Hi, my name is Shirley
If you are a creative person and you are thinking of starting a business, I think I can help you navigate a few pitfalls, I cannot guarantee that you will emerge as the next unicorn but I will try to save you some money, time, tears heartache and ridicule, because, I have failed, I have failed, my God I have failed.
So just to start off you have been tinkering with your creative idea for a couple of months, years, your friends, family keep egging you on to turn this creative pursuit into a business. One day you build up enough confidence and decide to throw caution to the wind and open a business.
Let me just STOP you right there DO NOT DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!(It will end in tears)
Or DO but first check out check out my four-part lessons on building my creative enterprise;
I broke my painful lessons into a digestible four-part series so it’s easy to grasp but also there’s only so much pain one can withstand in the first part I will delve into;
1) Primary target audience for these lessons
While my work experience is varied my Four-Part lessons will be primarily based on my creative pursuit. The icreate Project which is a platform that curates maker stories, traditions and products. Through the series of lessons, you will get to see firsthand the different iterations of the icreate project and the hard and painful lessons I carried and learnt therein.
Through my painful experience you will be able to explore your business ideas, piece together a meaningful story. Your story is the thread that will keep you grounded when everything goes haywire and it will.
I hope as you explore my painful experience you will be able to understand how to make your business work, figure out why your customers should care about your product and how to make money I hate to be the one to emphasis this but business is really about making money.
2) How is are these lessons different from other business guides, accelerators?
You are probably wondering why these lessons are different from the plethora of business guides, case studies in the world.
I will not even pretend for one moment that I have the most innovative idea. I do not, come to think of it, the icreate project is barely even profitable and no it barely brings me joy, but for some reason The icreate Project is the one thing in my life I believe I must get right. Or at least keep trying at.
So, if you are anything like me and you just cannot seem to get rid of an idea let me help you find a way to launch it in the least painful way possible. My painful lessons will be complimented practical exercises based off my experience working and being part of accelerators, worksheets, case studies and Notes (Yeah, I know bore but will try to keep these short.)
I believe you all have amazing ideas that you think are east to execute but sadly this is not the case. You need to thoroughly evaluate before executing and that is what my experience with the icreate project taught me.
3) How will my painful lessons help you?
When we first start out with building our ideas, we tend to only imagine the ideal but I would like you all to remember Murphy’s Law which states that anything that can go wrong will.
Just a quick note, I built the very first version of the icreate project based on Fantasy and boy did I learn the hard way. I hope that as you dissect fantasy of what I hoped the icreate project would be. You will be able to apply my painful experience to help you build a clearer vision, understand what you want to achieve, figure out your offering, find out who your customers are and iterate your idea accordingly.
4) What do you gain
Well first and foremost you will not have as many sleepless nights as I did, you will be able to save some money and by concentrating on making your business work and on a practical level you will be able to achieve a more sustainable business.
Goodluck, I hope this will be a less painful experience.