Helensart.net (@helenlovelovea)

Entrepreneurship

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Story

When I was 14 years old, I was dreaming of becoming an artist with approximately 10k followers and selling my art online.
It is hard to start your dream. To begin this goal, I have faced lots of life obstacles, which include unlimited homework from my school, no confidence to post and sell art online, intensive job load, and so on.
Finally, I started this dream with my passion and love.

Time frame:
🌟 Started offline shop in March 2019
🌟 Started Etsy in December 2019
🌟 One-year art hiatus from June 2019 to September 2020.
🌟 Set up shop on my website in October 2020.
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Later, Etsy Shop Manager, Facebook Business Manager
Skills: Illustration, Graphic Design,  Social Media Marketing, Time Management, Task Management
Role: Shop Owner | Illustrator

🌟 Directory 🌟

🍒Website: http://www.helensart.net

🌸Twitter: https://twitter.com/helenlovelovea
🍑Instagram:http://instagram.com/helenlovelovea
🌺Facebook: http://facebook.com/helenlovelovea

🌷Etsy:http://etsy.com/ca/shop/helenlovelove
🍓Redbubble:http://redbubble.com/people/helenwzr (I have not technically started anything on Redbubble yet.)

Notice: I used Tumblr for a while when I studied in my fresh year at my post-secondary school, and it was really fun to grew a few followers during that time. However, I just totally give up on Tumblr at this point due to Tumblr's new algorithm rules, which is marking all posts looked like sexual contents as red flags. I can feel that more than half users remain inactive status on Tumblr now.

Goal

Below is a self-evaluated prediction:
I get 100 more followers on Instagram every month; 60 more followers on Facebook monthly; 10 more followers on Twitter monthly.

1. Facebook Milestone - Get 4000 Followers by 2023 December
2. Instagram Milestone - Get 5000  Followers by 2023 December
3. Twitter Milestone - Get 2000 Followers by 2023 December

Problems or Mistakes that I Have Met

1. Time management failure

"What should I do If I'm too busy at school/work/life? I can't update social media every day!"

Solution

I believe most artists cannot manage their social media accounts every day. I cannot manage all of my accounts, either. I cannot draw and post my art every day if I have a heavy workload or school homework.
I end up trying to use social media manager (Later) to schedule my posts. It's free for 4 accounts (Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram/Twitter) to schedule 30 days. paid subscription for analytic and insights.
Planning everything will reduce the time been messed-up.

2. Unstable emotion

"I'm so bad at drawing and painting. People do not like me and my art. I probably can't make it for my whole life."
"Why I practice my art skills so hard or I paint for 3 hours but only receive 2 -3 people's likes?"

Solution

Keeping emotion stable to do business is crucial.
There are several ways to solve this:
1. Setting a goal to achieve will help goal-achiever gain positive confidence.
2. Joining art communities and ask successful artists who have knowledge from the art industry for help can reduce stressed emotion.
3. Stopping despising your art.

3. Scared failures

"I'm so scared to do this. What if I fail? Will people laugh at me?"

Solution

Artists never know what will happen when they go to the art market to sell their art. I have persuaded myself a lot that nothing will happen if I fail to turn art into a shop and gain followers.​

4. Making huge money immediately

"I saw some artists make $$$$, so I should make $$$$ this year."

Solution

Stopping thinking that every artist makes huge profits on their shops. Artists who make a higher profit have more than 5 years of experience in marketing their art. Be patient and be ready that you are going to meet obstacles when you do artworks and open shops.

5. Misunderstanding on customers' needs

I always try to avoid rendering an artwork over 10 hours, but I still not quite sure about products or artworks that customers are willing to buy until I run a store and go to the convention.

Solution

I deeply think about the gap between buyers and the artist, and I try to fill the gap. In the future, I will slowly and be patient to explore what people need and also make art that I am also satisfied with.

6. Costing $0 dollar to start your dream

This is a big mistake that I have made. People always mistakenly think about everything online is free and cheap, but actually, it is not. I think running social media costs $0; running online shops cost a very low budget, but it is not. It costs me time and money to slowly build the brand and attract customers.

Solution

Opening an online shop is similar to opening a real store, but cost lesser money. Virtual shop owners are still paying website domain, listings, and costs of ordering products. Planning my budget and investing it is decisive, because I do not want to invest too much money but get fewer customers.

6. No art planning on styles and contents

Another big mistake that I have made. I think about drawing whatever I want and posting various styles online will help me build my brand. It may help me to improve my art skills, but it will not help me to gain traffics. Costumers cannot recognize me as an artist who has their consistent style, so they see me as an amateur.

Solution

I plan to make a consistent style and palette online, so people can recognize me.

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Questions to ask myself

• What kind of art that I want to make? What kind of art that I will always continue to make?
• Will customers happy to purchase it?
• Am I feel happy to do this? Is this what I want?
• Will I change and sell another art style in future?

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Methodology

1. I went to my first anime convention, IFF (International Fan Festival Toronto), so I had various experiences in planning, budgeting, and making products.
2. I did one-year art hiatus before I seriously consider if I should continue this.
3. I searched various art shops online and studied online famous artists' styles, which helped me to gain confidence in building my shop and making my art.

Achievement

🌟 Got 100 followers on Facebook in January 2021.
🌟 Got 200 followers on Facebook & Instagram in March 2021.
🌟 Got 20 followers on Twitter in March 2021.
🌟 Got 300 followers on Facebook & Instagram in April 2021.
🌟 Got 400 followers on Instagram at end of April 2021.
🌟 Technical issue happens on Instagram in May 202, so I was unable to reach 500 followers. (They mark my art as spam and does not allowed me to post for 1 week.)
🌟 Got 500 followers on Facebook on June 1, 2021.

Lesson I learned

• Planning my sales is one of the key reasons to success because if I never plan, I will never get my traffics and sales.
  
• Using ads managing tools and social media tools will help for making everything well-organized and reducing times of messed up.

Thank you for reading ❤️