Finding the cash you need to start your business with your art or take it to the next level of growth can be the most daunting, overwhelming feeling that can easily send every artist into a state of chaos and panic, and, in many cases, cause them to give up entirely.
The fact of the matter is that as artists we are business owners by default but we are rarely taught or have the formal training to run our businesses like an entrepreneur, so we not only don’t have the right tools to begin but we usually don’t have the right mindset to take on learning those tools that will help us implement them and begin to see results.
Luckily, there is a remedy for this that involves staying true to your Vision and Mission as an artist and acquiring the skill set you need, quickly and simply, to begin building a business that is meant to last for both the short and long term.
In this episode, I share my story of how I first learned to find the money I needed to produce my first show in NYC, which lead me to understand how to shift my mindset from an employee to business owner overnight. I can’t wait to share it with you and support you as you continue to do the same in your own business with your art.
Want to take part in a simple Challenge that will show you how to connect with your most ideal client while finding the money you need to invest in your business the right way, to see inevitable growth?
Go to bit.ly/artmoneymagic to enroll, and you will receive details in your email inbox on how to participate immediately. I can’t wait to see you there!
I’m so honored to have the most brilliant artists in my community- those who are smart, talented and ready to take their businesses to the next level of growth. There are many groups available for business growth, both in the creative arts and otherwise, but very few offer the kind of support necessary for actual results to occur. So the members of the group will feel good about being there initially but then slowly realize there is no real progress being made to the point the joined to begin with- whether it’s publishing a book or gaining financial freedom or taking their business to the next level of growth- so the group then becomes just another “group” they’ve joined, contributing to the mix of tens, sometimes hundreds of other groups, and creates additional “noise” or chaos each time they log into Facebook instead of providing them with a touchstone of clarity, motivation and guidance to reach specific goals, inevitably.
I say “specific” goals because unlike other groups that may promise to help you do everything at once, the Artist’s Profit Plan Group promises to help you reach specific benchmarks in your business growth, one at a time, until you have taken it to the next level without even having lifted your head up. That is the real way business growth occurs- a smart strategy combined with benchmarks to reach and- most importantly- the guidance and support along the way to ensure you are taking the right steps and confident their outcome will be positive.
This is the kind of community that is worth joining- one that will hold you accountable to the purpose it claims it can help you with. Establishing benchmarks along the way to a bigger vision and finding the support that will enable you to rise up to meet those benchmarks is what every successful business owner will seek out in order to ensure their success.
In this episode, I discuss how to approach choosing this kind of community for yourself and how the Artist’s Profit Plan is designed to help artists meet these challenges and expectations tenfold.
Want to take part in a simple Challenge that will show you how to connect with your most ideal client while finding the money you need to invest in your business the right way, to see inevitable growth?
Go to bit.ly/artmoneymagic to enroll, and you will receive details in your email inbox on how to participate immediately. I can’t wait to see you there!
Does working on your website make you feel like you want to pull your hair out? Do you struggle to find a way to communicate what you want with a developer who may or may not understand your message or your aesthetic? Do you feel you don’t have the vocabulary to properly describe what you need in developer terms?
Building your site can be one of the most stressful processes to go through, especially when you’re investing your hard earned money into technology that serves as a reflection of your mission and what you stand for as an artist.
I know exactly how you feel, because I’ve been there myself many times! From an exceptionally complicated e-commerce site for my first business to simple client sites that had extraordinary development needs to my personal site you are visiting now, each site I’ve helped birth into the world came with intense labor pains at some point during the process that I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through!
And so it shall be as long as we are tackling the world of technology, which is growing everyday, much to our advantage as long as we learn the ways in which we can use it for good, and somewhat to our disadvantage if we try to resist or ignore it.
Technology promises to take us outside of our comfort zones and place us in a position of a beginner if we aren’t well versed in the language it requires. And believe me, the languages are many and they are intensely brilliant and complex. So it is an opportunity for us to surrender to approaching a collaboration with a developer with a beginner’s mind, where we acknowledge we need to take our time, go slowly and learn how this can best work for our specific needs.
