Can I Make a Full Time Income from Surface Pattern Design? | Elizabeth Silver
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- Опубликовано: 17 янв 2022
- In this video I answer this frequently asked question ad well as address the idea that the only way to make money in this industry is to teach. I also share some insights from my 2021 Income round up (linked below)
Links from Video:
Income Round Up: www.elizabethsilver.com/patte...
Interviews with Artists: • Surface Pattern Indust...
Check out Start Your Surface Pattern Business: courses.elizabethsilver.com/p...
Free Find Clients Workshop: www.elizabethsilver.com/workshop
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⭐️ Learn more about surface pattern design here: www.elizabethsilver.com/blog
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I so needed to hear this! I lost so much time last year trying to diversify all over the place rather than sticking with what works for me - licensing! And thanks for clarifying not having to teach to stabilise income. Thanks for another great video - you're appreciated by other designers probably far more than you know :)
It is hard to stay focused, I do get that...so glad you find these helpful!
What is licensing?
Not a rant! Suuuuper helpful, thank you for all you do!
The burning questions that we all need the answers to. And you hit the nail on the head with full disclosure. This video is so appreciated and reassuring. Thank you Elizabeth. You really took a dive into the deep end.
❤❤ Always appreciate your support Josette!
Thank you for sharing this, I was thinking this last couple of weeks, and felt overwhelmed.and Im glad you are feeling better!
Thanks Elizabeth!! This was REALLY helpful ☺️🙏💜
Thank you so much! This was wonderful. So helpful, informative, and empowering.
🙌🙌 Yay, thanks for wathcing
Thank you for this! FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS!!! You are helping me decide what to do and what to concentrate on. I LOVE your simple and no nonsense approach!
So excited for you! Trust me I know it's hard to focus (I struggle with it allll the time) but it helps!
You are a wonderful person Eliizabeth.... easy to trust you and you are approachable.
Thank you so much Tasha!
Your post is so honest and helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights.
So glad this helped you out!
Thank you for your video I’m just starting in SPD to design for my wife’s business. I have been making sales on spoonflower and look forward to getting more advice from you to level up.
Thank you for sharing your experience and examples!
Anytime!
Elizabeth, you are such a breath of fresh air! So honest, so genuine. Thank you for teaching us so much that is so useful.
Aww thanks so much! Thanks for watching!!
I am SO grateful I came across your video. I listened to every single word you said and took notes along the way and then watched the video again. Your advice is great and I needed to hear this. What I took away is something I need to do, FOCUS. I get carried away zig zagging, trying new things but I need to focus. I loved your quote “What you focus on grows!” I’m printing this quote and pasting it above my art table. Thank you !!!!!!!
So happy this has helped you, I know it's hard to stay focused but it makes a difference!
I have been stuck in neutral for almost 2 years because I've been trying to get several things started at once. I got sick early this year and decided I'm tired of waiting. My first step back into this (once I decided what to FOCUS on) was revisiting your website. Thank you so much for following your idea to teach. Your straight-to-the-point, no fluff approach is SO refreshing and very much appreciated. I don't feel like you're selling me some unattainable dream but more mentoring me to go after what I want, realistically. I look forward to finishing SYSPB soon and really going for this! Thanks again!
💕💕 First off, I hope you're feeling better now, second, thank you for the kind words- teaching isn't always easy but it's seeing people go from totally stuck to finding work or having lightbulb moments that make all the difference. I'm cheering for you LaTisha, you know where to find me if you need help with SYSPB!
Thank you so much for this beautiful and inspiring video. 🧡
You are so welcome!
You look warmer today! 🤣😘 Always so encouraging! And great timing! I recently talked privately with Nicole about this very thing! We talked about me solely concentrating on licensing for at least 6 months to a year. It is SO easy for me to get overwhelmed. Even though I've been working as a SPD for a little over a decade and a half, it STILL is very easy to get way off track when trying to do too many things at once. Thank you, Elizabeth!
