CREATIVE BIZ MARATHON

My voice is a bit shaky and the video is a bit one sided but this is my first EVER ... please forgive :)

Most of the plans & projections are in place now it's time to start the work. January is such an awesome month  to travel and beef up for the new year I've decided to adjust my  projections yearly in that month. I really like the way it turned out,  especially after adding the tabs! soon, I will be adding video to my blog and my plan is to  revel the inside to you on my You Tube Channel

While looking at my taxes for last year. I noticed this profit & loss statement list seven categories of revenue . Of course today we label this row as income streams . Score has provided us with seven categories of income on this blank P&L statement.   Darren Rowse , a leader in the blog community, even shares this info on his blog. If your not following Darren , you should.  Some  pos·si·ble  income streams for eastwindproductions & sonyamacdesigns   01. Art 02. Licence art 03. Books 04. eBooks 05. Ad sells 06. Magazines 07. Amazon 08. eclass 09. Art Classes (community) 10. Affilate 11. Custom graphic design work 12. photography portrait 13. photography  14. sewn products 15. patterns for sewn products Man, that was easy, now it's time to do the work. Oh, and check out Small Business TV

I began working on my teaching plans, that's right Teaching plans.   In High School ... I pursued Art, Graphic Arts and Home Economics with the hope   of becoming an Art Teacher ... but the economy was bad and Art was being cut   from most public school programs, so design school looked awesome & Bill  Blass  was on the Board at  O'More  College of Design. The Classes ...  Wake UP ... http://www.inspiringcreativecollaboration.com/ A ten week workshop designed to renew the artist in you. Rediscover & develop your creativity as you embrace the idea of  collaborating  with the Holy Spirit. Journey 2 Mixed Media ... http://www.journey2mixedmedia.com/ learn to develop techniques which uses a range of different materials to create artwork (for example, ink, paint, newspaper, card, cut paper, pencil, or pastel and can incorporate photographs, computer printouts, newspaper articles. (ten weeks) Flip your Passion ......

I started to run out of room, so I decided to add some extra pages, these two brown paper bag pages, fold in to create some journal magic. I reworked my journal a bit and added my customer to the center spread as a symbol of  focus & commitment. I glued my game board in the very back for easy reference!

Working on the cover of my creative biz journal and thought I would give you a sneak peak before I go color crazy with it. Been saving this old cruise wine list forever, for something really special. What could be more special than a creative business plan. Hope to share more soon! It's day seven of twenty eleven!

Haven't you ever looked up your competition online? Have you ever checked out their resume or their CV, or see what is in their Etsy shop, and for what price?  What you are effectively doing is a Competitive Analysis - checking out your competition! The Creative Entrepreneur recommends doing this, because there is so much to learn from others.  See what is working for them.  What kind of promotional tactics do they do, and does it work?  What is their target audience, and is it the same as yours??  I plan to do a bit more of work on this section.  This is just one part of the last chapter in the book, but here is the journal page I did earlier today on competitive analysis. There is even more info I could add in this page, by really observing and researching more artists.  But this certainly gives me  plenty to think about! And besides, my page was getting full.  But the biggest thing I took from this exercise??  Is that my fear is gett...

This morning, I did some Brainstorming on things important to me and my business.  I discovered that I needed a bigger page or at least to write smaller! Oh well.  I got most of the things on the page.   In the very center is Balancing Family with Artwork, because that is the biggest thing for me.  My family comes first - always - and then artwork.  And if that means a few dishes stay in the sink while I dash off to the studio, then so be it.  Keeping my house spotless isn't on my brainstorming page, and probably won't ever be on there.  Not to say my house is dirty - it isn't - but I don't put away every single thing all the time! :) The curious thing to me was that I couldn't decide where to put a couple of the bubbles.  Two of the strategies had blurry lines between them... I think I need to spend more time going through this strategy thing.. 3 Steps to Creating Effective Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics.  Not my easiest journ...

I never knew what to call this feeling of discontent I usually feel with my business.  I've been selling my artwork for a while now, but only last night I discovered what to call it.  Structural Tension is explained in The Creative Entrepreneur as "You know how it feels when you have decided you want a certain outcome but you are still living with things are they are before the desired change??"  There, that feeling!  That's the one I'm talking about! So last night, I broke out my PanPastels (which I love for art journaling, by the way!) and got busy working on this tension. It was such a relief to spell out this scenario!  Now I know why this frustrated feeling often plagues me when it comes to my business.  Not to mention that I totally love the shade of purple from the PanPastel and I decided to use it again (although more sparingly) in the next journal page: SWOT: Strengths, Weakesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  Last night, I really noticed t...

In my last post, I talked a bit about the Pathways used to create a mandala for your creative business.  The mandala is made up of several pathways, and each one is important and specific.  Each one needs to be explored to complete the mandala and help you figure out the things you are struggling with in your business.  I shared two of my pathways with you in the previous post , and now here is the finished Mandala for my business. I drew from each pathway some of the information, and compiled it in the flower shape, recommended in the book.  This may not be my favorite journal page of all time, but the point here is that you are doing the thinking, and going through the process of figuring things out.  For me, the hardest of the pathways was the Value and Profitability, because that is the territory that I am the least familiar with.  One thing that I do to help surprise my customers and add value to their experience of buying a piece of my artwork, is ...

I am SO excited to be on this journey!  2010 was a good year for me.  I got back on track with my artwork and felt my old self come back to life.  This was so thrilling for me!  Now that it's been a few months and I've got a new line of sculpture that has found life, I am ready to figure out my plan for 2011.  I received this book, The Creative Entrepreneur, a few weeks ago, and got started on the exercises, but I lost steam as the holidays rolled around.  I was also juggling creating some more work for an exhibition, with the exercises in the book, and suddenly, I found myself a bit overwhelmed.  Fast forward to now, post-Christmas, and I am ready to get my plan prepared for 2011!  Join me as I work through some of the exercises, learning my strengths and weakness, and so many other things! Let's get started! I'm going to dive right in, so here we go! In this photo, I'm showing my workstation, which last night was at my kitchen counter. :)...