Patience, My Business Building Friend, Patience
That’s right. I am talking about the number 1 skill/talent/investment you will need if you are in it to create a business: Patience. I see so many folks in the creative industry excited to jump into creating their personal brands and start their glorious businesses (which is fantastic!) but within 1-3 months I hear a lot of:
”Should I lower my prices? No one is booking!”
”Oh God, I have no inquiries coming in - should I even be doing this?”
”Gosh, I can’t even secure 1 client a month! Maybe I need to reevaluate!”
It’s A LOT of panic. And I am realizing, that for many creatives, we tend to be motivated by the fear of scarcity and this is further fueled by being in Facebook groups where you hear stories about people being booked up for the year (which your brain will interpret as booked every day of the year!). It’s enough to drive a person mad in the first few months/years of building a business - but this is why PATIENCE is a must in addition to understanding the basics of business.
In my first year as a boudoir photographer, my main goal was to connect with as many people as I could and photograph as much as I could for free and paid. While I didn’t know a lot about business, I knew that nobody knew me and I had to make myself known in the industry. This meant hustling my ass off for the entire first 2 years - hosting events (for free), connecting with other businesses in my city, and most importantly…..waiting. I started with 1 client a month, which after 2 months, turned into 2 clients a month, which after 4 months turned in 3 clients a month, which after 6 months turned into 4 clients a month and so on. Some months were leaner than others (September and January for me) and I remember feeling that same fear that many new business owners experience:
”Should I lower my prices?”
”Should I even be doing this?”
”Maybe I should get a ‘real’ job!”
But every time those thoughts would float to the surface, I would remind myself that the work I was doing in the world was necessary and I was meant to be doing it. In the slow times, I started taking business classes - starting with B School by Marie Forleo. I watched Creative Live and learned from Jasmine Star, Sue Bryce, and Brooke Shaden. I held weekly model calls and giveaways to get people into my facebook community. I just kept showing up.
So, here is my advice if you are starting a business/have started a business/feel stuck in your business:
1.Take a business class - understand what is the least amount of money you can do your job for. This is essential - for the first 2 years of business I never profited anything because I was too afraid to charge people more money. Fun fact - business cares not for your relationship to money. I have one for photographers by Andrea Barnett Mendoza in the Everybody’s Education site which is quick and inspiring!
2. Work through your money mindset. I recommend reading Denise Duffield Thomas’ Get Rich Lucky Bitch and Chillpreneur. Also, follow @herfirst100k and give her podcast a list!
3. Start hosting/attending in person events. I know a lot of us wish that all of our business could come from social media (and a lot of it can!) but your best return on investment is actually talking to humans in real life. This means going to networking events, telling people what you do (so get your elevator pitch ready!), and connecting with other business owners to get your name out there. One of the things I did was offer the owner of a business a free session in exchange for letting me put pamphlets in their space. I also reached out to other influencers and used them for my model calls (back in my day it was tv and radio personalities). Check out your local Chamber of Commerce, BNI chapters, or Entrepreneur Centers.
4. Donate your time and money to a charity that aligns with your values as a business! Once of the ways that I grew my business was donating a certain amount per session to a local resource centre - it was a win win for both of us because the more money I made, the more money they made so they were interested in telling people about what I do and offer!
5. Lastly, BE PATIENT. Remind yourself every day why you do the work that you do. Who is it for? Why is it important? Just keep showing up and doing the things that will help your name get out there: blog consistently, get on social media, do lives/tiktoks, giveaways, host small events (picnics in the park, do a group project, collab with a yoga or burlesque instructor, have an open house, etc.)
The work you do is important but it is imperative that you do it in a way that supports the life you want to live. This means confronting yourself about what you are making “no clients” mean - does it mean you will go out of business? OR does it mean:
-you will be a failure
-you are not good enough
-no one likes you
I know it sounds silly, but being honest about this is really important because business does not care if you worry that your parents will be right or that your friends will make fun of you - business only cares that the bills are getting paid and the work is getting done. So, in order to do this and to stick with it, we need to be smart AND patient AND realistic about our approach. Sure, some people get lucky and their business takes off before they’ve even built it, but that’s almost worse because they haven’t had time to build a strong foundation and when the inquiries eventually come to a halt - they will panic.
Use this slow time to build a strong, sturdy foundation that is full of conviction for the work you do, a deep belief that you are worthy of charging what your cost of doing business recommends, and strong connections within your community that will give you avenues to continue your growth, long after this slow period is in your rearview mirror.
