How to start a small business - a small general guide for freelancers and sole proprietors

Today I want to talk a little bit about starting an illustration business, or really how to start a small business in general. Now of course the rules and regulations for starting a business will vary from country to country, and they will also differ depending on what kind of company you intend to start, but since I'm Norwegian I will be using the Norwegian system for reference.When it comes to the art business the most relevant form is freelancing or a sole proprietorship. In a lot of ways it's easier to just freelance, you don't have to be registered as a small company to work freelance, but a lot of freelancing artists do register their own sole proprietorships. Of course you don't have to be an illustrator to freelance, actors, photographers, musicians, consultants and translators all work in this field.

A lot you young artists may be wondering what the difference between freelancing and a sole proprietorship is, and I will try to give you a small clue. I am not an expert so I recommend looking up more information on the subject, but I will try to describe what the differences are.
In my opinion the two are intertwined, they are very alike but have a few differences. The main difference between a freelancer and someone running their own business is that the clients don't have to deduct taxes from your paycheck when you run a business, you are responsible for paying your own business tax and having your accounts in order. They will however deduct taxes from your fee if you just freelance. As a freelancer or a sole proprietor you are not really considered an employee you are as the name implies a hired gun for a given project and as such you are not entitled to the same benefits that regular employees are entitled to when working for a company. You are for example not entitled to holiday pay, pension or sick pay. Simplified this means that the state is responsible for your sick pay. You have to set up your own pension fund and the holiday pay has to come from your own pockets. I think some of the best advice out there is to make sure you and/or your business is properly insured. Yes it will cost you a bit of money, but it sure beats the alternative! A freelancer often does not make his or her sole living from illustration or photography or whatever. They tend to have a job on the side to make the wheels go round, as they often only work part time as freelancers.

Freelancer is a an English term referring to free lances, knigths and soldiers who fought for the highest bidder. That's pretty much what illustrators are, but with a pencil instead of a lance or sword :p (Drawing made by me: Anita K. Olsen Illustration).


The hard part is figuring out whether you should just freelance or if you should run your own sole proprietorship. A lot of people have some trouble figuring this out, but I found this "checklist" at altinn.no a Norwegian site run by public organizations like the tax administration. If you can tick off several of the points below you should consider running a sole proprietorship instead of just freelancing.

- You have the use of your own office and you have several clients.
- You are responsible for the end result of the project.
- You are responsible for the economic assets.
- You get a project based fee instead of being paid  by the hour.
- You can hire in help for your projects at your own cost.
- You control your own free time and vacation time.

Helpful? Yes, I at least found it to be very helpful. So now that we have an idea of what kind of business we form we should choose or if you indeed should be registered as a company at all. What next? Now you have to do some research on your own. You have to figure out where you belong in the market. Do you belong in Fantasy and Sci-Fi or do you belong primarily in editorial art, should you focus on children's books or do you maybe belong in several ends of the market? Do you want to work internationally or not? Where do you plan on getting the funds for your business and how are you going to promote it? These are all very important factors to take into consideration, and there are probably several other key things to figure out that I have conveniently forgotten to mention here. Yeah, now that I've probably given you a headache and a tingle of fear and frustration in your stomach I'll be moving on to the pure mechanics of it all.

Once you have decided what form to actually start your business in and what it is you are going to do, then what?

1. You have to come up with a proper business name that complies with your countries rules and regulations.

2. You have to register your business with the proper authorities.

3. You need to apply for a bank loan or apply for some other type of financing (like government funding or scholarships etc.) unless you have your own funds to put towards getting your business up and running.

4. You have to get an accountant that can keep your finances organized unless you are capable of doing some of it yourself. I still recommend an accountant though. You also need to find a billing system that works for you and that also complies with the regulations of your country.

5. You need to acquire the equipment you need to run your business, be it software, hardware, artistic equipment and so on.

6. Get yourself out there! Send out promotional items. Attend book launches, go to cultural events. Buy advertising in news papers or on-line, write a blog, set up a proper website, you know all that stuff.

