Calligraphy Biz Corner

3. Part 1: Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Calligraphy Business (and What To Do Instead!)

• Alane Gianetti, Shaochen Wu • Season 1 • Episode 3

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In today's episode, we're sharing mistakes we've seen when starting a calligraphy business, and what to do instead.

We've pinpointed five "mistakes" to avoid, such as an overemphasis on perfectionism, comparison with others, and allowing negative feedback to affect your dreams. We also highlight the problem of calculating prices based on others’ and encourage you to consider your own personal costs and skill level when setting your prices. 

But we're not just here to share what you shouldn't do! We're giving practical steps for calligraphers who are ready to transition from hobby to business, such as the importance of exploration (listen in to hear Shaochen's potato story!), creating a portfolio, registering your business, separating your finances, and getting customer reviews early on. 

If you're ready to turn your calligraphy hobby into a flourishing business, then this episode is for you! Heck, even if you're a seasoned pro, you may learn something new... We know that we both definitely did!

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

🎙️ In this Episode:

  • 0:00 Introduction
  • 02:11 Mistake #1 - Waiting for Things to Be Perfect
  • 05:56 Mistake #2 - Comparing Yourself to Others
  • 08:28 Mistake #3 - Letting Negative Feedback Crush Your Dreams
  • 14:38 Mistake #4 - Basing Your Pricing Off of Others
  • 18:55 Mistake #5 - Not Thinking Through Use Cases
  • 24:03 Do #1 - Talk About Your Biz
  • 27:07 Do #2 - Explore, Experiment, and Explore Some More! 
  • 30:23 Do #3 - Build Your Portfolio
  • 33:23 Do #4 - Make Your Biz Legal
  • 37:43 Do #5 - Collect Reviews
  • 39:49 Start Your Business Today

Text us a question to answer on a future episode!

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👯‍♀️ Learn More About Us:

Alane:

Welcome to another episode of Calligraphy Biz Corner. I'm Elaine.

Shaochen:

and I'm Chen.

Alane:

And we are filming this episode exactly a week from our podcast launch. And so we wanted to start by just thanking you for all of your support, your listens, shares, dms, comments. All of the feedback that we've received has been so incredible. Um, and we just thank you so much for sharing all of your thoughts with us and for listening and supporting the show.

Shaochen:

Yeah, I've honestly been so blown away by some of the comments that you guys shared. Um, someone said they're not a numbers person, and our last episode really helped them to understand their business better and actually have like. Some revelations about it, which is amazing. And we talked to another listener who, um, was able to use the last episode to help her think objectively about something in her full-time job that made her realize she might need to leave that job. So I just think it's awesome that, you know, we're helping you to have those like reflections and take those actions. Um, just based on listening to the episode.

Alane:

It's incredible that that's already happening. That's like exactly what we wanted. So it's super rewarding to hear that. Today's episode actually comes from a listener's suggestion. Uh, this person asks for advice on. How to take the next steps in turning their calligraphy hobby into a business. So we were actually already planning on chatting about this topic today, so her timing was perfect. Without further ado, let's jump into some of the mistakes we've seen when starting a calligraphy business, and then we'll go over what you should do instead.

Shaochen:

