Hi there! I’m designer, metalsmith, and educator Megan Auman and I teach artists and makers how to profit from their creativity. I firmly believe that art, craft, and design make the world a better place, which is why I hate to see artists and makers undervaluing their work.
Whether that’s underpricing, burning out, or not marketing or selling to their full potential because they “don’t want to bother people,” I want to see artists and makers ditch the guilt and fear and start making real money from their work.
Here at Artists & Profit Makers, I share business advice I’ve learned running my eponymous jewelry line over the past seventeen years – everything from pricing to wholesale to product photography to yes, sales and marketing.
But more than that, I help artists and makers bring their businesses into Alignment so you can build a business that makes you money AND makes you happy!
I think its great that you’re able to have a day job that helps to feed your creativity. I have a feeling that most of us out there aren’t so lucky. I love my day job, but it has nothing do to with my business whatsoever. I do appreciate the fact that its very flexible with scheduling and I don’t work too many hours.
So I do agree that having a day job doesn’t mean you can’t have a professional business as well. I do think that your day job does has to have some flexibility or you will go crazy trying to keep up with your business.
Hi Megan,
I’m glad to be one of the first to comment on this. I just started up my own brick and mortar store in April. Though I have been working on my vintage clothing business since 2008. Starting off on Etsy, etc. and now I’ve setup shop on Big Cartel. A long side all of this, I have also been working part time to full time hours at a costume warehouse here in Toronto. I can honestly say, I don’t know about working 40hrs a week. I agree that dedicating that much time does interfere with your business. You’re lucky that you have a FLEXIBLE part time job. That is the key there. Flexibility is a must if someone who is concentrating on their own business still wants to maintain a part time job. I’ve been lucky too to have a job that has been supportive of my new business, but I do feel like that is few and far between in comparison to most jobs out there. I’ve worked previous jobs to this that were part time sales clerk jobs that absolutely were against having other concentrations. I can see why a lot of people would battle with a job and their business, because a lot of jobs want to be the primary focus and not just a extra income to their employees. I’ve experienced situations where in the other job doesn’t want to be #2 to your interests…and that can cause a lot of misery and heartache in the long run. I’ve sacrificed and battled with previous employers for freedom of that expression and that was when I was just doing trunk sales and working primarily online. Anyway, I just think that you are lucky, and so am I currently. I just think that most people who seek to have a second job a long side their business must be a bit picky and find the right employment for them. One that is open minded, easy going, and flexible. They are hard to find, but if I can find or you can find one, then so can someone else. It’s a struggle, but having that extra income no matter what it is does make a huge difference in supporting your business. It doesn’t leave you out in the cold either, esp. when it comes to paying your rent.
Megan, thanks for this. You make some great points. I currently have a day job because I can’t afford to lose the income stream while I build my business. It’s not a job I like, but it pays the bills. My co-workers are also a great source of customers – another advantage of having a day job.
For a long time I dreamed of quitting my day job and making my pottery full-time. But recently, I am reevaluating that I like doing a couple different things to keep things interesting. So I am looking at other income streams. Some are related to my core craft business, i.e., teaching; and others are not, i.e., health coaching. However, the latter would provide me more flexibility and joy than my current day job.
And thank you for pointing out that just because you have a day job, doesn’t mean you’re a hobbyist. I take my craft seriously and have always treated it like a business from the day I started intentionally selling. Hey, I live in an expensive area – I’m not sure I could make enough pots to be self-sufficient. But that’s ok. As long as I can make a profit and enjoy what I am doing both with my craft and along side it, that is what matters. No one should do something that doesn’t feed their soul.
Another humdinger, Megan.
I, too, teach (at a local art center), but long before I landed that position, I left my FT job at a local university–too soon.
I took the “opportunity” to leave because NASA had to tighten its budget and thus pulled back on educational funding for the program I worked for. As a result, our (grant-funded) program was shut down. I thought it was a good, viable exit point for what I wanted to do, so a few months before the program was set to end, I left in hopes of being able to focus on my business a lot more.
HUGE mistake. I had lofty goals and a vision, but I had no concrete plan and no real product to offer.
This is much different from where I am now in terms of plan and product, but my sales are really slow, so my art center position is helping to fund my business until the business can hopefully fend for itself at some point.
