When you get right down to it, there's not a lot of magic to it. Any successful venture, online or offline, takes a lot of hard work. Nor is there a "do this one thing" kind of miraculous singular strategy for ensuring that your Art or Craft business is successful. As long as it remains your first love and you have the ongoing passion, the smarts, and the creative talents, and some related business skill, and some committed time, you can make an excellent "go" of any Art or Craft business.

In this Dollars & Sense Issue, you'll find some marketing and business musing, and common-sense advice. I've always been amazed in life how the simple facts and basic truths, can often be the most profound re-reminders. May these serve to orient you back to task, if need be. May this also be some straight-shooting words of encouragement, and may it bolster you to continue on fulfilling your dream!

"Patient Persistence" — a Key to Success

Am I being oxymoronic? Contradictory? Not really… So what do I mean? It seems to imply some degree of courageous long-suffering mixed with faith and perhaps some skill for discretionary nagging or "sticking to it", and persevering. Think about what patience and persistence mean to you. They can be opposites or they can be "joint partners" in our best efforts and most successful endeavors.

I've always taught my kids, as well as businesses I've consulted for, that "The dog that barks the loudest gets his food." (and I might add, "You can be sure if you don't, someone else surely will"). And "If you don't ask, you don't get.", (meaning, "Don't be shy, get out there and try; you may be nicely surprised."). We've all heard about the early bird getting the worm and scores of other cute analogies. There's something to it… mostly a lot of hard work.

The fact is, "all good things take time".

Patience can imply "waiting". Persistence can imply "pushing forward". Are they opposites? NO.

PATIENT PERSISTENCE is unremitting devotion and dedication; a relentless, consistent, ongoing drive. It is a constancy of purpose, with all our energies focused for a goal, a vision. PATIENT PERSISTENCE keeps on keeping on.

When you know this, "giving up" is not in your vocabulary. When you know this, getting depressed and wanting to 'pack it in', are quickly foreseen and evolved into adapting and trying something different or new, meaning, "If at first you don't succeed, you try and try again." Common-sense? We've all heard it before. However, what do we do at these times? I humbly submit, that's what separates those who destine themselves to success from those who shy away or drop the ball at the first or subsequent sign of resistance, rejection, or trouble.

You need to have a tough skin if you're going to have an Art or Craft e-business; a faint heart won't cut it, unless you get really, really lucky.

PATIENT PERSISTENCE isn't a natural attribute to most and it doesn't come easy. It's challenged by impulse, impatience, youthful exuberance, innocent ignorance, rejection, roadblocks and brickwalls, you name it. It's greatly challenged by our own fears and weaknesses that can zap our strength and steal our faith and passion, but the successful business owner comes to have it, with time.

Timing is key to patient persistence, and knowing when to bark the loudest, when to push ahead, or when to catch your breath, re-adapt, modify your position, and then go at it again. It's an "art of pro-activation" that you need to cultivate.

I'd like to say that my modus operandi has always been patient persistence, but it ebbs and flows. The idea is for it to be a continuous flow that knows no stoppage. Rest is fine, but be alert. The ability to "get up and at 'em " again, is crucial because the market never waits for you. Your competitors are always vying for your customers' dollars. In the Art and Craft world, don't fool yourself that your art or craft is so unique and different than the next artist, that you'll always have a market for your works. Competition is everywhere all the time. If you want to be one who has great success, you have to patiently persist at doing everything you can to make it happen.

    Do nothing, nothing happens.
    Do little, only a little might happen.
    Do lots, it can't help but inevitably happen.

In most people's "real world" nothing happens overnight. We all search for, but few seldom ever find, that "one-shot solution" that brings you instant success, more customers than you know what to do with, and increased revenues galore, forever and ever, amen... and with the least amount of work. Wouldn't that be nice? We'd all prefer that, but it very rarely happens like that.

There's no shortage of well-known success stories from earlier days, the internet "boom-times" when everything seemed to turn to gold just by virtue of "being on the net". That is, before everybody and their aunt and uncle jumped on the online bandwagon. To be sure, there's those well-deserved success stories we've heard about that involved a great product or great service at a great time… or something so revolutionary so how could the world not embrace it. But mostly, it happens the other more common way for most of us. Does it mean that comparatively, we're therefore more pessimistic or lacking the passion or the faith, or enough positive thinking? NO.

