Looking to make an income through your art skills but unsure of where to start? Overwhelmed with the vast array of options you have and confused as to which is right for you? Starting a business in any niche is challenging and building one around your art skills can be even more daunting, not only because it is an uncommon path that people around you may be dissuading you from pursuing, but also because the work you're selling is personal and likely created by you (and you alone). It will entail making plenty of sacrifices as you're getting started, a great amount of patience, and a whole lot of stepping out of your comfort zone. It will also entail wearing many hats, and creating art is just one of them. However, if it is something your heart is telling you to do, you should go for it. As long as you're doing it in a smart way, which is what today's post will help you do. I wasted many years of my life not believing in myself, setting my dreams aside, and staying in full-time jobs that felt like a slow death. I finally started my art business in my early 30's, alongside my last "regular" full-time job and, 2 years later, I was able to go down to part-time to have more space/ bandwidth to continue building my own thing. A year after that, I was completely self-employed. Taking the leap from years of regular jobs to building my own business was 100% worth it. It was scary, but it was what I had to do to live the incredibly fulfilling life I am living today. It took years to get here, but I'm happy to say that I make a full living doing what I know I was made to do, and have never been happier. In this video, I share the roadmap I wish I had when I was starting to plan leaving my many years of working regular jobs to build a business around my art/art skills. This 8 phase roadmap would have helped me move forward with much greater clarity and would have helped me avoid many frustrating mistakes.
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8 Phase Roadmap to Start A Successful Art Business1. Assess Your Current Chapter in Life
You need to meet yourself where you're at in order to set realistic, doable goals for you. Don't compare your timeline with anyone else's. 
2. Get Clear on What You Want to Sell and How There are different paths you can take as an artist, as well as many different ways to make an income within each of these. I like thinking of these general paths as:
There's also the option to be a freelancer, where you're offering services such as illustration work for magazines, books or websites. Get clear on the specific type of product or service that you want to sell, and whether you want o do it online or off. *Keep it at two max in the beginning! Eventually, you will want to build different streams of income, but it is important to start with one product or service and build from there. If you're unsure of what you want to do, the Japanese concept of Ikigai will help you. 
Ikigai diagram
3. Research What Successful Artists Are Doing Take time to study what 3-5 successful artists in your niche are doing. Analyze their marketing strategies, revenue streams, and audience engagement methods. Answer the following questions about each:
If they are successful, this means they are doing a lot of things right, and it probably took them years to get there! Instead of making a lot of mistakes and taking a long time to grow, learn from what others are doing right and do these things in your own way. 
4. Planning Audience Growth Artists grow their audience by consistently showing up locally or online, and by providing value, as well as connecting with others. It's all about providing value and connecting with other humans through our work. Where will you be showing up consistently and what value will you be providing? Whether you choose to share educational content, inspirational stories or any form of entertainment, or a mix, commit to a schedule that makes sense for you. Show up where your audience is, whether you're doing it online, offline, or both. Ideas on how to show up if you want to grow your name locally/offline:
Ideas on how to show up if you want to grow your name online:
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that stands for:
It's important that any goal you set for yourself is all of these things. Otherwise, it'll be very hard for you to actually reach it. I explain all about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals as artists and spill the tea on my own goal-setting method in this masterclass:
*If you'd like to access the downloadables that go along with this masterclass, sign up for free here.
6. Implement Your Plan Once you've set your goals, it'll be essential to schedule them into your calendar and weekly agenda, to ensure they'll get done. In the beginning, it's very likely you'll need to build up the discipline required to work on personal projects on a consistent basis, as opposed to only doing it when you feel inspired to. We must prioritize our art practice and personal projects the same way we would prioritize anything we have to get done for a family member, professor, or for a boss. I cannot emphasize this enough. What's most important is to consistently put in the work and commit to the times you've scheduled in, even if you can only do a small amount right now. If you're unable to meet deadlines you've set for yourself, it's okay! It'll take time for you to understand your own creative process and working pace, and you'll get better at establishing timeframes with yourself and with clients/customers. Also, understand that learning to set goals and discovering how you work as a self-employed artist, is a process. You'll continue refining your productivity and time management strategies as you go. 
7. Assess Your Progress Every few months you'll want to continue coming back to your goal-setting and productivity strategies to see what you can improve. I'd recommend working toward the goals you set for at least 3 months and then reviewing your progress. Remember, this is your strategy. Make time to evaluate what is working and what isn't for your life vision, goals, and needs. Ask yourself questions such as:
Be flexible and ready to pivot your strategies if necessary. There is no shame in letting something go, or leaving it for later, as long as you gave it a good shot. Once you've made those changes, implement them for 1-3 months. 8. Expansion Now that you've achieved some progress toward your goals, start brainstorming ideas on how you can scale your efforts. Whether it's posting more often on social media, attending more live events a month, writing a blog post a week, taking on more clients, adding a new product or service to your repertoire, or anything else, get it down on paper! You'll probably want to spend at least a couple of weeks thinking about what you'd like to pursue next, before committing to anything. Let your ideas marinate in your brain for a few days, as you continue working on your other projects, instead of opening an online shop or starting anything new out of whim. 99% of the time, the things we start out of whim, without any plans, won't work! Sit with your ideas and ask yourself what would be the next practical step that you can take, which can help you increase your earnings, or make certain things easier for you (such as hiring someone to edit videos). Expansion should be incremental and aligned with your growth. Once you've decided on a new idea (or two) to try, which you'll be working on alongside your current projects, set S.M.A.R.T. goals and schedule them into your calendar. Go through the last 4 phases (Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals, Implementation, Progress Assessment, and Expansion) over and over as you continue growing. 
To finish up, I want to remind you to stay patient. This is a marathon and not a sprint. In time, you'll reap the incredible benefits that can only come through staying true to yourself and working toward your goals. I hope this roadmap was helpful. Here's to your success!
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