Now of course you don't necessarily have the possibility to do all of this at once. It might take a while before you get all your things in order. It's hard and frustrating work to set up a business. You have to do your own research, you have to do a lot of paperwork, work late nights and early mornings and give up a lot of your social life. If you're going to work in illustration and run your own business you really have to want it more than anything else. You are hereby warned, but don't be scared. It's quite rewarding when you get your first projects and a little bit of money starts coming in.

The bottom line however is this:  If you don't love it, don't do it!

Have any questions about the text? Anything that you found to be confusing or ill informed? or did you just plain like this post? Leave a comment and I'll do my best to get back to you.


Until next time
Anita K. Olsen

Brochure Design

I have been wanting to make something nice that I can send to clients or leave behind at conventions or portfolio viewings. I already have a postcard and some old business cards, but I feel like they are outdated, they don't represent me and my business in the best way possible. Besides, I also wanted something a little different and more exclusive looking than just a postcard.

So as you might have guessed I chose to go for a brochure (see design below). It gave me more room to play around with, room for practical information and a few examples of my work and a proper design. Usually a brochure would be made in a standing format, but I kind of like the idea of a lying(landscape) format, so my design differs a bit from what you would usually see. I will also have some new business cards printed up and maybe some new postcards. We'll just have to see what I can afford.






I want to show my potential customers that I have a cohesive business profile, that I am indeed a professional. That's why the design of my brochure matches my blog design and the coloring of my temporary website. It just seems more professional when things look like they belong together and like it was made by the same person.

The brochures are already in the mail and as soon as they arrive I will post the result on the blog. Now if I have inspired you in some mysterious way to print up some of your own promotional material here are a few on-line print companies that can help you along th way!

www.moo.com
This company offers to print business cards, post cards, labels and stickers. A lot of companies do the same, but the nice thing about these guys is that they offer the option to print several different designs in the same print run so you don't have to blow all your money on one design if you don't want to. They are supposed to be affordable too so definitely worth a shot.

vistaprint.no
This is a norwegian site. They offer everything from t-shirts, banners, caps, mugs, business cards, note pads. Pretty much anything you could want. They are not that expensive unless you want your items delivered very quickly so order things in good time to save a bit of money. They offer free design templates or you can use your own images, they do charge for uploading your own images though, but right now they have a campaign going where the uploading is free.

blurb.com
If you really want to go over the top and don't mind spending a bit of money then this is the site for you. You can order professional quality books in full color with high end paper. Great for a portfolio or if you want an amazing leave behind for the clients you really want to impress.

for a more in-depth article on the leave behind/promotional item please visit this article written by Jon Schindehette over at the ArtOrder as it is a wonderful article on the subject and he knows what he is talking about.

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen

How to promote your illustration business?

I have been pondering how to promote my business quite a lot recently, because let's be honest without promotion there will be no jobs. I think a lot of us young, up and coming artists struggle with this. We are not business graduates, most of us have never studied economics or business management or anything remotely similar to it before we jump into the shark infested waters of the illustration business. So what the hell are we supposed to do once we have gotten ourselves into this position?


Message in a bottle. A fun and eye-catching way of promoting your business!(image found on google)

On paper the answer is easy and straightforward in some ways, but in reality it really isn't. There are countless ways of promoting your business both traditionally and in unconventional ways. Traditionally business cards and postcards seem to be the people's choice because it's usually cheap and they are easy to bring along with you or pop into a mailbox. More modern ways of promoting yourself is purchasing ads on-line or sending out e-mails to editors. A couple of years ago stickers seemed to be popping up everywhere promoting bands, artists or events, and I think that it may actually be a good way of promoting your stuff. Some people handcraft amazing give- aways like origami business cards, bookmarks, little booklets, flower seed packets and so on and so forth. Sometimes it may feel like you have to try to outdo all the artists around you just to get a clients attention. At least I often feel the pressure to do so. That doesn't work however. If you just set out to outdo others you'll usually end up with something that isn't quite you, something that doesn't really describe what you do. That's a horrible trap to fall into.



