5 Ways To Grow Your Creative Business

 If you are looking for creative business ideas to grow your brand, then this post is for you. I am giving you all of my simple tips and tricks to help take your creative brand up a notch.

I made a commitment to myself in the last part of 2018 that I was going to invest in myself and my creative business in a more strategic way. Not sure how many of you are like me, but I don’t like to spend a bunch of money on things that I don’t consider to be something for my home or something I can wear. So when it came to my business, I wasn’t putting my best efforts forward and knew that had to change.

Then I realized late summer 2018 that this was a terrible way to think, especially if my creative business was important to me. So if this is part of your thinking, I urge you to shift it immediately, especially if you want to move forward. Here are some things that I’ve done over the last 12 months that have helped me to actually successfully grow and monetize my blog and business, without hundred of thousands of followers and subscribers. This process has taught me that by elevating my content, sticking to (as much as possible) a realistic schedule, and solid engagement, my brand is destined to succeed and I know yours can too!

5 Business Ideas To Grow Your Creative Brand

1)Rebrand

Last Fall, I set aside some money and paid for a professional photo shoot ( above are a few of my fave), changed my logo up, and switched my site over from Blogger to WordPress. These were all things that I had been putting off for years because of the upfront expense. But once I did them, I immediately began to reap the benefits of my investment. I’ve used the photos for branding and marketing purposes, switched from Blogger to WordPress to have more customizability with my site, and the logo was simply a tool to refresh. For branding such as logos, etc., I love using a site called Fiverr.

 

2) Offer Merchandise

In the beginning of the the year I did something that I had no idea would work, but I did it anyway. I released my first round creative apparel, the DIY List T-Shirt. The shirts did really well, and taught me a lesson.. as long as I am genuine to my audience, they will be loyal to me. It also confirmed that we have to excel beyond fear and do it scared. I have more apparel items coming soon.

3) Take More Chances

This can arguably be one of the scariest business ideas of the list. There were lots of opportunities that came my way over the last year, and there were two in particular had me doubting every creative bone in my body. When I worked on the Invitation Homes Show House earlier this year, and when I had to do a pre-recorded segment for the Rachael Ray Show.  I was nervous as hell for both! But like one of my blog friends told me, say yes and figure the rest out later. So that’s been one of my mottos this year. If it’s something that you know can deliver on,  but may scared or questioning your talent, say yes. Don’t let fear stop you. You will thank yourself in the future.

I also allowed myself to dream bigger. I am intentional about what I put into the universe, therefore the things that I wanted, I said them aloud and wrote them down.

4) Hire Help

As I made a few extra dollars, to grow my creative business, I hired someone to assist with the tasks that were too cumbersome for me to tackle. These were tasks that I may be good at, and they may be great at it. Being that I work full-time it was just easier to find someone to delegate a few tasks to weekly. Plus, it’s better to find someone that enjoys doing what you don’t like to do. I hired someone specifically help manage a few Pinterest tasks, SEO and a photographer for when I shoot brand campaigns. You can hire someone for these types of tasks, or social media, etc. Just know the help is out there and you don’t have to do it alone.

5)More Networking

Networking is the key to growing any business. We’ve all heard the saying, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”This is so true. I am very strategic about the events that I attend and always research who will be in attendance, who will be on the panel, or who the speaker(s) will be.

I am also strategic about building organic relationships with people that I meet. One of the worst things you can do when meeting a new person is only take from them. Relationships are two-way streets and you should both bring something to the relationship. You never know what creative business ideas someone else may have that you can implement yourself and vice versa.

I hosted my first meet-up last year and have built a great partnership with a local restaurant to host these quarterly. We offer lots of information exchange during these meetups which is mutually beneficial.

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So that’s it! I hope you find these tips and business ideas helpful! These are all tried and true methods that have helped me and hopefully you will find them helpful as well. If you have any questions , leave them below in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time!