The problem we often face is that we don’t have the time to go through this learning curve, especially when we need something up and running, stat! This is the ultimate hurdle that can leave us feeling completely at a standstill.
However, after project managing dozens of website developments, my own included, I have come to some very helpful, time-saving approaches that have not only saved me money but helped me establish some extremely valuable relationships with both designers and developers that have paid off in spades.
Here are a few straightforward, yet extremely helpful steps to take first in order to choose the right designer/developer team and then communicating your vision to them in ways they will grasp from the start:
Choosing the right platform is essential, and requires a much deeper, longer discussion to go into all the options available. For now, I will say that I recommend WordPress, as it is a popular, extremely adaptable platform that many developers are familiar with and is fairly simple to make edits and adjustments to yourself. In addition to Wordpress, I recommend choosing other platforms that give you full access to taking advantage of your own SEO. I don’t necessarily recommend a custom-built site, as you are usually then at the mercy of that single person who built it, as only they understand the code they used, making it difficult and often costly for other developers to help. This can cause frustration moving forward when you need changes made and that person is not available.
Your beautiful site design will mean nothing if it is not sitting upon a solid, robust foundation. The development of the site needs to be ideally clear, streamlined and mobile-responsive (meaning you can see an adjusted version of it on a mobile device). Take your time to interview developers and view their portfolios, testing out the sites they have built. This is the best way to see the kind of work they do and if it jives with your own vision. Make sure the developer you choose is able to have a clear conversation with you about what you want, as well as shows signs of being able to adhere to timelines. The more professional they are in this area, the more likely you are to have your site completed on time.
The aesthetic of your site is as important as the foundation it sits upon, so choosing a designer whose work you love is worth searching for. Again, I recommend interviewing designers to make sure they know how to adhere to a timeline, and that they are clear about how they charge for their work, including the number of revisions they allow for.
I cannot stress how important creating a file with examples of what you want for your site can be for ensuring you get the look you are going for. Pull examples from designs that inspire you, going outside the box. For my site that you are on right now, I pulled examples from ads of my favorite clothing designer that I felt best expressed my personality and message, but I didn’t send them to her at first, thinking they were too far out of the box for what I was going for. But in the end, when we were stuck, I sent them to her and it was these images that made her say “Oh! I get it!!” She came up with our final look from there.
(become the boss!)
This is where you need to take the bull by the horns and take authority over your work and how much you value it. You need to hold your designer and developer accountable for staying within the timeline they agreed to with you. You need to set a guideline for what will happen if they go over that time (either they don’t charge for that time, or something else that makes sense for your arrangement). Then you need to practice staying persistent and consistent with what you intended together. This becomes a breeze when you let them tell you how long they need, then give an extra amount, usually two or three weeks, to account for unknowns that will inevitably come up along the way.
Yes that’s right, you read that correctly. This is the single most important part of the whole collaborative process of building a site, or any type of technology for that matter. Tech is extremely fickle, and things will go wrong! (I promise you, they will!!) We tend to think in terms of how long the actual development or actual design work will take to complete, but don’t account for any of the above prep time. So with every single tech project I manage, I take my desired timeline and multiply it by four. This is almost always, across the board, how long it will realistically take from start to finish.
Want to take part in a simple Challenge that will show you how to connect with your most ideal client while finding the money you need to invest in your business the right way, to see inevitable growth?
Go to bit.ly/artmoneymagic to enroll, and you will receive details in your email inbox on how to participate immediately. I can’t wait to see you there!
Every time an artist enters the Artists In Business community, I ask them to take the Art Biz Quiz, which is a simple four-question quiz that asks them about their current art business situation. There are several reasons I do this: one, because I want to know how to best serve them upon entry based on their specific business circumstances. Everyone who takes the art biz quiz receives a series of curated content based on their individual answers to the quiz designed to help them increase their business growth. Two, because I want them to know where they stand in their own businesses. Oftentimes having an assessment of what your current phase of business is and what your next best step could be to help you fast track your pace is exactly what we need to get on the right track. And three, because I want to know what major blocks are holding them back from growing.