Origami ninja star business cards? Sure to be a killer at the office. (Image found at crddsgn.com)

I usually send out e-mails, it's my chosen weapon. I struggle with a bit of social awkwardness and anxiety at times and an e-mail is just so much easier on my nerves than a phone call or a personal meeting. Life isn't supposed to be easy though. Sending out e-mails doesn't always give results or answers at all and it's just plain stupid to rely on them as the only promotional item in your arsenal.
E-mails can often seem impersonal and effortless, and let's face it, most art directors must receive half a dozen e-mails every day from young hopefuls. So unless your art is super fantastically awesome you have to find some way to stand out in the crowd. That's the tricky part. I haven't tried ads yet or sending out postcards, or calling art directors to set up portfolio viewings because it has just been too damn scary, but that is about to change.
Over the next few months I will be sending out promotional material and buying on-line ads. I am going to see if it has any effect on my current work flow and I will be writing about my experiences on this blog. So stay tuned as I attempt to delve into the deep dark currents that is self - promotion.



A new and interesting design can really bring a brochure to life. (found at topdesignmag.com)


If there is anything in particular you would like me to write about then please do leave a little comment or question, and I'll see what I can do about it.

Until next time
Anita K. Olsen

Mighty Muggs

If any of my readers follow the ArtOrder blog, run and written by the fantabulous Jon Schindehette you might remember the recently finished Mighty Muggs challenge. The challenge was about designing a well known Dungeons & Dragons character/type on a Mighty Mugg figure. For those of you who have never seen one this is what a Mighty Mugg looks like:



I had decided to enter, but due to some family problems I wasn't able to finish my entry on time and had to miss out on it. Sad, but ah such is life. Anywhoot, I decided to finish my entry and post it her on my blog. I don't like letting a good effort go to waste and I was quite pleased with my concept as well.

So here you go guys, a sorceress inspired Mighty Mugg figure:



The plan was to paint most of her with acrylic paint. I was however planning to make her skirt out of shiny green organza. I was considering tulle but it's such a stiff material and it would be troublesome to work with. The decorations on her arms, outfit and hair was going to be green sequins. her hair I was planning to make from curly angel hair that you can buy in pretty much any craft store. Unfortunately that hair usually only comes in blonde colors so I would probably have to dye it or go online to find something in the right color.Not that it matters too much anymore, but I'm tempted to order the figure and make the sorceress anyway. We'll see :P

Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen

P.S. Don't forget to visit my online portfolio!

Need an illustrator?

Have a look at my newest postcard, and my temporary on-line portfolio!

www.anitaolsen.daportfolio.com




Until next time
Anita

New design!

Yes so I've finally registered my business. That deserves a small hooray. Now I can finally get properly started on my life as a professional illustrator.

I felt that with a new start my blog deserved a new design. Something fresh and professional. I chose grey because it doesn't steal a lot of attention from the artwork and it is soothing on the eye and gives of a professional feel.

The banner I made was made in pencil. I did it in pencil because my line work is technically strong and I have been told that it should be shown of. I like old parchment like banners. It has sort of a romantic feel to me, it gives off the feeling of lost and forgotten times. I am a romantic after all so I think it suits me and my business quite well.

I might have to change it up a bit thoug. It is very simple at the moment and I am considering to add some more Victorian details, like flowers, or ornament details or something like it.

Any Opinions?


Until next time
Anita Night

Art Evolution- Lyssa the White Wizard

I just sent my final version of Lyssa the white wizard to Jon Schindehette over at ArtOrder.com. I made her for the very exciting "Evolution" challenge. The basic rules were that you had to make your own version of a young human female wizard with black hair, dressed in white and gold. For further info on the contest and the project that originally started it all please visit www.theartorder.com.

Since the challenge is called the "Evolution" challenge I thought that it would only be natural to show all of my readers step by step how my submission evolved from sketch to finished illustration. This is going to be a post heavy on text and heavy on pictures, and hopefully people will find it enjoyable and informative.