So to kick off the mistakes, um, first I wanna caveat, these are not necessarily mistakes. These are just things to avoid spending your time and energy on because they're not really helping your business. We don't really believe in like mistakes because you're learning from everything that you do, especially when you're just starting. Um, but between Alina and I, we've worked with hundreds of calligraphers and helping, them to start. Their business. And so a lot of what we're putting together in this episode today is from their experiences, um, and what they've shared with us and also our own experiences with starting our businesses. So the first mistake I want to call out is thinking that everything needs to be perfect before starting your business and taking on clients. Um. Often this looks like waiting, wanting to wait until your work is good enough. We've all been there. It's really hard to feel like our work is good enough, uh, because that is just such a subjective bar. The thing is like. The, the further you get along in your journey, you're always gonna look back anyway and think that, that wasn't as good as now. And today's work's not gonna be as good as the future. Um, it's easy to feel like we need to keep practicing, need to develop more styles, need to perfect a certain letter form that you don't like. and the truth is you could feel like this months into your practice or years into your practice. And the consequence of feeling this way is that you could never start your business at all. Um, so what we recommend is just start your business now, even if you don't feel ready, because. Nobody feels ready when they start. Um, and you're gonna continue to improve and grow. As you have more projects and more clients. You're gonna have more opportunities to practice and just naturally, you know, you're gonna continue to improve your skills. Another example of wanting to have everything to be perfect before starting is thinking that you need to have a website before you have clients. And the truth is, most of your first, your early clients are going to come from people that you know probably. Family, friends. Friends of friends. So you're not really gonna need a website yet. Um, when you're working with those folks, uh, what I would encourage you to do instead is to have samples of your work and take pictures of those so that you are able to share. Those with your first and early clients, but it's much easier to build a website once you already have some work under your belt and some pictures of that work, um, and use that as your assets to, to start your website. So don't feel like you need to have a website out there right away. This also goes for other things that I feel like make us feel like professional, like branding, including like a logo or business cards. Again, these are just not the first things you wanna do. Eventually, yes, you wanna have those things, but right in the beginning I would definitely put your effort towards some of the other things we're gonna talk about in this episode and not feel like you have to have all of your branding in like perfect shape before you start taking on clients.

Alane:

Yeah, this is such a good reminder because I remember that feeling as well. Like, ugh, everything has to be exactly perfect. I have to love my style. I have to have it nailed down. I have to have the perfect website. And eventually I just realized that done is better than perfect, which is really hard for a perfectionist as well. But I knew that if I was waiting, I'd be waiting forever. So perfection is something that literally no one will ever achieve. So if you can just. Realize that the, the sooner the better. Just hop on the train, start moving in whatever direction it is that you wanna be going, and just get it out there. Don't be waiting for it to be perfect.

Shaochen:

I love that.

Alane:

So the next mistake that I see and that I am guilty of myself is comparing yourself to others. We all have the voices in our head that say, there are already people out there doing what you wanna be doing. They're doing it better. There isn't any room for me. I. Imposter syndrome is real, and it's something that we battle every single day, but it can't hold you back from taking action on your dreams. What I've realized over the course of my journey is that literally every calligrapher's journey is different. It's unique, and everybody's talents are needed. Someone may not like my style, but like they might want yours instead for their project. So even if I am not booked for that wedding, you could be, uh, same thing with like, there's plenty of work to go around. This is something that I have reminded myself of over the past few years, is that I. Um, it doesn't do you any good to compare yourself to others and to hold yourself back or to think that there isn't room for you because there is so much work out there. So like, I love when I am booked for a wedding or an event or something and then I have to say like, I can't help you, but here are three other calligraphers that may be able to help you and be able to pass, you know, their name along to another client. It's best to just put up your blinders as best as you can. Focus on yourself. Remind yourself that you have a unique value to offer the world, and don't let the comparison hold you back from chasing your dreams.

Shaochen:

Yeah, and I think one thing just to remember is as calligraphers, we follow way more calligraphers than the average person, you know, and my entire feed when I log on to. Instagram is just all calligraphers, all incredible artists of all kinds, um, wedding vendors. And sometimes that can be like a little overwhelming, especially if I'm feel I'm kind of in that zone where I'm not feeling like really, really great about my work or something like that. And so I just want you to remember that we as calligraphers see way more of this than the average person does. And most people who are hiring you, you might be the only calligrapher. It's very likely you're the only calligrapher that they know. So just something to keep in mind.

Alane:

Exactly. If you feel like it's not helping your mental health, then just mute your accounts, unfollow if you have to. Nobody's gonna get offended

Shaochen:

Yeah,

Alane:

it does seem really saturated on Instagram, but in real life, that's not the case.

