Do I need a vision plan as a creative person?

Updated: Sep 23, 2022

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Are you an artist that sells their own work? Then let me tell you a secret – you are an entrepreneur. Or maybe a small business owner. Those labels might not sit well with everyone but that is the reality and to be able to continue creating and selling your passion, it helps to have a few basics in place and basic number one is a vision for your business.

As the old saying goes, you don’t set off on a car journey without knowing the destination and for a business, that destination is the vision. The place you want to get to as an artist. By clearly defining the destination, you can dedicate time to what will help you get there.

Explain Yourself

Let us have a look at a simple example to bring the idea to light before I show you how to build this yourself and the benefits it will bring.

Artist A, who has been generating some good money selling paintings as a side hustle through a friend's gallery, has decided they want to make this a full-time job. Their vision could be…

“Within 12 months I want to be able to give up my day job, promote my work to people outside of my local community and eventually make a comfortable living, whilst having the respect of people I know in the art community”

… we will come back to this vision at the end.

What Do You Want

Whilst writing a vision for your future as an artist might seem quite a commercial and uncreative endeavor, it’s about allowing you the freedom to express yourself, putting the focus more on what you want to achieve, and keeping you looking ahead. It should actually be a very selfish process – what do YOU want for your future?

Think about short and long-term goals, put them on paper and look at what that means for you in two, five, or maybe even ten years. Your art is what defines you, so make sure you are clear in what you want to achieve so that your art will work for that future.

The worst thing you want to do is work hard for another 12 months and then at the end of it realize you are not fulfilled – setting a vision gives you something to measure and target.

How To Get Going

It’s never easy coming up with a vision for a business, it’s even harder when that business is you and your art. To help you get going, I find people benefit from asking themselves a series of questions and then looking at what those answers mean.

Is this your full-time career?

It’s a critical starting point that has a big effect on how you will work as an artist. Most people will be targeting one of three areas:

I am working full-time as an artist and want this to continue
I am working part-time as an artist and want to make this full time
My art is a hobby and side hustle and I want this to remain the case

Depending on your category, the vision for your art business will be different. Anyone that’s looking to convert to being an artist full-time will need a strategy for how that happens. They will need to understand what level they need to earn to make this financially viable.

You also need to think about how you sell your art. Do you want to sell it yourself or have someone else do this? How involved in that side of the ‘business’ do you want to be? These affect your involvement with the audience, so consider how important that is to you as an artist.

Who is your audience?

Understanding who you want to appeal to will have a significant effect on your future and how you work. A lot of artists have a specific audience in mind when creating their art, which in the world of marketing is a great advantage, it’s something we call your niche. By identifying this niche you can target them better and increase the chances of people buying your art.