Ready to get serious and take your creative business to the next level? Contact me at 201-653-0783 or email me today to get going!
advice, accountability
and assistance for
creative businesses
Ready to get serious and take your creative business to the next level? Contact me at 201-653-0783 or email me today to get going!
advice, accountability
and assistance for
creative businesses
Ilise Benun a business expert for creative professionals. She is the author of 7 business books, a national speaker and founder of Marketing-Mentor.com. During her 25+ years in business, she has coached thousands of creatives as well as developed and delivered business training tailored for them, notably as co-founder/host of the Creative Business track of HOW Design Live, as an instructor for CreativeLive.com and as a program developer for the Freelancers Union.
Since 1988, she has been providing business coaching, advice and accountability for designers and other creative professionals who are serious about growing their business. Her books include The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money, The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing and Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive. She also develops curricula and programming for online (and offline) workshops and courses for HOW Design University and the Freelancers Union. She publishes Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor, is lead author on 2 blogs and hosts an online store, Marketing-Mentor-Toolbox.com, featuring tools such as The Designer’s Proposal Bundle (Volumes 1 and 2) and The Pricing Bundle.
Through Marketing Mentor (since 2003) and before that (since 1988) through a sole proprietorship called The Art of Self Promotion, Benun has consulted with thousands of freelancers and creative professionals (including designers, writers, photographers, consultants and other service-based solopreneurs and freelancers) on their marketing, money and related business issues. She provides basic business training, tailored guidance, accountability, encouragement, brainstorming, a sounding board and sometimes a bit of nagging.
Since 1993, Benun has been conducting marketing workshops for art schools and trade organizations that cater to creative professionals, including the Freelancers Union, HOW Design Conference, HOW Interactive Conference, Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (Canada), Graphic Designers of Canada, NY Designs (LaGuardia Community College/CUNY), AIGA, Spark, Graphic Artists Guild, The School of Visual Arts (NYC), Kendall College of Art and Design, Sage College of Albany, New Jersey Creatives, Editorial Freelancers Association, International Freelancers Day, International Association of Business Communicators, Business Marketing Association, NYU Entrepreneurship Summit, the 92nd St. Y and many more.
Benun is the author of 7 books, including, “The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money,” “The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing," “Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive,” “The Art of Self Promotion," "Self-Promotion Online," and "Designing Web Sites:// for Every Audience." She also co-authored “Public Relations for Dummies, 2nd Edition” (Wiley, 2006) with Eric Yaverbaum and Bob Bly.
She writes a regular “Freelance” column in HOW Magazine and is the lead author on 2 blogs: The Marketing Mix Blog and the Creative Freelancer Blog, and publishes a bi-weekly email newsletter, "Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor," which is read by 15,000+. Her work has also been featured in national publications (both online and off), including Entrepreneur.com, HOW Magazine, Toronto Globe and Mail, Inc. Magazine, Nation’s Business, Self, Essence, Crains New York Business, Dynamic Graphics, Working Woman, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Denver Post and more.
Benun is also the co-founder and host of the Creative Freelancer Business Conference (part of www.HowDesignLive.com). This event began as a conference where freelancers could learn the business skills they need to run a successful business; it has since evolved into that and much more. It is now a lab where they can practice those skills among their peers and share best practices in both formal and informal settings. The 4 areas covered include:
She teaches online courses for HOW Design University, including:
She also led the development of a curriculum for the Freelancers Union on “How to Be a 360 Freelancer” which includes a series of 6 interactive workshops and panel presentations delivered by freelancers covering an arc that includes:
She started her Hoboken, NJ-based consulting practice in 1988 and has been self-employed for all but 3 years of her working life. She is a Trustee of the Hoboken Free Public Library and she has a B.A. in Spanish from Tufts University.