All successful business owners need the right balance of visionary and practical realist. It's all a question of passionate excitement and love for what you do, along with tempered realism, coupled with the smarts and the resources and some good market timing and necessary business acumen. And you need a good deal of market-sense, needless to say, too. If you don't know your market and your customers' likes and dislikes, and their shopping habits, so to speak, you're asking for trouble and a long hard go of it. So, you have to know what you're doing. It's not enough to just be an obviously talented artist, artisan, or craftsperson who has a love for what they do. You need to have the skill on many fronts as well as financial wherewithal to pull it off, and if applicable, the right people on your team to make it all happen. What do I mean?

Know your art or craft

• Go all the way. Develop your talent. Learn all the tricks of the trade, the secrets of your craft. Become all that you can be. Enable the student to become the master.

Know your market and your customer like the back of your hand

• Successful business owners don't have to "guess". They find out what they need to know. They learn from wherever they can. They glean from others. They ask questions and they get answers. When you know what your customer likes about your art, you're not only creating for yourself, you're in sync with them as well.

Know as much as you can about being an entrepreneur, not just an artist

• If you want to be successful and make any money at your art career, you can't afford the luxury of being an artist, purely and solely, where nothing else matters or factors in.

Know as much as you can about business, marketing, and selling

• Some marketing-savvy is crucial for any artist. The business part of the equation isn't a strength for most creative people. Learn what you need to know, and/or get someone to help you. But NEVER neglect this part of your success equation!

And know how to put your best foot forward with patient persistence

• Patient persistence garners an ongoing optimism and expectancy for great things to happen. Watch where you dwell in your emotions. Believe in who you are and what you do and don't be hesitant to humbly but unashamedly market your art. You would have never been doing this in the first place if you didn't already know that people like what you create.

I'll say it again. Nothing happens overnight. There will forever be those marketers and scammers out there to take advantage of the unaware. There will always be those who will tout their magic solutions, short-cuts, and instant gratifications to essentially, make them rich, and you inevitably, poorer.

Everything requires "due diligence" when it comes to business and it's all the more true regarding any new online marketing you desire to employ.

• Don't be narrow-minded, or short-sighted, looking only for the quick "flash in the pan", instantly measurable results. What happens at the beginning is just the beginning. Your business will evolve over time. You will tweak and modify and learn all along the way. And if you stick to it, you'll develop a strong backbone and foundation for your business on which you can eventually fly high with success. It will take some time but you can do it if you're patiently persistent.

I've said to my small team here, "we're going to crawl, before we walk, before we run, and eventually we'll fly, too!" Everything takes time. Where you are today, is not where you'll be tomorrow. If you patiently and persistently do what you need to, you'll be looking back, on more than one occasion, to your humble early beginnings knowing that you've come a very long way and it's all been worth it and that will be a very good feeling.

• Have a personal and business vision. They're not necessarily one in the same.




• Have attainable targets you have to stretch for and ultimate goals you want to reach. Have short-range, mid-term, and long-range plans. Develop strategies, and definitive actions to get from Point A to Point B and so on. The shortest distance between 2 points isn't always necessarily the best way… Learn along the way; be adaptive and grow.




• Brainstorm, pre-plan, think ahead, and envision grandiosely what you would really like to do or become… and then target yourself accordingly.

If you don't ask, you don't get.
If you don't try, and give yourself something to compare to, you'll never know what might have or could have been better for you!

Plan on a long-term commitment to your e-business and you will greatly increase your chance of success!

• Don't follow the example of countless companies who are simply pouring in massive amounts of money into online ventures expecting quick returns on their initial investments. Granted, our Art & Craft world is not graced with quite so much money and corporate extravagance but, reduce the scale as applicable. The initial online boom of quick profits and customers galore knocking on your e-door, is over. That was the past. Today it's not quite so automatic, and it's a very busy, very crowded market.

Be wise and be patient, but keep on keeping on.

Persistence should never imply "running ahead of where and when you're ready".

Patiently persist on your path, do what you need to, and you'll slowly but surely get there at the pace that's right for you, whether you're a hare or a tortoise.

• Keep your overhead as low as possible. Keep your business debt-free. Don't spend what you don't need to. Don't spend what you don't have in some mad rush to do what others are doing. You'll get there in your own good time. Window-dressing and bells and whistles are nice, but you'll have time for that down the road when you have lots of money in the bank. Until that point, don't bite off "too big a chunk to chew". Your early years are full of defining moments that make you who you are and inexorably determine your future. Don't do the "big thing" right off the bat when the "small thing" may initially be ALL that you require… You'll grow into the bigger and better thing down the road when you really do need to.