Shaochen:

All right. So the third thing that we would suggest not to do is don't let negative feedback make you give up on your business. This is just gonna be a fact of doing business, is that there's gonna be people who are going to ghost you. There's gonna be people who will say no and decline your services. And this is something that honestly like. It's, it doesn't feel good. We're human, right? Like obviously there's this emotional response to that, but it is something that we kind of need to just remember that that is a part of doing business, you know? Let's break down the negative feedback into two types. So there's constructive feedback and then there's haters and trolls, right? Um, so if we were thinking about constructive feedback, when you get constructive feedback on your business, what I want you to do is think about how you can do something differently rather than giving up. So let's say that you wanna do signage for other businesses. So maybe you want to like paint their windows, you wanna do their like chalkboard menus and things like that. Um, and let's say nobody's booking you to do that in a way that's negative feedback, right? That's constructive feedback. There's something there. And then I would think about what levers I can pull. To, to change that situation. So I would ask myself questions like, maybe I need to amp up my marketing. Maybe nobody knows that I'm offering this service right now. Maybe I need to, um, identify some specific businesses who I really wanna work with and actually reach out to them directly. Um, maybe I need to get more clear on my audience so I can be really clear in my copy and my marketing about the benefit of why somebody would want their store windows painted, right, and why they should spend money on them. Maybe I wanna brush up on, on my skills because doing menus requires a lot of block lettering. You know, there's so many different things that we can investigate and pull, and I just want you to be resilient as a business owner. When you are feeling like there's some negative or constructive feedback, don't immediately give up on what you're doing. I want you to think like a scientist, come up with hypothesis about why it might not be working, and then really dig into each of those and test them out.

Alane:

I love that so much. That's such a good reminder because just because somebody isn't booking you, that doesn't mean that your business is failing. But I think that we all tend to go to that point in our head. Like I went through that actually, I think it was last, it was 2022. Um. I was upping my prices and people stopped booking and I was like, nobody wants to hire me anymore. I don't have any value. Like this is it, right? Pretty for me is done, but I did what you just said. I put on my like investigative cap

Shaochen:

Mm-Hmm

Alane:

and I realized that it was literally just a matter of the way that I was packaging my proposals together that people didn't like seeing a. One base package, they like to see individual breakdown of line items, and so I just reverted back to the way that I had been doing my proposals before, but it was experimenting

Shaochen:

mm-Hmm.

Alane:

that was a good example of receiving that negative feedback and realizing that it's constructive and was actually teaching me something rather than telling me to stop doing something.

Shaochen:

Yeah, that's a really great example. And in the end, you were still able to raise your prices. You just had to change a different factor, right? Um, so the second type of negative feedback, you know, we're talking about the haters, people who are discouraging or maybe commenting mean things. Honestly, I would say in the calligrapher community, I haven't experienced a lot of this, which is, which is really nice because the internet can be kind of a scary place. But

Alane:

Yeah, I.

shaochen_1_01-30-2024_115233:

the, I just

Shaochen:

The calligrapher community is just like the nicest people. So supportive, so inspiring. But let's say it happens. I think of it as just building the muscle of letting it roll off. Um, like if there's nothing you can do that's actually productive about it, or think about, you know, like the different levers like we were talking about in the constructive example, then it's just ultimately draining your energy and there's. Gonna be better places to spend that energy. So again, I know it's like really hard because when these kinds of things happen, it's like an emotional response, right? And I think we we're not trying to stop ourselves from having an emotional response, but rather kind of process through that and and move on. Because one thing that's been helpful to me to remember is that I'm in control of my own thoughts. And my own thoughts only, I'm not in control of what anybody else thinks of me or my work. Um, I can't control how they feel and I also don't know what might be going on in their lives that, you know, would, make them feel like they want to say something mean to me. Um, but it often, I feel like that might be coming from a place of insecurity or something that's going on that has absolutely nothing to do with me. In fact, there's sometimes where like maybe I've talked to someone who has said something that hurt me, and it turns out it doesn't have anything to do with me at all. So anyway, I think this is just a reminder that we can't control. What other people think or what other people say. Let's just try to focus on energy on what we can control.

Alane:

I love that so much. It always makes me think of like driving. When somebody just cuts you off and you get so mad that they just cut you off and you're like, why did you do that? You need to have your blinker on, blah, blah, blah. And I try to like stop and remind myself that I can only control my reaction in that moment. I can't control what they did and like maybe they were racing to like take their grandma to the hospital or maybe they were just being an asshole, but.

Shaochen:

Right,

Alane:

At the end of the day, I can either get upset about it or I can just let it go and move on, and like you said, spend my time and my energy on more important things than worrying about the person who cut me

Shaochen:

right. Yeah. So, so good.

