The Creative Business Handbook: Follow Your Passions and Be Your Own Boss

by Alicia Puig, Ekaterina Popova, Leila Simon Hayes (Illustrator)

Offering veteran insight and friendly, actionable advice from two self-made women who manage three six-figure businesses, this practical handbook acts as a roadmap to guide anyone wanting to build a profitable venture out of their creative passion.

Figuring out how to make a living from your creative work poses unique challenges and obstacles. From choosing the right business model to building a brand, from managing your time to scaling up your production—starting your own creative business often means doing it all yourself. Enter The Creative Business Handbook  by Alicia Puig and Ekaterina Popova, the dynamic duo behind Create! Magazine .

With its conversational tone and accessible advice, this handbook lays an essential foundation for anyone wanting to earn a living with their art—no fancy business degree required! In addition to nuts-and-bolts advice based on the authors' real-life experiences, each chapter of the book includes an interview with a creative entrepreneur from a different background and craft, and ends with action steps that will help keep you on track. Written by creative business owners for creative business owners, this is the perfect book for anyone with a vision who is ready to hit the ground running.

EXPERT Informed by the authors' decades of experience founding and managing three successful creative businesses—as well as the lessons they learned from some projects that didn't stand the test of time—this book offers tried-and-true advice for artists looking to get their creative enterprises off the ground and achieve real financial success. Popova and Puig have also included interviews with other self-employed creatives across a variety of fields, giving you a window into the myriad paths available to you as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey.

FOR ALL This book offers real wisdom for starting and sustaining your unique creative business no matter your passion, whether you are a career artist looking to make a living outside of the gallery space, an experienced freelance writer interested in mentoring your peers, or a podcaster who dreams of sustaining yourself by making content that you genuinely care about. From advice about best marketing practices to striking the ever-elusive work-life balance, this guide will help you to understand the business side of your creative practice.

Perfect

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Art

280 pages, Paperback

Published May 23, 2023

About the author

Alicia Puig is the award-winning curator & co-founder of PxP Contemporary online art gallery, the Director of Business Operations for Create! Magazine, an arts writer, the regular guest host of The Create! Podcast, and the co-author of The Complete Smartist Guide as well as the forthcoming title The Creative Business Handbook. She has worked in the arts industry for galleries, museums, art fairs, private collectors, art publications, and an auction house for over ten years. Her writing has been featured in magazines and on blogs including Create! Magazine, All She Makes, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Art She Says, and Artspiel, among others. Additionally, she has served as a guest curator or juror for Hastings College, All She Makes, Create! Magazine, Rise Art, SHOWFIELDS, Visionary Art Collective, apexart, and Altamira.

She specializes in content creation, online sales, and digital marketing for the arts and enjoys connecting with artists and creative entrepreneurs to help them find ways to advance their careers.

Reviews

[Maryna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers valuable insights for a wide spectrum of creative businesses, making it suitable for individuals who are just beginning to explore entrepreneurship or those looking to monetize their creative endeavors. It provides advice from both authors as well as interviews with various creative professionals, ranging from art gallery owners to bloggers, diverse creative organizations, online art schools and so on.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and took extensive notes. However, I would like to caution that since both authors are based in the USA, a minor amount of the references offered here may be directly applicable to individuals living elsewhere. In such cases, readers may need to seek out local resources.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Creative Business Handbook by Ekaterina Popova and Alicia Puig is a useful guide for anyone with a creative hobby or side-hustle that is thinking about turning it into a business. What does that even entail? 

This book will help you formulate a concept for your creative business (beyond "I love to make [whatever] and maybe people will pay for it"), and then walk you through how to launch your business, how to think about it like an executive, marketing, generating sales, and how to scale up once you experience success.

Each section includes interviews with successful creative entrepreneurs full of valuable advice from their experience. It's almost like a "business success bootcamp" aimed at creatives--lots of excellent mentorship packed into one book. 

I admit that by the time I finished this book, I was certain that launching my own creative business was NOT something I wanted to do, so be aware that once you learn about all that it would entail and read all the interviews with people who've succeeded, you might come out the other side of it deciding that it's not for you. Which honestly, is also enormously valuable and good to know.

Highly recommend if you've ever thought about turning your art/craft into a business, income stream, etc.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Suzanne Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know so much of what is written here, but this book was a wonderful reminder and affirmation that I am on the right path for me.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've been thinking about making your creative desires a business, this is the place to start. Kat and Alicia have gone to great lengths to provide an ally inclusive tour of what starting your own business can be. They came from humble beginnings and want to share tools that they didn't have as they were getting started. This book is comprehensive, offering chapters devoted to deciding what you want to offer and the pros and cons of those decisions, resources for getting started, marketing, and finding your community. There is also a section devoted to helping you decide what is worth outsourcing and how much to pay yourself. Kat and Alicia also take time to acknowledge that starting your own business is hard and there will be successes as well as failures along your journey, but when you cultivate your passion it isn't a game of perfection, rather it is one of progress. The Creative Business Handbook also contains interviews with people who took the leap and want you to gain perspective on what success really looks like so you feel inspired and less judgemental over your ability to start your own business. It definitely filled me with a sense of purpose and drive to devote energy to starting my journey.

