creative business

9 money mistakes I’ve made as a creative entrepreneur

Money mistakes are something we’ll all make, at some point in our life. We’re human – it’s part of the journey! 

So first of all, feel no shame about the ones you’ve made. You’re not the only one and you won’t be the last. Remember also that building a business is a long game – an adventure that will have highs and lows. Being committed and acting in alignment with that commitment is what will bring you success.

I’ve previously shared the 4 most powerful money lessons I’ve learned so far in my creative business journey. These are key principles I recommend every creative business owner really sit with, absorb and take action about. 

In this post, I’m sharing some of my biggest money mistakes and the additional lessons that have come out of making them. I’m hoping that in doing so, I can spare you from the setbacks they brought me. Continue reading “9 money mistakes I’ve made as a creative entrepreneur”

Content for days! 9 ways to show your creative work

I know you have a TON of excuses to NOT show your work. 

Even though you know you need to do it. 

Why show your work?

Showing your work helps you to grow

Whether your creative practice is just a hobby or something you earn an income from. Sharing is an opportunity for feedback and constructive critique. 

There’s also something about stepping back and viewing a collection of your work that allows you to discover and refine your creative voice.

Because the act of showing your work is so scary for most of us, in doing it, we are pushed outside our comfort zone. The more we do this, the more evidence we create that showing our work isn’t actually the frightening thing we anticipated. We grow confident, bold and fearless.

Showing your work helps you to connect with your audience – or to build one in the first place.

If you make a living from your work, this is something you want because starting and nurturing relationships is how you get paid. It’s how strangers become fans, fans become customers and customers become ambassadors.

Continue reading “Content for days! 9 ways to show your creative work”

No Starving Artists – 4 Money Lessons to Debunk the Myth!

As a fellow artist, you’re probably not unfamiliar with money worries. It’s the way it goes since we chose to pursue the arts not just as a hobby, but as a career move, right?

Wrong! 

There are 2 misconceptions about creative people that get me really riled up

Continue reading “No Starving Artists – 4 Money Lessons to Debunk the Myth!”

3 ways to keep business going when life gets tough

Resilience can often feel like an abstract concept. Well, I have to be honest… the past five months have been really TOUGH!

Perhaps the toughest time I’ve ever experienced in my life. I unexpectedly lost two loved ones, including my brother with whom I was very close. My son-shine was diagnosed with Autism which has brought about a lot of learning how to adjust our life to better support him to thrive. I caught COVID during the rapid Omicron phase that took over Nairobi last December. While it was thankfully relatively mild, the weeks of fatigue afterward was real! And then my fiancé suddenly developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome – a rare autoimmune disorder that rendered him immobile overnight…

Continue reading “3 ways to keep business going when life gets tough”

Our 9 good things from 2021

If you’re already part of our mailing list fam, you’ll know all about ‘9 Good Things’. We love curating the series every month and we’re so happy with all the positive feedback we receive! This month, we’re doing things a little bit differently: we’re reflecting and sharing 9 good things from 2021. Thus, we thought this round-up deserved to live on our blog too. Enjoy!

Continue reading “Our 9 good things from 2021”

5 powerful questions to help you deal with overwhelm

I don’t know about you but, for me, November is always the busiest month of the year. There’s so much to do before the end of the year and it feels like time is accelerating!

It’s very easy to let overwhelm take over. Too easy to let all the healthy habits established over the year to simply be thrown to the wind. After all, when you’re stressed out, you need cake and hours spent mindlessly scrolling, right?

Over the years, I’ve experimented with several strategies to resist this destructive, overwhelm-induced spiral and I’d like to share the ones that are working best for me right now. 

Get out a pen and paper and test them out by answering these …

Continue reading “5 powerful questions to help you deal with overwhelm”

5 UK Black Creatives you need to follow

Celebrating black creative excellence

October is Black History Month in the UK. In the almost 12 years that I lived there, I had the honour to meet so many fellow black creatives and this week, I wanted to celebrate just a handful of them.

Continue reading “5 UK Black Creatives you need to follow”

Opening a brick-and-mortar shop: a tested guide for creatives

Unexpected beginnings

6 months ago I took a risk and signed a lease for a studio/shop space for my business. 

It was one of my goals for 2021, but one that I anticipated to achieve in the Q4, not Q1!

We were deep in the pandemic – unknowingly a few weeks ahead of another wave. We’d had a great Christmas season with product sales but I was wary of being overconfident, only to be left with a significant business expense that I couldn’t sustain. 

Continue reading “Opening a brick-and-mortar shop: a tested guide for creatives”

How to clear your mind and create more

Over the years, I’ve been learning and experimenting with various productivity systems, in the quest to live a life of ease and abundance. In that time, I’ve discovered and implemented several habits and rituals with decent success. 

However, I still found myself getting overwhelmed, and every so often, it was paralysing. You know that vicious cycle where you have so much to do that you feel you can’t do anything? Which means the list – and your anxiety – just keeps growing! 

So many ideas and so many action points – not enough boundaries and not enough focus. 

Continue reading “How to clear your mind and create more”

Planning: make it a pleasure and nail those goals

In the past few months, I’ve been truly embracing my love for planning and organisation and creating tools to help others find more pleasure in it too. 

Naturally, I want to write more about it too!

Being a single mum, business owner and a passionate, ambitious person, means that time always seems to be in such short supply. I have to be very intentional about my schedule and that means lots of planning.
 Continue reading “Planning: make it a pleasure and nail those goals”