For many artists, sales of their work do not add up to all the income needed to fund a life. Yes, there are some folks who do it, but there are far more who need to find other ways to make ends meet.
You may call it a side job, gig, or hustle -- but the work that artists do alongside their primary creative endeavor has an important role to play in our culture. Why? Because those sources of income are the main funders of the arts in this country. Even with all the great work arts organization do, they don't come close to matching the dollars that artists themselves put up to support their creative practices.
The cruel irony, however, is that those important side jobs can act as a drag on the output from our studios. And our hustle can easily end up killing the work we are so passionate about. It's a catch-22 that we spend years trying to get ahead of.
The root of the problem is not a mystery, and it lies in the fact that most jobs expect you to clock in and clock out with a certain amount of time in between -- and that's time you can't spend in the studio. Just because you get better at waiting tables, or selling retail, or doing social media strategy, doesn't mean you're allowed to spend less time doing it. And over the long-term, juggling everything can take its toll, as we find ourselves stretched between working two jobs -- the one we do for money, and the one where we do the real work of making our art.
Faced with this, I decided to give myself another option.
For me, the best thing that I did to keep my creative practice moving along was not to look for a side job, but to start my own business designed to minimize my necessary work over time. I'm doing this by focusing on creating intellectual property, with the goal to make a job where my work can eventually do the work for me.
In my business, I develop tools to educate artists on how to positively mange their money -- and once those tools are built, I set them to work. The big picture is to front load the effort now so there will be less to do later, leaving a wide open path towards self-funding my time in the studio.
Yes, being my own boss gives me the important flexibility to jump in and out of my art practice as needed, without having to make excuses or cover shifts. But it's also given me a growing asset that I can steer in whatever direction I want.
So why aren't we all doing this? I think there are a couple reasons that keep artists in dead end side jobs:
- We don't have the confidence that we have the business savvy to pull it off. I think the reality, however, is the exact opposite -- artists are natural entrepreneurs. It's possible we haven't spent much time learning how to read a balance sheet, but in today's business environment we have assets that are far more important. Our natural grit and perseverance, combined with our willingness to experiment, and our ability to share ideas and collaborate easily set us up as innovators. These are all abstract skills top business schools try to instill in their students -- but as artists, we've developed them intuitively. Having been in the role of a small business entrepreneur for some time now, I can see that the willingness to confidently make things up as you go is far more important than a background in business.
Sounds a lot like what you do in the studio doesn't it?
So now that you know artists have an edge when it comes to business, and that failure is nothing to fear, the next step is to brainstorm what your business could be. To share my sure-fire method of brainstorming new business ideas, I created this FREE Artists in Business series where I'll take you step-by-step through the process of looking at your unique skills and insights to come-up with your next great business idea.
I can't wait to help you create that new business!