The heart and soul of the company is creativity and innovation." - Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Company
As you go through any given day, think of all of the technological wonders, gadgets, and even simple creature comforts, like gourmet chocolate and a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, that simply would not exist if it wasn't for someone else's creativity and innovation. Without creativity and innovation, we would all still be huddled together in the back of a Stone Age cave desperate for a way to feed ourselves and stay warm. Ironically, the advancements that spring from our creativity and innovation often become a source of new, added stress, which is actually lethal to the creative process.
News reports of the effects of stress are quite common. In 2011, the CIPD/Simplyhealth Absence Management Survey revealed that exposure to stress is listed as the most common cause of employee absence due to illness. A well-known 2012 study at Carnegie Mellon University reports there is a direct link between exposure to long term stress and inflammation that leads to illnesses such as heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. While you might be well aware of stress's physical effect on the body, you might not realise that it can have a serious effect on our mental processes as well.
According to Rick Hanson PhD., a California based neuropsychologist, author, and founder of The Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, stress is deadly to the cognitive processes in the brain that lead to creativity and innovation. Stress results in employees who are distracted, less confident, and less imaginative. This leads to additional losses in energy, curiosity and perception. In short, every component that is necessary for an individual to enter a creative, innovative state of mind is adversely affected.
Additional reports indicate that more employees than ever before experience too much stress on a daily basis. According to the American Psychological Association's 2012 survey, 41% of workers feel "stressed out," during their work day. If long term exposure to stress continues to build, a tipping point will eventually be reached, and creativity and innovation will simply cease to exist.
Coming up with strategies to help workers become more resilient to the effects of stress is imperative to the survival of most businesses. For creative people who are also entrepreneurs, learning how to cope with stress and finding ways to reduce the sources of stress in your life is not only critical to your physical and mental well-being; it's vital to the survival and success of your business!
While many creative individuals have unique, creative, innovative ideas for products and services that could be used to build a successful business, these ventures often fail without an understanding of the structures and processes that are necessary to run a profitable company. Dealing with how to start and run a successful company that is built around their creations is a major source of stress for most creative types.
A new book by Sophie Andrews, founder of Accounts Studio, can help creative types reduce some of the stress that they experience when they are trying to run their business. Unlike other guides, this book is designed to help creatives deal with the special challenges that they face as both innovators and business owners.
Entitled "The Creative Collection: Secrets to a Successful Creative Business," this helpful guide builds upon Andrews' years of experience in helping creative entrepreneurs get a handle on the less creative aspects of their businesses so that they can continue to create while building companies that thrive.
The book takes a no-nonsense, straight forward approach that breaks down the process of running a successful creative business into 5 steps. The book provides full details for each step so that readers understand the tools that they need and the actions that they should take to build a growing business. In Andrews' own words, the purpose of her guide is to help creative entrepreneurs build a successful business that maximises their profit potential, "which is the only thing that will allow you the freedom to create to your heart's content."
If you are ready to reduce your stress levels and obtain the tools and guidance that you need to grow your business for long term survival and success, act today to receive the first three chapters of Andrew's book at no charge!
If you're interested in purchasing this book, please CLICK HERE!
Sophie Andrews is the author of The Creative Collection, Director of the Australian Bookkeepers Association and CEO of The Accounts Studio, a bookkeeping and cash flow consulting agency specializing in working with creatives and entrepreneurs.
Follow Sophie Andrews on Twitter: www.twitter.com/accountsstudio