How Much Does It Cost To Be You?

It seems a bit bizarre, but I want you to start to figure out how much money you need on a monthly basis to be ‘you.’

This starts by figuring out who ‘you‘ are.

If you’re a potter, then ‘you’ will probably not be ‘you’ without your own studio and kiln – or regular access to a studio and a kiln.

If you’re a painter, then ‘you’ will feel pretty disconnected from ‘you’ until you have a space you can paint on a regular basis.

If you’re a writer, it’s going to be a struggle until you have a notebook & pen, or laptop computer, and  a quiet corner where you can practice your craft.

If you are a creative/artist, then your creative needs will be as important as your basic needs of shelter, food and clothing. To deny yourself these needs causes as much trauma to your artistic soul as depriving your body of proper food.

Consider what it costs you on a monthly basis for all of the below:

• Shelter
• Food
• Travel
• Communications (phone, computer, broadband)
• Clothing
• Health Care/Personal Care
• Looking after any dependents (children, parents, relatives)
• Saving for a rainy day
• Paying off debt
• Covering the costs of your art (studio rental, supplies, training)
• Covering the costs of marketing/selling your art (websites, business cards, flyers, advertising etc)

When I was doing my Masters in Creative Entrepreneurship, our course leader, Ian Chance, had a great way of looking at this. He made us come up with our ‘cabbages budget’ and our ‘champagne budget.’

The champagne budget is the ideal budget. Your ideal home, your ideal food, your ideal studio space, your ideal travel bill, etc. If everything is going swimmingly for you as an artist, this is how you would spend it.

The cabbages budget is the austerity plan. What is the absolute bare minimum you need to live? How low could you slash your expenses and still survive? This is your bottom line. Your kernel. The ‘nut’ of your business. This is what you HAVE to have coming through the door on a monthly basis in order to keep ticking.

This number is essential because you can use it as a starting point. If you need £700/month in order to survive, you aren’t going to accept a job paying you £400/month. Not unless you can subsidise it in some way to bump you up. Instead you can be honest with yourself that you need more money to survive and look for a different opportunity.

The cabbages and champagne budgets function like the carrot and the stick to keep you moving forward. The stick (cabbages budget) is there to scare you, to whack you into reality and keep you moving forward. The lure of the champagne budget, the ideal artistic/lifestyle scenario is the carrot to keep you rushing forward. Taking chances. Being bold. Asking for what you’re worth. That champagne budget – the magic number of what it would take on a monthly basis spurs you into action. And if you slack off, the cabbages budget is there to jolt you into reality.

I can’t stress the impact this will have on our life. Do it. Today. You need clear parameters within to thrive.  Figure out how much it costs to be ‘champagne you’  and how much it costs to be ‘cabbages you’. You will find greater peace knowing exactly where you stand.