The Creative’s Dilemma: Internal Promotion, Entrepreneurship, or Intrapreneurship?

As you can imagine, my friend operates at the highest level of the agency and design studio world. He’s one of the best. He has won nearly every award there is in “ad-land” and design. He’s a benchmark in the field, the kind of professional you actually want to work with and be around. On a personal level, he’s pure humility. A trait of those who truly know their craft, as you can see from the messages I’ve shared.

The creative and design industry is anything but easy. Professionals in this sector are forced to be exceptional. Technology is relentless. While AI won’t solve the creative problem sitting in front of you, it does optimize your time and allow you to explore paths and potential solutions until you land on a pitch-perfect proposal. That exploration work, which used to be handled by students, interns, and juniors, is now being done by tech.

So, how should you approach a professional career in this industry?

From my perspective, there are two main paths, and each one branches out into several alternatives.

This is the example I shared regarding my friend. In this scenario, the situation perfectly illustrates “the dilemma”: good news that carries inherent risks.

As you climb the organizational ladder, your marketability within the industry can actually decrease. The higher you go up the pyramid, the fewer seats there are at the table. And “moving down” isn’t always viewed kindly or understood well. Within this path of organizational growth, we have several options:

On one hand, we can “jump to the client side”, a move that is often lateral and takes us to work “from the other side.” Once there, you enter a full-blown political system with its own complexities and protocols.

Corporate life in large companies isn’t easy if your career has been built in agencies or studios, environments that are usually more flexible and less weighed down by “office politics.” If you aren’t savvy at corporate diplomacy, you might find yourself stuck in the gears.

If your organization allows it, you can propose a new line of business by leveraging a technological disruption that your company hasn’t yet covered, and then lead that business unit.

Again, this approach has its pros and cons. On one hand, it allows you to grow and develop a new venture; on the other, if it doesn’t yield immediate results or if your company lacks the patience to see it through, you might find yourself on a dead-end track that is no longer a priority in the medium term, leaving you stranded once again.

Another path is starting your own agency or studio. Some professionals reach a point in their lives and careers where they no longer want to work for others; they aren’t interested in a promotion. After years of working for a firm, they believe it’s time to work for themselves.

At this crossroad, there is often some confusion. Servicing clients for the agency you work for is nothing like running your own agency. You can be a brilliant creative and a terrible businessman—and vice-versa, you can be a great entrepreneur without being a top-tier creative.

They say “all that glitters is not gold,” and they’re right: building your own business is hard—really hard. You need to know how to acquire new clients, so if the sales side isn’t your forte, you’ll likely struggle. Then, you have to be a good leader, ensuring your creative team feels inspired and at home. You have to work on your own brand—and we all know that “the shoemaker’s children often go barefoot.” Plus, you have to manage a P&L statement… things that have nothing to do with the day-to-day work of a creative or designer.

Consequently, this path can lead us to lose a great creative and gain a poor entrepreneur.

Within this alternative, there is always the option of going freelance, which allows you to be an entrepreneur without an excessive cost structure. The critical point here is your personal brand: if you are recognized as an expert in your industry, you will have work and can bill with a healthy profit margin. But if you aren’t well-known, you’ll just end up racking up endless hours on low-value, low-margin tasks.

So, once again: how should you approach your professional career in this industry?

My experience tells me the key lies in what I mentioned about my friend: being the kind of professional people want to work with and be around. Whatever you do, you must work on your personal brand and never stop networking: relational branding is fundamental.

Another crucial point is education. I’d say this applies to any industry, but the tech disruption makes staying updated mandatory. And if what you want is to have your own business or lead an agency, you must learn how to manage a company. As I said, the problems you solve in these positions have nothing to do with those you solve as a creative or designer, so you’d better learn the ropes and get the right training.

And finally—and just as importantly—be clear about what motivates you and what your life purpose is. That will be the true engine behind everything you do; it’s what will carry you through the tough times and pull you out of the dead ends, political gears, and difficulties you’ll inevitably encounter along the way.

So, good luck—and go for it!