Tips For Mixed Media Artists That Want To Make Money Series 3 - Part 1.1 -- Gathering The Fruits and Replanting

Thank you for continuing the mixed media artists series with this third installation! As I left off earlier rather quickly I am here to continue! I began writing about something called a Value Proposition Harvest earlier. It can be called many things but for the sake of understanding what this is, think of it as two main things:

1.) What you want people to associate your online and in-person presence with;

2.) Only using a few words (that are not your business name, tagline, or your own name), one symbol and two colors

This is going to be based on the Business Model Canvas that was in the first series. Specifically the middle rectangle. Here are two questions to refresh your memory:

1.) What makes your art and your creative business unique?

2.) How are you helping your target market? What problem are you solving for them?

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Let's talk more about the Value Proposition Harvest

I coined this phase so that it's better to remember what it means. Out in the fields, a harvest is where you reap the fruits that you planted. If you've been reading this since Series 1 and growing your presence with your core values then this is where we are going to pick the low hanging fruit, then use the seeds that are inside of those fruits to replant creating something that you can continue to keep planting and be able to depend on that harvest for your livelihood.

Branding is the low hanging fruit that is right before your eyes.....

Using the branding to your advantage once you set everything up are the seeds of that fruit.

Once you replant those seeds also known as receiving feedback that someone has mentally linked your branding to your creative business then it's only a matter of time until those seeds grow into another fruit.

If we were planting seeds literally I'm sure you would want to achieve this with the best knowledge and resources using the recommended soil for what you are planting, watering at certain times, getting them started out indoors before moving outdoors, fussing with them, etc.......

Use that same methodology for approaching the branding portion of your creative business.

Let's specify

If you are reading this, you are most likely a creative entrepreneur. If you haven't gotten that far yet then please go back and read Part 4 of Series 2.

To be really straightforward, if you are a creative entrepreneur then you need to know your mission, vision, core values, and goals. Not just to know them but to also communicate them across either your blog or your website and preferably both if possible. Just take a deep look at your business model canvas from the first series to start defining your mission.

Mission - This is going to change depending on if you are targeting a B2C (someone btw 25-35 female who just bought a house for example) or B2B (gallery/interior designers). For a blog and/or website start with your main muse and branch out from there.

Vision - Where are you headed? What do you see ahead? What do you ultimately want to do in the long run?

Core Values - What is important to you? What do you think is most important to your target audience? Quality, honesty, accountability, availability, convenience, quantity, high value, low value, a connection?

A creative entrepreneur is usually led by their passion which turns into a mission to share their passion. You can't write that as your mission but I just wanted to drive the point across further. Once you clarify those 4 vitals then go back through before you communicate them and make sure that your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-limited goals). As an example here is one of my newest goals that I'm amending on my Welcome page tonight:

Smart Goal #1:

S(pecific) - I plan to blog 7 days a week by 10pm EST until November 2018. Each post will be relevant to what my readers want as they have shown me by their click-through rate on my posts and by subscribing to my email newsletter.

M (easurable) - I want to see the traffic that my blog is producing convert over to my website where my artworks are for sale that I advertise on each blog post and an increase in sales instead of sitting in people's carts.

A (ttainable) - I will work on the transition to getting over to my website that is more difficult than it should be right now. I'm seeing some issues when I go from one page to the other.

R(elevant) - This goal is highly relevant to my entire mission to share my art and passion with the world relies on connecting with others.

T(ime-limite)d - 7 days a wk/ by 10pm EST until November 2018, one week before this time span ends I will amend this goal to better serve my mission for the future!

I'm going to leave off here so that you can create a lively mission, vision, core values, and 4-5 SMART goals until we continue on with this series which is going to be mostly about branding! I will be back tomorrow to continue with Part 2 of this series 3 where I will share with you a secret on how to flip the business model canvas to find your best symbolism to use for your branding.