I’m so honoured you found my video helpful, and I really loved seeing you expand on these points and share your perspective! Your “wearing multiple hats” description was spot on, the hardest part of art business is having to take on all the roles of the business as one person. And even though it’s possible to hire people to help you with that (like accountants, editors, bookkeepers,) no small business can afford that at the beginning. You truly have to be a one man army to get this career off the ground, and it’s understandably difficult! I also liked what you said about not creating outside of your art business. It’s true that when our hobbies overlap with our career, it can affect our enjoyment of the thing we’re most passionate about. It’s always good to balance work and play and to keep in mind that not everything we create needs to be profitable, sometimes it just needs to feed the soul. Great video!
Something I always think about is that these small cozy businesses are sustained by other small cozy businesses or people wanting to start a cozy business. Like we exist in a vacuum and creators are trying to build that emotional connection with their audience so that they will buy from their store. The reality is a sticker or a keychain adds little to no value for someone’s quality of life so you have to market it differently compared to a more practical item. Couple that with the thousands of competitors with equally “smol” and “cozy vibes” small businesses all vying for our attention, it starts to feel superficial. It’s the dream attached to the 6$ sticker they’re actually selling. From a marketing perspective I get it, it’s why you see car commercials showing NOTHING about the actual practicality and specs of a vehicle but instead a sequence of heart tugging clips of a family entering the car to drive to soccer practice. Everyone is selling something now or advertising a notion template etc etc. It’s all the same thumbnails with the same handwritten fonts, white ikea furniture, and kawaii paper goods. I think there’s a lot of potential for a small businesses who can tap into this market and offer something new to completely stand out.
omg this made me feel so seen... im on the unemployed, full time start up business mode and its hard as hell. this gave me a bit of hope. thank you thank you.
I don't like how in most of these discourse videos, the responsibility is put on the small business creative to "not do the romaticising" when we know as both creators and viewers that we would NOT watch content that showed the boring, more realistic side of running a business. Even Ruby's video admits that there ARE hundreds of videos online of creators who actually failed at their business but the algorithm doesn't recommend them. And I'm pretty sure most people don't purposefully go looking for them either. Also, how many people come across a successful artist but never bother to go back and watch their journey from the beginning when they WERE struggling? So in the end, who is doing the romantacising? The creator, or the viewers who only want to see content that reinforces surviorship bias?
@@DaphneLageArt I think it's down to both creators and viewers. Creators shouldn't be trying to "trick" or "lie" to their audiences about what's it's really like running a business (and I don't think any of them really do). All they're trying to do is create pretty and entertaining videos for people to watch. Meanwhile, it's down to the audience to educate themselves on entrepreneurship (if their dream is to start an art business) and what actually goes into it, rather than taking studio and art vlogs at surface level. Everyone has responsibility in this scenario! Not one is particularly in the wrong here either. Creators create entertaining content and audiences click and watch it because it's "cosy" and "relaxing". It's natural, but as Ruby stated, it's important to remind ourselves that a lot has gone on behind the scenes when making those videos so we should be consuming content with open eyes!
I always love watching your vlogs because you're so transparent. It's frustrating because I think if you don't fall into either a "cozy aesthetic artist" niche or the gross "hustle and grind entrepreneur" niche (which I unfortunately saw a lot of when I was trying to research things like manufacturing, especially with apparel and print-on-demand), the algorithm really doesn't pick your videos up. So it's no wonder people have a skewed perspective of what a small art business entails.
Personally, I think the terms people use to describe their videos should distinguish them from each other. If you’re watching a Small Business Vlog then you expect to see all elements of small business, including the admin element (I’m not suggesting a whole video of watching someone do their tax return, just a look at a clock & the person at their computer then a clip of the clock and the person rolling their eyes at how long it’s taken is enough I think). If a video is called a “Studio Vlog” people are only expecting to see the making part of the small business. It’s the terminology which is causing confusion. And yes, I guess more people use the word “studio” so they get the views but then that video should maybe only show the fun making stuff. My personal opinion of course but, for me at least, they’re two separate things and there’s no romancing involved in showing a craft in a studio vlog. Personally, I prefer a small business vlog as I am a small business and I want to see how my peers are faring but I expect the “casual” viewer would prefer the fluffy stuff of a studio vlog. It takes them away from the admin of their 9-5 and gives them inspiration, I guess is part of the point of youtube videos. To inspire & assist. x
Unfortunately, social networks and platforms are VERY aethetics based, and yeah, to an extreme it's becoming a problem. I watch those videos, and I know it's not all fun and games because I am doing it, and clearly, my daily life is far from aesthetic. I actually had the same problem when I entered an animation school for my studies in cinema, and... yeah, the slap in the face it was learning it's far from glamorous, it's actually really tedious and quite boring to be honest... It got me really depressed, so I can see how this could have the same effect.
