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You are here: Home / Archives for Steven Sparling

Letting Go, Moving On

June 7, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

The whole point of being an artist is to let things go. Our job is to create something and then let it go, send it out into the world and allow it to have a life of its own. This applies whether we make a pot, a play or give a performance. It is something […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: Artist, creative, Creative Entrepreneurship, Letting go, moving on, music, spiritual, teacher, Teaching

Working Hours -vs- Billable Hours

June 1, 2012 by Steven Sparling 1 Comment

Question: What’s the difference between a hobby and a business? Answer: Billable hours! This is a crucial thing to begin to understand if you really want to earn a living from your creative pursuit. I’m quite certain that you love to do what you do, whether that’s paint, sculpt, knit, sing or dance. You can […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Billable hours, creative, earnings, finance

Radio Silence – when hearing nothing can be worst of all

May 30, 2012 by Steven Sparling 1 Comment

Our job as artists is to create work. Our next job is to share that work with the world. We are in control of these two actions. Your success as an artist is directly related to the frequency and quantity of work you produce and whose hands you try to get it into. What you […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: audience, connect, Creative entrepreneur, Persistence, self produced

Downward Facing Dog of Shame (Embarrassing Auditions Pt 1)

May 28, 2012 by Steven Sparling 1 Comment

Up and Down, a photo by Nicholas_T on Flickr. (That’s not me in the photo! Some random yogi off Flickr) Last week I had one of those classically embarrassing auditions. I squirmed in agony all weekend remembering butt-clenching details. I had been called to audition for a commercial for a major UK grocery chain. The […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: commercials, creative, embarrassing auditions, forgiveness, let it go, Persistence, planning, yoga

Budgeting for Creative Survival

May 25, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

There are many great things I took away from my MA in Creative Entrepreneurship from UEA (http://www.uea.ac.uk/hum/mace/courses/ma-creative-entrepreneurship). The  course leader, Ian Chance, is a charming man with a lifetime worth of experience in the field. He’s also wickedly funny. One of the things he taught us was to have our cabbages budget.  As well as […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: budgeting, creative, Creative Entrepreneurship, finance, financials, planning

Nerves of Steel

May 23, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

I’ve been a freelancing creative for over 20 years now. Sometimes all of my income has come from freelance creative work and other times I have had additional employment at the same time in order to grease the financial wheels. Due to buying a new flat, I took a contract teaching three days per week […]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

A Fresh Perspective

May 22, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

Sometimes you think y0u’ve heard or seen something so many times that it has nothing fresh to offer you, right? Even great works of art, when viewed too many times, can seem old hat. And yet, all it takes is a fresh angle or approach and it can seem as fresh as the day it […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship

Keeping it Fresh

May 21, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

Daily App Experiment #303: “Chain Reaction”, a photo by docpop on Flickr. When you’ve been practicing your art form for some time it can be hard to keep it fresh. When you are doing the same things over and over again, it’s easy for it all to start feeling a bit…. well like a dayjob. […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: creative, Creative entrepreneur, Creative Entrepreneurship, play, stale

Marketing 101

May 18, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

archery target, a photo by Leeds Museums and Galleries on Flickr. What is Marketing? Most people are frightened by the idea. But there are really just some very simple components to marketing. message target market the method/vehicle of communication All marketing involves clarifying the above points. What is the message you want to get across? […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship, Uncategorized Tagged With: creative, Creative entrepreneur, marketing, message, Targets

Not All Customers Are Created Equal

May 16, 2012 by Steven Sparling Leave a Comment

I suppose I’ve been a freelance creative entrepreneur for 20 years now, at least off and on. During that time I’ve done a number of contracts as an actor, singer or dancer. In the last few years I’ve taken on freelance work teaching singing and writing contracts related to my other professional life as a […]

Filed Under: creative entrepreneurship Tagged With: business, business development, contracts, creative, Creative entrepreneur, Creative Entrepreneurship

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Recent Posts

  • The Mindful Freelancer: Nine Attitudes for Thriving in the Creative Economy – Part 1 – Non-Judging
  • Pivoting When You Don’t Know Where the Other Foot is Going to Land
  • Help! My Child Wants to Go Into The Arts
  • Confidence Doesn’t Exist. Quit Chasing It.
  • IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to a Creative Entrepreneur’s Success!

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