Turn your hobby into a successful business, as an artist
Everyone wants to build their dream life and money is a huge factor. So, we scarify our thing which makes us really happy, which keeps us motivated, for money. Money is important to live, I get that. But how long can you do something, which gives you a huge amount of money and success but leaves you empty inside? And what if I tell you that you can do what you love and still earn money? This blog is dedicated to helping you live your dream life.
Why is it important to do what you love to do?
When we do something, you are passionate about something, you don’t get demotivated easily. You don’t care about Monday blues but instead, you can’t wait to get back to work. You would want to work more and more. It adds meaning to your life.
Now the question arises: what would you do if money was not a factor? Your answer to that question is the thing you actually love to do. If your answer is related to the creative field, you are in the right place. Some of you already in the field working and some of you planning for your startup, here are some tricks you can use to make your hobby into a successful business.
–Â Â Â Â Know your values
Your values make you different from your competitors. What you stand for, what you want and how you want, that makes you and your work stand out.
–Â Â Â Â Learn about market
Find what kind of market your competitors are moving around. Learn about your competition and select 3 brands or artists who are already doing what you want to do. It helps you to figure out how and where you want to sell your work. To make your work stand out more and attract more customers, it’s important to know what is missing in the market and how you can provide.
–Â Â Â Â Set goals
Goals that push you out of your comfort zone are important. Sometimes, we forget that our hobby is also our business now and we get so involved which cross deadlines and that’s definitely not professional. By keeping short- and long-term goals helps us to be on our toes. Keep a to-do list in front of your eyes, while doing certain things, it helps you to stick to your goals. Reward yourself for all kinds of goal accomplishments, it keeps us motivated.
–Â Â Â Â Invest in your mental well being
Whenever you feel uninspired, set a 10 minutes timer, take a walk or nap, and then get back to work. Those 10 minutes will give you a break to your brain and you can restart fresh. Acknowledge your inner critic is just trying to protect you by throwing negative thoughts in your mind but make sure that won’t push you to do a redo. Also, organized office space and work help you think better. To overcome any fear, make a list of what you have to gain and lose, knowing your gains will keep you going. Better mental health helps you to stay inspired. Find a work buddy, who shares the same dream, to keep yourself motivated.
–Â Â Â Â Contact your clients
There are many ways to contact your potential customers by any means. You can contact your clients by both online and offline mode. Social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. works as a business card and a portfolio at the same time. Keeping your portfolio as pdf ready other than social media will help you to share your work via direct emailing clients. Exhibitions and tradeshows are another way to meet clients. Doing your research on how you want to present your work online, aesthetic vice and choosing which trade show to attend, helps you to connect with your long-term clients.
Many people forget about reconnecting with the people they met. Send monthly or quarterly newsletters, promotional gifts, and postcards, etc. Regular follow-ups will make you stand out.
–Â Â Â Â Pricing
The reason we start any business is money. How to know what you should charge for your work is enough to live a healthy lifestyle and not too much that your work doesn’t even sell. If you are working under a company, know what other companies are paying for that position. If you are a freelancer you can see how much your competitors are charging for that certain type of project or you can charge according to the minimum hourly rate.
The minimum hourly rate is the minimum amount you charge, per hour, regardless of the size of the project.
Now the question arises, how to calculate your minimum hourly rate?
 If you divide your annual expense by working hours it gives a minimum hourly rate.
To calculate your annual expense, you need to calculate your monthly expenditure and multiply the amount by 12 months.
To calculate working hours, you need to do the following math.
There are 52 weeks in a year. Subtract average numbers of national holidays, vacations, and sick days from 52 weeks, which gives you a count of working days you have in a year.
(Formula: No. of weeks in a year – No. of national holidays – No. of vacations – No. of sick days = Working days in a year)
Per week, a person has 28 billable hours. Multiple billable hours by working week, it will display how many working hours you have in a year.
(Formula: Billable hours x working week = Working hours in a year)
If your expenses are more than what your work should cost, instead of overpricing your work, make another source of income.
–Â Â Â Â Legal contract
License, agreement, and contracts are important. When two parties sign a legal contract, chances of future conflict decrease. Generally, companies buy complete rights of work, that means after this sale you don’t have any legal rights on your artwork and that artwork belongs to that company only. Now it’s on that company how and where it wanted to use that artwork. But sometimes, few companies want to use your work in a certain project so they will buy partial rights and they don’t mind you using the same artwork of yours, later. Cost of your artwork difference on the rights. When a company buys all the rights, you can charge more. But if a company buys for a certain project or partial rights, the cost of the artwork decreases. So, to have a clear picture, it’s important to have a legal contract.
I hope this will help and motivate you to do what you actually love. I know this path can make you feel vulnerable but it’s certainly better than running in a rat race. And trust me, when you do something you love, it doesn’t feel like you are being forced to go for work anymore. Click on monthly expenditure to download the free layout.
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An Artist, Who always values every small things which is important to him, Who is strong – Mentally & Physically and always engaged to his goals. Who always push his limits and up to date with the trend.
Wowwww!!
Matching the life of a business to the life of an artist, you have given a really good example of how to grow a business with the basic rules. And i am sure you growing your own as well with the same flow.😉