@@Timtimsia I had the same issues with animation school as well! Pair your points with the fact it's a super competitive field with a lack of jobs going, it was awful to realise I might have wasted my degree. But yes! The same can happen with small businesses!
I'm currently setting up my own art business and I WISH someone would record all the boring stuff! I had no idea learning about tax and doing mockups and calculating transaction fees and pricing would be so difficult and time consuming 😭When I finished designing and creating the mockups I was so ready to upload them, but realized I'm still so far away from my first launch.... Side note though, if you did record long videos of you editing, you could just label them as body doubling vids that people can work to. As an ADHD girly, the body doubling vids can be really nice 🥰
Impressive content, AbiNova. Looking forward to seeing your next upload from you. I shattered that thumbs up button on your video. Keep up the amazing work! Your insights about the behind-the-scenes challenges of running a small business really resonate. How do you think the portrayal of small businesses on social media could be adjusted to better reflect the reality and struggles entrepreneurs face?
This is such a great video! UA-cam and Instagram are really aesthetic focused, but it doesn't show the full picture. I have tried with my CreatingBee brand, but always fall off track because of lack of time since I am a full time teacher. I just started another mini business on the side (education related). This one is going ok, order-wise, but Instagram is still at 0 followers. It is a struggle! 😂 This is what I like about your channel, you are still honest with what is going on, the good and the bad! Keep it up! ❤
@@stephaniec.1950 absolutely! But it's important to educate ourselves about what goes into running a small business before we start our journeys so that we don't go into it thinking it's all cosy studios and pretty artwork! Doing that gives people a better chance of not getting taken aback by the reality, feeling put off, and then giving up midway through they journey! ☺️
Sounds fair enough. I don’t want to watch you editing the video I’m already watching. Definitely don’t want to watch SEO. I wanna see pretty things! I think you’re the one of the more relatable small business channels I’ve found, you make plenty of videos talking about the struggles that I’ve been nodding frantically to
I’m so honoured you found my video helpful, and I really loved seeing you expand on these points and share your perspective!
Your “wearing multiple hats” description was spot on, the hardest part of art business is having to take on all the roles of the business as one person. And even though it’s possible to hire people to help you with that (like accountants, editors, bookkeepers,) no small business can afford that at the beginning. You truly have to be a one man army to get this career off the ground, and it’s understandably difficult!
I also liked what you said about not creating outside of your art business. It’s true that when our hobbies overlap with our career, it can affect our enjoyment of the thing we’re most passionate about. It’s always good to balance work and play and to keep in mind that not everything we create needs to be profitable, sometimes it just needs to feed the soul. Great video!
Something I always think about is that these small cozy businesses are sustained by other small cozy businesses or people wanting to start a cozy business. Like we exist in a vacuum and creators are trying to build that emotional connection with their audience so that they will buy from their store. The reality is a sticker or a keychain adds little to no value for someone’s quality of life so you have to market it differently compared to a more practical item. Couple that with the thousands of competitors with equally “smol” and “cozy vibes” small businesses all vying for our attention, it starts to feel superficial. It’s the dream attached to the 6$ sticker they’re actually selling. From a marketing perspective I get it, it’s why you see car commercials showing NOTHING about the actual practicality and specs of a vehicle but instead a sequence of heart tugging clips of a family entering the car to drive to soccer practice. Everyone is selling something now or advertising a notion template etc etc. It’s all the same thumbnails with the same handwritten fonts, white ikea furniture, and kawaii paper goods. I think there’s a lot of potential for a small businesses who can tap into this market and offer something new to completely stand out.
omg this made me feel so seen... im on the unemployed, full time start up business mode and its hard as hell. this gave me a bit of hope. thank you thank you.
I don't like how in most of these discourse videos, the responsibility is put on the small business creative to "not do the romaticising" when we know as both creators and viewers that we would NOT watch content that showed the boring, more realistic side of running a business. Even Ruby's video admits that there ARE hundreds of videos online of creators who actually failed at their business but the algorithm doesn't recommend them. And I'm pretty sure most people don't purposefully go looking for them either. Also, how many people come across a successful artist but never bother to go back and watch their journey from the beginning when they WERE struggling? So in the end, who is doing the romantacising? The creator, or the viewers who only want to see content that reinforces surviorship bias?
@@DaphneLageArt I think it's down to both creators and viewers. Creators shouldn't be trying to "trick" or "lie" to their audiences about what's it's really like running a business (and I don't think any of them really do). All they're trying to do is create pretty and entertaining videos for people to watch. Meanwhile, it's down to the audience to educate themselves on entrepreneurship (if their dream is to start an art business) and what actually goes into it, rather than taking studio and art vlogs at surface level. Everyone has responsibility in this scenario! Not one is particularly in the wrong here either. Creators create entertaining content and audiences click and watch it because it's "cosy" and "relaxing". It's natural, but as Ruby stated, it's important to remind ourselves that a lot has gone on behind the scenes when making those videos so we should be consuming content with open eyes!