If I had any do overs, I probably would have stayed put in the university (transferred elsewhere within) until I had a better idea of what it actually meant to be in business… I’m not fond of “learning the hard way”-types of experiences. 😉
Again, great vlog post!
So nice to see this post! It almost feels like having a day job is a “dirty little secret” for successful arts businesses. My day job as museum curator feeds directly into my business! Historic design plays heavily in my jewelry designs, and I get to paid to be immersed in it for 8 hours a day. Also my ability to create award winning museum exhibits helps every time I work on my branding or booth set up. Without these skills, the well rounded parts of my business would simply fall flat.
Flexibility is really important and one of the biggest drawbacks I have right now is my full time schedule. And there are sometimes it just feels like I use up all my resources trying to juggle to two, leaving not a whole lot for creativity. As my business gets bigger, I need to take a good look at how they will continue to balance.
I forgot to mention, that even if/when sales pick up, I have absolutely NO plans to leave my teaching position. I love it, I love the center, and it’s provided me with huge opportunities to showcase my work.
This is a great topic, Megan! And I’m really glad you brought it up. Once upon a time, I really wanted to get my master’s degree and teach metalsmithing because I know that I would be good at it and enjoy it…that was before I realized that my international degree is basically null and void here in the grand U.S.A. and that I would be at least 6 years out from obtaining a Master’s. While I’ve been living back in my hometown, I’ve been a nanny. I’m going on 5 years, and for 90% of that time, I’ve been with the same family. While it is neither a job that feeds my creativity, or one that I slog away at unhappily, it feeds my soul. I am helping a little girl who is developmentally delayed and her brother, and these little beings bring such joy and light to my life. I DID try to break away at one point, and work in my “industry”…I ended up doing data entry at a jewelry store which left me uninspired and miserable. I know now that I will never work in a jewelry store again (unless it is my own!)
I still make jewelry in my spare time, but I never really view it as a hobby, since it is such a central part of who I am. I don’t know what will happen when the little one goes into Kindergarten (one more year!), but until then I am making moves to get my jewelry business more grounded and successful, and am also starting a joint venture into wedding photography with my partner. I have stopped feeling as if I absolutely must create jewelry as a full time occupation, which is actually relieving. There are plenty of other creative outlets that can serve as a “day job” and are far more financially reliable.
I work full time as a marketing communications professional at Penn State. So the skills I learn in my “day job” certainly come in handy in my “creative job.” But the things I’m learning in my creative job are also making me a better marketing communications professional. That being said the 40-hour a week day job makes it tough. In fact I wrote a blog post earlier this month about how it feels like I’m living a double life.
http://creativesprinkle.blogspot.com/2010/06/living-double-life.html
I’ve mentioned before that I have a day job. I’m a government auditor, so I don’t know that it necessarily feeds my creativity, but the hours are consistent, I never work more than 40 hours a week, and a lot of what I do involves data analysis, which I genuinely enjoy. Plus I get a decent amount of vacation time, so if I want to take a day or two off in the middle of the week to work on my own business, I can. Plus I have good benefits, a salary that allows me to live comfortably, and coworkers I get along with well, so I can’t imagine quitting.
I also work part time as a reference librarian, usually between 4 and 10 hours a week. I love every second of that job and want to at least keep a foot in the door, even if it’s just 1 shift a week. Ultimately I’d love to do the library thing full-time, it’s what I went to grad school for.
I doubt I’ll get rich selling jewelry with so many other work commitments, but the fact of the matter is that I go stir crazy very easily and need to keep a full schedule. For two years I was working both of the above jobs and spending about 20 hours/week on grad school… I needed something to fill all that free time completing my MLIS left, and I thought, why not do something that is both enjoyable and profitable with that time? And that’s how Mischievous Kitty Jewelry was born. 😉
I quit my “day job” three years ago because it was time to do something else. I actually got trained and became a yoga teacher and for the first year I taught yoga full time and made my jewellery on the side. It was kind of 90 / 10 ( I thought it would be 50/50). So over the last three years, I have been stepping up the jewellery and backing off the yoga: Now I am about 10 / 90 (10 yoga teaching / 90 jewellery). I am determined to be successful in this endeavour. 🙂 (because i am not going back to that day job)
Hi Megan. Thanks for this video. I guess I’m one of the “lucky” ones that stays at home, but I don’t work on my business full-time. I’m also a writer and always have a couple freelance gigs going on at any time. And THANK GOODNESS for that! Having a craft business does not guarantee me an income I can live on at this point, but I’m trying to build it up. I’m also lucky in that my husband has a solid, full-time income we can always count on. There are many days that I wish I could completely concentrate on my craft business, but it’s just not possible. I’ll let you know if I ever get there.
