Have you always wanted to make money from your creative talents? If so, you might be a creative entrepreneur in the making.

What do creative entrepreneurs do?

Wikipedia defines creatives entrepreneurship as “the practice of setting up a business – or setting yourself up as self-employed – in one of the creative industries. “

I have my own definition:

“Creative entrepreneurs are people who make a living from their creative talents.”

Popularly, creative entrepreneurs are those who set up a business to sell the products they create or provide creative services. For example, they can be:

• Freelance writers and editors
• Indie authors
• Freelance graphic designers
• Podcasters and Youtubers
• Social Media influencers
• Musicians and actors
• Artists who sell their art

But must you set up a business to be a creative entrepreneur?

It seems counter-intuitive to ask this, but I believe that you’re a creative entrepreneur even if you’re a creative working a full-time job. (For example, if you’re copywriter for an ad agency or a graphic designer for an in-house creative team.) The only difference between 9-to-5 creative workers and their entrepreneur counterparts is that full-time workers only have one client.

All creative workers, whether they are writers, singers, painters, photographers or graphic designers need to be the boss of their careers.

In an age where industries and jobs can disappear overnight and sudden economic crisis derail best laid plans, creatives cannot afford to sit back and operate on auto pilot. They need to actively promote themselves and ensure that their skills are up to date and in demand. And that means having an entrepreneurial mindset.

What does it takes to be a creative entrepreneur?

Creative entrepreneurs are often risk takers, at least when it comes to their art. They are so passionate about their creative work and living the life they value that they’ll do anything to ensure that they can continue creating. Sometimes, yes, that means quitting a well-paying full-time job to go into business for themselves.

However, creative entrepreneurs are not just artists, they’re business people too. In essence, they should also have good money management skills and a firm grasp or how to run a business. They also need to be great networkers and communicators. They need to have good interpersonal skills, not just to be able to sell an idea but to negotiate a contract or network with the right people to bring in more business opportunities.

In the end, a creative entrepreneur needs to have a whole spectrum of skills to thrive.

How to battle inertia to embrace your inner creative entrepreneur

Confession. Although I happily declare that I’m a creative entrepreneur, for many years, I ignored the business side of the creative life. Excel sheets paralyse me. Tax matters terrify me. Marketing my work made me feel dirty. I thought all I had to do was create my art and leave it at that.

So what did I do? I ignored the business side of things. I had poor money management skills and ended up heavily in debt. I didn’t know how to market myself or create different streams of income. I didn’t know how to power up my career and gain more skills to be more marketable. Fortunately, I woke up just in time to walk a different path, but if I had levelled up sooner, I would have had more options now.

The image of the starving artist? The one where an artist has to survive on ramen noodles while they paint in a roach-infested garret somewhere? It doesn’t quite appeal to me, and I hope it doesn’t to you as well.

If we creatives are to make a decent living with our creativity (whether with our own business or as full-time workers), we don’t have the luxury to ignore the money side of our careers.

The best thing we can do for our art is to embrace the “boring and difficult” things and learn these skills:

• How to sell
• How to learn and continuously improve our skills
• How to market our products
• How to manage our money (taxes, savings, debts, insurance and all)
• How to network and build strong relationships
• How to optimise our lifestyles so that we are not overly dependent on money
• How to manage our capacity so that we don’t burnout and wreck our health

The good news is, there’s no better time to be a creative. Rather than depend on a generous patron, technology has enabled creatives to monetise their work like never before.

The most important thing for creatives is to act now and to constantly grow.

Are you a creative entrepreneur? What do you do and what are the challenges you face as one? Do let us know in the comments below!