Are you a handmade business owner looking to ramp up your sales and get ahead—or heck are you just looking to make a sale?

Whether you’ve been in the industry for years, or are just getting started, there are some key mindset shifts that can propel your business forward. It’s not enough to simply have a good product—you also need an attitude of growth and progress. Read on to discover my top 5 mindset changes and tips that can help you take your handmade business to the next level.

If you feel like you are floundering and just can’t get your feet under you or gain the momentum you so desperately want than this message is for you.

If you:‍

- Create stuff for yourself still and not have a single direction for your art, your style.

- Have no idea of who your target audience is or what that really means

- Feel like whenever you post or share something—it’s exhausting, especially when all you hear is crickets, or your Aunt Jane sharing your post with her book club?

- You consider social media the only option for building a business online…

- You compare yourself to your more successful artist friends who seem to be killing it, and it’s killing you that you are putting so much time and effort into something just to see the world give it a big, “MEH”?

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Well, here are 5 tips that will help you take your handmade business up a few notches:

1. Stop making art only with yourself in mind. ‍

You need to have an idea of who your art is actually for. You need to best friend know them. You are more likely to attract people when you start talking about them, what they like, what your art does for them and for you. Figure out your message. Determine your “why” and who connects with all of this—Then, you can finally have a direction for your marketing.

2. Spend more time working on your art than stalking your friends on social media and comparing yourself to them.

I promise this tactic does not work. Channel your discontented energy into your work. Turn this “yucky” energy into a more professional effort. Breathe and finish the work and share it. Then, do it all over again.

3. Be consistent in your work.

You need a consistent style or product or “niche” that you can begin to own. Successful creatives carve a niche—a message or style and run with it.

4. Own your journey.

Don’t seek acceptance of your ability from anyone except yourself. Stop worrying about what the world thinks. Your art should make YOU happy too. Keep working at it for the sake of you—not for the sake of fame. I find when you create for the sake of creating and stop hoping to be famous, people start to gravitate to you. There are no easy or quick ends in mastery. Keep making work and sharing it—but stop worrying so much about what the world thinks.

5. Get a mentor that will tell it to you straight.

Every CEO has a lineup of professionals that they know and trust will give them honest and real feedback. I myself love having a direct line to other professionals that I can talk with and run ideas across. Sometimes you can just happen across someone like this and sometimes you have to pay for their advice. Either way—get one…or 10.

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All in all, making art is not just about doing your own thing and staying within your comfort zone.

You need to realize that art will only have meaning when you have a clear idea of who your work is for.

You can’t sit around scrolling Instagram or comparing yourself to others. Spend some time every day actively creating and working on the skills that make you unique and are marketable. Get a mentor, someone who can help you with the small details that make all the difference. Most importantly, don’t forget to be the CEO of your handmade business; set goals for yourself and treat it like a real job because it is! If you keep these points in mind, with patience and practice, you will definitely reach the level of success in art that you want. Don't wait any longer, take action now and Book A Call Today to get started on this wonderful creative journey with someone who would love to give you a gentle kick in the pants. *Hint that's me.

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