by Rebecca Sciullo | Feb 11, 2019 | Artisan Advantage Book Club, Learning
How’s the balance in your art business?
No attempt to read a consistent practice of personal and business development books would be complete with Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People®. As such, it was chosen for the first month of the Artisan Advantage Book Club. The advice in this book has inspired people from all walks of life for thirty years! The seven habits of effectiveness in the book can help at any stage of your art business.
If you’ve started the book, you’ve read about P/PC balance. Covey uses the fable of the goose and the golden egg to explain this concept of finding the balance between short term and long term results.
How are you balancing things in your art business? Are you reaching for too much in a short amount of time, which can lead to stress and discouragement? Or, are you putting too much focus on non-essential activity, that is not going to lead to long term gain? How can you reach an effective balance between short and long term results as you move forward? Consider specifically how you can gain more balance in the context of your art business.
Stay tuned to this blog for more reading notes as we work through this month’s pick.
Thoughts? Send them to becky@artisan-advantage.com.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Dec 10, 2018 | Planning, Productivity, Time Management
Do You Have a Morning Routine?
My morning routine is definitely one of the best parts of my daily schedule. It sets the pace and tone of my day. When I miss it, I find that my time isn’t quite as productive. How about you? Do you have a morning routine? If not, consider starting one in 2019. Here are seven tales of true productivity to get you started.
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by Rebecca Sciullo | Oct 19, 2018 | Consultations, Learning, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Tools
Are you ready for 2019? Don’t wait til January to prepare! Now is the time that you should be reviewing how this year went. This helps you to put ideas and plans into place for next year. If this is something that you’ve never done effectively, I’d like to help. I’m devoting November and December to Micro-Consults focused on this topic
Get ready for next year.
My Get Ready for 2019 with an End of Year Review Micro-Consult is designed to help you use what you learned in 2018 to implement an effective business plan for 2019. This consult will provide you with a tool to help you effectively review the past year in all areas of your art business including marketing, sales, inventory, time management and productivity. Using this information will allow us to determine what steps you can take now to get ready for 2019. We will also develop a quarterly schedule for you to keep yourself on track over the coming year.
If this sounds like something that could help you, please click here to schedule a “Getting Ready for 2019 with an End of Year Review” Micro Consult
Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Sep 21, 2018 | Learning, Planning, Productivity
Stick to it!
Consistency is essential to success with your art business. But, a regular routine of studio time and business activity is not always an easy thing to maintain.
You start the week with the best intentions—to spend time in the studio, market your work, and make good choices about how you use your time. Then life happens. The dog is sick. School is canceled for the day. There could be a hundred other things that can get you off track. Before you know it, your plan is in trouble and your goals for the week aren’t looking very doable. Something has to give. Often, “what gives” is that plans for your business that week don’t happen.
So how do you change this pattern? Here are three tips for building consistency.
1 Build momentum one step at a time.
It’s never easy to change old habits or start new routines. The key to long-term consistency is building momentum. The hardest part is always getting things started. But once you’re moving, staying in motion and picking up speed becomes a lot easier. There are a lot of ways you can gradually build momentum as you work. Start with something that’s easy to complete and build from there. For example, set a goal of one social media post a day for your work. Then increase it to a post on two platforms each day. The simple act of setting a small amount of time aside time for this every day and sticking to it is enough to start building the habit.
2 Find an accountability partner.
Find a friend or family member whose judgment and opinion you respect. Each time you find yourself thinking about not sticking to your plan, write down the reason. Share this with your accountability partner and get an honest opinion about whether the reason is justifiable or just an excuse.
3 Always have a plan B.
Life is unpredictable. You need to have plan B ready—even before you actually need it. Plan B helps you to stay consistent with your goals when your regular routine doesn’t work out as planned. Surprises won’t throw you off track if you plan ahead. For example, make a short list of three specific marketing tasks for the week. Then, when you do get even a small amount of time, you can get right to business, rather than sit and think about what you need to do. Or, have your studio set up and ready to go as best as you can, so that when you get a moment to work, you ready. Put a little time into identifying the most common problems that disrupt your routine, and plan (in advance) what you can do to handle these problems without sacrificing your art business goals.
Being consistent does not mean being perfect.
There are days or weeks when it just might not work out how you planned. But, being mindful of how you can handle disruptions in your schedule will help you to stay more consistent in your business.
I hope these ideas help you overcome obstacles that crop up in your art business.
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Photo by Antonio Francisco on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Jan 11, 2017 | Planning
It’s January! What are you going to do to make 2017 your best year ever? Read on for…
5 Tips to Make 2017 Your Best Art Business Year Ever
1.) If you didn’t do it in December, it’s time to get organized. Get your paperwork for 2016 taxes together, set up your calendar, organize your studio or clean up your website….Whatever end of year activity that was planned but not completed – finish it now.
2.) Prepare. Take time to fine tune your 2017 business plan. Who are the customers that you are going to reach? How are you going to spend your time. Revisit and refine your plan.
3.) Did you hit all of your goals for 2016? Figure out why or why not. If there is something you can change moving forward to get a better result – do it!
4.) Did you miss any opportunities in 2016? Get in touch with your prospective customers. Wish them a Happy New Year and ask them about the status of any projects you were discussing. Determine whether or not you can breathe new life into this old opportunity.
5.) Take a look at all of your activity from last year. What activities helped you to make sales or get closer to a goal? Identify the top two or three and do more of those activities and less of the ones that didn’t work as well.
Then, have your best year ever!
What are you going to do to have your best year ever? Share your ideas here!
