the next few years, but is that realistic possible? Is starting a business dead on arrival right now when AI right now is the default for so many? What room is there for me to compete with creative integrity when so many people will use AI to protect their own profit margins?”

Katie Cadwell, co-founder of branding studio Lucky Dip and The NDA Podcast:

The short answer is, it’s never a good time to start a studio. Or at least, that’s what every single studio founder is told. There is always something contributing to economic instability in one way or another. There is always a reason that ‘now’ isn’t a good time.

A few years ago, it was because there’s a pandemic. Before that, political instability. Before that, the recession. Today it feels like AI might be a reason not to. Who knows what might happen tomorrow as a deterrent.

But that’s not stopping people. New studios are popping up everyday. The ambition and hunger for creativity is there. While some work is being shipped over to Claude, there are still plenty of clients investing with agencies. There’s no reason why that couldn’t be you.

I’m not sure that starting a studio is going to make you a millionaire overnight (but hey, I hope I’m wrong). Luckily, it sounds like that’s not your motivation to start. It’s exhilarating, rewarding and terrifying running your own business. It fills and drains my cup more than any role I’ve had. But once you reach that ceiling, and start daydreaming about what’s next, it becomes an itch you have to scratch. Like you, I found it easy to focus on everything that could go wrong, rather than what could go right. In our line of work, the risks of starting a business are comparatively low to other industries. We’re so lucky to have a job that has very few overheads. No need for a big bank loan to get started. Just you and a laptop.

It sounds like you’re ready for the challenge. The worst thing you can do is stay unchallenged for too long, and lose the drive or passion to do something new. And if you don’t start the next best thing? Someone else will.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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