Dear Preston: Doing Business With Our Hearts

A Practical and Friendly Guide to Running Your Own Creative Service Business

When you run a creative service business, you face a unique set of challenges. Typically you’re passionate about what you do, but you probably struggle with problems common to many creative professionals: How do I balance my talent and ideas with the demands of the client? How do I make a living with my art? What can I do to keep clients from going with my dirt-cheap competitor?

Preston Bailey, one of the country’s top event designers and a leading figure in his industry, answers these and many more in Dear Preston. In an engaging advice-column format, he offers his guidance on the questions he is asked most frequently. Preston skyrocketed to success by running his business from the heart—specifically, relying on his empathy, generosity, and trust—and here he shares that philosophy with other creative service professionals, showing how they can use it to delight customers, maintain profits, and stay true to themselves as artists.

Peppered with stories from Preston’s fabulous, celebrity-sprinkled career, Dear Preston is infused with warmth, enthusiasm, and rich experience. Whether you’re deep into your career or still just dabbling, you’ll be enriched and inspired by this heart-driven approach to selling your talent and ideas. 

Dear Preston . . .

How do I start getting experience?

What’s the best way to find new clients?

Will I ever be able to stop procrastinating?

How can I get out of a creative rut?

How do I handle a client who’s insisting on a terrible idea?

Is it okay to discount my services?

What should be on my website?

Celebrated event designer Preston Bailey answers more than seventy questions like these, most of which he received through www.prestonbailey.com, one of the event industry’s most dynamic websites. With each reply, he shows creative service professionals that the path to fulfillment lies in doing business with their hearts.

www.prestonbailey.com