But there is fourth reason- and one that is possibly the most important of them all- it’s because I want to know your opinion.
In this episode I discuss how knowing the opinions of your most ideal clients will take your business to a whole new level with and for your art.
Want to take part in a simple Challenge that will show you how to connect with your most ideal client while finding the money you need to invest in your business the right way, to see inevitable growth?
Go to bit.ly/artmoneymagic to enroll, and you will receive details in your email inbox on how to participate immediately. I can’t wait to see you there!
One of the first questions I ask every artist when they enter the Artists In Business community is what their first money memory is. The reason I do this is because there is a significant connection between what you perceive as your first memory about what money is and the relationship you have with it today.
This exercise is one of the most powerful in helping to create awareness around what truly holds us back from making the amount of money we want in the way we want to make it. This is especially true for business owners because it is our job to make money so our businesses can thrive and support us and those we serve on the highest level possible.
As artists we are business owners by default, which is a concept we are not taught, nor given support to understand at any stage of our artistic lives. So we generally walk around creating our work with an employee mindset- one that is set to rely on someone else, or another entity to take care of our financial lives for us one way or another. This of course requires us to show up for jobs we don’t necessarily want to do in order to get paid. Most artists end up feeling frustrated depleted, frustrated and angry because they have no time for their art.
In this episode I discuss how getting in touch with your first money memory provides a direct way to remedy that block and fast track your business growth in the right way.
Want to take part in a simple Challenge that will show you how to connect with your most ideal client while finding the money you need to invest in your business the right way, to see inevitable growth?
Go to bit.ly/artmoneymagic to enroll, and you will receive details in your email inbox on how to participate immediately. I can’t wait to see you there!
Have you ever felt like the whole world was ahead of you in terms of your business with your art, as if you will never get ahead financially, no matter what you do to change your situation?
So often this seems like the part that there is never enough time for in the day. It doesn’t feel right to keep focusing on financials when you aren’t making art just to make money. So this catch 22 leaves you feeling like there is no good answer. But then you watch certain artists who seem to have this figured out, they’re making money and really seem to be flying in their business and creativity and you think how can I get there?
In this episode, we figure that out, once and for all.
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
Have you ever laid out a plan for your business with your art, in detail, knowing you had all the pieces you needed in place to ensure it would yield the most probable results possible, put the action steps you want to take into your calendar so you didn’t have to think about them but just actually do them, and then wake up the next morning and feel completely overwhelmed with life to the point that you had no idea how you were going to complete any of the steps you had laid out? Or have you actually begun to complete them, but then run into a small problem that ended up taking what seemed like forever to sort out, setting you back several days in the process?
I’ve had this problem more often than I care to admit while building my business with my art. There was never a time I can remember that everything went as smoothly as I had planned, even to this day, and some of those times sent me into such a tailspin that it feels like a miracle I’ve been able to come as far as I have.
In this episode, I discuss the way I figured out how to role with this kind of change once and for all!
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
Have you ever laid out a plan for your business with your art, in detail, knowing you had all the pieces you needed in place to ensure it would yield the most probable results possible, put the action steps you want to take into your calendar so you didn’t have to think about them but just actually do them, and then wake up the next morning and feel completely overwhelmed with life to the point that you had no idea how you were going to complete any of the steps you had laid out? Or have you actually begun to complete them, but then run into a small problem that ended up taking what seemed like forever to sort out, setting you back several days in the process?
I’ve had this problem more often than I care to admit while building my business with my art. There was never a time I can remember that everything went as smoothly as I had planned, even to this day, and some of those times sent me into such a tailspin that it feels like a miracle I’ve been able to come as far as I have.
