Starting My Creative Business

It’s a SH!TSTORM!*

*Vulgar slang : a wildly chaotic and unmanageable situation, controversy, or sequence of events

I have never been the one who trusted my skills enough to start my own business. Didn’t know if I could actually earn a living while creating. It was fear and lack of funds. It was also the late 80s and I was a “girl” and have fought the condescending ideologies my entire adult life. My mom had fewer choices. My grandmother even less. 

I left High School and went to college for an arts degree. I have the BA. I took the arts classes to become the artist. Do you know what I didn’t learn?

How to ACTUALLY run a business. 

Small business knowledge should have been and should be a requirement for every single high school student. Just like math, English, and history. I know school has changed since but I feel like I’m running 2 decades too late to the party.

I knew I wanted to be a photographer but as I honed my skills, my desire for the type of career changed. I became a photojournalist and a visual storyteller. I never took business classes because I was paying for my supplies. Why take a class I had no idea I would ever need?

I never took accounting and never learned the subtle nuance of a small business dynamic, how to make sure that my overhead doesn’t exceed my time, the money I have invested in developing the product, collateral, shipping supplies, etc. I was NOT a numbers person, that’s my brother. I did however develop my skills as an artist, creative thinker, photographer, and storyteller.

Selling my art, designs & photography.

I began creating travel inspired printables in 2019. I was slowly creating other ideas but didnt really focus on that aspect of income until the beginning of this year. Spent an entire month just creating designs. Everyday, just worked on ideas and concepts for products. Spent time determining which products I would sell.

A funny designed coffee mug from a meme someone shares. 

A photograph I captured from the road. 

A unique idea for a push-pin map.

A fun Scrabble magnet. 

Any creative idea that crosses my thoughts.

Finding that “creative need” however, that people will not only want but will actually pay for the shipping costs is the Willy Wonka golden ticket. I will continue to develop ideas and concepts for possible travel-inspired and smartass designs, make products, and list items on Etsy until I do.

Creating for me is easy. Dealing with the numbers is not and I need to make sure I'm not losing money. There are many different costs that are involved in selling on Etsy.

Costs so far

• supplies to make the product 

• my time

• envelopes

• packaging

• the freebie

• collateral

and Postage (if shipping free) – which to be honest I hate doing. It still costs to ship an item. Do I like free shipping on items? Of course, but when it’s my own business, I hate it. 

Making a living on the road with my art

I’m a small, one-person business, and developing that small item that I can sell from the road is key. I will have very little space. So it needs to be compact and easily carried/stored in my roaming home on wheels. Creating a portion of my online store from a drop-shipper, also allows me to not have to carry large amounts of inventory. 

I know the one-of-a-kind is the way to go. That’s the struggle. Getting this aspect of the business off the ground so I can afford to live from the road is the hard part. Etsy, while it is a great-ish tool to start an online creative business — everyone has an Etsy store. This means it becomes about luck, word of mouth, and crossing the fingers that you made the “right” product at the right cost. It also means paying for advertising.

In order to gain any traction on a new business, I need to pay for advertising. I am late to the game and I really don’t have a big budget. I can ask friends to share but for the 3-5 people that always share (which I LOVE), it really doesn't gain me any income.

So where does that leave me? 

Ways to sell the items I create.

1. I can create and drop-ship products using a supplier

2. I can create and sell via flea markets/art fairs and ship those handmade items.

The advertising platforms I can use:

1. Instagram / Facebook

2. TikTok

3. Etsy ( not impressed )

4. Google ( works but is expensive )

Now I need to research on advertising Just seems like there are not enough hours in a day, too many things to get done. It’s the small business shitstorm.

Tasks 

(not in any particular order)

Garage Sale 1.0

Garage Sale 2.0

Repair Trailer Window

Shoot Video of Trailer for YouTube/Insta

Post Video of Trailer

Clean Trailer 

Take Photos of trailer 

Write selling info for trailer

Remove all items keeping from trailer

Sell Trailer

Get all shipping supplies needed for Wanderlust & Wit

Print Ohio State Parks map

Post Map to IG / YT w/link

Completed CA State Parks map

Start PA state parks map

Print Photos for Hartville Flea Market

Prep for Flea Market

Attend Flea Market (again)

Get a game plan in place for my first flea market show.

Sell truck

Find new truck

Find truck camper

Get back on the road.

Get Sawyer Groomed

Optimize Etsy Store (working on it)

Finalize the branding colors for joynewcomb,com

Develop more magnet ideas

Photograph Magnets

Create a Video for Magnets

Promote Magnets

Try Etsy Ads

Try Google Advertising

Instagram / Facebook Ads

Tik Tok Ads