You might be interested to know that there is a fancy-schmancy phrase for what your career looks like: Portfolio Career. That is a useful way to think of it when the gremlins start saying that your art/craft is just a hobby because you have a day job.
And particularly handy when your various things are all tied together as yours are.
hi megan
my day job is really a tangent of my “art biz.” i am a feeelance graphic designer working from home and i have 3-4 very steady clients who provide a consistent stream of income. it’s a great support to me as i build my art biz and i am very lucky to have really weeded my stable of clients down to a super-great group over the past 4 years. they appreciate me and i appreciate them. They fuel my creativity with their projects and keep me sharp. They’ve also really helped me to stay connected with the printing/service industry. Printers who output for my clients consistently have really become partners to me and have been a great resource for signs, graphics, card printing etc for my art biz. It’s a great give and take! i’m grateful for those connections.
Hi Megan,
This is a very important topic, and I have been thinking about it for a while.
I consider myself someone who is on the way to be a pro jewelry designer – that is definitley my aim. In the meantime I am a sociologist, specialized in media research, and I have a part time job: I work 2-3 days a week in an office.
I used to work 4 days a week in an office, but I wanted to devote more time to my jewlery business, and when I did that, I realized that the more time and energy I devote to my business the better it becomes.
So my question is, that do you think it is possible to successfully run a business, and NOT to devote all my (working) time to it?
On the other hand I feel (or afraid of?), that if I stop working as a sociologist, the other part of my brain will suffer which is not good for the creative part of my brain either.
So how can I (or do you) balance between the stimulus which is coming from the other type of work, and making my (your) business successfull?
I would be very happy if you had time to answer sometime.
Have a great day,
Judit
I’m one of those who loves her day job and will not leave it. Teaching college has enhanced my craft business rather than conflicting with it. I work from home mostly anyhow, tethered to my laptop. So it is not difficult to switch from work to business. As I learn about new technologies and Web 2.0, I can bring that kind of info to my classes as well as vice versa. I’m also constantly writing, which is great for blogging and posting!
Thanks so much for pointing out that having a day job doesn’t mean you are not a serious professional craftsperson. It really bugs me when artists flaunt their full-time studio artist status, when the truth is they are being supported financially by their spouse. Having a day job is way more honest. “I am my own sugar daddy” I like to say. I am lucky to have a flexible day job too. I am a self-employed graphic designer, and in recent years I have pared down my clients to a select few, to the extent that I no longer feel deprived of my time in the pottery studio. And only after my pottery business has grown to provide a good income too. But I don’t plan to close the design practice because of its financial stability. And being a designer has certainly helped me to brand and market the pottery business.
I also teach pottery classes now, but not for the money, it pays very little. But like you I find that being involved in a community of artists is an invaluable source of energy.
Such an interesting topic! I like the term ‘dirty little secret’ that Isette uses above. It seems as though people think one can’t be serious about more than one project at a time. I prefer to think of it as having several income streams. I’m lucky to have a husband who brings in most of our income, but I also do a few hours of teaching, nine months a year. It doesn’t amount to much money, but the fact of having eight hours each week when I have to be somewhere, interacting with people, helps me organize the rest of my time for my business. I’m less productive during holidays (and there are a lot in France) because I’m less concentrated, more dissipated.
A great post – thanks. I probably did it the wrong way around (not by choice) and started my business without the benefit of a “day job”. Great because I had the time to do a proper business plan and cost projections etc but stressful when it came to paying bills.
But now that my business is underway I have been given an opportunity to work part time for another small business. Allowing me a regular income which covers the bills but still gives me time to work on and in my business. This also gives me better focus because I am not worried about money all of the time plus I can also learn from someone else’s mistakes (and wins)
My business is my “job” but I am also lucky to have a second one until my business needs me full time!
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