Alane:

Um, okay, so then our fourth mistake or something to avoid when you're just starting your calligraphy business. This is probably one of the most talked about topics in the calligraphy industry. I know that for the two of us, it's one of our favorite topics, but. The fourth mistake that we see beginners making, and I was definitely guilty of making this as well, is setting your prices based on what you see other people charging. So I am gonna preface this by saying. While it is okay to do market research in your local area, just to get a feel for how others are pricing their services, this should really only be used as a baseline guide and really only when you're just starting out. Um, and please do not go to Etsy and get your prices there because what do you always say that Etsy is? You say that it's like a fast, a fast race to the

Shaochen:

a, yeah, it's a race to the bottom when it comes to pricing.

Alane:

Yeah, so please avoid Etsy.

Shaochen:

Yeah, it's so, it's like Etsy tends to be so saturated and so easy to see, like what the options are out there that people just compete on price and it just lower, you just lower your price. Yeah.

Alane:

And one of the other things to remember about Etsy, while people do have custom services listed on there, right? Like maybe you can order a welcome sign or you can order, uh, envelopes. Like they're really not offering a personalized service to their clients. It's kind of more product based, in my opinion. Um, and so that's not being taken into account when they are pricing their work. They're not taking into account like the time that they may spend emailing back and forth or getting on phone calls with their clients, et cetera. Instead, your pricing really needs to take into consideration your own costs, like what it costs you to run your business or what your own, you know, income financial needs are, as well as your skill level. You really don't have any idea what other people are basing their numbers off of, and my guess is that they're not gonna be the same as yours. So it's really important to figure out pricing that actually works for you. As an example, like, I mean, you and I are probably pretty different in our pricing too. Like even though we may be at the same skill level, experience level, et cetera, like my cost of living is probably more than yours. Being that I am living just outside of New York City. Like I just Googled it the other day. Our cost of living is 30% higher than the national average. So like my pricing has to take into account the higher cost of my rent and my groceries and food, like everything here. So that's just something important to remember as well, that everybody's pricing is personal. And I know that pricing can feel really, really complicated, but Chacha and I actually have a tool that will help you get really clear on your numbers and help you understand what you should be charging. We created this a couple years ago, um, and we, it was really helpful for other calligraphers who were struggling with creating an actual pricing strategy and then implementing that. So check out our creatives pricing toolkit. It's linked in the show notes, and that includes an actionable workbook slash guide along with two worksheets that you can plug and play directly into your business.

Shaochen:

Yeah. And the thing I love about that resource is that we really base your pricing on numbers and your financial goals. I always say like, don't let your emotions discount your pricing.'cause it's so easy for us to come up with something and just. Second guess it and end up discounting it because we feel like it's too high. But when you actually look at the numbers and you have that to back it up and you have like the math behind it, it makes it so much easier to stand by your numbers and feel confident about it because you know how you came up with it. Um, and so that's really what we aim to do with that toolkit.

Alane:

Exactly. And I'm gonna add one more little like quick pricing thing on here too, because what you just said made me think of it along with not comparing your pricing to others. Don't base your pricing off of what you would pay for that service, because I used to do that too. I'd be like, well, I'm not gonna pay this much for this welcome sign, so why should I charge somebody else that much? Well, I should charge somebody else that much because they can't do it. They need that service. I don't need that service. I can do it. But like. I can't fix my car, so I'm gonna pay somebody more money to fix my car.

Shaochen:

Yeah. You aren't your own client in this

Alane:

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. That's really important to remember.

