Our first two Devine Intervention business coaching for artists options are live!
1. The Devine Guide
2. 1 hour Consults with Claire
Further options will be available late 2021.
This page is for you if you are...
-A Creative business owner (eg. making earrings, knits, kids clothes or toys, slow fashion, homewares....the list is endless.)
-An Artist
-A Maker
-An artsy small business/retail owner
-Someone who wants to quit your current 9 to 5 to be any of the above things
Please know this: no artist/creative business is too small for Devine Intervention. Quite the opposite - if you are small and wanting to grow - you've come to the right place.
Long Story Short
This page isn't about art, it is about the business of art.
Every day on Instagram I am approached by others with an extensive list of questions who want to 'live the dream' of full time artist/maker life but also don't want to be a 'starving artist.' People who are good at what they do but not necessarily at getting what they do out for the world to see (and buy!) People who see our family business and think, I want what she's having.
I grew an art business from nothing to being the sole income for our family of 5 in just 2 years. It wasn't all smooth sailing and it definitely wasn't without a generous investment of time and energy...but given the average for artists (if they are going to make it at all) is 6 years until they can be 'full time' - I think I made a pretty good start. What I've discovered along the way is that a lot of creatives have AMAZING products and are making beautiful things but...no one knows about them. I firmly believe there is room for everyone to succeed in this business but I also firmly believe that plenty of people who 'should' succeed, don't, because they don't have the right tools to 'make it.' I want to make sure you do ('make it,' I mean) by sharing my experience, knowledge, mistakes and contacts with you.
So, this business coaching for artists page is going to ultimately give you info about Creative/Art Business Consulting, Start Up Help, Creative Business Audits, Brainstorming Sessions and The Devine Guide to...Creative Business Success. It is all here. (Well.. some of it is coming soon...but this is where you should start!)
Long Story Long
Claire here.
I’m not some self-appointed business guru and I’m definitely not here to sell you on working with me on some unsubstantiated claim that I’ve grown a business from nothing to 6 figures in 6 months and that I’m some sort of ‘queen’ on social media or otherwise.
Those smoke-and-mirror, salesy, misleading roles have been taken by plenty of other people. Hard pass.
You know what also bothers me most about a lot of those 'business guru' types? They don't have any teaching expertise. I've been a teacher for the better part of 15 years and can I please tell you, 'knowing stuff' is totally different from 'successfully showing other people how to use what you know.'
I’m not going to tell you our exact turnover or profit margin because, I don’t know about you, but I don’t even talk about my exact salary with my close friends, let alone strangers on the internet. That’s always seemed a bit weird to me.
What I can tell you about our journey to business success is this:
1. ‘Turnover’ and ‘profit’ are two very different things. So, those slimy (but with perfect Insta grid) gurus claiming to make $100k a month? That’s nice and all but what is it COSTING them to make that turnover? The money that you make in business is not the same as your PROFIT (you know, the money that you actually get to keep once all the bills are paid) So...anyone touting themselves as a guru based on their 6 or 7 figure business....I say, kindly show me the profit.
2. It took us two years of me running the business part time whilst I worked full time in another role to reach profitability. That’s the turning point where you’ve paid yourself back all the money you originally pumped into the business to start it and now the business is starting to generate more money than that. If two years sounds long? Remember that it is the minimum time for small businesses to do that as a general rule and that most businesses fail and shut up shop in the first two years because they aren’t profitable and people just run out of money. Profit being the key word here, hey?
3. In the last year I have run this business as my only occupation. (I won’t say full time as family health issues have demanded a lot of the hours - my son is partially sighted and requires extensive therapy, my husband is unwell and I had my own significant health issues during my most recent pregnancy including an extended stay in hospital) Yet amidst that we have:
-Had the business as our only source of income for a family of 5 (with three hungry boys!)
-Generated 6 figures multiple times over in turnover
-Reinvested and up-skilled with some of that money
-Paid our mortgage, all our bills and almost the equivalent of our two previous salaries (since my husband also now works exclusively in the business) from business income
4. Wow, Clairebear. You just talked a lot about profit. I thought art was all about passion and purpose? True...but if you aren't making money from your art then you aren't running a business - you just have an expensive hobby.
If you want to work with someone who will tell you that you can make 7 figures by next Tuesday, you can have my advice for free right now: buy a lotto ticket. I hear it’s a good jackpot.
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