In this episode, I discuss the way I figured out how to role with this kind of change once and for all!
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
If you’re an artist with a business there is no reason for you to feel like you’re not sure where to go or what to do next to experience inevitable business growth.
But most artists don’t believe me when I say that. So I’ve put together a Challenge that will help you do both just in time to have a killer marketing plan in place that you truly stand behind and LOVE for the Fall and Winter.
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
Contrary to popular belief it’s more important for artists in business to learn to do ONE thing better than anyone else in order to have a business that thrives, and it’s not learning how to generate revenue-
It’s learning to listen better than every other business owner in your space.
When you can do this— and almost every artist is thankfully blessed with this gift— revenue becomes a by-product of your ability to serve your most ideal clients on the highest level.
In this episode I discuss what I mean by that— and how I learned this lesson once and for all myself.
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
Are you struggling with how to market your business with your art? Do you feel like you can’t decide which direction to go because you’re not sure what to market first? And in the midst of this, are you feeling like every time you turn around you see another artist- or bigger company- offering something similar to your work but doing it better?
First, let me assure you, you are not alone. This is a very common conundrum many small businesses have- especially artists- when it comes to differentiating yourself from other artists in your particular marketplace. This requires us to think vertically about the kind of offers we have and what makes those offers absolutely unique, rather than horizontally, which leads to overwhelm, feeling spread too thin, and not being able to give our most ideal clients exactly what they both need and want from our work.
Want to take on the challenge of discovering your most ideal client while finding the financial support you need to get your business off the ground and take it to the next level? Then email info@alexisfedor.com and in the subject line write “I’m in!”. And I’ll get right back to you with details about how to take part in this exclusive Challenge I’m offering!
Have you ever sat down to deal with your finances, to really look at where you are right now and where you’d like to see yourself in the next six to twelve months while you focus on growing your business with your art, and found yourself stuck, like a deer in headlights, unable to move forward with what you have in front of you? You were all ready to organize your numbers, understand what you need to do to grow and put a plan into action for the next several months, but you found yourself completely overtaken with some emotional block that would not let you get past the word “go”?
This kind of back-story trance can not only keep us from completing the task we have in front of us, but stop us from moving in the direction we need to in order to grow, share and fulfill our vision as artists through an effective plan. The fact is we can’t move forward when we are focused on the past!
In this episode, I discuss how to begin to eliminate any blocks you have keeping you from honing in on the financial side of your business and getting to the heart of what your business actually needs to make- and then actually figuring out how to make it!
Do you ever feel like your business is a minefield of too many projects, tasks and commitments that you’ll never be able to conquer? Do you find yourself lost in the decision-making process because you have no idea what to do next? Are you taken in by enticing offers that promise to help you build your business the right way?
The good news is that you’re not alone- not be a long shot! And there is an easy remedy to help you make quicker, simpler, more powerful decisions of your business that will actually lead to revenue growth and more time for you to focus on what is most important to your mission and vision as an artist.
It all begins with your Value Ladder- I can’t wait for you to dive into this one to begin your journey toward the business you’re meant to own.
Online or offline, you need a list. It’s the backbone of your business. Unless you’re a convenience store. Don’t care who comes in and goes out.
You want to build a class-act business with your art and serve the right people with it. In order to do so, you need to know who your ideal client is and you need a list to nurture.
In this episode I talk about how to begin building your list, even if you don’t have a single client yet in your business with your art.
Download The Artist’s 12-Month Revenue Plan Worksheet Here:
When I first started my business there were a ton of things I did wrong, but there was one that caused me to close the doors to my company within 11 months: not knowing my true ideal client.
I made the biggest mistake a business owner can make- and 90% of business owners in the U.S. make this mistake every year, causing them to close. You don’t want to make this mistake- and there is no reason for you to now that you’re here, and I’m going to tell you how to avoid it once and for all.
Download The Artist’s Guide To Discovering Your True Ideal Client Here:
bit.ly/yourtrueidealclient