It's June 22nd and I hit the ground running when I got back to NYC on June 2nd. I've been going to play readings and poetry readings, doing some of my own readings and promoting my new book. I've also reconnected with my writing group and have been diligently working on new written pieces (both poetry and playwriting). As well as reconnecting with family and friends. Needless to say it's been a very busy time!!
I was also accepted into NYFA's Entrepreneur's Boot Camp workshop which meets every Saturday from 10am to 4pm. We have been asked to work on a business plan for our creative life. This is not an easy task, especially since my creative work extends to theater and visual arts. However, I thought for now I would narrow my focus and work on the creative writing, poetry portion.
One of the NYFA members wrote up his own business plan. Seeing P write out his own version inspired me to get cracking. I've been writing out goals for awhile but I find myself getting antsy and have always managed to find something else to do instead. I sat down and wrote this working draft. I kept in mind that this is just a draft, it's a living document that I can continue to build upon. In fact, it's just one aspect of my creative life. I'll do the same for playwriting and visual arts. Anyway, this is my first rough draft.
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Briefly describe your goal for your business as an artist.
Work creatively every day. Create a schedule so that it happens.
Cultivate an audience for my writing. As a poet, I can reach out to the poetry community and their many venues to book some readings. There may be opportunities to promote and sell the book I just self-published. Visit independent bookstores and book some readings to promote my book. This falls under short-term goals.
Work on building my website. Create an online CV and Visual Arts portfolio of completed projects as well as works in progress. Plus link up books, blog, fiscal sponsorship onto site. This falls under short-term goals.
Cultivate donors for these multiple projects. I would like to raise money for these projects. I’m receiving fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas so I would like to cultivate more donations. This falls under long-term goals.
Proposed timeline
This is a 6-month deadline. By the end of the year, I should have a working website, booked some readings and created new work.
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It's a start. I'll have more time to continue to refine these goals as I process all the information NYFA is throwing our way. I'm excited about pinning some of them down. I've been consciously working on them for the past year but I think now they finally seem to be gelling. Perhaps it needed a year of incubation in order to get to this place to start figuring out what next with the creative work. Serendipity is a lovely thing.
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