4 tips for a creative start-up

Stationery by Made with Love

For artists, the love for the arts is solely driven by passion. Yet, just passion is not enough when it comes to making a place for yourself in the creative market. To make a creative business successful, an artist must not only be dedicated but also be willing to constantly seek business opportunities. As an artist, you might be bursting with a million ideas but when it comes to making a coherent business plan and monetising your art, you're just lost. Don't worry. If you're just starting out, the following checklist is a good way of ensuring that you have the basic business aspects covered. Keep working at it, and before you know it, you'll get your big break.

Figuring out the products

Perhaps, the biggest challenge is to create a unique style that also appeals to the masses. First consider the sort of products that you would be interested in making. There are plenty of sources of inspiration on the internet. You could look to the usual Pinterest and Instagrams to learn what is popular or look to more product-specific sites. For example, if you plan on selling organisers and stationery products, check out Rifle Paper Co, Paperchase, Chase and Wonder, and so on. But do not, under any circumstances, copy anyone's designs.

Then consider your market. Who are your target customers? What sort of products are they interested in? The market for creative products is an ever-increasing one. To find product ideas, closely examine your market to identify gaps. This is exactly what Newton's Archive, an online creative business specialised in scented candles, did. 

"We simply wanted to fill in the gap the Bangladeshi market had for hand poured scented candles, especially in bookish themes." said Sabrina Rahman, one of the founders of Newton's Archive. "Three months into the business, we decided to include bookmarks as well."

Production possibilities

Finalising your ideas are the easy part, the logistical hassles of the business are the real trouble. Getting the right support and finding cost-efficient suppliers is something that every small business, and even established ones, struggle with in Bangladesh.  

"We mostly have to rely on imports which immensely increases our costs and as a result, our prices. Pretty much all suppliers we went to either provided things in quantities we couldn't afford, or didn't have the required supplies. We don't think we have been able to fully overcome this problem yet, but looking around in the obscure parts of the city and maintaining good relationships with some suppliers and companies like Shop-up really helped us overcome this hurdle to some extent. " continues Sabrina Rahman. 

However, the struggle is no excuse to compromise on quality. The quality of your products ( along with good services) is what will keep your customers coming back for more. Work closely with your supplier to ensure that your designs are being executed properly.

"Once we have a design, we send it to our suppliers, who then make the products accordingly.  After they send it back to us, we package them ourselves and send them directly to our customers," says Humairah Shams, owner of Made With Love, an online favourite among stationery-lovers.

Newton’s Archive’s Himu candle

Finding the right promotional strategies

With the gazillion marketing tools and promotional strategies available, one can easily get overwhelmed in the beginning. Quite often, artists are too shy to promote themselves and resort to word-of-mouth for growing their businesses. Moreover, many artists have no specific marketing plans at all. For any business, this is a major mistake.

For starters, set specific goals and then make plans accordingly. With the ever-growing influence of social media, digital marketing strategies are an integral part of promotion. Facebook and Instagram are the ideal platforms to interact with customers, get feedbacks and reviews and even feature their photos after online competitions. Simultaneously, event meet-ups and fairs are an amazing way to showcase your products and also build customer relationships. In fact, event meet-ups also provide an excellent opportunity to network so that in the future you could collaborate with like-minded artists. Don't underestimate traditional promotional strategies. Having a unique card can also be a way of catching the attention of potential customers.

"For me, art is an experience that I want to share with people. So I put a lot of effort into my events, where I showcase my work, collaborate with other artists and also create a fun environment for everyone to learn fluid art. With events, finding sponsors is a massive challenge. To overcome this, it is very important to shape my event in a way that projected my style and is also attractive to potential sponsors." said Madiha Athar Khan, fluid artist and event organiser of the events Art for the Soul.

Keep at it

While the process is slow, recognition does happen. Just don't expect it overnight. For some, it can happen in the span of two weeks, while for others, it might take over two months. No matter what happens, don't undervalue your work. However, ensure that you have the resources to increase your scale of production when you do get recognised. Turning down too many customers is never good for business.

Keep your plans realistic but also keep looking for opportunities to grow. Newton's Archive plans on further expanding their production of candles and bookmarks and also look into new products. For Art for the Soul, the next step is to introduce art as a way of stress relief and opt for grander events, while Made with Love dreams of a physical store. No matter how different the dreams, each artist shares the common ambition of making it big in the creative business sector.