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Last Updated on October 7, 2023
Creative entrepreneurs who run their own small businesses are taking two important journeys at the same time. They are discovering an artistic path and learning how to run a business and market themselves at the same time. Here are six quick small business tips for creative entrepreneurs that will help both the business side and the creative.
Stay Humble But Believe in Yourself
No one likes an artist or a business person with a big ego. Removing your ego from situations can help you notice areas where you need improvement so you can get better. It is easier to make close friendships and creative partnerships if you can have a sense of humor about yourself, too.
However, many creative entrepreneurs are too hard on themselves. If you focus too much on self-criticism, you take away all of the energy you could be using to learn and improve. It is possible to strike a balance between healthy humility and self-confidence.
Create Regularly
Most prolific artists don’t passively receive creative energy. They actively make time for their art, and by creating regularly they improve.
In art, as in business, you can achieve more with consistent, regular effort than with passionate sprints. Staying up all night to complete a project might be exciting, but it pales in comparison with what you can get done with a little bit of time every day.
Market Yourself
Did you know 94% of people’s first impressions online relate to a website’s design? How you market your business is important. Ensure you have a well-designed website that showcases your work and your story. Remember, people are drawn to brands and not necessarily products all of the time. When you share your own story and incorporate your personality into how you market your art business’s products, you’ll find that more people will follow your work, thus expanding your customer base.
Surround Yourself With Positive People
By joining a community of people who are trying to do what you do – whether that is making art, starting a business, developing technology, or anything else – you increase your chance of success substantially. This is because you are no longer doing something alone. Instead, you are part of a bigger group that is helping and supporting each other.
Surrounding yourself with positive people is probably the single best thing you could do to instill the kind of positive attitude you need to excel in art and business technology.
Believe in Your Long-Term Vision
If you are trying to sell commercial art, it is tempting to chase mainstream approval and look to social media reactions as a gauge of audience approval so you can change your art so that it better matches what people want. This is never a good idea. Your fans and critics might have opinions about what you are doing in the short term, but they don’t have your long-term vision.
As an artist, you should be moving towards better forms of expressing yourself. As a business person, you should have a long-term vision of financial success. Only you know what that looks like, and trying to maximize short-term success by compromising the long-term vision is a sure way to lose yourself.
Consider the Market
If you want art and business to work together in your life, you need to consider the market – as in, what people want to buy – as well as follow your creative urges.
There is always an overlap between the art that inspires you and the products that people want to buy. Screen printing technology is one way that artists can create products to sell their art, and it is growing. According to IBIS World, the custom screen printing market is worth almost $8 billion in 2022. NFT technology is increasingly popular for artists. Do the work to figure out what best suits your art.
Art comes from the heart and business is from the head. When they work together, you can accomplish anything.
