Valuing your creative business, is it all about the money?

Recently a friend posted this great article for artists on her facebook page after a discussion we had about business models for artists.  It makes a great point about valuing the work you do and legitimising the concept that your creative work is still a business even if it doesn’t always feel that way.  The article link is below, have a read!

The other interesting point my friend made during our business plan chit chat was that a bottom line dollar wise sometimes doesn’t even need to factor in an artists business plan in the direct sense of cash for product.  As artists we may choose to take the pressure off our artwork by creating income streams separate from our actual creative product.  This frees us up creatively to stay true to our own vision without playing into the starving artist archetype.

Diverse income streams may come from sidelines such as teaching and facilitating in a related arts field, creating some products for a market and some products for arts sake or purely creating some sort of completely unrelated passive or low maintenance income stream that supports your art practice without taking up all your time.  Sometimes we can get stuck in creating for a market, which takes the buzz out of our process or makes us feel unvalidated if our art doesn’t translate into direct sales.  The arts is a tough industry to make a living from but applying some of our creative juices to creative income solutions can facilitate space to approach our art from whole new perspectives.

If you think you could benefit from some creative business solutions check out my stARTup 8 module e-course for the arts industry.

www.thedreamjobshop.com/10-rules-business-follow/