This morning, Aycee asked me, “How can I juggle 2 creative businesses?”
It’s a question I get asked a lot. We’re people of varied interests, with a slew of talents. We don’t want to get pinned down to any particular thang.
So instead of specializing, we branch out. Every new idea has a new name, a new domain, a new blog, and a new Twitter handle. And somewhere along the line, we get dazed and confused. And despite having the much-coveted “multiple streams of income,” we have no money.
My title is misleading. I’m not going to explain how to manage multiple businesses. I’m going to show you how your business is all one.
Bold statement: Your business, no matter how diverse, if run [almost] entirely by you, is one business. Not many. Solopreneurs have solo businesses.
“Now, hold on there one crazy minute,” you might say. “Tara, it sure looks like you have multiple businesses.”
Let the showing commence.
I have multiple products. I have ebooks, teaching programs, a digital zine called Scoutie Girl, a business forum in partnership with Megan Auman, and coaching services. I talk about everything from productivity to better blogging to designing a website to email marketing to being a mom to being a breadwinner.
But when it comes down to it, I sell artist-entrepreneur support programs.
I have one business, around one central character (me!), and one grounding mission:
I work with big thinking artists-of-all-sorts who struggle with how to earn a good living from their art. I riff, strategize, and conceive of fresh ways of doing business that leave my clients feeling rejuvenated, their businesses revolutionized. I arm artists with confidence & freedom while removing their fears & stagnation.
You might have a blog here, an Etsy shop there, and a service business around the corner but they are all products of your central mission. Think of them that way and your job as entrepreneur suddenly becomes clear.
And those things that just don’t fit? No matter how hard you cram them into your mission box? Maybe it’s time to reevaluate.
If you have multiple businesses, your task for today isn’t to figure out a new way to market one of them or to write a new blog post for the other, it’s to discover, deep down, what it is that ties these “businesses” together as “products.” What is your overall message & mission that allows your products to function independently?
Need a hand? Book a session with me or try Dyana Valentine’s Pitch Perfect program.
I totally agree with your “central mission” idea. If I thought of our transcription, my virtual team coaching clients and writing my book as three separate businesses, I’d be sunk. Everything has to be scheduled in in its own time, and when it’s time for life, sometimes you just have to walk away from your business job.
Nicely put. I recently decided to create a website hub under my own name with links to all of my endeavors. Just that one simple step … and the webpage is very simple … help me grab all of my businesses by their tails and anchor them to one central place … me. I instantly felt less torn in multiple directions, and more unified. Though my endeavors are all distinctly different, I came to recognize their common thread … they are all creative, and they feed into and out of one another.
Great post. I think a lot of us can relate.
Awesome Tara! Thanks so much for this post. I just talked about this with a branding coach Pamela Wilson this week. Sometimes I feel like I need to separate my Etsy Shop from my website which focuses on coaching so that I can promote & market them separately, but that would mean way more work than I want to take on. It can be overwhelming just thinking of it.
Anyway, thanks to Pamela’s advice, the branding interview you just did, & this post I realize that I don’t need to stress about it. I’m the centerpiece of both businesses so if I promote myself & little bits-n-pieces of both places then the chips will fall exactly where they should. I have to keep in mind that I’m the key ingredient! Thanks again!!
When it comes down to it, my two businesses, although distinctly different, are ways for me to express my creativity – writing for one, design for the other. Love it.
Yes! I so need to hear this. I run 2 businesses – 1 product and 1 service and although I have always wanted them to be “under one roof” I have had a hard time understanding how to do that exactly without confusion. I myself know what is what but the concern was confusing this customer or that customer and not looking like a an “expert” in my services because it is cluttered up with product and vice versa. I have been thinking about splitting them even more but, felt uncomfortable about doing that it just didn’t sit well with me to have 2 totally different persona’s. I don’t know the answer yet but, trying to come up with one mission for both is a start. Thanks Tara!
Yes Yes Yes I have always worn multiple hats but figuring out how to fit them under one umbrella has eluded me till recently. Your influence has been a huge part of my clarity!
What a perfect post!
One business, a central character and a grounding mission. That states it very clearly. Finally I have focus and I’m with Gwyn, your influence has also helped me gain clarity and focus. THANK YOU!!!!!
I feel like you wrote this just for me! It’s just what I needed to hear today =) Thanks!
I too manage multiple businesses as a writer and photographer, and have recently realized that everything I do is really one business. Moving towards a more seamless business model now. Great post!
I love this post and this point of view, Tara. This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I am increasingly finding my thumbs in more pies. {How do you like that metaphor?}
Currently, I’m managing my primary brand, Abby Kerr Ink, my new and developing brand, Indie Retail Whip, and an as-yet-under-wraps brand I’m doing as a JV with two other people. I’ve been conscious of wanting all three of these endeavors to flow out of my *best* and strongest teachings. I don’t want to get distracted as I grow.
So the overall message and mission that unifies all three brands but allows them to grow independently is this: I help savvy creative entrepreneurs grow toward more ease, freedom, and control in their lives by claiming their unique gifts and talents.
Thanks for writing this, Tara.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! In this post, you’ve managed to sum up one of the central questions I’ve been asking myself about the business I’m building (whether I’m ‘going too wide’ in terms of what I’m hoping to offer), and answer it simply and concisely (figure out the central purpose, and make sure anything I offer fits into that).
This makes perfect sense to me – far more than the idea of running multiple businesses would.