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Creative Business Handbook: Follow Your Passions and Be Your Own Boss is a guide for those looking to start or who have already started their own small business. Full of practical information - from identifying your target customers to how to harness social media to grow your following to identifying additional sources of income - it serves as a great guide to get your business off the ground.

As a small business owner who runs a creative arts business, I found the book very useful. While there were a lot of things I was already aware of due to previous experience or research, there were others that had not even crossed my mind. In business, being able to grow and evolve is essential. The Creative Business Handbook helps entrepreneurs realize that every step of the way. I’d consider it a must read for those thinking of starting their own creative business or as a great read for those already there.

I received an advance reader copy on NetGalley from the publisher and am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Macaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for someone looking to start a creative business. The authors walk you through the steps that they took and learned along the way getting their own creative businesses going, an online art zine and an art gallery. Each chapter includes action steps to go with the sections they are discussing. And they’ve also included interviews with fellow creative business owners talking about what worked for them and how they keep going. The chapters build on each other, staring with the basics of naming your business (including checking to see if it’s been used before) and then expanding on your business in chapter six. Chapter four talks about marketing, using email and social media, networking and using paid advertising. They provide information throughout the book, but the advanced copy that I read didn’t include a section at the end bringing this together. This is a good guide for those considering a creative business endeavor, a guide to refer back to as you go along.

Thanks to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

[Michelle Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very basic. The authors do give suggestions for each step of the process from beginning to end. They approach it with a business model or business plan approach. They break it down into simple steps to follow. No matter what step you are at, you can find helpful suggestions and information. I did find some helpful information in the book. They also have interviews of business owners, but I found it hard to read, because the page was blue, and the words were yellow. I had a very difficult time seeing the words. They had tips for problems you may encounter, and suggestions on how to grow your business once it takes off. However, it was very elementary. It was very generic information that one could find on the internet. I was hoping for a more detailed book specifically laying out step-by-step what to do. I especially wanted information on advertising on social media. I wouldn't buy this book.

[karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

As you may (or may not!) know, I’m a librarian & voracious reader & artist & creative business owner 🥰 I was super excited to place a preorder (one of the best ways to support authors 📚) from @chroniclebooks for ✨The Creative Business Handbook✨ by @puigypics & @theartqueens 💖

This creative business guidebook is filled with expert advice & lots of encouragement, as well as practical tools & exercises to help you build a supportive & sustainable creative career. I absolutely adored the:

💜 Gentle reminders & words of encouragement

💜 Stories the authors shared about their own experiences

💜 Tangible action steps & prompts following each section

💜 Focus on building creative community, collaborating, & ditching comparison

Thank you Alicia & Ekaterina for this incredible resource I know that I’ll return to throughout my career ☺️

[Elizabeth Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book has so much valuable information. From selecting a product to building your business (legal formation to inventory) to hiring help and everything in between! If you are looking to start a creative business this book is a MUST!

Even if you have started a few business, this book holds so much information if you ever need a refresher this is a great book.

I especially loved the interviews from other business owners, it gives you a perspective from someone who has been where you’re going & has amazing tips to take into your own business.

I will definitely be adding this to my shelf & recommend to everyone that’s looking to start a business!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

[Rosemary Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so happy to receive this book in exchange for an honest review because I'm always on the hunt for guidebooks that help navigate my Indie Author Business. And this book didn't disappoint. It wasn't narrowly tailored to an Indie Author business, but there were many important ideas on how to handle a creative business. I especially enjoyed the discussion on jealousy, which can be a huge obstacle in creating and putting forth a product to sell or teach others. The layout and colors are very eye-catching and well formatted for ease of reading and finding the content needed. This business book fits perfectly in any entrepreneur's library.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author's offer to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Cheyanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great for me as someone who had been thinking about starting a small business selling the stuff I crochet. It gave invaluable information on all the aspects as well as interviews with business owners. Learning from their mistakes a bit. I have to admit though once I finished it I decided that now was not the best time for me to start my business. But, I know that in the future when I am at a place in my life where I'm ready to start my business I will use the information in this book to get off on the right foot.

[Sue Fernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Chronicle Books and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. May times when we think of starting a business, we don't allow ourselves to think about how our creative selves might have a business that could succeed. This book did a GREAT job of outlining the steps one would take to start your own business. I enjoyed this business so much that I'll order a hard copy for myself.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive book about taking your creative idea and making it a business. There are interviews with people who have started their creative business, pros and cons to starting the business, and dealing with the successes and failures along the way.

Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle Books for the ARC!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative

[Lux Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoying this practical yet dreamy guidebook!!! Inspiring but also grounding/