D is for Doing

StartUp Ladies has posted another in my entrepreneurial essay series...D is for Doing. Writing this is more fun than I could ever have imagined. I hope it's helpful. Just having to put my thoughts in order is helping me.

Finally, an On-line Gallery

Having jumped into the blogging pools and discovering I really like to swim I've finally put together an e-gallery. I seem to make more art than I have time or inclination to get into galleries. I only exhibit once every two years or so, most recently at Mackerel Sky in East Lansing (a place everyone should visit!), as there needs to be time to think and work in peace when creating a large body of work. I exhibit in local galleries, but have avoided showing elsewhere because the logistics simply take too much time away from work I'd rather be doing...like the art itself.
This will, blog-style, be an ongoing thing. I'm just getting the images up and will be adding pretty continually.

I can take VISA (that sounds just so dang cold, somehow, but it's a fact and I guess I just need to say it).
I also regret that I can't offer a little opening reception for the gallery...a little wine, some bites and good company. You're welcome to visit, nonetheless.

The above image is an acrylic called Banana Tango.

P is for Patience

Camilla, who's StartUp Ladies is a site for entrepreneus, has asked me do do some writing. I've seen so many business articles and books which have the facts and to-do's, but somehow lack the emotional end of starting up and running a business. My series will be pretty personal...just what I know from a disturbing number of years of experience working for myself, being part of a cottage industry and starting several of my own.
P is for Patience was posted today, in case you'd like to read it.
Thanks, Camilla, for the opportunity. Writing forces me to think things through and find my truth in the matter.

A day in the life

Self-employed with, possibly, too many hats.

1. Get up and check e-mail and Google Analytics, which is a dandy way to find out what's happening at barbco.biz. Not a lot of activity, but some tint in new areas of the global map, which is intriguing, even if I can surmise it's just drop-ins, not serious lookers.
2. Get a form mailed out to do an art fair with our All Dogged Up stuff.
3. Balance the All Dogged Up checkbook.
4. Write an article on patience in business for some else's entrepreneurial blog.
5. Get a sketch onto the watercolor paper in prep for finished art.
6. While that's drying get some ceramic pieces into a smoker, so they're ready for the Saturday trunk show.
7. Talk with a client about an upcoming illustration job (Cepia, LLC - Glo-e Bear products)... match three new pieces with three I'd done earlier for them...sketches due Friday, finished art due next week.
8. Do a blog entry for ADU and while I'm at it, this one. (so far it's 1:30 pm - lunch was about 10 minutes)
9. Will still get some painting done on the illustration.
10. That's about it because I have to get my dog from the vet and go to two meetings tonight. The marketing mailing I was going to do today is going to have to wait till tomorrow.

Beats being bored!

Identity crisis.

The other day I had to fill out a form and state my occupation. I have always written artist. It's who I am and what I do. BUT, I suddenly realized that it didn't feel like enough. I'm running businesses and developing products. I'm NETworking and (I still can't believe it) blogging and sending out marketing materials and placing ads...doing spreadsheets of all things.

I wrote down artist and entrepreneur. It felt kindof pretentious, but I couldn't think of a better word. It's who I am and what I do...too.

StartUp Ladies

I just learned about a blog I'll be checking out regularly, I'm sure. It's StartUp Ladies. The idea is for women to share information and experience which should be of value to others who are at various stages in starting up businesses. It's fresh new information and a lovely site.

I'm in Yellow

This last few weeks I've felt a shift in the general energy of things from the internal to the external. The tight little developmental spiral, which I saw as red, is widening and working its way out and suddenly I feel I'm working in a different color.
I update my business plan every 4-6 months and I just added this little sun-like image to remind me how the business feels...that there has, indeed, been progress. Yellow and red was my favorite color combo when I was 5 (which begs the question: HAS there been progress?).

New Toy - Overnight Prints

I just found a new resource that I know a million people know about, but it's new to me.
I needed to print some pricing forms and my printer's been perfect, except for that one white line that runs through the middle of the page no matter what I've done to clean heads etc. There's quite a bit of ink coverage, so it's eating up cartridges like crazy. I decided to check out Overnight Prints. It's very well organized and easy to upload files and prices are really reasonable. It's worth it to get rid of the waste and stress of printing my own. It's immediate gratification, which is dangerous. I'm thinking of things I could print just for the fun of it.

Things worked out serendipitously this week. I finally got a handle on how I wanted to do a marketing push and got the print piece laid out. The next day a potential customer called and needed exactly what I'd just put together (and am having printed). She, unfortunately, is getting one of the pieces with the white line.