5 things I learned about Business in 2010

What a busy year this has been! Now that it is nearing the middle of December

Lists are beginning to appear - 10 things or 100 Best or 50 Top whatevers and whoevers. I saw an interesting one, actually several, at BizChickBlogs [dot com] this week:

a Food Blogger writes about "10 Things I Learned About Writing a Food Blog in 2010"
Blogger G. Arnolds wrote "10 Things I Learned About Facebook in 2010"
An artist and teacher noted "10 Things I Learned About Becoming a Creative Entrepreneur in 2010"

Well I learned some things about business this year too. Here is my top 5 Things I Learned About Business in 2010:

1. Focus. And I say again, Focus! The economy be danged, I decided way last January to forge ahead in the new year of 2010 with my art business and enter shows, exhibitions and competitions. I filled my calendar as you can see by taking a look at the Art Calendar tab on the top menu of this page. It took work, strict budgeting and dedication to:

producing new work that could be entered into shows, exhibitions and competitions
filling out applications, mailing them, and scheduling said shows, exhibitions and competitions
schleping all my stuff to outdoor shows: the booth, the display racks, the tables, the boxes of artwork and the other various paraphenalia necessary

Another aspect of focusing my efforts this year was that of writing - yep writing. Up until September of this year I was writing two blogs - this one, an artist blog, and what was then my primary blog, one dedicated to small business. I came to a point of asking myself- one day as I was reviewing my business plan [even solopreneurs, artist-preneurs, need to have a vital and alive business plan]- why was I writing two blogs? My personal business was my art business and as such I should devote my writing efforts to that realm. So it made sense to retire "Linda's Business Blog" and grow Mosaic Mandalas. Focus.

2. Choose your Social Media carefully. I take it as a marketing given that a business should be utilitizing internet social media opportunities if - and this is a big IF - that business has a desire to be known farther afield than its own geographical neighborhood. There is a site that has much to say on this subject, Social Media Today [dot com] - lots of articles gathered from many sources with titles like:

"5 Reasons You Need a Social Media Manager" by Krysty Petrucci
"Social Media Overkill: 10 Tips to Get Your Audience to Focus on You" by Pam Moore

I decided early in the year to include social media in my business marketing and promotional strategies. But Oh My Gosh! there are so many social media sites out there...it is quite possible to overload yourself to the point that all you are doing is writing status updates. If you have a very small business like I do, Time is one of your most valuable resources - I have to carve up my Time in a way that benefits my business not hurts it. It takes time to paint a new work, to apply ceramic tiles to new mosaic piece, to design a new digital artwork, to go on photography jaunts for new inspiration; time to do paperwork; time to do shows; time to do promotion and marketing...not to mention time for the entire rest of your life. So it becomes necessary to be smart in how and where you choose to use social media. I decided to keep my focus somewhat narrow because I have limited time I can spend at my laptop:

Twitter - I use this micro-messenger for my art business - letting folks know when I have a new blog post or new work in my Etsy shop or events to attend or sharing interesting things I've come across; and of course I link everything everywhere one to another
Facebook - I have a personal profile, but this year I added a business Page. On this Page is information about my business; a shop button for my galleries at Fine Art America. Having a Page for my business on Facebook made sense for my marketing plan.
LinkedIn - you wouldn't think that artists and other creatives would use this professional social platform, but you'd be surprised at the thousands of us there are - I've "met" some pretty interesting people there - it's another audience to share your business info with
Niche-appropriate sites: depending upon your business there are social sites specific to your niche that would make sense...as an artist I have a couple specific to the art world.

3. Make sure what you do for your business is something about which you are passionate. It goes without saying that anyone with a business of their own is going to spend much of their time consumed by it in one way or another so it ought to be something that:

brings you Joy
brings you fulfillment
was born of a dream

Now I knew this intellectually but this year, as I emersed myself in my work, it was revealed to me that I truly do love what I do...no matter that there are days when I feel like I'm painting by number or days when my fingers cramp from gluing down nano-sized ceramic tiles or those two shows this year that totally bombed. Doesn't matter because my business is an extension of who I am...my work best represents me.

4. Not everything is online. Not by a long shot. Networking began in the human world where people met face-to-face to exchange names and ideas. Artists do the same. I joined a group of artists who meet several times a month to share what we've learned about the doing of art, of promoting our work, critiquing one another's new works and generally giving each other support and friendship. Keep your local community close and participate - not out of selfish intent but rather out of the joy of being with others who speak your language. Sometimes only another artist knows what yet another artist is talking about!

5. Follow your instincts. Be assured of what you know and be open to learning something new. Late last year I knew it was time to go in a new direction artistically but it felt risky. However it felt more right. I began working in mosaics. I also began designing works with digital art tools and began to abstract my photographs turning them into artworks. This is quite a bit of newness for one year, so 2011 will be a continuing process of learning, improving, refining and discovering. I learned that my business is my business and its direction and vision ought to be my own. Same is true of anyone's business. Other peopel might have some kind of subjective idea of where they think you ought to go with your business, but they are not you and do not see ahead to what you envision your business to become.

Me? I have so many new paintings yet do, so many new mosaic pieces to do, so much photography to do and so many new digital designs to do that it's going to take the rest of my life...how wonderful is that?

These are things I learned about Business this year. What did you learn?