So I Finally Attended A Webinar, And Here's What Happened

     Just in case your propensity for B.S. disallows you the experience, I have martyred myself by attending a webinar for small handcrafted business for you. Rest assured, you're probably not missing all that much. Below, we will explore some of the bogus tips I was given, and why they most likely won't work for artists, or possibly anyone.

      Automate your small business:
Well, this may be possible if you're making bath bombs, or something with some level of uniformity, but it won't work for artists! You cannot outsource your art. You can reach someone else how to make production-quality knock offs of your work, but it'll never quite be YOUR work. There are plenty of jobs to hire out when it comes to your business, but if you create one of a kind pieces of art, I suggest you keep the hiring out to stuff like shipping and shopping.

      Stick to ONE THING.
To get noticed, to stand out, these small business gurus recommend making yourself the end all be all in just ONE arena. What? You want....artists.....to suppress their talents to appease you by focusing on one medium until they're bored? This is terrible advice for artists! True artists fiddle with multiple mediums every week! What if you haven't even found the medium that will allow you to reach true greatness, and you settle for good? No, artist friends, do NOT stick to ONE THING. Unless that one thing is your heart. Follow that bad birch everywhere.

      Assess the competition
How about no? As an artist, other artists are teachers more than they have ever been competition. Assess the market, sure. But keep any ideas about competition strictly to sports. This isn't a competition, and the only one you should be competing against is your former self. No one else can produce your art because no one else sees the world quite the same way you do. Eyes on your own paper, there, Jimmy.
     The market, however, watch all you want. Its good to be aware of trends and to use effective tags, but don't think of the art market as competing for sales. Other artists and sellers may be employing marketing strategies you could benefit from, but they are still not your adversaries.
   
   
      Attending a webinar could be enough to crush your spirit, but don't start restructuring your small business just yet! There are many paths to success, and you could be very close to yours and not even know it. While it's always good to keep learning new techniques to apply to your business strategy, it seems best at this stage to keep plugging away, and apply the techniques that feel right for you. Not being able to match strategies with one guru seller won't break your company, but cutting off what people genuinely love about it, might. If you're going to subscribe to any of these gurus out there, remember that not everything you try on I'd going to be a perfect fit, but when something does got for your startup, you'll know it! What fits your business best, is your passion for it.

Getting Craftier

     Sales are slow in the summer! But my little shop survived anyway. More due to the generosity of my customers than my own perseverance but alive is alive either way, and I won't be taking it for granted.
     I've diversified my inventory, but my main focus has taken a sharp turn toward cosplay items. Not that I ever didn't do cosplay items, just that I've now got the confidence to make more of what I want to make. I've made leaps and bounds in the learn-to-run-a-business arena, but living with schizophrenia, I have to take these things slow to avoid being overwhelmed. I'm still a little nervous about the future, I've got to admit. Making ends meet is a challenge.
     Learning to use Pinterest is an even bigger challenge! (The wiki says I can follow my Facebook friends, but I can't find anything on Pinterest that will allow me to).
     In November, my store will have its first birthday.  Its come a long way and it's still got much farther to go!
One of my recent pieces

No one ever said it was going to be easy

No one ever said art would be easy. I may enjoy it, but it's still not easy.  Sales are not always consistent. You have to learn how to BE a salesman as well as an artist. Marketing is another skill that comes in handy.  Starting out has not been without its bumps! Running an online store was never something I planned on doing, but here I am!  It's worth it.  Finding balance is a constant struggle, but I won't be giving up anytime soon.
     Those two business classes they made me take in high school and college sure are coming in useful and I can't say I ever expected that.  I'm learning, I'm growing, and all while making mental illness look good. I'm not the best there ever was or anything. Just the best I ever was.

A little about myself: Disclaimer

     I'm not normal. I never claimed to be. I will not apologize for not being so.
      I am schizophrenic. And since I first started getting diagnoses, there has never been room in the mental health closet for me. It wears on me in a noticeable way, making the alternate name for the classification, salient syndrome, that much more fitting.
     I am an artist. But only after years of being a traveler, experiencing the symptoms of homelessness. I have always been an artist but being a traveler is limiting in what you can have as you'll have to carry it. My life has been just as atypical or abnormal as I am, and any art is merely a consequence or result of that. I like things aged, dingy, unclean. I like them worn and haggard. I cannot help but to distress almost everything for this reason. I don't know if the symbolism reads through, or not.
     There are a lot of great and inspiring artists in the world. And I'm sure many of them are mentally ill. I am just another one of them. No artist is probably normal, I'd imagine. That sight comes with a knowing that will twist you in some way. Maybe there are art forms that don't require you to be broken somehow, but for the most part, transmuting pain, ugliness and decay, into beauty and elegance, requires one to be aware of all of these things on a deeper level. To trigger a reaction within others, you've got to relate to them first. Or they've got to relate to you, anyway.
     But
     How can you not relate to any artist, as vulnerable as they are in their moment of expression, as raw as ever. We've all been there. I'm not sure I'm broken really. Just that I was given a kaleidoscope eye upgrade with which to view the world.