How to Build a Sustainable Art Business
One of the principles of Desk & Design is what I call Business as Self-Care and it is rooted in the knowledge that our creative business can be a tool for the exquisite care of ourselves when actions are backed with intention.
I want to help you and as many other artists as I can build businesses that feel like self-care. Art is essential for humanity, and your legacy matters. If artists can find freedom and spaciousness, they’ll create more art, which will ultimately make our world better.
Read on to learn how you can start building a sustainable art business that also sustains your creativity.
The beginning of the 2020-2021 school year was not easy. The pandemic had already stripped me away from all the alone-time I had to work and recharge... an essential part of balancing my A-type, Enneagram 2 self. It eroded my ability to see friends (my lifeline) and my parents (my foundations) who live thousands of miles away. When the school year started, and my kids were doing school remotely from home, I told myself I could totally do it all: serve my clients, work on my business, run a home, and monitor the online learning of my youngest.
In retrospect, I should’ve seen the tsunami coming. But when it hit me a week after school started, it did so by surprise.
I was depleted. Depressed. My body was in constant pain. My self-care tanked and something needed to change.
One of the things I needed to do besides drinking more water (which I’ve never been good with keeping up) was moving my body.
My intuition was leading me back to Reformer Pilates. A reformer is a machine that provides support and resistance when doing Pilates. I had done it for years a long time ago but with COVID, the Pilates studios were closed. I also needed something more convenient and consistent.
When I journaled about what to do about how I was feeling, it was clear to me that movement was the way forward to help me push through depression. And if that didn’t work, then medication was for sure going to be needed.
I didn’t have a budget for a reformer on my personal YNAB account, and so it would’ve taken quite a while to build up the savings to afford one. So I turned to one of the things keeping me afloat during those dark times: my business.
Luckily, I have been planting intentional seeds in my business for years.
By intentional seeds, I’m talking about an idea, practice, or action intended to have a meaningful positive impact sometime in the future.
Well, some of those seeds flourished and were ready for me to harvest in a time of great need.
A while ago, I built a rhythm to my work that allows for time off between projects. This helped me get the rest needed to nurture myself back to a decent baseline and create a plan.
I had also been shifting my pricing to be in line with my experience, skills, and the value I bring to the table. It was a formula-driven strategy applied over time. But ultimately, intentionally pricing for profit meant my business expenses were lean and my business was profitable.
At the beginning of 2020, I hired a brilliant bookkeeper who helped me organize my finances. Gigi helped me realize my business was healthy enough for me to pay myself a share of the profit I’d made–a bonus of sorts–and that’s how I was able to afford the reformer.
My business showed up for me—big time—bringing the joy, space, and care I desperately needed.
But a business like this did not happen overnight; it resulted from many big and small intentional seeds planted in the past.
Nowadays, you’ll find me starting mornings on the reformer, carving out time for what I need the most: movement and alone time. And I’ve been able to keep anxiety and depression at bay.
It has been life-changing.
Now, you might not have the same needs as I do, but perhaps you have other needs that are suffering or not being met. So I invite you to ask yourself: how can I build a business that shows up for me in the way that I need it to?
When you decided to create art and share it with the world, you probably didn’t realize how many hats you’d end up having to wear.
Marketer.
Copywriter.
Web Designer.
Social Media Strategist.
Accountant.
Etc.
When you start tallying up the energy and hours it takes to run a serious art business, you may feel the scale tip on the side of business leaving little spaciousness and freedom for your creativity to flourish.
What was once an intuitive creative process that was eager to show up, starts shying away, becoming elusive, inconsistent, and sanguine. In other words, the business of putting your art into the world suddenly becomes unsustainable.
So how does one create harmony between the art and the business side of art?
The path to harmony is different for everyone. After all, you’re not a cog in a machine. You’re a unique human being with ideas, desires, gifts, life circumstances, and predispositions unlike anyone else.
I’ve worked as an artist and have been a creative entrepreneur for over 15 years. I can say with certainty, there is no one way. The process of building a business that feels sustaining has come through a lot of trial and error. And if I know one thing it’s this:
There’s no paint-by-number solution or out-of-the-box quick fix to create harmony between the art and the business.
But one thing’s for sure:
Harmony cannot be achieved unless we break down the struggling artist narrative to which we may have subconsciously subscribed in our artistic development.
It’s only when you manage to break away from that mindset that you’re able to work towards a business that is sustainable. When this break is combined with continuous intentional seeding, you set the stage for a business that feels like self-care.
But how do you know if you’ve reached sustainability?
10 tell-tale signs you have a sustainable art business:
You trust your inner voice and let it guide your choices.
You’re continuously planting intentional seeds in your business that will bear fruit later.
You keep your eye on the goal and can say “no” to things that take your focus away.
You sustain loving boundaries that allow your creativity to flourish and support the life you want to live.
You appreciate the business side of making art and don’t shy away from sharing your work, knowing your finances, and streamlining your processes.
You value your time and energy and you know when to DIY, when to get a course, and when to hire a professional.
You pay yourself consistently and can take time off.
You’ve developed your own measures of success.
Your business is a shining light in your life.
You know and name the value of your work.
If you feel like a sustainable business is out of reach for you, I’d love to invite you to start planting a few intentional seeds TODAY that will flourish and nurture you in the future.
“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”
Here are a few intentional seeds to start planting today:
Invest in your professional development.
Stay in your zone of genius as much as you can. Make a plan to outsource the draining/time-consuming things in your business.
Continuously tweak your offers and processes so that they’re beautifully aligned with your value, desired lifestyle, and creativity.
Come up with a list of success markers that are based on your definition of enough.
Hone your intuition. Trust yourself to know that the right way forward lies within.
Pay attention to the areas where loving boundaries are needed.
Embrace and name the value of your time, energy, skills, creativity, and expertise.
Start seeing your business as a tool to help you live your dreams.
Think of your ideal audience, get to know them, talk to them, understand how your work fits into their lives and aspirations.
Untangle your finances.
Give 2021 a theme. Actress Rebel Wilson gives each year a theme: The Year of Love, The Year of Health, etc. Perhaps 2021 can be The Year of Sustainability.
Increase awareness of your creative cycles. Set yourself up with a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythm. This is how I started taking 1 day off a week, 1 week off a month, and 3 months off per year.
Work smarter. Streamline what you can.
Work on your website! When well done, it will work for you.
I’m here to cheer you on!
