Tag: help with my business

Need a Physical Location for Your Art-Based Business?

But not sure where to start? Keep reading to get started in securing the right location for you.

Much of today’s business is done online, and while you can’t escape it, you may also be interested in opening a physical location for your art-based business. Here are 5 important considerations to keep in mind:

1. Think about how much space you’ll need

Based on your business model, what activities will take place in this location? Based on those activities and the number of workers and customers you might expect to be in the space at one time, how large will your location need to be? Be realistic and understand that more space means more money in rent.

2. Think about how much you should spend

Based on your business model and expected target market size, understand how much revenue you expect to make. Many experts advise that your rent cost should not exceed 20%. Of course, the lower your rent is, the more profit you’ll make. With that being said, there are factors other than rent that should be considered when looking for a location.

3. Think about what area would be best for your creative business

Who is your target customer? Where do they live and what other areas do they frequent? Think about what factors are important for your kind of business. For example: Depending on if you’ll need lots of foot traffic or a large industrial building, your ideal area will vary greatly. So ask yourself what you’re looking for in a perfect location. Do forget to ask: What other businesses would be best to have as neighbors?

NOTE: Develop a list of important criteria you can use to help select your final location. Prioritize those criteria and refer to them whenever making a decision about a potential location.

4. Research local commercial real estate agents

Finding a real estate agent whom you think is honest and benevolent is an ideal situation. While that won’t always happen, its important to try your best to find a knowledgable and connected real estate agent. Ask around for recommendations and scour the web for reviews. Once you start working with an agent, share your prioritized list of criteria with them.

5. Visit multiple locations, if possible

Its often helpful to have multiple locations to choose from, so that you don’t find yourself settling on an almost-perfect location. With that being said, there is almost never a 100% perfect location. So make sure to keep your list of prioritized criteria handy and refer to it often. Discuss your available options with your business partners. If you’re a “soloprenenur,” ask your friends and family, or your SBDC Business Advisor, what they think. Talking through your options can often help you understand which selection is best.

Looking for your ideal business location will take time, so plan ahead and try to be patient. If you’d like to read about securing a physical location in more depth, leave a comment below. There are many aspects to finding a great business location; these five tips are the best place to start. Good luck!

Peace, Kayla

Follow Artrepreneurship – where ‘art’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ meet to get straight-to-the-point information that will help make your artrepreneurial journey easier!

Tips for Naming Your Art-Based Business

Naming your business is an important step in developing a recognizable art-based brand. Here are some tips to help you find the “perfect” name!

1. Be clear about the product or service you offer

Every see or hear a business name and have no idea what the company actually does? Be careful with creating a name that is hard to directly relate to your business. Many artrepreneurs choose a descriptor word that follows the core business name to help give customers a hint about what they do. For example: Creations Film or John Doe Design. Others select names that play on the product or service provided. For example: The Sound Station or Artist’s Cafe.

2. Reflect your brand

In this article, we talked about building a brand around your art that acts as the core to your business image. Keep your brand in mind when developing a business name. Does your proposed name fit with the messaging style that you’ve decided on?

Some artrepreneurs name their business first, and then build their brand around that name. This is a slippery slope that can cause you to lose sight of the value you’re trying to offer. Instead, think about the value you’re providing your customers and how your business name can help to enforce it.

3. Be original, but easy to remember (and even familiar)

Originality is often praised in artrepreneurship, but Derek Thompson, author of the book Hit Makers, makes the argument that originality on its own is not king. People are more drawn to things that feel original AND familiar. Familiarity makes a business name easier to remember and creates a positive feeling in the hearts of consumers. So when naming your business, think about names that are somewhat original, and somewhat familiar or recognizable. This meet-in-the-middle method will help you create a business name that is preferred by most consumers.

4. Do your research

So you’ve gone through tips #1-3 and think you’ve found the perfect name for your business. Before you get too attached, make sure you do your research to confirm that the name is not already in use. There are 4 main places you’ll want to visit:

Google

A simple Google search can tell you right away if your potential business name is already in use. Is there another business or blog that floods your search results? If so, you’re going to have a hard time getting to the front page of Google, and a harder time becoming the very first search result that people will see. Check out what already exists online so that you can get an idea of the plausibility of your new business name.

