Ever feel like it's hard to know if your business is "normal" or not? If other businesses experienced the year in a similar way to you? Or maybe you have a hard time zooming out to get a big picture perspective.
If that's you at all, then we've created The State of Making: An Online Summit just for you (and the thousands of others like you ;))! It's a multi-day event that will feature experts and other makers sharing their perspective on the year in making and what lies ahead for the holidays.
Interested? You can sign up here to be alerted about all the details.
We are featuring the stories of maker and their years leading up to the summit. Today's post looks at the year for maker and designer Lilah Higgins of The Higgins Creative. Their business has grown rapidly and strategically. Lilah shares what that has been like, along with some lessons learned.
After reading, I would love to know about your year in making in the comments below!
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
A: Our business, The Higgins Creative, supports the makers & artists first and foremost. I call myself a branding designer & mentor for artsy makers. My husband runs behind the scenes and helps me make the more business-centered decisions.
We started almost 5 years ago and have done it all. From selling our art and graphic design, to branding and coaching, to currently building courses to teach artists how to build income with the work of their hands. We started the #waketomake movement that encourages who feels called to create, to do so with freedom & while building income.
Q: Overall, what did the last year look like for you?
A: This year has been NUTS. We hired our very first business coach, Dana Malstaff of the Boss Mom Academy, and things have just skyrocketed. We've grown more than ever and are finally making a huge amount of traction in building the life we want.
Q: What is the biggest lesson you learned?
A: Stay faithful. And hire help. We brought on our first VA, Kathryn Moorhouse, as well as Dana and it's been amazing to have a team behind us & in our corner. It's made the days we feel like giving up, suddenly turn around because of staying connected with those two and our other cheerleaders.
Q: How are you anticipating and making changes for holiday 2016?
A: I'm networking as much as I can online and hoping to reach out to my local network as we're anticipating things to slow down.
Work by The Higgins Creative
Q: What about your 2015 holiday? Or are the holidays not your “big” season?
A: We generally book branding clients the most over the new year and into the spring and summer. People are ready for refreshment and giving more attention to their business, but we have a few ideas up our sleeves to get potential clients excited over the holidays.
Logo design by The Higgins Creative
Q: What was your proudest moment of the last year as a business owner?
A: It's really been building over the last 6-8 months, everything is a blur! I think last month when we were able to meet my husbands current take home pay with profits from the business, I beamed all month.
Q: What is one business tool or product that became invaluable to your business this last year?
A: Trello, Trello, Trello. Everything I manage goes into Trello, including my meal planning for home. I even have a template made for our new course to show our students how to launch their first art collection.
Q: What business tool or product did you decide, “Nah, actually I don’t need to deal with this”?
A: I used Iconosquare to track Instagram stats for the spring, but realized after the algorithum change that it really didn't matter anymore. Stats for Instagram are up and I'm not stressing about timing anymore or paying $2/month for Iconosquare! ha!
Q: Where can people find you online?
A: You can see our work and all about the #waketomake movement on www.thehigginscreative.com. We also love to post about our days on Instagram Stories and pride ourselves on being hilarious. ;) www.instagram.com/thehigginscreative
