Me oh my, this project has been a long time coming! I've been wanting to create a blog like this, targeted towards helping creatives succeed in their business, since I started my marketing series last fall on Modish. At the time, I couldn't commit to another full time blog so I stored the notion of it away for a rainy day, collecting steno pads full of ideas for it just in case.
Then, after a recent week full of insomnia, near mental-breakdowns and a nice fall down the stairs (aka: my "rainy day") I realized, I can't let myself get overwhelmed by thoughts of "what if?" and "maybe" and "wouldn't it be cool if..." anymore. I must act. I must figure out the next step in my creative career. There's no better time than now.
Modish BIZtips is that next step. A way for me to develop and expand my writing, while hopefully giving back to the creative community that I cherish. It will be filled with practical advice to help you succeed in your small business, from the basics of getting started to how to deal with those overwhelmed feelings, and everything in between.
Here's a tentative schedule of how things will be covered, with additional posts and fun stuff thrown in every now and then too:
- Monday: biz basics 101, start up tips
- Tuesday: a series on self-employment
- Wednesday: marketing! marketing! marketing!
- Thursday: money matters, topics on selling, customer service stuff
- Friday: reserved for motivation, encouragement and pep talks :)
So tomorrow, I'll introduce the new weekly series about the spoils and toils of self-employment called "Do What You Love." It will address issues that arise after you ditch the 9-5, along with interviews with successfully self-employed creatives like Grace Bonney from design*sponge (whose interview is 1st up tomorrow!), ceramist Karin Eriksson, jewelry designer Abigail Percy, paper-maven Patricia Zapata and many more along the way!
>> Subscribe to the blog to keep up with those and the other great content headed your way! :)
In the meantime, I've moved all the posts from the marketing series I did over to this blog. You'll find those below, backdated to when they were originally posted. They've been spruced up, edited and updated a bit tho, so you may want to have a gander at them again, or if they're new to you, now's your chance to catch up!
I hope to make this a place of community and sharing, so we can learn from one another as we navigate these sometimes turbulent waters of running our own businesses. I welcome your comments, suggestions and questions with open arms, and hope to incorporate ideas from readers directly into future blog posts.
If you have any specific topics you'd like to see covered, general questions or anything else, please comment below or feel free to email me at biztips{at}modishblog.com.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see back here tomorrow!
<3 jena