Shaochen:

All right, so the last mistake we're gonna talk about is not thinking about the use cases for your products and then demonstrating the ways in which your clients will be using them in your marketing. So I'm gonna caveat this by saying like. Yes, in the beginning I do want you to do lots of exploration. Um, you don't even need to have a product. In the very beginning. You're probably just writing calligraphy and like posting examples of your work maybe in your notebook or your practice, and that's completely fine. I remember if you scroll all the way back on my Instagram, my first post is me writing on some leaves that I. Picked in the neighborhood. You know, I was just really into trying calligraphy on different kinds of surfaces. Um, another one that was really fun was, you know, we, um, when you have a brand new nib and you're trying to clean it off for the first time, use one of the ways you can do that is. You could spit on it, you can put it in toothpaste or you can stick it in a potato. It's like a bunch of weird, random ways to clean your nib. But, um, I love the potato and I happen to have one. So I cleaned my nib and then I decided to like write on the potato and it says like, rusty the rust set or something like that. And I posted that on my Instagram. Instagram. Right. And so yeah, that was definitely, I wouldn't, you know, that that wasn't following this advice at all in the sense of like, no one's trying to buy my potato. I'm not showing a use case for it or anything like that. Um, and that's like fine in the beginning, right? But when you actually get to the point where you wanna sell something to somebody, then that's when you need to be really clear. And showcasing like the, the times in which a client would purchase that and why it's important to have that product. Um, so let's say for example, you are ready, you're creating some sample table numbers, right? And, um, you are going to photograph those and you're gonna post'em on your Instagram. One of the first ways I would think to photograph that is probably show like a flat lay so it could show a couple of different numbers in the photo so they could see more of the set. Um, and, and that's great. I would take that photo, but also think about how somebody's actually gonna use that table number. They're only gonna have one table number at a time on, um. One individual table. So I would also set it up on a stand, and I would also, you know, set it up on a surface upright the way you would actually see it. Maybe put some faux florals behind it or something like that, just so people can get a sense of what it might look like at their event or at their wedding reception, because nobody at their wedding reception is gonna look at table numbers laying flat. On the table. Right? So that's just one example, but like really think about how the person is going to be using your product, how they're gonna be seeing their product when it's at their event.

Alane:

That's so smart, and that was just like a free photo styling tip that you just gave people that like I never even thought about. So

Shaochen:

Yeah, it's true. I mean, like I love thinking about many different ways you can photograph something, so that also gives you more content. Just separate little content tip there.

Alane:

Exactly. I love that. Also, you wanna get to a point where you're sharing work that you actually wanna be hired for. So like you said, like with your potato, which I think you should bring back the potato, you, you're gonna have to like post that on your story so people can see what you're talking about. The infamous potato. Um, but you don't actually wanna be hired to write on potatoes, right? So like, if you're posting. Seating charts, but you don't really wanna be doing seating charts well. Everybody who sees you posting those are gonna think that that's something that you do and you offer and will most likely ask you to do it. So you just wanna make sure too, as you start to develop your style and figure out what you do and don't enjoy creating that you really start to share the things that you want people to hire you for.

Shaochen:

Yeah, and that reminds me of when I first started, I did envelope dressing, and then I realized that I didn't enjoy envelope dressing, but I had a. Um, a picture that came back from a styled shoot that was just like a gorgeous flat lay that had my envelope in it. And I really struggled about whether or not to post that for the exact reason you said, because I didn't actually want envelope addressing jobs, but I also wanna be able to see this pretty picture. So I ended up posting it and in the caption being like, no, I do not offer envelope addressing. So I think again, this point is just about like. Share more of the work that you wanna do, and then also be really clear speaking to your audience about what is the need behind that product that you're offering or that service that you're offering, so they know why they would want to buy that.

Alane:

I love that. What is the need? Yeah. It's like the what and the why. Right.

Shaochen:

Yeah. We just went over five things to not do in your business. Let's switch gears and talk about the things we should do instead. So, Elaine, why don't you kick us off.

Alane:

Okay, so the very first thing that you should do if you're ready to start your calligraphy business is. Talk about your business. I know this seems super obvious, but it's actually kind of crazy to me how much people tend to shy away from talking about their business because whether that's due to fear of judgment or coming across like you're bragging, you just avoid talking about it. But the reality is that if you want your business to be a real thing, then you have to talk about it like it's a real thing. I also encourage you to watch the language that you use when you're referring to your business. Um, or even the language that other people use. People may refer to it as a little business or say things to you like, Aww, that's so cute that you're trying to do calligraphy.