NameCheckr.com

If you don’t see any competing online presences that might threaten the success of your new business name, it’s time to check out NameCheckr.com. This site allows you to simultaneously check all top-level domains and social media sites for your preferred business name. For example: You might want to name your business: Artist’s Cafe. On NameCheckr.com, you can see if that name is available for a .com domain, and as a username on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Using this kind of resource helps you to think about name consistency across your many digital presences.

USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office should be your next stop. Here, you can search all trademarks to understand if your potential business name has already been trademarked. You can search all US trademarks here (search for “Basic Word Marks”).

NOTE: Trademarks rely much on the “Likelihood of Confusion.” If your trademark is too similar to another in your same goods or services category, you may get denied. However, let’s say there is another “Artist’s Cafe,” but the associated goods and services category is Clothing. Since you want to open a Coffee Shop, this other trademark will not be a problem, because it exists in a completely different industry.
But, if there is a trademark registered for “Artist Cafe” in the Coffee Shop industry, you might have a problem. “Artist’s Cafe” and “Artist Cafe” are too similar, and are considered to have a high likelihood of confusion for consumers–so you will most likely be denied a trademark under that name.

State Business Entity Search

The last place you’ll need to visit to confirm the eligibility for your potential business name is your state’s business entity search portal. This search engine will populate any competing business names in your state. If another business has already filed a business license under your potential name, you’ll need to choose another. To find your state’s business name entity search, go to Google and type in: ‘Your state’ business entity search.

Here are the Business Entity Search Portals for both Nevada and Oregon:
Nevada Business Entity Search Portal
Oregon Business Entity Search

Naming your business is one part heart and one (large) part strategy. Work through tips #1-4 as you develop the right business name for your art-based business! Remember: There is no formula for developing the perfect business name, so don’t drive yourself crazy trying to find the perfect one. Once you find a name that checks off tips #1-4, stick with it and get started on building your very own creative business!

Follow Artrepreneurship – where ‘art’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ meet to get more straight-to-the-point information that will make your artrepreneurial journey easier!

Peace, Kayla

Want to Be a Successful Artrepreneur? It’s Time to Adapt the Creator Role.

There are all kinds of character traits thought to make some entrepreneurs more successful than others. Taking on the role of the creator might be the most important.

About four years ago, my husband came home and showed me something that would change the way I thought of myself. He was in a personal development and leadership class; the professor talked about the role of the “creator.” He showed me the summary they had discussed:

“Adapting the Creator Role” Courtesy of Jennifer Kaplan

I still keep this paper on our refrigerator, because it reminds me of a critical challenge that every artrepreneur, every person, is faced with: becoming a creator.

Taking on the role of the creator is all about accepting an internal locus of control: the idea that you have more control over your outcomes than do the circumstances you are presented with. When you lose this internal locus of control, you fall victim to your circumstances and to others–you lose control over your outcomes.

The creator role is critical because as an artrepreneur, you are solely responsible for the success of your creative business. Of course, you can attribute failures to poor market conditions, fierce competition, or something else, but remember: others are competing in similar conditions–someone will be successful… why not you? Oftentimes, its due to a victim mentality.

When you accept the role of the creator, its easier to “see life’s challenges as opportunities” and make strategic changes as a response to circumstances beyond your control. When you’re acting in the creator role, you’re using your energy to continue building your creative business, instead of acting passively. The role of the victim is for those who make excuses. The role of the creator is for those who make changes.

Stress and anxiety are major symptoms of being stuck in the victim role. When you are stuck in the victim role, you feel helpless and out of control. This causes fear of all kinds. But if you can shift to the role of the creator, you’ll be able to adjust your response to uncertainty by understanding that you have the power to affect your situation–you just have to strategically take action.

I’ll admit: this is all easier said than done, but being aware is the first step. So the next time you feel stuck or out of control, think about the creator role. Are your thoughts and actions in line with the behavior of a victim, or a creator? Accepting the role of the creator is one of the most important steps you can take in creating your very own art-based business.

