Turning a dream into a business plan…
We all have a dream, right?
I assume since you are reading this, your dream is to do something with your art, other than hang it on your wall and enjoy it. You want to earn a living doing what you love — painting for profit so to speak.
Talking with a friend the other day, he asked me, “Tara, do you have a business plan?”
“Of course I have a plan!” I replied. “I’m building a business — licensing my art, teaching, etc.”
“But do you have a plan in writing?”
“Oh… that! Well licensing is different — I don’t have ‘widgets’ or ‘books’ or whatever that I sell. It is hard to project your income — especially in the beginning. It all depends on how successful the licensees are at selling the product into retail.” (Good excuses, huh?) “So no, I haven’t written anything out formally, it’s in my head. Besides, I’m not going to the bank for a loan so why do I need a written plan?”
I haven’t shown this plan to my friend yet (I’ll send him to the blog when it’s done) but somehow I don’t think it’s going to pass muster.
He went on to explain to me that business plans force you to stop and think about where you really want your business to go and what you need to do to get there.
OK… I’m listening… as you can see, the plan in my head is “oh-so-grand”…
In the book “Mommy Millionaire” by Kim Lavine talks about business plans on pgs 44-46 and gives some great resources. (This is a great business book, inspiration and reference!)
I’m going to go to the Small Business Administration site and looked at what they have. (click here)
This conversation happened over the weekend so I won’t lie to you and tell you I have any other “written plan” than the one shown above. But I can see the value and will dedicate some time to the process. I’ll let you know how it goes.
~ Tara
P. S. I challenge you to join me and make a ‘real’ plan. This is a business, after all, so we will be more successful if we treat it as such.
Great idea with potential growing pains? Some ideas for planning for growth
Have you guys seen these redbox DVD rental booths around? In Oregon you can find them at many McDonald’s and Albertsons Stores. Some Safeway stores too I believe.
It’s a pretty sweet deal… You can rent new DVDs for $1 / day — they have a touch screen and you scroll through and see what they have in the box. It changes because you don’t have to return a DVD to the same box it came from, any ol’ box will do!
If you get your movie back by 9 pm the next day, you only pay $1.
Now here is where I’m starting to see a problem. See how many touch screens there are? Only 1. This is gaining in popularity at my McDonald’s and the other day I had to wait 10 mins. to return my movie because the guy picking a movie couldn’t decide what he wanted to watch.
Very cool deal, but as more people use it, it will get more frustrating. I assume the redbox people thought of that and decided that for $1, their customer will wait and be patient. We’ll see how it goes.
That got me pondering business and growth. Thinking ahead. 2 main things kill a business: no business or too much too fast.
As an artist, have you considered what you would do if you had the ‘too much too fast’ problem? It’s something to think about as you work so you don’t run yourself into the ground. Here are a few ideas for the day you have more work than you can handle:
1. Get help! Do the part you have to do and hire people to help with some of the routine things. Maybe someone can help with your website, press releases, even some of the graphic design/layout work. Don’t think the big artists are doing everything themselves– they have employees helping this process along!
2. Get organized. Be sure to build systems early on to organize your art (create a code system), your contacts and your follow-up.
3. Get rest. I can tell you first hand that if you work too hard too long you will come to a point where you are just too tired to do your best creative work. Give yourself permission to sleep, relax and have non-work related fun. When you love what you do, this can be the biggest challenge of all!
That’s what I’m thinking about today — now back to my paint brushes. Have a creative day!
~ Tara
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