There is a time and a place for everything.

The "check and balance" of persistence is patience.

• In the name of trying to keep your overhead low don't buy into anything that may cost you more in the long run or saddle you with more than you bargained for. Check into the scores of free and lower cost online services to help you build, host and promote your e-business. But remember, "Buyer Beware". You ALWAYS get exactly what you pay for. Free may not be the best thing to do, or the least costly thing to do. There may be a "catch" or a hidden cost yet to be realized. Many free online services bring with them "baggage" and "strings attached" that aren't likely to be acknowledged up front. They enamor you with no fees or novel features. Do your homework, investigate the pro's and con's thoroughly first. There are companies like A&CNet who offer excellent-value highest-quality products and services at affordable prices.We cater exclusively to meeting the unique needs of the Art & Craft Community.

• The Internet is an evolving landscape…a brave new world, not for the faint of heart. It's not a magical panacea for instant success but it can be an exceptional "vehicle" for information dissemination, marketing and selling, and interactivity. It's a dynamic medium, unlike traditional marketing and advertising media which has become the "same old, same old" with few new innovative advertising strategies arising anymore. The Internet is still being explored and there's many years of innovation and new marketing concepts and opportunities which will yet arise to help you grow your e-business.

Successful businesses know that a web-presence "helps tremendously" these days. In years to come it will be an absolute necessity. Statistically, Consumers' shopping habits are dramatically changing… Over 75% of all Canadian Consumers already go on the internet to do their initial product research and finding out when and where to buy what they're looking for. Increasing Internet usage isn't merely a trend to be reckoned with. It's here to stay. The successful business, even within our Art & Craft Community, takes note of what's happening online, learns to adapt, makes any changes, and readies itself for an ever-growing customer base. Keep up with new technologies that may help expand your e-business to a wider audience.

The key point is this: At the very least use the Net to tell people about yourself and to promote your art. And as soon as you can, consider additionally selling your art online, too. Those who take early advantage of this will have the edge over those who mostly rely on traditional marketing and advertising means to sell their art.

• Marketing is a continual responsibility, an ongoing necessity for any business that wants to not only become successful, but maintain that success throughout the life of their company or their career. Form a habit of doing something at least weekly to promote your business. Make some definitive plans and schedule some exact time for it. Too many small businesses allow marketing to get ‘the short end of the stick' because it's not necessarily something that they can measure immediately. Creating the art is more fun than administering it… right?

Stick to it.
Set your stage for growth.
Stack your deck with marketing measures that will reap sales and a broader customer base.
Every wise and pre-meditated action you take, will work together for your good.
Give it some time to come to fruition.
PATIENT PERSISTENCE IS KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS!

Here's what others have to say about this…

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

    Thomas Alva Edison

"Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do, is not doing."

    Thomas Alva Edison

"I don't wait for moods, you accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to work."

    Pearl S. Buck

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."

    John Quincy Adams

"Go on working, freely and furiously, and you will make progress."

    Paul Gauguin

"Money grows on the tree of persistence."

    Japanese proverb.

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success."

    Dale Carnegie

"Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning."

    Denis Waitley

"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor."

    Eric Hoffer

"A Winner's Blueprint for Achievement:

BELIEVE while others are doubting.
PLAN while others are playing.
STUDY while others are sleeping.
DECIDE while others are delaying.
PREPARE while others are daydreaming.
BEGIN while others are procrastinating.
WORK while others are wishing.
SAVE while others are wasting.
LISTEN while others are talking.
SMILE while others are frowning.
COMMEND while others are criticizing.
PERSIST while others are quitting."

    William Arthur Ward

"There are people who make things happen, and there are those who watch things happen. And there are those who wonder what happened."

    Hannah Whitall Smith

"Persistence is insurance against failure."

    Earl Nightingalen

"As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time."

    Denis Waitley

"The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows."

    Milton Glaser

"Studies indicate that the one quality all successful people have is persistence. They're willing to spend more time accomplishing a task and to perservere in the face of many difficult odds. There's a very positive relationship between people's ability to accomplish any task and the time they're willing to spend on it."

    Dr Joyce Brothers

"Failure is the line of least persistence."

    Alfred Brandt

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."

    Confucius

Courtesy of Daryl Stratichuk, President and Founder of A&CNet Inc.