Shaochen:

How's your little hobby going when you wanna

Alane:

Yes. Your little hobby. I'm sure we've all heard something along these lines at some point. And while it can be annoying, frustrating, whatever, the thing to remember is that nobody's gonna take your business as seriously as you do. And if you don't take it seriously, then you also can't expect others to. So you really have to start talking about it in the way that you want it to be perceived. Speak about it with confidence. Talk about it often. Tell others that this is what you're doing now and people will start to respect you and your business.

Shaochen:

Yeah, I, and the other thing related to this is like, for me it felt also like an identity shift from being like, you know. Working in this tech job or corporate forever and shifting to becoming a small business owner and a calligrapher. And so in those early days, not only did I have to like get confident about talking about my business, I also had to like say to myself in the mirror, be like, I'm a calligrapher. I'm a calligrapher. I'm a professional calligrapher. You know, like I had to convince myself that that's what I was now, because that was such a identity shift.

Alane:

Yeah, that's so true. But I love that'cause that's also like, that goes into the power of like speaking things into existence, right? Like you want it to be a click, you want it to change into this. So it's just a matter of like being confident in that.

Shaochen:

Yeah, definitely.

Alane:

Um, going along with this word of mouth referrals are gonna be super helpful for getting you your first few jobs. So share projects that you're working on, even if they're just practice projects with your friends and family. It's also really helpful to connect with people who are doing the same thing as you. So making connections within the. Calligraphy community is a great way to find that support group and learn from other people who have been where you are now. And then as that last part of networking, when you are ready to actually start marketing your business, networking with others and sharing your business with them is extremely helpful in gaining visibility. So like if you're at a networking event, like tell people what you do or if they ask, like tell them. And like I said, speak with that confidence because nobody's gonna know that your business exists if. You're not talking about it.

Shaochen:

Yeah. Um, okay. The next thing that we want you to do is explore. When you're just starting out, we want you to try lots of different kinds of projects, create different products, and work with different clients to see what you like. I know that we just talked about like knowing your audience, and so this point might seem a little contradictory, but the way that I think about exploration is that it's an ongoing process. So you do some exploration, you hone in on a product or two that you wanna sell. You see how that goes and how that resonates. And then you be the scientist in your business to understand if it's working or not. Then if it's not, you go back to the exploration or maybe you decide you don't wanna offer it anymore, you go back to exploration. Exploration to me is a very iterative, iterative process. Um, it, it's not something that we just do in the beginning, but it's like especially important to do in the beginning because you're at the point where it's like a blank slate and you don't exactly know what you like or what you're good at, or you know what's gonna sell yet. And so it's really important to spend time doing exploration. so just to give you a sense, in my first six months of business, um, I, I sold on Etsy, I did corporate. I. A corporate live event. I sold like wood signs. Um, I, I sold at popups, I had wedding clients. I wrote people's poems. Um, I did Chinese calligraphy. Yeah, I did a lot of things. Um, and, and I, I basically said yes to everything that came my way, which honestly was like a great strategy for me in the beginning because I got to try so many different things and, and then I could decide if I, I loved it or not. And it actually turned out that a lot of things fell into the knot category. Um, and so very quickly I was like, I'm not gonna do popups. I'm not gonna do custom projects. I very quickly honed in on weddings for me because I was able to try so many things in those first few months that it, it kind of accelerated my path to being able to pick the things I did wanna offer.

Alane:

I love that and I feel like even within weddings there's so much exploration. Like I kind of had a similar journey as you where I started to do a lot of different things When I. First started sharing that I was doing calligraphy with like friends and family. But I did pretty quickly fall into weddings. But even at that, I started doing the envelopes first and then people started to ask me about signage and I was like, oh, this is really fun. And then even within signage, I went from doing like this, you know, uh, mirror signs and acrylic to now I'm doing watercolors and like more things on paper, more, you know, using other like, artistic skills of mine. And so that's expanded, which has been super fun. And I've also realized like. I enjoy doing all of that way more than I enjoy the envelopes at this point, and I only take on a very small amount of stationary clients because that is not like my most favorite, favorite thing to do. I like doing it. I'm not ready to cut it off, but I don't love it as much as doing the day of signage. So even within like one niche, right, of like weddings, you can still do a lot of exploration of what do I even actually like doing for weddings?

Shaochen:

Yeah, that's so true.

