If you’re a part-time artist or crafter that wants to expand your side hustle into a full-scale business venture, look no further! Though there’s nothing wrong with leaving your craft as a passion and not monetizing it, there are certainly ways to get your work out in the world on a larger scale. Here are some of our best tips for getting exposure and scaling your business.
Find the Right Digital Space to Sell
Depending on your art medium or creative venture, the platform online that you sell your products on may be different. You should explore the use of a digital marketplace when putting your art out in the world! Whether you use FestivalNet's online platform or a larger-scale marketplace like Etsy or Redbubble to sell, you’ll want to compare what portion each site will take out of your sales.
There’s a lot of flexibility in the products you’re able to sell on these sites and often they help provide the product your design is printed on to save time and effort. Having this versatility within your products, and allowing them to be sold as prints on stickers, canvas bags, water bottles, posters, and more may help you see a growth in profits. Another popular product seeing success recently is digital downloads. Artists often sell a download of their prints for a low cost, which is emailed to the customer, thus cutting out shipping and packaging costs!
If you’re less than thrilled about another party taking a cut of your profits, consider amping up your own website. This is a must for full-time artists and will ensure that you’re getting all the proceeds, though you’ll have to pay a yearly fee for the domain and platform. Having a website for your art can serve as your portfolio, showcase pieces you’re working on, tell your story, and provide an easy way for people to contact you. For creatives, it’s especially important to make sure your site is up to date, has easy navigation and user experience, and has high-quality images.
Get Exposure In Your Own Community
As a creative business owner, word-of-mouth should never be overlooked and is especially important within your own community. Finding as many opportunities as possible to speak with other artists in your town or city and seeing where they’re showing their work will help you network. Make sure you’re active in hosting pop-ups at other local businesses and participating in craft fairs, trade shows, and festivals in the area. Talking with people one-on-one will increase name recognition and start building repeat customers.
Promote on Various Social Platforms
One of the best ways to bring attention to your creative work is to utilize social media platforms as much as possible. Promoting your work and artistic process can help your business grow and inspire others in the process. There are great communities on Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram specifically that will expose your work to a wider global community.
Posting videos and pictures of your creations will help you network with other artists and build a fanbase. On TikTok, keeping your content short and engaging with trending audios and appropriate hashtags will put it in front of the right audience. Make sure to post consistently on these platforms, utilize story features, and engage with other pages. On Instagram, you can also make use of advertising opportunities or take advantage of the analytics and engagement metrics that they will provide if you’re a business account.
Aside from the global reach of social networks, you can also create a community profile to stand out in the FestivalNet Community and Directory. This will reach a wider audience specific to this industry and engage with the community even further.
Give Yourself Enough Studio Space
If you’re pursuing art as a side hustle, it’s probably something you neatly stow away in an office space, closet, or garage. If your business is growing and seeing success, it may be time to expand the operation. If another designated room in your home or apartment isn’t enough to house inventory, it may be time to upgrade. Determine what kind of space will best accommodate your workflow, craft, and overall organization. For fine art or painting, you’ll need easels, canvases, paint, brushes, and storage racks just for starters. If you’re mostly pursuing digital art, you may want a larger space for computers, printers, and packaging. Taking into consideration size, temperature controls, location, and price are all important factors when moving into a new space.
It may be beneficial to consider moving to a city or town with a booming art community. Looking at all of your options and figuring out how much you can afford to pay for a house could be the perfect way to expand your space to accommodate a studio. Additionally, budging appropriately for a new home can mean you have more money to invest in your growing side hustle. There are many properties with detached guest houses, garages, or “she sheds” that could be the perfect opportunity to expand your side hustle into a full-fledged business venture. Creatives often need alone time for their best ideas to develop and it may be healthy to keep work separate from your life at home!
Running a business centered around your passions of art or crafting is an incredible pursuit and should be celebrated! With a few simple steps, you can start getting more exposure and growing your side hustle into a full-blown career.
