Creative people sometimes shy away from business for fear it will compromise them as artists. Being able to sell your creative talents to appreciative clients doesn’t have to counter making a good financial living. Creative people have a lot to offer the world, but they first have to search for an audience that’s willing to pay them for their work.
Don’t be beholden to hot niches in the marketplace.
Some creative people are always looking for niche opportunities to create something new for trending audiences. For example, musicians might tailor their music to what’s hot right now. Another example is freelance authors who target hot genres (youth-oriented science fiction and fantasy are particularly hot right now.) But if you’re not really passionate about that genre, it’s going to show up in the work you produce. If a particular creative genre is not really your area of expertise, then you’re going to get burned out trying to manufacture work when your heart isn’t into it.
What about only working on what you love?
There’s a saying that goes “do what you love, and the money will follow.” It’s a lovely sentiment that’s shared by many artistic people. But there are some problems with trying to earn a living using that philosophy. While you should certainly do things that you love, it’s a sad fact that most of the paying jobs out there are for doing things that aren’t very creative. Doing what you love does not always guarantee that a fair amount of money will follow your decision. I might draw a line in the sand and insist that I’ll only do work that I find creatively satisfying. But I’m going to end up starving if nobody has any creatively satisfying work for me to do.
Do what you love, what your good at and what fills a need.
Creative freelancers usually realize that they have to compromise their creative principles to make a living. But don’t despair, you usually don’t have to fall too far off your creative ideals just to earn a decent salary. Most creatives end up finding an overlap between what they’re good at and what they’re passionate about. Most artistic freelancers realize that simply loving what they do does not guarantee that there is going to be an audience there that is willing to pay them for their work. You should take your skills and talents and try to position them such that it appeals to a certain niche of people. You don’t have to appeal to everyone, but you need a big enough group of the population that values your service.
Instead of thinking about how your output makes you feel good, think instead about how you can use your skills to start making other people feel good as well. Consider how your talent or skill can start benefiting others. This is how an artist learns to start making money. As you start making extra money, you can eventually start picking up enough clients such that you’ll need a robust invoicing system just to keep track of them. With all this talent that you have, focus on doing what you love and what you’re good at. There will be an audience out there and the money will follow.
How to balance your creativity with the need to get stuff done.
Creative people need balance. Creativity exists in that zone that is filled with nebulous and abstract ideas that creative people love to play with. But too often, creative people get stuck here. There is another side of creativity which is the doing zone. If you don’t have those two sides in balance, your manifestations don’t happen and things just get stuck in the idea drawer. But being a creative person also entails balance. There’s also the flip side where you are producing things without much thought or creativity. If you’re spending too much time doing and not enough time dreaming, then your actions can be hollow and lack energy.
To balance your creative and doing sides, always remember to keep checking in on yourself to make sure you stay in balance. Keep the two poles of your being energy and your doing energy focused on whatever action needs to happen right now. If you are too much in the doing energy, then maybe you need to take some time to dream and fantasize. If you’re stuck in too much doing, then you need to take action. This means getting yourself physically in motion. Get that energy going and do something. Go meet with people, call them and get your goals started by putting your intention out in the world to do something about your ideas and dreams.
Learn how to cultivate your creativity to jumpstart your productivity
When you use your creativity, your artistic energy flows throughout your body in free circulation. If you suppress your creativity, it will manifest as an energy block in that can directly impact your ability to make money. The people in society who make lots of money are people who let their creativity flow. When you honor your creative ideas, you’re allowing that energy to flow through your body until it finds an outlet. Go ahead and celebrate any ideas that come to you. Be thankful that you were visited by those ideas and how they inspired you.
Now that you have your creative energy flowing, is there some action you can take to move in the direction of making those ideas real?
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t have to do everything at once. Just try to do one thing that moves you closer in the direction harnessing your energy towards realizing that goal.
Making money doesn’t have to be divorced from the act of creativity. Once you find a niche or audience that responds to your creativity, money will soon follow. Learning how your creativity influences the amount of money you make can be a lifelong journey.
