On the journey to becoming a successful artist-entrepreneur, you must change the way you think. The art business is similar to most other forms of business in that it requires planning, implementation, and a goal-oriented mindset. Most advice will direct you towards these points, though often regard the goal-oriented mindset as of less importance than the former two.

If you are ready to gain some guidance on adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, then this article will be useful to you.

Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone

Despite the face-value obviousness of this point, the reason there are many more start-up creative businesses than successful long-term creative ones is that artists tend to remain a lot more humble than they should. Self-promotion can be very daunting and may feel as if you are being too proud or boastful about your work. Don’t fall into the trap of being overly humble: taking risks and putting yourself ­out there is the only way to get seen.

“One of the main ingredients of your own success is the promotion you will have from others. The support you receive from others can only appear once you show consistency in your work and showcasing abilities,” says Tracey M. Wise, art writer at Australia 2 Write and Next CourseWork.

Be on an ongoing journey

If you imagine yourself walking towards your successful career as an art entrepreneur, see each step forward as getting you closer to your goal. Also see each time you pause, or breathe out and enjoy the scenery as a time for self-reflection. There is no better life coach or mentor than yourself. A positive mindset is only half the story – you also need to regularly review your goals and what you are doing towards them. If you find they are not aligned, perhaps your goals no longer serve you, or perhaps your actions aren’t being as productive as they should. Perhaps you set yourself too many goals, or too few. There are many reasons to self-reflect.

Also take the time to figure out how you like to work. Do you prefer to feel challenged or relaxed? Do you work better during the day or night; alone or with collaborative effort? The more questions you ask yourself, the more you will find there is to ask. Many opportunities are out-of-reach because you aren’t self-reflecting.

Try not to fall into the traps of self-shame, self-doubt, and ignorance towards skills you have convinced yourself you can do well, though actually need to develop.

Decide how to invest in your business wisely

Expenses and investments are not the same things. Expenses in your business won’t actually contribute to your ability to make sales, and instead, drain you of your cash flow. There are some necessary expenses, such as materials and equipment, though investing in your business is a much more successful way to help your business.

The majority of the founders of start-ups will make the mistake of taking everything on themselves. It is not possible to do everything yourself! Your business will need the skills and expertise of others. However, use tools such as spreadsheets to figure out what your business can afford. Making unwise and radical investments will put you at a greater loss.

There are probably more resources around you than you realize, such as website developers, photographers, email marketing services, personal assistants, and coaching programs. Assessing and utilizing the true advantage of these will increase how many options your business has to move forwards.

Recognize the present similarities between most artists and most entrepreneurs

Both intuition and creativity are great characteristics when managing any form of business. The ability to go with your gut instinct is the same characteristic that is most responsible for the development of the greatest and most successful businesses in the world. On the other hand, intuition is also responsible for some of the best artwork in the world.

Creativity, in reference to originality, is the skill of developing solutions to problems that surface. In this way, challenges and setbacks are blessings in disguise: they force you to overcome and adapt. Without a steady level of competition with yourself, you miss out on continual self-development, and such, the development of your business.

Stop micro-managing!

Delegating tasks to others who support and work in your developing business will find it overwhelming if you constantly monitor and modulate the work they produce. Allow yourself to give tasks to others to reduce how much time you waste, therefore increasing how much time you have to actually create art and make sales. This will in turn give you the room to produce the quantity of art that is necessary to be noticed.

Though quality is overall more important than quantity for making large sales, quantity is more important for making impactful sales and getting known. If you aren’t known widely, people won’t buy your product – simple!

Allow yourself to make mistakes comfortably

We live in a perfectionist culture: it’s not your fault and it’s not mine either. What can be your fault, however, is allowing the culture to be your downfall. The most successful business people and artists alike understand that striving for constant self-improvement is a great attribute to have, though allowing themselves to become crazy because of it is one of the worst ideas to have. On the other hand, it’s a good thing to let your business take over a large portion of your life. It may seem that you are becoming obsessed with your goals, which in the best-case scenario means that they become very successful.

“Use your best skills and characteristics to their fullest potential. Become excited about your current and future successes!” Says Rebecca L. Buser, business blogger at 1 Day 2 Write and Brit Student.

Overall, you can be successful on this journey to becoming an artist-entrepreneur! Like any other long-term goal, it will require both dedication and patience. Allow yourself to become a better version of yourself.

About the author:

Michael Dehoyos is a content marketer and editor at Phd Kingdom and Academic brits He assists companies in their marketing strategy concepts, and contributes to numerous sites and publications. Also, he is a writer at Origin Writings.