Are you a creative business owner who absolutely loves their business? You enjoy working your little booty off making your candles, cookies, furniture, jewelry, Cricut crafts and more. You love the feeling that you get when someone tells you that they loved their item and it makes you feel like you’re living in alignment with what you’re already good at, and that makes you happy. But, you’re burnt out? If so, Do this if you are burnt out in your creative business.
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When You Start to Feel Burnt Out
Sure, you may love your creative business. However, maybe you think that there’s a few things that aren’t fun about it. For example, sometimes you wish you could make a little more money, given the amount of work you’re doing. I can relate to that because back when I sold handmade party decorations, I was working my little booty off cutting and gluing in my craft room and although I loved it, I also felt like I wasn’t getting paid enough, and sadly I sometimes felt a little resentful of my clients. Can you relate?
See, I started Etsy Party Decorations business because I love to craft and plan parties. Everyone was always telling me to go for it, since I did it for so many people for free. So when I finally started my business and had success on Etsy, it was pretty thrilling. It was kind of crazy that people were actually paying me to create things that I loved to do for free anyway! And maybe you can relate to that in your creative business as well.
Creative Businesses Can Be A Lot of Work and Little Pay
Fast forward a year or so, and I realized it was turning out to be A LOT of work. Can you relate?
And not just a lot of work, but a lot of work that didn’t pay very well. So many people who sell handmade items on Etsy sell their items for pennies on the dollar, which is so frustrating because if you don’t follow suit, you’re missing out on valuable customers, and therefore, losing money.
Enter digital products. I kept hearing all these people talking about how they were making money selling digital products, and I was curious if I could do it too. So I tried it. I switched to printable party decorations, as opposed to the printed and shipped ones and it literally changed my life.
Do This If You Are Burnt Out in Your Creative Business: Digital Products
So I want to ask you, is this something that you could start making the switch to?
Because let’s face it, if you have a creative business where you are making customizable products for your customers and shipping those to them, your product isn’t scalable. Meaning, let’s say you decide to create a huge goal for yourself to make more money this year in your business. Well, you could make more products to get them in the hands of more customers.
However, we both know that just means you’re going to be working longer hours and it’s going to take a lot of time and energy to do it. So, it’s safe to say that if you want to grow your business, selling more products isn’t necessarily the answer because you’ll be spending more time in your office or craft room feeling burnt out.
Continue What You’re Doing, Or Scale Your Creative Business with Digital Products
So what I want to offer you is that you have two options. You can continue doing what you’re doing, and if you love it, and you’re not concerned about scaling, then by all means continue doing it. However, if you’re someone who wants to scale your business, and not just make more money in your business but diversify the kind of income you’re getting, then I recommend you add a digital product to your business. And the way I did this (amoung other things) was to start selling printables.
Selling Printables is a Great Digital Product to Add to Your Creative Business
I believe that Selling printables is hands down the most scalable and fun business model if you’re going to sell products on the internet. Think about it. What else allows you to create something once and then continue to get it in the hands of thousands upon thousands, without the burnout you face with handmade items?
It’s a no brainer that printables is just such a great option for makers and creative business owners. But of course printables aren’t the only digital product you can add to your product suite. There are plenty of others out there. But I’m just here to get you thinking about what those other avenues are and how you take advantage of them to avoid the burnout.
More Digital Product Ideas for Your Small Business
Here’s some digital business ideas outside of printables. If you’re a sign maker, maybe you use a third party supplier, like Printful, to use your designs on t-shirts, bags, or hats. If you make cups, think outside the box on how you can make those designs into SVGs that you can sell instead of the hustle and grind of making your cups. Now back to printables, because that’s my expertise, if you sell furniture, could you sell some kind of printables that could help others do the same? If you sell jewelry, then you know the jewelry business inside and out, and perhaps you could sell printables that would help other women start a printables business just like you. That’s what I love about printables is that the options are endless when it comes to what you can create.
It’s About the Long Game
Now you might be thinking that making a pivot in your creative business seems like a lot of work. If so, you could be wondering, will it be worth it in the end? And my answer to you is that if you don’t add additional revenue streams onto your business, you are going to continue to get burnt out. Then, not only will you not make more money, but you’ll likely quit. The important thing here is that you are taking steps toward freedom and passive income. Start moving away from the burnout you were facing in your creative business.
Okay, so if this sounds like something you want to get started doing, I have an action plan for you.
Your Action Plan: Do This If You Are Burnt Out in Your Creative Business
You know how when you first started a business, everyone told you that you had to make a business plan? I actually have never done that, and am not encouraging you to do it now. However, here’s what I would encourage you to do. Make an action plan about the steps you are going to take to go digital! And I’ve created a free resource to help you do it! That way, next year at this time, you aren’t kicking yourself and wishing you would have started NOW.
This plan is going to help you outline your steps for your business so that your vision actually becomes reality instead of just a pipe dream! Again, it’s totally free and it’s going to help you plot out your pivot so you can do it over time and not all at once feeling overwhelmed and freaked out.
With this action plan, you can hustle at your workout or at being a mom! But once you make the jump to passive income, you no longer have to hustle in your business! And that, my friend, is a breath of fresh air!
I hope you enjoyed reading this article, Do This If You Are Burnt Out in Your Creative Business. Let me know how I can help you in the comments below!
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