Are you applying the 80-20 Rule in Your Creative Business? Read to find out WHY you need it?

Every business consists of Science, Commerce & Arts components in its business process. Science is about inventions, commerce is about selling & Arts is about creativity in the products & ideas. Many Independent Artists have to swap their thinking caps throughout the day to manage all of these tasks efficiently. Artists need to stay away from their creative world & perform tasks  like photographing the artworks, editing them, managing their online stores, attend art & craft events, respond their customers through emails as early as possible & promoting the product globally.

This lengthy process often ends up with no personal & social time for most of the independent artists. We understand this issue and in our endeavour of coming up with solution for solving this issue, we came across two rules which are easy to apply in creative industry!

 

First up is, “The 80-20 Rule”

Well, this country is pretty easy to understand. Spend a good amount of time on those 20% of business activities that brings around 80% business revenues. If we talk through artist’s perspective, an artist should deliberately focus more on creating his artwork more & more effective & photograph it commendably rather than spending time on thinking how to sell it. An artist should be more focused about adding an extra value to his artwork & getting associated with the different channels where he can sell.

 

Second Rule is “Focus on what you love”.

If artists are restricted by any boundaries, they can never flourish. Creativity can be expected by an artist if you let him play around his own world & not burden him with formalities like selling & promotions & strategizing. So if you are an artist & want to escape from these formalities, it is highly recommended to firstly chalk out all the activities that you are currently performing. Then you need to identify those 20% tasks that might drive in about 80% of your business revenues. Out of all these tasks, separate those particular tasks that you enjoy the most & through which you feel that you justified your day. After you find out the tasks that less excites you, try & find the ways to outsource them or maybe assign them to someone else.

It’s quite normal to feel Control Freak! while handing over the other tasks to someone else, but if you don’t do so, it will detrimental for your business. It quite understood that for an artist, managing the sales, marketing, operations & finance is an Einstein’s job. Nevertheless, to help from getting rid of these tasks you may always find a company who has an expertise in these fields & who works on project basis. You won’t need to handle anything that bothers you or that takes your time, you may simply outsource it to these proficient companies in this line of business. Indirectly it would also help you to save an amazing sum of time to do that 20% of works that brings-in an impressive 80% profit to you.

There are so many online companies who offer the virtual assistance especially to the arts & crafts industry. You might also find online handmade stores, art galleries, art dealers, PR companies, and creative websites who help you to introduce yourself to the world. Creative Business that are outstanding performers have their 80/20 rule sorted and created their support network already! 

So to Sum up a simple 3 step process;

1. Every artist should find their creative niche which is most pleasing to their clientele.
2. Then, list all the tasks which are time consuming without great ROI; but someone needs to do them. 
3. Find experts and specialists who Love to Do these time consuming tasks and delegate the process. (Your Trash can be someone else's Treasures ;) 

What to do with Copycats in Creative Industry ?

There are several artists who have created their virtual presence to showcase their creativity to the world through social networks, blogs, 
personal websites, e-commerce portals etc. They place their complete artworks on these sites in order to promote & generate a demand for them & make some money.

However, we constantly come across artists at various craft markets who have completely blocked themselves from Online Media (even simple product photographs on the market days are banned) to protect their creative ideas from the copycats! But this detrimental for their own growth and product reach! 

"We did some research and found astonishingly about 62% artists around the globe who still fear to go online, due to the fear of CopCats! "

Being an artist myself I can understand the immense stress an artist feels when their art is copied by someone & then its value being diminished. However this doesn't happen every time you add your creativity online.

 "You can never run out of originality, the more you use it; the more you gain it."

 On the other hand we came across some fabulous Creative Artists who are just inhibited by such copycats in the industry. Edith JoChinke from Timeless Treasures just calmly brushes off these copycats by saying;

 “No one can do my products as well as I do. A passionate handmade buyer will always notice the difference! So it doesn't bother me!” 

Or Sam Nord White from Yarra Glen Market,  just changes her Products every time she finds someone else has copied her existing products and opened stall in the same Craft Market!

