From Corporate to Creativepreneur

Photography by Halima Jama Photography

I was an HR Professional for 5 years before deciding to pursue my passion in calligraphy full time. There are skills and knowledge I have gained from being in corporate that I utilized in my creative entrepreneurship (in short, creativepreneur). To give a quick background, I was a generalist so I juggled so many responsibilities in my HR career. I handled payroll, onboarding, health and safety, rewards and recognition, and occasionally I also did some marketing related duties (just because I was known to have artistic capabilities amongst my team). From my role, I have been comfortable with public speaking, communication, networking, relationship management, time management and multitasking. My role was highly visible that every single employee knew who I was. Being highly visible makes me easily approachable and easily liked. I took that as a competitive advantage as an artist.

When I decided to start calligraphy business, I knew I had strengths and knowledge that I have gained that I could strategically apply in my calligraphy journey. Keep reading if you are thinking of starting calligraphy business whether you’ve had corporate experience or not.

Basic Business Foundation

You may have heard experienced entrepreneurs telling you the key to success is to know your WHY. Knowing your WHY is surely important, but knowing WHAT you’re known for and HOW you market yourself are as equally important. The following terms are business terms that will help you clarify your WHY, WHAT and HOW.

Vision, Mission, Values

When you’re looking for a job you’ve probably seen a company’s Vision, Mission and Values on their website as you’re learning about the company that you want to work for. I remember learning this in my HR Business Planning course to understand the purpose of why a company exists. I don’t post what my Vision, Mission and Values the same way as big companies do but I include my statement strategically in my copywriting.

• Vision

Vision statement announces the company’s WHAT they aspire to achieve. The aspiration tends to be broad but it helps understanding the main purpose of your calligraphy business. An example of a Vision Statement by Disney is to make people happy (Walt Disney Co.). As for Roessein Art, I have a vision to provide unique personalization experience.

• Mission

Mission statement explains what the company does to achieve the vision and why they do it that way. This is your WHY. Example of a Mission Statement by Disney: to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world's premier entertainment company (Walt Disney Co.).

As for Roessein Art, I have a mission to be the go-to person in personalizing happy memories through unique and captivating calligraphy that can be applied on any surface using methods that are long lasting.

• Values

Values are the code of ethics of the company. It is what the company believes in and how people in the company are expected to behave. Example of what Disney values: innovation, quality, community, storytelling, optimism and decency, are present in everything they do and help create the unified vision for their workforce (Disney Careers, n.d.).

As for Roessein Art, I value appreciation, unique personal experience, connection, sentimental value and happy memories.

Vision, Mission and Values are your WHY and WHAT at a high level. Your website copywriting should strategically include all of the above on the page that showcase the service or products you provide and About page.

SWOT analysis: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats

• Strength: Internal factors that are your competitive advantage

Example: I’m a people-person, easily remembered, and have unique style of calligraphy, ESFP (a.k.a. The Entertainer personality), strong desire to learn and innovate. My strengths gave me the drive to market myself with strong personal brand that is continuously evolving as I learn more about marketing strategies.

• Weakness: Internal factors that are disadvantages relative to your competitors.

Example: I’m a one-person operation. This weakness affect my scalability but hiring assistant can solve this problem in the near future.

• Opportunity: External factors that increase your profitability.

Example: The are more demands in personalization. My aim is to create unique custom calligraphy that cannot be copied or done by someone else. There are people who appreciate the value of this sentiment. They are the thoughtful gifters who demand personalization and art. I become the person that provides that demand.

• Threat: External factors that endanger your profitability.

  Example: The growing script fonts and machine. While there are more and more options of script fonts available out there that designers are using for signage and engraved products which makes it harder for me to compete, there is also limitation of what machines can do. Machine cannot engrave round surface or have flourished calligraphy which can only be done by hand. This is where I focus my marketing effort on.

Your SWOT analysis will help you plan HOW you will run your business and market yourself. There are many ways of getting income streams from calligraphy. Do SWOT analysis to decide what you want to provide with your calligraphy. Will you choose to have products? to provide service? to teach? to entertain? etc. Do the SWOT analysis again from time to time when you are planning to do a new initiative before you plan your marketing strategies.

Value Proposition

Value Proposition is your customer’s WHY. You should be able to answer what problems do your potential clients have and how can you solve it. What is the reason that people want to buy from you?

Here is Roessein Art’s Value Proposition: In a world where everything is mass produced and look the same, people start to crave for something unique and one of a kind. A gift that is intended to be given just for them. Personalization has been in more and more demand (source). My calligraphy is for those who appreciate the marriage of personalization and art. Furthermore, personalization is a personal experience that is amplified when the service is provided by someone with great personality and artistic capabilities. My vibrant personality that I demonstrate in videos and in person makes it easy for people to engage with me and work with me. This is the competitive advantage that I have adopted from my HR career to creativepreneurship, which makes me the go-to person for personalizing happy memories.

Your Why and your customer’s Why should match in order to succeed. Inconsistency will create confusion and lack of credibility of trust.

Your Value Proposition = Your Mission Statement

Target Market

Target Market is a particular group of clients you want to aim to sell your products or services. This is how you determine your niche. You can have tiers of target market from high value, mid value to low value. For example, my target market are in 3 tiers. The top tier would be Brands and PR agency for live events. Not only that it provides high income stream, it also gives me high credibility and exposure to the public. The second tier would be Event Planners for wedding calligraphy and on-site calligraphy service. As it is more of a private event, the income is still high but provides less exposure to the public. The lowest tier would be thoughtful and recipient-focused gifters who are looking for one-of-a-kind gift with sentimental value like handwritten calligraphy or engraved items that the recipient will forever cherish. My rate is premium and the exposure for this type of project is very minimal but I still truly enjoy being part of those thoughtful gifts.

I have niched my target market after learning more about myself from taking 16 personalities quiz. For someone who’s in the business of relationship, my calligraphy becomes a tool that brings out that emotion.

What’s next?

Now that you know all those business terms. Take some time to think of your Vision, Mission, Values and do SWOT analysis. Then, think of why people should buy from you (Value Proposition) and who do you want to aim your products/service to (Target Market) in order to figure out how you can market yourself. The journey of figuring this foundational business aspect could take days or months. You may not figure it out right away. You may figure out later after you figure out what you enjoy most doing in calligraphy and what you don’t like. Do an audit once in a while to make sure your WHY, WHAT and HOW are aligned.

As you understand more about your business, what your Vision, Mission, Values, Value Proposition and Target Market, you apply them on on every aspect of how you run your business. From your branding, marketing strategies, website copywriting, newsletter, social media strategies, system, customer service, pricing, etc.

I hope by knowing the basic foundation of your business you will have a clear strategy on everything that you do in your business so you can be successful.

Thank you for reading my blog!

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