Words    Words    Words

If you’ve been reading along so far and practicing the suggestions, you now have a pile of recorded observations and information relevant to the business model portion of your project. To turn your collected data into something more sensical, consider these simple steps recommended by our consultants:

1. Prioritize the steps you need to take to launch your project with sound business principles. Knowing what needs to happen right away for optimal success, and what can wait and be built on the foundations you establish first, is vital for a profitable business model. It is good to dream large, but don’t forget to establish steps along the way you can more easily achieve.
2. Make a sequential plan. Know the individual steps you need to take to reach your goals. Try to define your goals clearly, with close attention to detail and a distinct and specific order of operations.
3. Be flexible when needed. Know which parts of your plan you are willing to bend on and which you aren’t. (And then re-evaluate that last point again; know your boundaries and maintain them healthily–but don’t self-sabotage with unrealistic expectations.) Keep focused on your project and your goals, but temper your idealism with a healthy dose of understanding that no matter how attractively balanced or thorough your plans, change and chaos can (and likely will) disrupt your actions. Retaining flexibility in how you address the complications that arise can make the difference between a commercially viable project and one that remains obscure or unprofitable.
4. Set reasonable, achievable goals and deadlines. Again, idealism will not assist you here; be ruthlessly honest with yourself about what and how much you can accomplish in a given time frame. Attempting too much in too short of time is one of the most common ways that artistic endeavors fail.

Surely by now some of you reading along have questions; they are welcome in the comments! Remember that your contributions help us keep this paper current in information, so talk on!

Other posts:

• Part 0: Series Announcement
• Part 1: About the Series
• Part 2: The Five W’s
• Part 3: DMAIC

The Artist Business Models series is based on a paper written by Reesa Brown and Kit O’Connell, with assistance from Steven Brust, Ken Brown, Deborah Ibarra, and many others. At the close of the series, the entire business model paper will be posted to Continuous Labs. The business model paper and blog posts are released under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 license.