Indiana Creatives are Fierce Entrepreneurs

By nwibizhubguest Uncategorized

Sixty percent of Indiana’s creative workforce is self-employed, while only twenty percent of the nation’s creative workforce is self-employed.

If you’re an artist or creative professional in Indiana, you’re an entrepreneur. Do you feel like it?

Artists don’t usually consider themselves business-oriented professionals, yet they are characteristically inventive, inquisitive, and resilient. What happens when you gather a cohort of vastly different artists together, load them up with foundational business concepts, coaching, and some startup funds? Abundance. Confidence. Connection. Magic. And we’ve got the data to prove it!

Hoosier creatives are making their careers on their own. On-Ramp teaches them how to do it on purpose.

Over the course of three days, cohorts complete six modules that covering ten key business areas.

Who are you? (Defining value)
Whom do you serve? (Identifying customers, communicating with customers, marketing strategy)
What do you need? (Identifying allies and partners, communicating with allies and partners, identifying key resources, protecting assets and creativity)
What does it cost? (Managing expenses)
How do you monetize it? (Generating revenue)
Talking the talk. (Planning for uncertainty, business strategy, tracking metrics, next steps)

On-Ramp normalizes the “portfolio career” for professional artists of all disciplines.

The portfolio career is a strategic approach for self-employed creatives to diversify their own revenue by matching many of their different skills to work opportunities.

The portfolio career affirms that a self-employed creative career may have work that falls into these three categories:

a starring role (the thing you would do if you could do anything in the world and money was no object – publishing a sci-fi novel)
a supporting cast role (things that may be related to the starring role but aren’t it. May use a similar skill set, interact with similar networks, may use the same technique – submitting short stories to online magazines, editing textbooks)
and production assistance work (has nothing to do with the starring role, but may have other benefits like steady income, health coverage, etc. that are vital to the sustainability of the overall creative career – retail job)

For more information about On-Ramp or to apply, visit https://www.in.gov/arts/programs-and-services/training/on-ramp-creative-entrepreneur-accelerator/