The Creative Mentor Part 5: Managing Yourself // Starting a Business // Managing Creative Joy
Part 5 we learn to balance our creative joy with our creative work.
Working for ourselves can quickly and easily take the fun out of being a creative. Instead of comparing how we work to others we look at what the best way to get work done even is.
Managing Yourself
Structuring ourselves to get work done on our own is hard. You may work for yourself, have an online shop you manage, take on client work, taking a class or learning a new skill. The name of the game, is create a structure that works with in your flow. There are no right or wrong answers. But where do you start?
What kind of worker are you?
Sprint Worker: I sit hours at a time and power through everything I do.
Meandering thinker: I get easily distracted and chase rabbits down holes, but I get stuff done in time.
List Maker: I prepare to no end and struggle starting.
Bold and Beautiful: I start work with very little hesitation and preparation.
What outcome do you want from embarking on this creative endeavor?
What kind of working schedule works better for the kind of worker you are?
Starting a Small Business
Separating your ‘creative money’ from your ‘personal money’ can really help you blossom a new business or just keep all the money flowing smarter. Work smarter not harder. Creating an LLC for taxes, business loans, and other monetary perks can be a great way to manage your creativity.
LLC Perks:
Taxes: You can write off creative business expenses, like supplies, office space, computers, software, etc.
Protection: If you sell goods and services, and a customer sues you, they can only go after LLC Assets, not your personal assets..
Grants: There is free money everywhere for start up costs for creative businesses.
Loans: There are many accessibly loan programs to fund anything your LLC may want to achieve.
What’s an EIN?
EIN is an Employer Identification Number. It’s your business’ ‘social security number’ and enables your business to have it’s own separate bank account. [these are FREE by the way]
Small Business Administration:
This is a FREE resource set up by the Federal Government to help ANYONE start, manage, maintain, a small business.
Additional: LGBTQ+ Businesses, Minority Businesses
Creative Boundaries with Yourself
How do you keep creative joy when you do creative work? They say “If you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life”. I don’t think that’s true. Sometimes doing creative work, kills creative joy. So let us figure out how to protect that.
Questions to help figure it out:
Are you having a ‘good time’ or are you just mindlessly monetizing your work and feeling weird about it?
Would you be doing this anyway regardless if you’re being paid?
Does working on something you love feel like a chore all of a sudden?
Is making money off your work, creatively fulfilling for you?
Are you working a job that uses your natural talents?
Are you contorting and shrinking to fit somewhere?
Why do you do what you do?
You are VALUABLE
Monetary systems have a hard time quantifying creativity.
You will work jobs with in companies that rely on interpersonal relationships, and systems to quantify how abstract your job with. Not a single one is perfect. You will find leaders who know your creativity is valuable to their efforts and they hire you because they want you to do what you do best. But you will also find companies and groups of people who don’t understand your value. You are the keeper of you value and YOU MATTER. Don’t let anyone or anything take you for a ride. Advocate for yourself and look for the people who want your perspective. They are out there.