Today is day 21 of my Pretty Way Walks.
The original challenge may be ending, but I’m not. I’ll be carrying on with the walks and sharing what I’ve learned from the first 21 days.
Before I reached that point, I wanted to ask creative business owners an important question.
What do you need help with?
I want to create practical resources
I want to create educational resources for artists, illustrators, designers and other creative business owners.
They might be PDFs, mini-courses, workbooks or another format that helps you understand and do something useful.
I don’t want to overwhelm people with too much information. I want to explain something clearly, demonstrate it and provide notes or a workbook that people can follow alongside me.
Everybody learns differently, so the format matters as much as the information.
A left- and right-brained magician
A woman once described me as a left- and right-brained magician.
She meant that I’m creative, but I’m also techy.
I can design something and understand how it needs to work. I enjoy creating the artwork, but I can also work through the systems, code or practical setup behind it.
After more than 35 years in the workplace and almost seven years running my own business, I have gathered a rather eclectic collection of experience.
I’ve worked in legal and corporate environments, including body corporate or strata. Within my own business, I’ve worked in graphic design, social media, marketing and email.
I’ve also taught people since I was 19.
There was even a hairdressing business after we emigrated to Australia. I left a well-paid job, returned to school and studied hairdressing before we moved.
I did not enjoy running a hairdressing business. It was not for me, but it remains part of the collection.
How to create an HTML email signature
One possible resource is a practical guide to creating your own HTML email signature.
Most business owners send emails through Gmail, Outlook or another email provider. A branded signature gives the recipient useful links and makes those everyday emails part of your wider business presence.
I would want to provide an option that works whether or not you have a website, because the images used in the signature still need somewhere to live.
If that sounds useful, I’d love to know.
How to catch your dots
Another idea is a resource about catching your dots.
How do you notice the everyday moments that could become stories? What do you do with them once you’ve caught them?
I already have The Dot Catcher Notebook, which provides a printed place to catch the dot, pull the thread, find the lesson and open the doorway.
I also offer The Dot Catcher as a done-with-you service for $333 plus GST. I recognise that not everybody is ready or able to invest that amount, so I want to create something useful between the notebook and working directly with me.
That might be a PDF, mini-course or another self-guided option that helps people see and use the stories already hiding in their lives and businesses.
I would rather ask than guess
Those are two possibilities, but I don’t want to create everything based on my own assumptions.
Perhaps you’re struggling with a technical problem, something in your marketing or a part of running your creative business that nobody has explained clearly.
It doesn’t matter if it falls outside my own expertise. I may know somebody better placed to help.
The most useful resources begin with a real problem, so I want to hear yours.
If you’re a creative business owner, what are you struggling to work out at the moment?
Leave a comment and tell me. Your answer might become one of the practical resources I create next.
Day 21 is not the end
This is me signing off from Pretty Way Walk 21, but not from the Pretty Way Walks. I’ll be back to talk about what happened during the challenge, what I learned and where I’m going next.
Stay tuned.