Alane:

So the next thing that you should do when you're starting is start building your P portfolio. So this kind of ties into what we were just saying. While you are practicing and you're trying lots of new things, try as best as you can to just like whip out your phone and take photos of everything that you make. They don't necessarily need to be professional photos. You don't necessarily need to be sharing them all. Um, but it's good to have the visuals handy just so that you can start eventually building your portfolio. We both recommend organizing all of your work into one place so that you can easily share that work with vendors and potential clients. This could be your Instagram page. You know, you could treat your feed like a portfolio. It could be a very basic website. I remember my first website was on Squarespace, and it was literally a landing page with. Gallery images like nothing else. That was it.

Shaochen:

Yeah.

Alane:

Um, it could be a PDF brochure, it could be a link to a shared Google Drive folder. Just someplace that if and when somebody does reach out to you and say, Hey, I'd love to see some samples of your work, or, I'd love to see what you offer. You can send them somewhere. So along with taking your own photos of your work as you're starting to build your portfolio, it's also important to start to look for opportunities for professional photos because they really are invaluable when you're first starting. So this could be something like if you have a friend who's a photographer or if you met. You know, another photographer at a networking event and you can swap services or maybe take them out to dinner and exchange for photos. Like it doesn't necessarily need to be a monetary exchange if you aren't at that point yet. Um, but if you are able to get those professional photos, that will do wonders for your portfolio as well. The other area that you can look into are styled shoots. Usually these are unpaid, but what you will receive is the edited photos to use in your portfolio, and you'll also get the bonus of meeting fellow vendors that you can also network it with in the future. The only like caveat that I would say here is that you just wanna make sure that whether it's the photographer that you're gonna be working with or you know the shoot that you're gonna be participating in, make sure that the style aligns with the overall vibe that you're kind of going for right now. Or. That you want to be going for the kind of work that you want to be hired for. Make sure you like the work of the other vendors as well. That way you really do feel like there's an equal exchange of value and that the people who are gonna be seeing those photos align with who you want to be reaching out to you. For calligraphy work.

Shaochen:

Mm-Hmm. If you're hearing about style shoots for the first time, they're basically like fake weddings that vendors will put on. That's basically purely for showcasing creativity. Um, and so they gimme a lot of fun, and a lot of the value, of course, is in the photography, but also in the networking and the relationships that you built there. All right. We're on number four of things that you should do when you're starting your business. And since we're a business podcast, we can't forget about the business things that you need to do when you're ready to transition from a hobby to a business. Um, just keep in mind, this is not an exhaustive list. We're gonna cover a couple of important ones. And just a disclaimer, neither of us are lawyers or accountants. We're sharing knowledge from our own experience and experience of the calligraphers that we've worked with, but we definitely encourage you to seek your own professional counsel

shaochen_1_01-30-2024_115233:

so.

Alane:

That sounds so, that sounds so legit. Seek your own professional counsel.

Shaochen:

Right. Um, so the first kind of, uh, you know, get legit item is to make sure you register your business. In the US typically I see calligraphers set up their businesses either as a sole proprietorship or an LLC, which stands for a limited liability company. Most of us are single. Member businesses. And so these two types of business formats work well for us. I would suggest that if an LLC isn't super expensive for you, um, like I know in California, every LLC has to pay an$800 tax no matter how much you're making or not making. So that might not make a lot of sense if you're in California and you're just starting your business. But if. If you don't have, you know, a bunch of extra fees, and LLC is definitely the better option because it gives you more protection. You're not personally on the hook for business liabilities, um, as compared to a sole proprietorship. If you are selling physical products, you may also need to register for a seller's permit. So just make sure that one of your first steps when you're starting your business is to check your city and state regulations and understand what you need to register for.

Alane:

If it's helpful for people listening, I am a single member, LLC. In New Jersey. I don't know if that's like helpful for you to know what we are, but that's how my business is registered.

Shaochen:

Yeah, so I started my business in California and I was a sole proprietor at first, and then when I moved out to Colorado, I registered as an LLC because I didn't have to pay the tax.

Alane:

Yay.

