am wanting to continually feature & interview some artists on this blog to show others how they are living their creative dream.

Are you living your creative dream? I am!!

I am looking particularly for photographers, painters (fine artists), scrapbookers, crafters, knitters, designers, potters, sculptors, chef's and those with unique creative talents.

In order to narrow the responses I get, I have come up with some requirements for being featured:

Being an artist must be your full-time job (working for your own business). You must have a significant income from your business (by significant, I mean you are supporting yourself and/or your family with your art).

So if you have an interesting story about how your dream job has become your day job, please email me!

brightideas(at)hollicongerstudios.com

*Feel free to pass this post on to others!

o, you give a client the world when all they give you is a little budget. All you want is clients and you will bend over backwards in order to get just one. That's pretty much what happens when you first start out in your career. I have done my fair share of underpaid and over-delivered work. And I have to admit I still do some but I know my worth now and some jobs just aren't worth it. And you know what? It's ok. It got me where I am today and will get me where I want to go tomorrow. Don't beat yourself up over taking jobs that are not the best paying (but it is ok to say no, trust me, you will survive!). Think of it as a chance to add something great to your portfolio that you will use to get bigger and better clients. I once did an illustration early in my career that was a basic farm scene. Nothing spectacular about the project or the budget, but I wanted to do a really good job and I know I spent way more time on it than I should just because #1: maybe they would work with me again on something bigger and #2: I needed to fill my portfolio. I have gotten 4 jobs, that I know of, that were directly from seeing that one illustration and the clients referenced it in their first contact. See, bigger and better. Don't think of it as paying your dues in the industry, think of it as gaining future clients!

ccording to Webster's the word "freelance" is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer.

Over the last few months this word has really gotten under my skin. I can't pinpoint why, it just does. It bothers me when people ask if I'm "still freelancing" as if it was something temporary. Maybe that's the mentality of the people I run into. I'm sure some of it is my fault because I haven't really expounded on what I do. Part of it is shyness, the other part is prejudging and thinking they wouldn't understand if I told them. But no more!

From this day forward, I am not a freelancer, I do not "work from home." Nope, nope. I own a successful creative studio, I take action with my ideas and make a great living - all while spending time with my family. Don't you want my job?

How do you categorize yourself? Your business?

orry for my lack of posts for the last few months. I've been a wee bit busy.

I plan on going full force with the site next year now that I have the physical space to think. Go ahead and start writing out your goals for next year and get busy making them happen!

've written before about feeling successful in your business and even got others opinions on it. Anette let me know about this newsletter from Michael Katz and it's worth a read!

was going to write this whole long post on agents, but the girls from Illustrator Group Soup did such a great job I'll just link to their's instead.

Here, here, and here.

And also, here's an oldie but goodie post from Janee (we share the same rep).

n the summer of last year (2006), I joined a network marketing company. I know, I know! I did it to help my sister-in-law and then it turned into "hey, I could do this business." My reason then turned into getting out of the house, focusing on something besides art. I really enjoyed it and I overcame a lot of personal fears. I was around motivated and motivational people who wanted to be successful and have their dreams come true. And they wanted that for me too! I loved the atmosphere and excitement of each meeting. It also taught me a lot about people and a lot about negativity. I discovered I don't have room for negativity in my life. I've separated/limited myself from some negative people in my life and I've pretty much stopped watching the news and tend to fill my head with entertaining movies, music and art. I can tell it's done a lot of good in the way I feel day to day and I approach my work in a more carefree attitude. I'm not as rigid as I used to be.

At the beginning of this year I had to take a break from that MLM (multi-level marketing) business. My father had unexpectedly passed away and the situation surrounding his death was extremely sad, difficult and just plain weird. During that time it forced me to really see how fortunate and blessed I was to have my dream job and still be able to take the time I needed to deal with everything going on. I leaned upon my work and really fell in love with it all over again. It was really hard to stay sad and depressed when I was drawing happy kids and cute little animals. It was good therapy for me and it became so clear as to what I needed to do from that point on.

I still had that MLM business waiting for me, people in my up line and down line depending on me for activity and sales, but I realized I didn't need that business. I don't want to be know as a so-and-so consultant. I want to be known as an illustrator. I've worked hard to get that title and I'm proud of it. I wasn't wanting to get out of my day job or replace my income, I do get paid what I'm worth, and yes, I can and do make more than the potential income that the top level of consultants make in this company. And a residual income? Those are royalties in our business. Don't get me wrong, I didn't sour on the company (I'm a product user for life) I just realized the reason I was involved in it and it wasn't income. It was education.

