You have developed seven basic business principals for turning a hobby in art into a career. Would you very briefly run through those?
The key to any type of success is ...keep it real, don't try to fool anyone.I identified seven stages of success and used these core business principles to develop my own career in clay art and strive to perfect them a bit more every day.
The first of the seven steps involves getting to know enough about yourself to know what solutions you can provide for people. This will become the heart and soul of your 'clay art'. Your art comes from your solutions....
[Then you need to identify who your solutions are intended for.] In my case, it wasn't primarily the bone china figurine collector I was looking at; it was the 'Product Developer' for the big companies. In the case of UK clay artist Paul Smith...he is appealing to the 'end user'.
The next of the seven stages is a favorite sound bite of TV's Dr Phil...'be accountable'. In other words dream, but take action - give yourself time frames, plans and targets.
Next you have to find a way to establish your credentials. This can be done even from a standing start – something I proved with my own career switch to clay sculpting.
The final 'selling' step is to make sure you get a commitment from your prospective customers – which does not mean 'close a sale'. It simply means checking out, by asking the right questions, whether or not you are being stalled (if so, exit fast). Then ask (very politely) what exactly what has to happen before they do business with you. By giving you the appropriate and truthful information they are making a wonderful 'commitment'.
Once you have used these principles properly you should be on your way to some degree of success. The final two steps are about developing your career and making sure you never get in the comfort zone - very common after a degree of initial success.
