The Studio Source helps you build an extraordinary business by focusing on approach—how you show your stuff, how you connect with your customers, and how you manage the business side of creativity.
Stacey Cornelius
I'm a raving idealist, idea junkie, and creative entrepreneur with a Fine Art degree. I have professional experience in retail, theatre, and the IT industry. I'm here to show you how to make marketing part of your creative process. Contact Me
I’m acquainted with a professional artisan who does no advertising. She doesn’t have a blog, a Facebook fan page, Etsy shop or Twitter account. She has studio staff and has grown a successful small business.
Want to know her secret?
She does everything deliberately.
So you’ve had a little time to banish objections and self-made intimidation. This next part is simple—come up with one thing to improve your first impression. One. Here are a few ideas to get you going:
Firm up your handshake
Take a look at your business card (do you have a business card?). Does it feel like you? Is it still fresh, or does it feel stale, or maybe even generic? Are you proud to put it in someone’s hand? Does it fit in with everything else you use to promote your work?
Spruce up your retail or trade show booth (or your studio, storefront or home office). Update the colour of the backdrop, clean up your signage, or think about some new display props. If you’re showing your work on pegboard, this is the year to get rid of it. Pegboard is for hanging tools.
Posted in: Creative branding
Last time I sent you on a virtual field trip to analyze a brand. I promised to give you the in-person low-down, so here it is.
Cora’s is a most-of-the-day breakfast restaurant. The logo is a hand-drawn smiling sun. If you go to Cora’s during peak dining time, there are lineups. If you go a half hour before closing on Sunday, it’s still busy. If you go half an hour before closing during the week, there are lots of empty tables, but the covered dish of complimentary fudge near the cash register looks like a pack of grizzly bears went through it.
Last time I talked about how easy it is to break your brand (and how some people can take it personally). I’ve since reattached my head (more or less), and thought it might be fun to have a look at a brand for a bricks-and-mortar business. Since we’re scattered all over creation, we can’t climb on a tour bus, so we’ll go on a virtual field trip instead.
I am in the midst of the two busiest weeks of my year. My neck is turning to stone, I have knots in my shoulders big enough to name, and my brain is mush.
Why all this hilarity? Sometimes procrastination is my drug of choice. Don’t look at me like that—how often do you follow your own advice?
So what do I do when my head is attached by duct tape and a prayer? Turn my imagination loose and give myself a good break.
Sometimes my imagination strays into outer space.