I then starting going through what I learned while doing MLM and applying it to my illustration career. Be positive, do something to reach your goal everyday, be accountable. Going back through all my notes, I've been able to apply all I've learned to my business and career. Success in this business is only going to happen if I make it happen. Things start happening when you're in constant activity. Meaning: following up, promoting, getting involved in things, appreciating your clients and rep and let them know that. Be gracious! It's all about goals and having a no matter what attitude.

I wanted to help people in the way I knew how. In the same career field I was in. This blog actually came out of all this. I want to help people reach their dream. I don't feel I'm giving away trade secrets or too much information where my competitive edge is depleated, it's just some instruction to help others along their journey. It's up to you to make it all happen! Remember, I had to start out too.

I'm not saying go out and join a network marketing company, but if you do, open your ears, take it all in and apply it to the career you want!

now what you want out of your creative business. Make your career as fun as a hobby. Better yet, turn your hobby into a career. People do it all the time. I spoke to someone recently about opening an Etsy shop (Oh how I love etsy. Buying and selling! Here's a shameless plug for my shop). They were only interested to know what was selling and then that's what they would make and sell. If they go that route, they would have no passion or enjoy what they are doing. My response was for them to find what they like to do/make and then sell that because it's not going to work the other way.

Do you have a purpose for doing what you do. It can't all be about the money. I thoroughly enjoy my job because I know what I'm working towards and why I'm working. I'm staying home with my daughter, I can visit my 91 year old grandmother whenever I want, I can take mini vacations during the week and not be constricted to weekends and I don't have to ask permission. I'm a tough boss for myself to have, but I'm good to myself for jobs well done.

on't whine on your blog about not getting work. Don't go on a rant about a particular client or project you are working on. And vent lightly about career woes. I know it's hard and sometimes I just want to tell the world to get it off my chest but it's not in my career's best interest.

I've run across some blogs lately that have done a really good job of venting their career woes in a positive way, others have invited their readers to their personal pity parties. First off, what you are saying is public meaning that potential clients could read it. New clients find me all the time through my blog. Secondly it makes you look unprofessional and not serious about your career. What you talk about you bring about and if you are negative about not getting work or your career, it's going to stay that way. Use your critique group to vent your frustrations and woes. That way you are doing it in a private and safe place. Name names, quote emails, rip a client to shreads (I've done it!) but keep it private. Keep your public attitude positive even if you're about to blow inside.

Some people have a personal blog and then a "business" blog. You may choose to vocalize your career woes on your personal blog, but remember that prospective clients find you through numerous ways and google is one of them. They may be looking for you and the first page they find might be the personal blog where you are negative all the time. If you must vent, re-read what you've written and see if the whole thing shines a negative light on you. Just something to think about!

Sorry to be AWOL the last month or so. I had unexpected gall bladder surgery (that was fun!) and then was behind on deadlines and work just kept coming in so I had to put the blog on the back burner for a while but hopefully I will get back on track. I did want to post my promotion process and this is actually posted over at my other blog but wanted to share it here too:



I thought I'd lay my promotion process out to help answer the numerous emails I receive a week asking about it. This post took me several days to write since I only had time to work on it in between saves on projects I'm working on. It's gonna be a long one, but a good one!

Postcards:
I do postcard promotions every 3 months, and yes, they do work. My latest one hit at the end of July and has yielded 3 jobs so far and lots of looks on my website:

And here's my postcard for my Junk A Doodle work. This is the first separate postcard I've sent out for that style:

My best response postcard to date was this one. I got tons of work from it.

Client List:
Research, research, research!! Know who you are sending to and make sure you want to spend your money promoting to them. Spend days if not weeks doing it. I recently went through my mailing list (over 300 names) and researched every company making sure I had the correct address, seeing if they had new submission guidelines on their site and double checking their style to see if mine would fit with their's. I cleaned out about 20-30 names, so I saved myself a good about of money right there.

I also have 2 list going. One for my overall styles and a separate one for my Junk A Doodles style (since it's not specifically related to the children's market).

