Thoughts on Creativity as a business. Issue 1

Often I hear from family and friends, "Oh that is so cool that you can make things." "Why don't you sell, start and etsy?" "I bet you could make a lot of money."

Well it is not like that for everyone. For starters I do the things that I do, to relieve stress. I may not be ready to handle the stress of finances and shipping, not only do you need to have materials, you also need to have enough backing so that you can mail those things out to your consumers. When I think about those things it tends to stress me out. It is something I have not quite grasped the concept of.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to start selling my work and I believe that is part of the reason why I started a patreon* account. I wanted to share myself with the world, and if the world felt like this was something they needed they could help me share myself even more. As a job hunting college student, life is extremely hard. I found that I have less and less time to let creativity flow even though that is exactly what my classes call for.

Every business needs some form of mental stability. When I think of people think of people buying my product, I don't think of how great it is that they enjoy what I made. I get filled with dread, pondering over why did they waste money on me, can they afford their own living? I lack some of the major fundamentals of free lancing. There are five things that every aspiring artist needs:

Confidence

Yes at times you think oh my work is horrible ,but that confidence to still go out and try to sell it is what sets you apart from the rest.

Optimism

You could have that confidenct push to put your product out there but you need that optimism to drag in customers. Make them believe that they should buy it.

Financial Startup

Getting started is always rough. You could sell on commission, that way their payment goes directly to product creation. However, that is not something you should do when you are broke. Sometimes patrons would like to see how it looks before they pay. Don't rely only on commissions because, they don't always happen.

Punctuality

Prioritize your time. If you want to live the hard life of working and doing freelance on the side. Set up your schedule so you have time for both. Plan your supply shopping with your grocery shopping to save time. Keep a calendar for all your deadlines. Always check weather patterns so you can allot for weather changes. This way if you told the consumer that they will receive their product on a certain date they can get it. The only thing you can not avoid is undetermined circumstances. 

Politeness

This is a major one, at times the world around you can be rude. Even when a customer is disrespectful, always act with politeness. In the end they will complain about you to their family and friends, but if you were polite through and through your credibility will still show.

Will I start selling what I make? Time will surely tell.  All I can do right now is sip on some tea and wait for my life to balance out. While I am waiting, are you an artist? I would love to see and share artworks and creative creations with you.

*This is the second time I mentioning my patreon. I decided if I mention something at least twice I will explain it. Patreon, also known as patreon.com, is a site where you can support people fulfill their dreams. There are so many different people doing different things on there. You don't have to support someone if you don't want to. Being a patron is free of choice. If you do support a patron there is things that patron only members would see from the artist as a reward. Most patrons have links on their page to places where they post finished works for free of charge. Never feel compelled or pressured to support a patron.

If you want to see my updates or my art these are places you can see them and if you really want to know my patreon account this is it:

Shampoopoo -deviantart
Shampoo -patreon

Welcome, grab a seat and a cup of tea.

Do you have your cup or mug of tea yet? 

If so let's take some time to relax and get to know each other.

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Nice to meet you, my name is Samantha but surely you can call me Samme. I am an artistic college student looking to one day work for a big animation company like Nintendo or Pixar. I am also a huge nerd, which we can go into more detail a bit further down. I just wanted to put that out there so that you will be able to understand why my entries are titled with issues. I want the tea room to be relaxing yet professional. Good enough that if The Queen wanted to join us she could, but casual enough that we do not need to be dressed for The Queen. So to remind myself that the Queen of England may not be tuning into my blog, we are going to number it like comic book issues. Don't worry though, I might not be like; "What will happen when Samme is faced with animation of the 3D caliber, tune in to the next issue of Creatively Sipping on Tea, to find out." Though if you think that will be a nice closure, feel free to let me know. Now onto the topic at hand, getting to know each other.

As you already know, I go by Samme, however what you may not know is that I am originally from the Bronx, NY and moved to Arizona when I was 12, where I currently reside give and take a few moves. Even though I have lived here for about 7 years, I am not used to it at all. I don't know if I ever will get used to living here. Since elementary school I have been in a variety of clubs. 

                    

               A book club at my local library, the cheering squad( not to be confused with cheer leading) for my elementary school basketball team, choir in the 8th grade, the chess club on and off until freshman year of high school, art club on and off until I graduated high school, national junior honor society when I moved to Arizona in the 7th grade(technically not a club but had after school activities), robotics club in the 8th grade, anime/graphic novel club freshman year of high school, drama club, honorary volunteer for the hospitality class all 4 years of high school, and finally Japanese culture club at the college I attend.

You are probably thinking, that is too much clubs, didn't you do any athletics? I did up until my first deadly asthma attack so I quit the athletic side of life. Though I was in Jazz, Tap, Ballet, and competitive Caribbean dancing until I was 6.

At this point you are like there can't be anything else to tell us, however there is. All those clubs show you is my willingness to learn. It doesn't tell you that I have a really huge obsession with cats and the ocean. That I have 2 feet (approximately 61cm) long  shark plush toy named Mufasa. That I try my hardest to attend Phoenix Comicon every year and only missed going it twice since 2008, or that I have a Tumblr, Twitter, Deviantart, Facebook page, and Patreon account that I try to keep running properly.

Speaking of social media, there will be times I will link those sites so you could see. I probably won't link my Patreon since being a patron is purely by choice. 

I often will link my animation assignments, only the cool ones though. I take an animation class at the Main campus of Glendale Community College. I also take conversational Japanese and other classes, like general education. I like attending GCC, it was my first choice. I didn't even think about going to universities. I hope to get my associates in animation and Japanese. I am not going to specify a time limit for I feel that I will take classes for hobbies I love. I look forward to furthering myself, but especially along a network. The ultimate goal is to go to the cinema for a looked forward to movie that does decently in box office, and see my name in the ending credits. Once that happens the world will become my oyster again and who knows what is next?