Now, let's get to the step by step "tutorial" or whatever one might fancy calling it:


Step 1:
I drew a sketch on regular printer paper, that's pretty much how I do most of my sketches. I find it practical. I scanned the finished sketch and opened it in Photoshop where I multiplied the layer the sketch was on and added a layer below the sketch layer. I decided to lay some background color to sett the general mood of the piece and ended up with a stormy purple.





Step 2:
In this image you can see that I've started working on the skin and the face in general. I'm not really happy with the general build of her face. It looks a bit lop-sided and the proportions are of. Beyond that I'm happy with the color of the skin and the texture of it. I started working on the skin in a medium flesh tone, I used darker tones of pink and white here and there and some dark browns on the areas where I needed a darker shadow.




Step 3:
After finishing most of the skin I decided to leave it alone for a while and start working on the dress for a bit. Since the dress had to be white I can pretty much choose to use any kind of white I like, like eggshell white or whatever. I chose to use snow white as my basic dress color. I just loved the nice sharp contrast of the white with the purple background. For the shading of the dress I decided to go with a purplish blue to reflect the background color. Her hair had to be black so of course I gave her black hair, but with a tint of blue to make the hair more interesting and more natural looking.

At this point I realize that I am not happy with the build of her chest either. The boobs are too high up, they look odd and I'm not very happy with the cut of neckline.




Step 4:
As you can see a lot of things have happened in this image. The skirt has been colored in a golden/beige shade of white. I thought it would look pretty that way, but the contrast between that shade the stark white shade just made the image look messy so I'll be changing the color of the skirt. There are too many folds too, its straining on the eye so I'll have to do something about that too.

I've moved her boobs a bit further down, I've also covered those puppies up a bit. In general I don't find a lot of cleavage attractive at all.

I've given her some fresh and fun turquoise tights with some swirly golden effects. It gives the outfit a hint of modern day fashion in my opinion. All the areas that are colored yellow will be turned into golden trims and accessories later in the process.




Step 5:
I'm still not happy with the face, but I have adjusted the shape of it, added a deeper shadow under her chin. I also decided to redraw the eyes, I moved the lips also and reshaped them a bit. I think these adjustments made her face look younger and more expressive.

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL1yanfN-wg2oeO6Zooen7dpaLXp3obLHSMW7-kBHK_luE7Z_61zdDrz_93fOb_9k9PhXtgSibCKXhHHWue8w7kkKfrZjB7_B07fd61n4Dyd9ksuI5drkHQGcGvw_aEvTlEkywQpfzm4E/s1600/Lyssa+wip+5.jpg">


Step 6:
At this point I have chosen to airbrush out some of the details in the dress and to give her skin a smoother look. The dress has been given some more blue shadows, the skirt has a cleaner white shade to it and the whole ensemble feels more cohesive than it did before.





Step 7:
Once more there is quite a leap in the process. Most of the golden trims have been finished, in addition I've given her a turquoise and gold necklace. I felt that the tights were a bit lonely. It stood out to much and there was nothing else in the image that could pick up that color. later I will add some earrings too, to break up the blackness of her hair.

I have also added a magical lightning effect arcing from her hand to her wand. It adds a lot of movement I think, and since I chose to do the effect in yellow and orange it gives it a nice complementary contrast with the purple background.




Step 8:
There is not much left to do now. A few details and some nitpicking remains. The wand has been colored in, the face has been worked on some more, I've added some yellow reflections on her skin and her clothes, since I figured the magic lightning would probably cast a bit of light. The hair has also been tended to, I've cleaned it upp a bit and made it a bit softer.





Step 9:
I was actually going to leave the illustration like that, but I realized that the character looked silly just floating about in a purple vacuum so I added some grass and changed the background color so it looked more like regular blue sky. I took a break for a few days and when I came back to the drawing I realized that her neck was a bot long, her eyes were still not to my liking and so on and so forth, so in short I made quite a bit of changes.





And in the end this is what the final image looks like:



Hope you found this entertainig or useful or both.

Until next time
Anita Night a.k.a Anita K. Olsen