Have you ever had a very small child explain something to you in an extremely condescending way? You listen and nod. You're respecting the truth of the three-year-old who is explaining why hiding all your money in a hole is a good investment, but you are also not letting go of the fact that the three-year-old is not your best bet for financial consultation.
In freelance years I am a two-year-old. I started my freelance career in October 2018. So I feel a little like the three-year-old giving financial advice to adults.
Clearly this realization hasn't stopped me from creating an entire blog series devoted to talking about myself as a freelancer. But if it makes up for anything I am acutely aware of my own...naiveté? ineptitude? inexperience? and maybe a heavy dose of a little something I like to call Business Insanity.
Business Insanity is the diagnosis for someone who moves in the exact opposite direction of what anyone with a the teensiest screed of business acumen would advise. It's basically the opposite of Business Savvy.
Full disclosure: I made up Business Insanity. No one has ever heard of it. But I am sure if they met me they would agree with my completely unprofessional self-diagnosis.
Here are some of the things I have done with my freelance art business which I classify as Business Insanity:
Business Savvy: Commissions provide a great source of income, while still using your artistic skills. They can help you grow your skill, network and create a satisfied client base who can potentially support your future endeavors.
Business Insanity: I tend to shy away from projects where people would like to pay me to help realize their artistic vision aka commissions. I get really stressed about making my clients happy. Instead of seeking out paid commissions fulfilling someone else's vision I have more of a tendency to volunteer to help with unpaid-projects that sound cool to me and make my money doing side jobs or just living off of my husband's income.
Business Savvy: When you design a product like stickers, zines or printed tote-bags it's a good idea to advertise your product so that the people who love your work can buy them and so that you can make money to finance your next projects.
Business Insanity: I create really cool products, have them professionally printed or manufactured and then I hide them around my house.
Business Savvy: Create a concise, informative and positive elevator pitch about what you do as a way to get new people excited about your business.
Business Insanity: Anytime I meet someone who would like to hear about my Zine Club project I completely lose my mind and cannot, for the life of me, figure out a simple way to explain the concept, so the person goes away super confused and has no idea what a zine even is.
Business Savvy: As you test the waters for your business observe what types of products and services are successful with customers. Once you figure out what niche you are filling and what people are willing to pay for, hone in and focus your business on that niche.
Business Insanity: Once you figure out something that people really enjoy and is quite profitable like portraits of family members and pets (which I talked about in this post) STOP IMMEDIATELY and keeping making weird zines about yourself instead (which you will then hide around your house).
So there you have it! I have no clue what I am doing. Thanks for bearing witness to my insanity and being a listening ear to this freelance toddler.
Love,
Lucy🌹
This made me smile so much. It’s so relatable.
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