Friday, September 14, 2012

Rebuilding the Stairs to Heaven

Watch that first step!

Rethinking my art business and rebuilding my stairs somehow go together. OK, so that's a stretch. Just bear with me for a bit.

 I'm alternating working on my business plan, painting wood for the new stairs, writing a grant proposal, painting wood for the new stairs, putting together my portfolio, and painting wood for the new stairs. I'm nearly done painting wood for the stairs.

I'm not even close to done with my business plan.

I'm working with Right Brain Business Plan by Jennifer Lee. Yeah, yeah, I had a business plan I did with WACASH. It was on a spread sheet and I hated even looking at it. So I didn't. Look at it, I mean.

It didn't seem to relate to art, to one of a kind beautifully hand made things. Or to my purpose in making art. And all those corporate sounding labels, just meant nothing.

Even working with Flying Lessons and Soul Business didn't give me all the answers, though they gave me lots and lots of understanding.  The Edge Program gave me more answers, but still only glimpses of a structure to fit them into. It was like all these programs gave me the wood to build with, and some description of a plan,  but I still couldn't figure out the blueprint.

Then I found Right Brain Business Plan. I think this will do it.  By renaming all the pieces of a business plan, Jennifer has finally given me a way to think about business nitty gritty in terms I can relate to. For example, "Competitive Analysis" becomes knowing the "Business Landscape", and "Marketing Plan" becomes "Getting the Word out".







1 comment:

  1. I'll look into your method of business planning. Right now I have an appointment with SCORE and have a draft outline which has been great to help me focus on the next steps.

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