I came across an article yesterday that sets up a totally reasonable, small-is-beautiful model for making a living as an artist (whatever your medium): all you have to do is develop a fan base that includes 1,000 true fans.
This is a completely reasonable approach to take for those artists who a) are comfortable interacting with their fans directly, and b) don’t need total world domination in order to feel like a success. Not everyone falls into this camp, of course, but it’s always gratifying to see business advice that doesn’t focus on massive, humongatoidal profit as the only measure of success.
On a related note, Jenny Hart’s latest “Crafting a Business” column at Venus Zine tells a cautionary tale about the big business that tried to pull a fast one on her. Good (and scary) reading, and more affirmation for those of us who enjoy the DIY ethic of running our own companies.
1 response so far ↓
1 maryam in marrakesh // Apr 14, 2008 at 6:06 pm
That’s really interesting about the 1000 fans, and you can so see the importance of blogging in building your fan base. Do you think thatthose numbers would hold true for other kinds of businesses as well?
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