I should also add that after 10+ years of being one of the people who comes on to sort out the filing and show you what a spreadsheet is - afaik, once you reach a level of skill high enough that you can accuractely assess your skill, making a small art business succeed comes down to three things:
1. Connections - tough if you have social anxiety, but if you've got an international audience already, you're farther along than most people! 2. Consistency - tough if you have ADHD, but if you can deliver the product that clients are expecting, and meet a deadline, and produce art frequently enough that you stay on everyone's radar, you are far ahead of 99% of artists. And if you can't do these things, it doesn't really matter how much talent or formal education you have. 3. Accounting - a surprising number of artists are so bad at this that they end up selling their art at a loss. You don't have to have a degree, but you have to be capable of tracking income and expenses well enough to know if you're making or losing money on something. And nobody can give you a hard line of what is a good business risk and what isn't, but you should at least be aware of when something you're doing *is* a risk, and when it isn't.
no subject
1. Connections - tough if you have social anxiety, but if you've got an international audience already, you're farther along than most people!
2. Consistency - tough if you have ADHD, but if you can deliver the product that clients are expecting, and meet a deadline, and produce art frequently enough that you stay on everyone's radar, you are far ahead of 99% of artists. And if you can't do these things, it doesn't really matter how much talent or formal education you have.
3. Accounting - a surprising number of artists are so bad at this that they end up selling their art at a loss. You don't have to have a degree, but you have to be capable of tracking income and expenses well enough to know if you're making or losing money on something. And nobody can give you a hard line of what is a good business risk and what isn't, but you should at least be aware of when something you're doing *is* a risk, and when it isn't.