Business
If you want to take your creative side hustle full-time, you know it's a lot of work. Today's guest, Joyce from Modern Creative Pursuits, did just that, taking her calligraphy business from a side hustle to her thriving full-time career, and she's here to share her tips on how to make the transition to full-time. And even if you're not ready to go full-time, these tips can help you improve your side hustle, too!Here's a cheat sheet of some of the episode highlights:Joyce's intro, 0:59Taking All The Jobs, 4:20Giving yourself grace, 5:40When and how to educate yourself, 7:25When Joyce hired a business coach, 9:08What to do if you fall out of love with your business, 10:53Outsourcing to boost business growth, 13:18Automating to boost business growth, 15:20Why community is key to business success, 17:40It's going to be okay! 19:24Where to connect with Joyce online, 19:55Let's dive deeper into a few of these key takeaways...1 | Give yourself graceIt's really easy as creative entrepreneurs to get inside our own heads and feel like we have to do everything right - and get it right the very first time! The truth is, businesses change, sometimes on a daily basis. What you did last year likely won't be what or how you do it this year.That's a good thing!Without exploring your business and giving yourself grace when things don't go as expected, you won't be able to grow quite as well. Both Joyce and I have changed our business trajectories and we wouldn't exchange those 'failures' for the world!Learn how to reframe your 'failures' into learning experiences. This isn't just a cliche - it's a way of life as a creative entrepreneur! Give yourself grace when things don't go to plan and roll with the punches.2 | Educate yourself - within reasonHave you ever listened to one podcast episode or read one blog post... only to realize two hours later that you just kept going? That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you aren't implementing what you learned, you've wasted that time.Joyce talked about how she used to consume, consume, consume other peoples' content. Even if she wasn't at a point in her business where she was ready to implement it, she consumed it for 'later, just in case.' If she had waited to consume that content until she was ready to implement, she could have implemented other strategies that might have gotten her to that point sooner.If you find yourself consuming a lot of content (even this podcast), STOP. Take a moment to reflect on whether you can implement the education within the next quarter and if not, start a list (in Google Drive, Evernote, or wherever you take notes) of content you want to come back to. Categorize it so it's easy to find when you know you need advice on a particular topic, too!3 | Community and accountabilityWhen you're running your business by yourself, you can quickly end up feeling isolated. That isolation can in turn lead to despondency and eventually you just stop following through on business tasks because "hey, what does it really matter? No one's watching anyway." That's why community and accountability are so important for creative entrepreneurs!If you aren't already plugged into a creative community, I invite you to join me over in The LAB for Creative Entrepreneurs Facebook group or join Joyce over in the Creative Biz Society Facebook group! Getting to know other creative entrepreneurs who will understand this crazy business journey can light a fire for your creative business.Accountability is crucial to your creative business success too! Finding an accountability partner or creative business coach can be a gamechanger for your creative business. You can find business friends to become accountability partners with through creative business Facebook groups or other communities, or you can hire a creative business coach or strategist like Joyce or me to help you get - and STAY - on track with your business growth.Are you plugged into a creative business community yet? If not, don't forget to join The LAB and the Creative Biz Society! We'd love to see you in there.Want to connect with Joyce?You can find Joyce at her website, moderncreativepursuits.com and on Instagram! You should also listen to the podcast Joyce co-hosts, The Modern Creative, too! Don't forget to subscribe to the Creative Business Success Podcast for more episodes and share your biggest takeaways in the comments.