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So, this month is all about profit. Yup, the thing we all need to run a successful business.

I don’t know about you, but as an Artist, the whole money side of biz hasn’t always come naturally.

I’d much prefer to be in my studio painting, than crunching numbers like a hunchback at my laptop.

If I’m gonna get a stiff back, it may as well be doing something enjoyable, right?!

I think if we’re being real here, even the most successful businesses go through times where profits will rise and fall with the tides.

If I’m honest, my family and I still struggle financially sometimes too, even though we’ve reached a point where we’re ‘living the dream’; with me as a full-time Artist and Hubby as the stay-at-home Dad with our gorgeous little 2 year old.

Like you, I’m doing everything right in my business; I’ve priced everything for profit, I’ve read books and written them, done courses and taught them, I blog, I exhibit, I do talks, I paint live at events, I balance my work well with family time.

I stand, right now, inside a life I’ve always dreamt about. But you know what? Some weeks, people just don’t buy my stuff, so all the profit margins in the world float right out the window!

I know, it’s easy to feel frustrated because we’ve worked all week, for zilch. We’re meant to be earning money from our biz and we feel like we’ve failed. We wish the big guy upstairs would just cut us some slack and send us some big dollar customers. We’re good people! Our work is so cool! Where the $%)#! is our money?!

Sound familiar?

In these times, it’s easy to forget all the ways we can still profit from our business, even when the money well runs dry. The cost of focusing solely on profit for our sense of success, means we’re not putting our mindset into a place that can open up more possibilities for income.

Can a lack of financial profit still be profitable? I’d say yes.

 

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Here’s why:

  • Every time I create and share something unique and authentic, I’m putting more Love out into the world. That’s heart-profitable.
  • When I work on my business, my passion, I feel good inside and I’m a happier person to be around. My family and friends profit, too.
  • When I go that market and I connect with a customer, they take my card and they tell a friend about me and my work. That’s social profit.
  • When I live with integrity in my business and I make this day count in more ways than I did yesterday, that’s personal profit.

I’m not talking here about avoiding our current financial reality. I’m talking about remembering that our businesses also have other just-as-meaningful realities.

In reality:

  • We’re alive and we’re running our own business.
  • We’re doing what we love.
  • We’re making others’ lives more beautiful with our products.
  • Other people own something we’ve personally created or designed – and paid for it – that’s cool.
  • We are not just creating ‘things’, we are also creating the life we want, by filling it doing what we enjoy.

Can I get a Hip-Hip-Hooray!?!

 

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So, in summary, profit isn’t just in making a business work financially.

A truly profitable and successful business must also be cultivated from a big, open heart, a willingness to rise above challenges, to learn, grow, and know when to expand and when to simplify.

We can profit most from educating ourselves to live with a more kind and loving heart – towards ourselves as much as we do to others. When we do, people unconsciously feel our vibes flow through our work and into their hands. People will love your unique, designer mojo!

… And on the days our customers don’t need it, we know we’re still just as worthy, because we’re not measuring our success by sales or our buyers. We’re measuring it by how full our hearts feel from ‘making‘.

Right now, mine’s feeling pretty full, sharing it here, with you.

So before I go, I want to share something personal with you. This weekend, I’m exhibiting my first solo Art Exhibition since having my baby boy in 2011. I have put countless hours of work into many mixed media paintings and collages, which will all be exhibited together for the first time from June 1st – 30th, in Brisbane, Australia.

And you know what? I have no idea if I’ll make a shred of profit from it … But I already feel rich. Because I’ve spent the last three years, filling it with feelings and paint, and now I get to share those moments of joy with other people.

I have already profited through doing my Art – You have in doing yours, too.

So if you’re in Brisbane throughout June, I’d love to share my ‘Colour Stories’ with you, HERE.

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Love,

Chrissy x

Image Source 1 – 4 | Artist’s own.

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