I'm with you, I also get off track easily, but it's so true, you can't build 5 businesses at the same time!
Elizabeth, I’m always so so grateful for your complete honesty. Thank you! I hope you are feeling better. We absolutely have to remember that all those income pie chart graphics we all see on IG and beyond are also part of a marketing story that they wish to tell. There’s always more to it and they aren’t sharing the context. I really enJOYed your email/blog where you broke down your income because it was honest and had context. Thanks so much. Focusing on one thing….. gold. And I needed to hear it today.
Good point on the marketing stories...hadn't thought of it that way. I'm so grateful that you found my income breakdown useful, never sure if I'm telling my business for no reason or if it's helpful, LOL.
@@ElizabethSilver It's sometimes hard to remember that what we see on IG isn't always the full picture. I try to keep that lens on. So many factors to think about.
Thank you for sharing this information!
You're so welcome!
YES!!!! Diversification MUST COME LATER! Laser focus on one thing and then moving to the next as things get in place. Elizabeth you are such an amazing voice to have in this space. Love having you back!
I'm so glad to have had a chance to dig in with you on our interview, I swear I refer to it at least once a week!
Oh my good thank you so much for talking about this! Sometimes I am really questioning if it is possible to be “just” a designer. I’d love to reach as well, but I want to be first and foremost a designer :)
Thanks for your honest insides!
So glad this was helpful!
Merci, ❤ Ce sont des conseils très précieux d'un expert 🎉❤
I absolutely loved this. Definitely taking this advice this year and I’m putting my whole self into one path. Thank you for always being so transparent. It’s so so helpful to all of us fellow artists.
I'm so glad it could be of help to you, sometimes I wonder if I tell my business for no reason LOL
elizabeth, thank youu so much 😭😭😭😭
You're very welcome!
Thanks 😊
Thank you!!!
You're welcome!
Yeah, I'm in that boat. Teaching is however, more passive when things like illness or life events (like Cat co's blog example). With getting freelance work, you're always having to hustle to find more work, especially if you dont have an agent. I"ll go back to your past interviews, but so far, I'm getting the impression that artists need to have a rep to keep doing the grown work in finding client work.
I'm also concerned that with out an agent, us designers need to transition into something else? Teaching? Print on demand? Getting a Rep? building a full brand? Investing and eventually leaving the feild and make art as a hobby?
Well, the good thing about freelance clients is they can be repeat clients....I have many clients I've worked for over and over for years, so the hustling to find new work does eventually get easier. But you do make a good point that to earn from freelance work, you need to actually DO it, where teaching can be recorded and sold when you can't be available. That said, you need to have a method for constantly bringing in new audiences for teaching (or making new classes for old audiences) so that's where the way less passive part of being a teacher comes in.
Is there a way to see the free find clients workshop again? I just missed it as I just saw this video today.
@Dawn Black Are you on my mailing list? Email hello@elizabethsilver.com in the next day or two and I will try to get the limited recording to you.
In your examples when you say “Licensing” are you referring to “Surface Pattern Design” licence specifically? Or non repeat art work?
Both! Any art created for surfaces, so I do greeting cards and wall art (not in repeat) and quilting fabric (obvs in repeat) and lots of other different products...more non-repeat or implied repeat than actual repeating art, probably.
@@ElizabethSilver ahh okay thanks. I understand now 😀
Summary in relation to courses: Revenue vs Profit
Not sure of the question here but I don't split my expenses up according to what they are used for i.e. I don't know the exact numbers of my expenses for courses. still I know that I have much higher expenses since I started content and courses than when I was 95% art revenue.
Thinking it is much easier make those dollars you mention whe you are based in US.
Not sure, only have my US based experience to compare :) I do know plenty of successful artists in other countries, but haven't dug into behind the scenes of their finances!
I wish you talked faster. I had to make it 1.25x