Starting a Creative Business in 2022
Our top tips
We know that 2022 has brought about a lot of uncertainty, with the economy taking a large hit thanks to the covid pandemic along with many other factors. And as a result, many are looking for ways to generate new streams of income.
If you’re a creative sort, this could be the perfect way to start. And in 2022, starting a business that utilises your creativity has never been easier!
There are so many ways to not only produce your products, but also market and sell them. Another reason a creative business can be a great option is due to the relatively low start-up costs! Whether you decide to get your products printed, or decide to produce them entirely on your own.
So, if you’ve been considering taking the plunge and finally acting upon that dream, we’ve put together some top tips for starting your creative business in 2022.
1. Find you style and what speaks to you
When starting to think of designs and the products you may sell, it can be easy to go too broad and get a bit carried away. When just starting out, it’s a good idea to try and hone in on a particular style and potentially a smaller selection. This helps you to start to build the backbones of your brand. How you will stand apart from others. Maybe you like bright, bold and modern design, or perhaps something a bit more rustic and homely. Whatever your preferred style, you should stick to it! Furthermore, starting with a smaller range will also help to minimise your initial start-up costs. It can be exciting starting a new business, and you do need to have the determination to succeed. But you also need to be mindful that not everything is going to be a bestseller.
It’s also important that whatever you decide to do, it is something you feel passionate about. Starting a business is hard work, especially if you are doing it alongside current employment. So it’s important you feel passionate about it as this will help spark you to keep going when things get difficult or you find yourself working long hours.
2. Get planning
When starting any business, the importance of a plan cannot be overlooked. A business plan, at the very least, should outline your business goals and intentions and also your target demographic. This will also help when building out your products. When you have a clear idea of who you're trying to reach with your designs, it can help to keep you aligned and to not get sidetracked. You can go into more depth of course with a business plan, such as considering forecasted revenues, profits etc. and how you plan to grow your business over a set amount of time.
Similarly, it’s a great idea to have a plan in place for other areas of your business. Such as planning a schedule as to when you aim to achieve certain things. You could set a goal date for when you would like to launch a website, or sell at your first market. Which gives you a timeframe to work on as you start designing and creating.
It’s great to get started and jump in with your new business, but an element of planning can be what makes or breaks the success of your new business.
3. Decide where to sell
So you’ve got your products designed, now it’s time to connect with customers and get your hard work out there. But where and how? Well, in this day and age there has never been an easier time to have multiple channels of reaching customers. From selling at local artisan markets, to online marketplaces, to building your own website. It has all been made so much easier to acquire more channels to reach potential customers. And there are different challenges that come with each. If setting up your own website, whilst you can customise the entire customer experience, you are also in charge of driving visitors to your website, whereas if you choose an online marketplace, or a physical market, these will naturally have customers visiting already. So it requires less work to get your products seen by potential customers. When just starting out this can be a great way to give you one less thing to worry about. And as your business grows and awareness of your brand grows, you can consider branching out into new avenues.
4. Let people know
As mentioned already, the technological era we live in means that many aspects of starting a business have become so much easier. And that includes marketing! With so many social media platforms, with millions and millions of users, they have naturally become an essential part of business’ marketing strategies. So make sure to utilise these in building your business and getting people aware of what you’re doing. Most platforms have inbuilt paid marketing options which allow you to push your posts to reach more users. They also offer ways to analyse how your posts perform, allowing you to find the best ways to engage with and grow your customer base.
There are so many ways to go about marketing your business online. However, physical marketing should not be completely forgotten. Selling at local markets is a great way to start to build brand awareness and can help to drive even further custom to any online channels you may have. Along with being a great opportunity to connect and share the person behind the scenes. It’s been proven that customers value familiarity when buying from a business.
However you decide to go about it, it’s never too early to start getting the word out about what you’re doing!
5. Be determined
It could be easy to suggest that starting a business is purely all excitement and there is no stress or worry that comes with it. However, unfortunately for most, this isn’t the case. Whilst building something yourself is extremely rewarding, you will also need to be aware of the grit and determination you will need to truly push forwards with your creative business. In the early days, things may start slowly, and it can be easy to become demotivated by this. But having some trust, belief and determination to stay committed is essential. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. So be sure to give yourself the prep talk needed if you have any wavering doubts about the viability of your business. It truly can be an unmatched feeling of achievement becoming an entrepreneur and seeing your ideas come into fruition. You never know, what may have been considered as just a secondary source of income could quite easily become your dream job.
A good way to stay determined is to make sure you celebrate and give yourself credit for even small achievements. It can be easy to become too self-critical if your idea doesn’t become an overnight success or to over-analyse what has or could go wrong. So taking pride in small victories is a great way to keep yourself motivated and determined to continue.
6. Just go for it
There can be so many things that hold us back from following up on that big idea. From self-limiting beliefs, to how your friends and family may view your idea. But the only way you can truly find out whether or not something will work, is by just doing it! We often can find ourselves waiting for the perfect time. But the perfect time doesn’t exist. So, if you really want to know whether your creative business has any real potential, the best thing to do is to start. You won’t know all the answers before you start, and no amount of research can prepare for the multitude of situations that can arise once you’ve started. No matter what, taking the opportunity to learn from the experience of launching a business is sure to aid you in the future.
So there you have it. Just a few of our tips for starting a creative business in 2022. We know that there is so much that goes into starting up and running your own business, so keep an eye on our blog to check out more ideas and tips that could help! You can check out our other blog posts here.