The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #2

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So you’ve done some of the hard work in week 1 and you’ve narrowed it down to one idea you’re going to implement (you do have just 1, don’t you?). This week it’s down-to-business and we’re about to put in place something which makes or breaks many creative businesses - your business plan.

Too many creative people avoid creating any sort of plan for their venture - put off by the thought of drafting out a 30 page document or often because they just don’t know where to start.

That’s not going to happen with your illustration business because we’re about to show you a super smart tool for creating a single page business plan which gives you a road map for your project over the coming weeks and beyond…

This Week’s Task

Your task for Week 2 of the 12WC…create a 1-page strategic business plan for your project/career.

Here’s a video of my lovely wife Lea introducing some of the key concepts for this task:

This Week’s Advice…

Your Exit Strategy

When deciding upon your initial exit strategy (see the video), remember to think about how you can diversify the risk that your business and income will have to depend on just you working away *in* (and not on) your business.

It’s important to consider at this early stage because it sets the scene for and will determine much of your planning and strategy. Remember, your goal is ideally to build a business not a job - which means that in theory, you should be able to walk away from your business and it can still continue to operate. As an illustrator, you might question whether you will ever want to walk away from it - perhaps you won’t, but what would happen if you were ill or other circumstances made it impossible for you to illustrate (even for a month or two)? Would you still be able to earn an income from your illustration business?

Consider for example James Jean (one of my favourite illustrators/artists). He’s built a business rather than a job…he has created so many different income streams through his illustrations (books, prints, licensing) that he now has the freedom to spend his days painting whatever he wants.

You may not ever get to the same level that James Jean has achieved but that doesn’t mean you can’t think about how you can effectively achieve the same result by leveraging your illustration skills to create multiple streams of income.

These multiple income streams may include:

• Selling prints of your work
• Selling your original artwork/merchandise on Etsy
• Art Licensing
• Teaching art in the local community
• Creating E-books
• On-line learning classes (how to draw and paint etc)
• Hosting and creating creative workshops within your local community

Your OGSM

The 1 Page Business plan (also known as an OGSM) will guide your every decision over the course of the rest of the challenge so it’s important to put some thought and consideration into it at this stage.

Here are a few key questions to consider to help you formulate your OGSM…

Your Objective: The overall mission & vision for your illustration career & business.

• What’s your ultimate goal for your career?
• What would be an even bigger goal?
• Does this encompass everything you want to achieve with your career? If not, you need to go even higher with your objective so that it does.

Your Goals: Translation of your vision into specific goals e.g. income, markets.

• What are your income goals from illustration this year (and next)?
• Which markets & audiences will you primarily serve & focus on?
• What channels will you use to share/sell your illustrations & work? (offline/online etc.)

Your Strategies: What choices do you need to make to achieve the goals (& ultimately the vision)?

• What income streams will you focus on to achieve your income goals?
• Which markets/audiences will you focus on first & which will you expand to later?
• What services will you offer & to which markets?
• How will you deliver these products/services (eg. personally or through an agent?)

Your Measures: Specific measures (milestones) used to track your progress.

• What key milestones will let you know whether you’re on track or not?
• Do your measures match up with each of your goals?
• Review your measures. Do they *really* tell you how you/your business is doing?

The primary purpose of an OGSM is to guide your business to long-term success. An OGSM ensures you have a medium- to long-term strategic plan that can guide your short-term choices & targets across your overall business.

What You Should End Up With…

A 1 page document listing everything you’re aiming to achieve, laid out like this: View OGSM sample. As you’ll see from the template, there’s still a step missing however and that’s the “Action” bit…every strategy should enable you to create a list of actions/activities (tactics) which you need to complete & implement in order to achieve that strategy.

That’s the list of stuff you’re going to be working on throughout this challenge and the order of priority will be determined by (a) your measures/milestones and (b) your goals and the order in which you need/want to achieve these.

Here are a few final thoughts about strategy, planning & multiple income streams:

• Figuring our the financial goals & aspects of your strategy at this stage will tell you instantly whether your goals are realistic and achievable e.g. aiming to make enough $$$ from editorial illustrations within the next 12 weeks to quit your job? Possibly. Within the next 12-18 months? More likely.
• You don’t have to *know* everything in order to complete your strategy; in fact, forming a strategy means making decisions & setting goals based on not having all the information & facts at hand.
• It’s not the document that’s important but the process you’ve experienced to create it.
• There are plenty of opportunities to create multiple income streams as an illustrator, both online and offline; get creative about it!

As with the first week’s challenge, the purpose of this week is to work through this task to completion, without getting stuck in analysis paralysis! Remember, this is only 12 weeks and it’s an experiment that will end well either way…

I’ll leave you with this famous quote from Alan Lakein…

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Next week on The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge, get your medium of choice ready…it’s time to start creating!

Related posts:

1. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #1
2. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week 1 Summary
3. The 12 Week Challenge
4. 12 Week Challenge: Starting As We Mean To Go On
5. Introducing…The zero2illo ‘12 Week Challenge’ Participants…