 Well hello and welcome to today's video where we're talking all about how to take yourself seriously as an art business. So it's one thing to create and make and get in your creative space and make the odd sale that can be quite satisfying but it can also be quite frustrating as well and it's a long way off actually making a living from your art which is what I know a lot of you would like to do when you're watching this video and as subscribers to this channel. In this video I'm going to be sharing the seven steps that I believe you need to take in order to take yourself seriously as an art business. Well hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel. My name is Sophie and I love to help artists just like you to set up and grow a successful profitable art business doing what you love and if that's something you want to learn more about then you're in the right place because this channel does exactly that. I share tips and tricks on all things art business related we also talk that mindset stuff as well as we know how important that is so if you like that don't forget to subscribe to channel hit that bell to get notified as well every time I post a new video. Okay let's go ahead and dive in what are those seven steps that you need to take in order to take yourself seriously as an art business. So no surprise step number one you want to want to make sure that you're set up as an art business owner because it's one thing to say hey I'm running an art business but quite another to actually make sure that you really are structured and set up as an art business. Now if you'd like to learn more about how to set up as an art business then I have this video here to make sure to check out that and get into the nitty gritty of how to do that but right now we're just going through those seven steps. First off is you want to make sure that you are set up so that's the practical stuff set up as an art business owner. Step number two then now you've done that you want to tell everybody that that's what you've done so you want to declare to the world I am an art business this is what I do for a living. Do you know when people say to you or what do you do for a living and I've heard people say oh I paint or I would like what I like to do is this that and the other you're going to stand there and you're going to say I'm an artist I'm a full-time professional artist I make a living from my art I'm an art business owner however you want to phrase that now obviously we know if you're at the beginning of the journey you might not yet be making a living from your art but you're on those first steps towards doing that so you can declare I am an art business owner this is what I do and again there's a bit of a difference between you know actually writing it down over here and registering over here and declaring to the world every form you sign anywhere you input occupation you put art business owner right and it feels really good so that's step number two step number three is actually creating some boundaries around what you're doing and learning to say no now this was something I discovered right back at the beginning when I left my full-time art job art teaching job and I went in to become a full-time professional artist and set up my own art business so I'd left that teaching job and I would I was working from home and what I would get is a phone call oh hi are you at home can I pop round for a cup of tea I'm in the first few weeks I didn't really know how to deal with that and I would sit there thinking oh this is my working time and it wasn't until I learned that I had to say oh that's great I'd love to have a cup of tea with you but actually I run a business during the day and I'll see you at the end of the day or at the weekend right so establishing boundaries that's part of letting people know what you do I'm working on my business between these hours I will see you for that cup of tea or glass of wine outside of those hours and that can be quite confronting sometimes people who are perhaps used to popping around and hanging out with you or you going off for a I don't know a walk or a day out or you're hanging with people and now suddenly you're saying oh no actually I'm at work so I'm building my business and I will see you at the weekend but trust me it's going to be so worth it and people will be a little bit jealous sometimes they might be like oh my god you're actually doing that for a living you're actually building an art business you're doing what you love how fantastic is that so you'll get some different reactions once you say that and you set your own boundaries but I promise you super important and you've got to do it so that's step three setting your boundaries and learning to say no really really important so step number four is you need to create a routine for you a routine that works so you know how sometimes we're a morning person and other people not so much if you're a morning person get up really early if that works for you get up at four or five o'clock do some creativity before everyone else in your house has got up or maybe you're somebody that works better in the afternoon evening or into the night you've got to find a routine that works for you the business stuff and the creative stuff you want to mix that and get that into your week so that you're doing everything that you need to do but in a way that works for you so step number five now once you've got some of the basics established you also want to be dedicating some time to your own creative development now what do I mean by that there's a difference between you're doing the business stuff over here you're making your products or services but you want to expand yourself as an artist and a creative as well because that will mean you'll make better products or services so you need to allocate some time for play for creative play maybe you're going to take a course or pop in on a workshop learn a new technique do something differently but you want to expand your own creativity as well so you want to make sure that you're allowing time in your weekly routine to do all of that step number six of course is developing your own personal growth because we all know when we grow as a person we grow as an artist and we grow as a business owner so therefore it could be as simple as tuning into a podcast when you're in the studio space or an audio book or reading you know personal development books at night or maybe you're going to attend an online training or course or again go to a workshop or event you want to be doing something that constantly stretches you that stretches your boundaries because we all know that growth happens outside of the comfort zone you want to get yourself into a position where you are outside of that comfort zone more so that you grow and expand as a person because everything else is going to grow and expand with you and step seven the final step once we've done all of those is to be part of a supportive community of like-minded artists I don't know about you but there's nothing worse than going this journey alone whilst I love a lot of alone time because I'm an introvert and I really love my my own company at the end of the day when you're building a business you want someone to bounce ideas off to give you feedback to share successes and failures to learn from to grow with now we have such a community that sits within our art business academy membership so if that's something that you're at all interested in finding out more about or how you could join that community because we're not only a community of like-minded artists who are on this journey of course they're also part of our membership so therefore they're learning and growing and expanding and they have all the resources that they need in order to do that so all the details of the membership I'm going to post below this video but if not that then make sure that you join some sort of community or form your own because growing a business requires input from other people right because otherwise we're very very sort of laser focused which is great when we need to get tasks done but in terms of growing we want somebody else to bounce off so I say if you'd like to know more there's a link about the ABA below this but also if you'd like to learn more about how to grow a successful business and how to make a living from your art then we also have some free resources for you so make sure that you grab your 10 things you need to know to make a living from your art free download that's below that's a little guide really short and sweet but gives you something that you can follow and work through and then I'm also doing a brand new free masterclass the foolproof formula to pricing your artwork so again you can register for that below the video unless it's some distant time in the future in which case that will no longer be available but right now at time of shooting then that registration is up for you to join I hope you've enjoyed today's video we're going to have a lot more videos coming your way short and sweet with tips and tricks and things that you can do so make sure to look out for those and make sure that we're also following each other over on the socials as well I hang out on Instagram I hang out on Pinterest a lot as well as good old YouTube so I'll see you on one of those platforms very very soon take care bye bye