Usually the imitators lack a lot of originality in their art piece. People, who make business by copying some of the most selling items, don’t have the perseverance and passion to sustain them in long run. Whereas an original artist has more passion and soul in his artwork & this keeps his work authentic. A true artist also keeps on searching for new ways to enhance his traditional creativity, however in the way that people recognize it by his name.

Imitators are always driven by the latest fashions; they keep on copying different objects from different artist & create some sort of mixtures out of it. This doesn't work for true art lovers & they catch the tricks used by the artists immediately. An original aesthetician understands that a significant factor of success lies in sticking at something for the long term. When an original artist works on his art piece, he completes it with a perfect finishing that is gained from several years of practice & experience. This doesn't happen with the copiers, they start the piece with an intention to imitate but they aren't 100% successful in finishing it with the same level of quality.

Make Copycats Irrelevant Now; Make Your Business Exclusive!

 There are several ways through which you can keep your creativity away from these burglars. Go Gung Ho with Social Media Promotion to promote your products globally; don’t restrict yourself to small region and pockets of towns! Brand your products by your signature packaging, quality and personalized touch! Create Collaborations and Market your products through various avenues as discussed in our previous blog posts about “5 tips to sell handmade online”. When your products are promoted by Art Gallery, Art dealers or Online Marketplaces, it’s perceived in different light by the buyer, as it makes your product look elusive and precious.

 Big Brands like Louis Vuitton, Versace, GAP etc. are often uninhibited by some ‘made in xyz’ country labels copycat products being flooded in second class markets. There’s lot to learn from the Big Businesses sometimes!

Stay ahead of your game and beat the copycats by showcasing your products on various Art Galleries & Online handmade stores sooner than later.

We can help you to promote your masterpieces on various channels, do not worry about the ‘How’ & ‘Where’ as we are here to take care of it. You just need to go embrace the change and expand your product exposure! Give justice to the artist in you! 

Introducing New Artists - Sally Green creative Glass Artists

Born with a creative intention to blend art with life,our artist Sally Green is one of the soul who is obsessed of completely transforming even the simplest colours & lines into something truly artistic. Encouraged to paint and draw from a very young age, her passion made her choose the first profession as an airbrush artist. As Sally entered into this exquisite market of arts, she established her own shop where she educated & created murals extensively for public perusal. This wasn’t the only limit, in pursuit of modern art technique that combined her career and creative desire- The Glass Art was formed.

In the year 2002, Sally changed the traditional way of Glass Art & converted it into something very unique using attractive colours & Glass beads, a method known as Lampwork. She took a lot of efforts for over 8 years for creating this artpiece into something very beautiful & exceptional from other similar art. Sally wanted it to be the best of the class & thus she struggled to make her unique Handmade Jewellery & Hand-blown Glass adding her own innovative style of arts & some colourful Glass Beads. Her skills are commended worldwide & especially in the Australian Art Galleries. This doesn’t stop her from hunting & trying out new ideas to reinvent her Glass Art making it superior. She never gets tired to justify her passion & works on her Glass art in her Studio which is based out of Dandenong range, east of Melbourne.

Lampwork is a kind of art that requires a lot of dedication & endurance. If you are a true believer of this art only then you find it easy to make. These believer of arts can only be the people who are eligible to call themselves as Artists. The artists can only understand what it takes to make the Lampwork beads using the glass & torch. There is a proper technique of heating the glass & beads, giving it a required shape, adding the ornamental elements & choosing the perfect range of colours to mix-up with one another.

These Glass beads can be availed as per the choice – simple ones without any embellishments or the ones with decorative objects. Various coatings of colourful glasses are used by melting them in order to obtain the finest look of the artpiece. The practice of making hand-blown glass is very difficult and it takes years of practice to get it perfect. Our Artist Sally has reached the level where she has earned the identity of being one of the greatest artists to make the Glass Art famous & elegant to wear.

Her range of creations are available for display on her website where one can contact the artist and get the custom pieces crafted by her & completely unique from others. One thing can be definite that once you wear the Glass Artpiece made by Sally Green, you surely going to look graceful and will get beautiful compliments.