I always love watching your vlogs because you're so transparent. It's frustrating because I think if you don't fall into either a "cozy aesthetic artist" niche or the gross "hustle and grind entrepreneur" niche (which I unfortunately saw a lot of when I was trying to research things like manufacturing, especially with apparel and print-on-demand), the algorithm really doesn't pick your videos up. So it's no wonder people have a skewed perspective of what a small art business entails.
This is so important, its really hard work, thank you for sharing ☺
Personally, I think the terms people use to describe their videos should distinguish them from each other. If you’re watching a Small Business Vlog then you expect to see all elements of small business, including the admin element (I’m not suggesting a whole video of watching someone do their tax return, just a look at a clock & the person at their computer then a clip of the clock and the person rolling their eyes at how long it’s taken is enough I think). If a video is called a “Studio Vlog” people are only expecting to see the making part of the small business. It’s the terminology which is causing confusion. And yes, I guess more people use the word “studio” so they get the views but then that video should maybe only show the fun making stuff. My personal opinion of course but, for me at least, they’re two separate things and there’s no romancing involved in showing a craft in a studio vlog. Personally, I prefer a small business vlog as I am a small business and I want to see how my peers are faring but I expect the “casual” viewer would prefer the fluffy stuff of a studio vlog. It takes them away from the admin of their 9-5 and gives them inspiration, I guess is part of the point of youtube videos. To inspire & assist. x
Unfortunately, social networks and platforms are VERY aethetics based, and yeah, to an extreme it's becoming a problem. I watch those videos, and I know it's not all fun and games because I am doing it, and clearly, my daily life is far from aesthetic. I actually had the same problem when I entered an animation school for my studies in cinema, and... yeah, the slap in the face it was learning it's far from glamorous, it's actually really tedious and quite boring to be honest... It got me really depressed, so I can see how this could have the same effect.
@@Timtimsia I had the same issues with animation school as well! Pair your points with the fact it's a super competitive field with a lack of jobs going, it was awful to realise I might have wasted my degree. But yes! The same can happen with small businesses!
I'm currently setting up my own art business and I WISH someone would record all the boring stuff! I had no idea learning about tax and doing mockups and calculating transaction fees and pricing would be so difficult and time consuming 😭When I finished designing and creating the mockups I was so ready to upload them, but realized I'm still so far away from my first launch.... Side note though, if you did record long videos of you editing, you could just label them as body doubling vids that people can work to. As an ADHD girly, the body doubling vids can be really nice 🥰
Impressive content, AbiNova. Looking forward to seeing your next upload from you. I shattered that thumbs up button on your video. Keep up the amazing work! Your insights about the behind-the-scenes challenges of running a small business really resonate. How do you think the portrayal of small businesses on social media could be adjusted to better reflect the reality and struggles entrepreneurs face?
This is such a great video! UA-cam and Instagram are really aesthetic focused, but it doesn't show the full picture. I have tried with my CreatingBee brand, but always fall off track because of lack of time since I am a full time teacher.
I just started another mini business on the side (education related). This one is going ok, order-wise, but Instagram is still at 0 followers. It is a struggle! 😂
This is what I like about your channel, you are still honest with what is going on, the good and the bad! Keep it up! ❤
@@creatingbee7722 aw thank you! I'm really glad you like my videos! I hope you're new business venture goes well! ☺️
Every career includes things we dislike. But as long as the parts you like outweigh the parts you don’t, you are in the right place.
@@stephaniec.1950 absolutely! But it's important to educate ourselves about what goes into running a small business before we start our journeys so that we don't go into it thinking it's all cosy studios and pretty artwork! Doing that gives people a better chance of not getting taken aback by the reality, feeling put off, and then giving up midway through they journey! ☺️
Girrlllll this was so on point!!!! You are preaching to the choir!!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾📢
@@jeluxebudgets glad you enjoyed the video! ☺️
Sounds fair enough. I don’t want to watch you editing the video I’m already watching. Definitely don’t want to watch SEO. I wanna see pretty things! I think you’re the one of the more relatable small business channels I’ve found, you make plenty of videos talking about the struggles that I’ve been nodding frantically to
I loveeee ruby her video is so well edited and written
@@labdjcxn3xy they are! Her video was extremely helpful with putting things into words things I've felt for awhile! ☺️☺️
❤
I'm pretty sure Cozy is spelled with a z. 😊
Not in England
@pilarbarrionuevo oh okay! Good to know!
Not in Australia either
@@amielana5763 haha! I did consider spelling it with a Z because I know I have a pretty big American audience but the brit in me won 😂😂
@@AbiNova I’m starting to feel like I’ve got a second language deciding wether to use S or Z or wether to bother adding U to “colour