Peace, Kayla

Follow Artrepreneurship – where ‘art’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ meet to get more straight up information about becoming a successful artrepreneur!

Your Artrepreneurial Journey Isn’t Going How You Planned… What Now?

It’s time to step back and evaluate.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile from Pexels

It’s been a month, 6 months, maybe even a year, and your new career as an artrepreneur isn’t working out how you thought it would. What do you do now?

It’s time for rest and reflection. If you’ve already said goodbye to your other sources of income, you might not have time to rest, but you MUST make time to reflect.

#1 What’s going RIGHT?
#2 What’s going WRONG?

Because every artrepreneur’s situation is different, I’ve listed a few possible scenarios below. These scenarios are meant to be an example of how you might go about evaluating what’s going right, and what’s going wrong, with your creative business.

NOTE: Throughout this article, you’ll see many links to this article (and others). Revisiting your business model is one of the most helpful ways to evaluate your situation and make necessary changes. I would suggest that you visit this article and conduct an evaluation of each part of your business model. This will give you a comprehensive view of your art-based business.

Scenario 1

Maybe you’ve secured a few customers, but not as many as you hoped for. Where did these customers come from? Did you already know them? Did they find you via social media? Through word of mouth? Think about the communication you’ve had with them to understand whether or not the channels you’re using to advertise are actually working.

Secondly, who are these customers? Do they match the target market profile you created when you first started out? You might find that your real customers are totally different from the ones you assumed you’d have. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers about how they found you, why they chose you, and how their experience was when working with you.

Scenario 2

Maybe you’ve gotten lots of engagement online. That’s great! Look at the kind of content you’re posting and see who’s interacting with it. By doing this, you’ll be able to tell what kind of content is of interest to whom, and that will help you better focus your time as you continue on.

But perhaps you still aren’t booking customers, despite your positive engagement rate online. Are potential customers reaching out to you, then backing out once they learn about your prices? This might be a sign that you need to restructure your pricing model. Are people not reaching out at all? This might be a sign that although you post engaging content, your value or the service you offer isn’t clear enough. Or maybe customers don’t know how they should contact you if they’re interested. You might need to revisit how you’ve written or worded your messages to understand if your value is clear.

Scenario 3

Maybe you’ve developed a solid business plan and have created a cool brand, but you’re getting no interest at all. This could be a sign of a few issues:

1) The market doesn’t exist. Maybe the need that you believe you’re filling just isn’t really there, or maybe it doesn’t exist on a large enough premise to sustain a sustainable creative business. Consider conducting more research to understand if this might be the case.

2) You’re way off target in regards to who your target customer is. You might be sharing your awesome value with all the wrong people.

3) The way you’re sharing your value isn’t resinating with people. Your branding might be fogging up the true value you provide, leaving people disinterested or unsure about what you’re offering.

4) You’re missing the strategic partners you need to make your business model complete. Maybe you’ve created a product and have been trying to sell it online through your own website, but what you really need is a retail partner to help sell your product at the rates you want. Or maybe you don’t have enough credibility to secure the customers you want, so you need a strategic partner who will back you.

There are all kinds of potential factors that might be contributing to the slow growth of your creative business. It’s your job to take some time to reflect about all you’ve done so that you can identify these factors and make adjustments to fix them.

Whatever you do, don’t give up... UNLESS:
If you find that there might not be a big enough market for you to serve, or that you’re value is already being provided in the same way somewhere else, or that you don’t have the passion to push past your slow beginning… it might be the right decision for you to throw in the towel and start pursuing something else. In today’s world, people are chastised for “quitting.” But sometimes, quitting is exactly what you need to do to find success elsewhere. Don’t be afraid to move along in your artrepreneurial journey by dropping an unsuccessful business model and picking up a successful one. Your artrepreneurial journey is not limited by a single business idea, but by how you evaluate that business idea and ultimately find a successful way to share your art with the world.

Now is the time to take a step back and evaluate. If you run into questions during your reflection, please leave a comment below so that I and other artrepreneurs can help you work through it! Good luck!

Peace, Kayla

P.S. Follow Artrepreneurship – where ‘art’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ meet to get more straight-up information that can help make your artrepreneurial journey easier!