Who I use and why I use them:
I get my postcards printed and mailed through USPS/Premium postcards. I will never go back to getting postcards printed 500 at a time. I do this for a few reasons.
The biggest ones being, I don't have to see 500 postcards laying around and then start nit-picking the images used and then hate the postcard thus never sending
it out (this happened to my very first batch). I also don't like to go through and print labels, buy stamps, and sit there and stick them on one at a time. My time could be much better spent.

There has been a lot of talk about USPS postcards and the saturation levels they print out. I sometimes have issues with them and sometimes don't. You need to send a sample to yourself first to see what your potential clients will get. I usually send 4-5 postcards to myself at one time. All with different color adjustments so I can then see which level is the best. That way I can send them right out instead of trying several times to get the color right. This could delay your mailing for weeks depending on how many times you go back and forth. I say test it in one swoop.

Email list:

I try and send out an email monthly. It's usually short and sweet and I send it to people who have signed up on my website or to people I have worked with directly or have shown interest in my work (I have ?? people on my list that grows monthly). I don't spam any one and have a explanation at the bottom of my email that says why I'm sending them the email and how they can be removed from the list. Since I've been sending one out, no one's removed themselves from the list.

I used to send out plain text emails with an image attached but this year have switch over to Your Mailing List Provider That way I can send out an HTML email with no images attached.

Website:
I try to redesign or do a major portfolio update when I send out a new mailer. I try to do it more often but I sometimes get too busy or don't have any new pieces to show yet since they haven't been published. I have 2 websites for my illustration work:

holliconger.com
junkadoodles.com

A lot of people ask me if I design it or if I have someone do it. I design and code it myself. I mostly code by hand since it's easier and quicker for me, but I do use Adobe GoLive for my image maps and anything tricky I might run into.

Website Stats:
I am a stats junkie. I look at my stats probably 20 times a day. I track 8 websites. I see who's visiting, who's linking to me, etc. I make notes and analyze them. Some people choose to track all the pages on their site. I only track the homepage. The stat program I use is Stat Counter.

Domains:
Now I showed my geekiness a while back when I mentioned the number of domains I have. Nearly all of them have to do with my business in one way or another or I'm saving them for a idea I want to execute in the future. Here are a few that are forwarded to my main sites:

hollyconger.com
hollieconger.com
holieconger.com
picturebookartist.com
foundobjectillustration.com
dimensionalillustrator.com
nashvilleillustrator.com

Portfolio Sites:
Yes, spend the money. Even if you can only afford to advertise on one site. Do it to test it.

I have a paid listing on the following sites:

childrenillustrators.com
theispot.com
folioplanet.com

These sites have done really well and have paid for themselves every year I've been listed. I did have a paid portfolio with portfolios.com and although it did pay for itself that year, I didn't get any new job from it about 5 months after being listed (7 months with no activity).

Back Up Plans:
Now a lot of people starting out can't do this, and I understand, but it is something you should think about and budget for. Have more than one workstations. At the moment I have 2 main ones. I have a desktop and a laptop. I have a large wacom tablet and scanner for my desktop and a smaller tablet and scanner for my laptop that are dsmall enough for my laptop bag. I keep all my work on a portable harddrive and switch between the two. I used to use my ipod but I switched over to a smartdisk firelite.

Now, why should you have more than one workstation? Deadlines!! I have had deadlines due and my computer have problems. Software, hardware, harddrive, you name it. If I have a problem on one, I switch to the other workstation, make my deadline and then figure out the problem with the other one when I have time.

Time:
The all important question I get asked is how do you find the time to do all this?

I plan my week out on Sunday night. I write a list of all the deadlines I have, what promotion stuff I need to do and other business things I want to accomplish that week. I plan my day out mentally the night before. I keep a calendar by my desk and with every new assignment I write down when sketches are due and when finals are due. I also have a wonderful daughter who allows me to work. Some days she doesn't and I just know I have to work late that night or get up early in the morning, but most of the time she does. She loves to spend hours digging though all my junk I collect for my junk a doodle pieces while I get some computer work done.

Know your time limits and restrictions and know when to say no to work. I've recently turned down some projects from pretty big clients (one was the Department of Defense if you can believe that?!). I know what I do and don't have the time for and what I can and can't draw well and what jobs in general will stress me out. I'm the only one that controls my business so I want it stress-free as much as possible. I want it to continue to be fun for me:)

Well, that's it but I'm sure not everything to answer the questions out there. Hopefully you've gotten some ideas though.