5 Lessons From My First Year in Business
(This article was originally published on EnfieldArts.com on June 5, 2020.)
nfield Arts is officially one year old! And it has been one hell of a first year. While I was writing and producing content before May 2019, officially creating Enfield Arts was a milestone for me. It consolidated all of the work I’ve been doing and gave me an umbrella under which all of my fiction goes.
If you’re coming to this article from Pinterest you might be wondering, What on Earth is Enfield Arts? Well, welcome! Enfield Arts is a one-person production company out of Central Massachusetts. It focuses on high-quality fiction in a variety of mediums. As of 2020, Enfield Arts has one web serial, one ongoing audio fiction series, and one completed audio fiction series under its banner. And there are plans for many more projects in the works.
Creating Enfield Arts helped me to start taking myself and my writing more seriously after several years away from it. I’ve learned a lot over the past year and I know I’ll continue to learn even more in the future. So for now, here are some lessons I learned in my first year in business.
It’s okay to change your focus
When I started Enfield Arts, I was dead certain that it was only going to be stories set in Massachusetts. That was the point of the organization and I wasn’t going to stray from that.
Then I thought that maybe it would be too constraining. That maybe in a couple years I’ll want to write a story set in space, but won’t be able to because it’s not a part of my business model.
Then I decided that I can have works outside of Enfield Arts. And that’s where I currently stand.
Maybe this will change again and maybe it won’t. But after a year, I’ve realized that I can be flexible in my focus if I need to be.
Just get your work out there
Hold yourself to a high standard, but don’t fall victim to perfectionism. You need to be able to know when something is done. And accept that some things take longer than others.
I’ve learned to put out a combination of things that take different amounts of time and work. While I might spend months on various series, I can also put out short stories and blog posts that can be put together in a matter of hours. Not everything is going to be a masterpiece and not everything needs to be. Lots of content is going to be somewhat ephemeral anyway, so just get your work and your name out there.
Don’t take things personally
You’re going to get bad reviews. You’re going to lose out on opportunities. And you’re going to lose followers or Patreon patrons. It sucks, but it’s the truth. If you want to keep going and be successful, you need to take a step back and realize these things aren’t necessarily a reflection on you as a person. They happen to every creator and you just need to take the good with the bad.
If you want a tip on distancing yourself somewhat, I suggest taking a pen name. I use a pen name and even that tiniest bit of distance between my public self and private self has made a world of difference to me.
Don’t expect your field to be a family
Be a team player. Show respect to everyone you work with or connect with online. But don’t go into business expecting everyone to be a big, happy family. That is never actually the case. There are too many people with too many different personalities, goals, and situations. Small groups will form within the overall field and this is not a bad thing.
This also ties back to the previous statement. Don’t take things personally. Don’t tolerate shit, but don’t be hurt if you find that you end up polite colleagues rather than best friends with all the folks around you.
Have fun with it
Creating can be stressful, but you need to remember why you do it. Creating is fun. Writing is one of my favorite things to do and whenever I’m getting stressed out by it, I make myself stop and remember why I love it.
If you want to be in business for the long run (which I do) you need to take care of yourself. Take a break and do something to rekindle your passion. Even if you fall a little behind on your to-do list, it’ll be worth it.
(You might also like: 5 Tips to Help You Get Motivated)
Hopefully these lessons I learned will help you with your own work. I look forward to applying them myself as I move into Year Two.
Best of luck to you!