Shaochen:

Um. The second thing to do as far as like business wise is to make sure you have a separate bank account to keep track of your business income and expenses. Um, this bank account doesn't have to be defined as a business bank account by the bank. You just need to separate your, um, business finances from your personal finances. That's the most important thing. And so along those lines, you'll also wanna have a credit card that you'll only use for your business as well.

Alane:

And then the third piece of this is business insurance. So this is something you'll probably wanna look for like a little bit further down the road. You may not need it right when you start, but. I would recommend getting some sort of business insurance. For example, I have a business owner's policy, so that basically just combines my property insurance along with my liability insurance, and I decided to get insurance for my business because I rent a studio space that has my business property in it, but it also has client's property at times. So I want to make sure that like, God forbid. The studio gets robbed or it goes up in flames like that I am protected and that I can cover whatever losses there are. And then I also sometimes need to provide a COI, which is a certificate of insurance to venues when I go on site to deliver weddings. I've had venues reach out and say, can we please have a copy of your COI? So that's basically just to also show the venue that I am protected.

Shaochen:

Yeah, and I think these items just go to show, um, it kind of ties back to what we were saying earlier about taking your business seriously. Um. I think sometimes people get a little bit intimidated by like doing the business things, but if you wanna be a business, you gotta do the business things like you gotta make your business legal, um, you gotta separate your finances, you gotta get the business insurance, right? So it's, it's just, remember, you are the person who is going to take your business the most seriously. So it's important to take these steps into consideration.

Alane:

Okay. We are at our fifth and final thing that you should do when you are starting a calligraphy business. So our last tip is to collect reviews right from the beginning. We talked about how important reviews are in our last episode. It's episode two. If you wanna go back and listen, so you. May already know how we feel about them, but if you don't, we truly believe that word of mouth referrals are incredibly strong for your business, especially in the beginning stage. Having someone else vouch for you is even better than vouching for yourself. Reach out to anyone that you've previously worked with and ask if they'll write you a review. If you're just starting to take on clients, as soon as you're wrapping up the project, maybe even before you're completely done with the project, say like, Hey, I'd love to know how you enjoyed working together. If you could leave a quick review of my services, things like that. It is best to have a place where you can just collect all of these reviews and the public can actually view them, um, because this also helps build your credibility. So I would recommend creating a Google Business profile for your business. That way people can review you there. Not to mention that also does help with your SEO. Like if somebody is Googling for Calligraphers and Hoboken, like, I will come up because of my Google business page, because it's. Location based or something. I don't know. I'm not an SEO expert, I just know that it helps. Um, and you can also upload like your photos and videos and whatnot to the page as well. So that would be my rec, but definitely don't skip out on collecting reviews, even if you're like, oh, I'm just starting, or, oh, this is just a hobby. Or, I only did work for my friend. Like, your friend can write you a review and she's probably gonna write you a kick ass review. So like, ask people for them right away.

Shaochen:

Yeah. And, um, the, the Google business profile, that's like if you were to pull up Google Maps and search for something, that's how you show up on, on that map. I used to just think that businesses would just like pop up, you know, automatically because Google knows everything. But no, you have to actually register for it. Um, and it's free. So make sure that you do that. All right. Well, there's so much we can talk about When it comes to starting a business, those were just the top five things that came to mind for us when we were thinking about what not to do and what to do instead. If you're listening to this episode, the day it comes out, I'm hosting a workshop this Thursday, February 8th, and it would be great for you to attend if this episode has been helpful so far, because we're gonna dive into several of the points that are covered on this episode, and we'll go deeper and more hands-on do things like pricing and setting your hourly rate. We'll talk about how to spread the word about your business and how to leverage the reviews to get more business and a lot more. Um, topics that we'll go deeper into. I'm gonna be hosting the online workshop live, but if you can't attend, you'll still get access to the recording, all the workshop materials, worksheets, and templates. And there'll also be a private discussion forum so that you can still ask me questions. So head to the link in the show notes to register before Thursday.

Alane:

All right, so this was part one of a two part series. Our next episode we're gonna be talking about the don'ts and the dos once you hit the growth stage of your business. So stay tuned for that. We'll catch you later,

People on this episode

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Alane Gianetti

Host
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Shaochen Wu

Host