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Growing your Art Business while Balancing a Job

Added 2020-06-19 12:48:29 +0000 UTC

Some artists feel like the only way they will be able to succeed is by taking a big scary leap by quitting their regular full or part-time job to only pursue art. We hear about some artists who succeed in doing this but going that route is very risky and, let's be real, taking that big leap doesn’t always work out for everyone. The stories of someone having to pick up their regular job again and do art on the side doesn’t sound as dramatic or glamorous but there are some real benefits to keeping that regular job!

Benefits like:

Less financial risk
Not stressing as much about finding paid art gigs or commissions
More time to try new things, fail, and learn without the worry of not being able to pay the bills
Time to let your business organically grow
The money that starts coming in from your art can be extra money on top of your regular pay that you can save or reinvest in your art business.

So lets talk about this alternative path. Maintaining your full or part-time job while growing your art business on this side!

I'm not gonna lie: The first thing you need to know is that this path is challenging and often exhausting. It takes passion, dedication and oodles of self discipline. But I believe if it is something you truly want to pursue, it is totally doable and it is very rewarding!

This article in particular is going to be a very personal one for me to write since it is something I have been trying to figure out for the past five or so years.

Priorities

Your time and energy is limited, so it is super important to think about what you will prioritize when you are building your art business.

What is your focus?

Commission work?
Freelance clients?
Youtube?
Growing on Social Media?
Selling Merch Online?
Trade Shows /Comic Cons?
Patreon?
Ko-Fi?
Streaming?
Something else?

If you haven’t already thought about your priorities, that is the first thing I would recommend you do. Sit down and list out your options and then decide what you are most interested in putting the majority of your focus on.

I’m not saying you can’t focus on multiple things or change your focus down the road, but since your time and energy is limited while maintaining a job, it is best to choose one or two things to focus in the beginning, and let go of trying to do everything all at once. As you get the hang of it and your productivity increases, you can always add and try new aspects to your business if you want.

If you want some more ideas on areas to focus on (specifically when it comes the money side of things), check out the article on Ways to Make Money Online as an Artist.

Prioritize building your Skills

You should always remember to prioritize building your art skills first and keep that as a high priority. In fact, if you are really early on in this process maybe that is your only focus!

It's extremely important to keep growing your skills as an artist because when a potential client or customer is looking at your work, they are looking at your skill level and deciding if you have the skills to do the job. Remember that: yes, having a large online presence might get more eyes on your work, but your portfolio and skill level are what will actually get you hired.

The beauty of keeping your regular job is that you can prioritize skill building without financial worry!

Personal Projects

In my opinion, one of the really awesome things about keeping a regular job and doing art on the side is not feeling the pressure to always be working on commissions to earn money. This gives me freedom to spend my art time focusing on personal projects.

I highly recommend having some sort of personal project that you can work on. It could be big or small, but make it something you are passionate about.

It could be:

A Comic
An Illustration Series
An Animated Short
An Art Challenge
Some other Awesome Idea that only you can dream up?

When you work on something you are passionate about, it's easier to put more effort and time into the work and in turn, your skills will grow faster with that effort.

Become a Weekend Warrior

When you work a regular job and you are trying to build a business on the side, weekends(or whatever days you have off of your job) are probably going to be your main side-business work time.

It's important to still have some time to relax and disconnect so that you don’t burn out. Plan both your weekend work time and plan your weekend relaxation time.

To stick to this schedule, you will need to maximize your productivity! Turn off distractions, and decide what tasks need to be completed during your weekend work time. Once you finish said task, take some time to recharge, get some physical exercise in, and relax.

I know from first hand experience how easy it is to just work all of the time and then quickly burn out from exhaustion. Our brains need time to chill and recharge if we want to stay productive long term.

Have a task list

This is a common practice in regular jobs, but sometimes as artists we don’t think to use task tracking for our personal businesses. But it is a really good way to keep everything that needs to be done in order!

You can make this as structured or unstructured as you would like. Maybe it's literally just a sticky note with a list of tasks you need or want to do for your business, or maybe you use an actual task tracking software if that helps you. When I keep track of my list of tasks, they suddenly seem a lot less overwhelming then if I just let them all float around in my head. Find what works best for your personality and use it.

What will you do with evenings?

You will need to take some weekday evenings off, but are there some evenings where you can set aside time to draw or work on other business related things? Take full advantage of any evening free-time to create some artwork, even if it is just a little bit right before bed, or sketching while you watch TV. Consistent practice is super important when it comes to improving at anything.

Take Advantage of your Breaks at Work

Take advantage of breaks at your regular day job. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media, use your break to do productive things related to your art business. This could be by:

Sketching
Answering a Client Email
Scheduling a Post
Making a new shop listing
Any small task that can be squeezed into a short break at work

Just be careful not to let these kinds of tasks distract you from your regular job outside of those break periods.

Take advantage of time saving tools and systems

There are a lot of automated tools out there to help you save time. Here are a few ideas of some tools and systems that might help you save some time.

Automated Emails and Messages: For example, if you get an email inquiring about commissions, you can set up an automated response that includes your prices and terms of service for the inquirer to review.

Quickbooks (or some other expense/income tracking for small businesses): Keeping an expense/income tracker organized and up to date can be extremely helpful and save you some time when tax season rolls around. Once you start running a small business, filing your taxes can become a very time consuming process if you haven’t kept everything organized.

Envelope/Address Print: This is a free windows app that lets you create an envelope template and then load in addresses from an exel or CSV file. If you send lots of envelopes for something like patreon this can be a huge time saver because you can actually download a CSV file from Patreon that includes the info that you need. You just need to set up your envelope template once, load in the file with all the info and then you can print all the envelopes in one go! (I’m sure there are probably other versions of this same type of software out there if you are a mac user)

Task Tracking Software: There are so many options out there, and tbh I tend to prefer either just making a list on my phone, or writing my tasks down on a sticky note. But some of you might like having a more sophisticated app. If you google “free task tracking app”, you’ll find a bunch of blogs reviewing the best options out there if that is something you want to dive into.

Low Maintenance Income: It's always nice to sprinkle in some low maintenance/passive income streams, such as selling digital products on gumroad, when you are building your business. Once you have uploaded your product, it doesn’t usually take any more effort to maintain that product.

Fiverr/hiring help: If you find yourself swamped and there is an aspect of your work that you could use help with, consider looking on a website life fiverr to find someone who specializes in that area. Maybe you need a little short term help from a virtual secretary, or maybe you are a comic artist who has a shit ton of panels to get done and you need to hire a colorist to do flat colors so you can focus on the actual drawings. If you are in a position to do so and it will help your business grow, hiring help can be a really great option.

If you ever find yourself frustrated because you are being bogged down by really repetitive work, stop and do a quick search to see if a tool that automates the process already exists.(hint: it probably does) This is literally what happened to me when I was in the middle of putting 50+ addresses on envelopes one by one.

Final Thoughts:

Building your art business on the side is an ever-learning process. You will pick up more and more tricks and practices as you go that are specific to you and your business, and what you learn will slowly increase your productivity.

It can also be a very tiring process since it requires you to replace a lot of your relaxation time with more work time so pay very close attention to your own limits and honor those limits. If you find yourself burning out, don’t be afraid to take a little break to recharge. It is better to take that break than to burn yourself out so much that you quit for a longer period of time.

Keep learning and growing! And remember, take it one step at a time. You can do it!

I hope you found this helpful and as always, if you made it through this article, I commend you!

Feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts or tips that you have discovered for yourself when it comes to growing your art business on the side. Also, feel free to let me know if you have any topics for article tips you are interested reading in the future.

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