The Sustainable Quilter Bridget O'Flaherty

Sustainable Textile Art by Bridget O'Flaherty

MENU

mission statement

Your Mission Should you Choose to Accept it…

The Mission Statement

Mission Impossible mouse and trap GIFI have spent the last couple of weeks busily planning, mostly in my head. I have been asking myself many questions to come up with a mission statement. I was feeling pretty daunted by this task. The Mission Statement is really important for a business, it defines what the business or artist is trying to achieve. What’s the point of the business? That’s what I have been trying to figure out. Why am I wanting to get back to my art, what am I hoping to achieve?  Of course, the easy answer is to make money. But there are lots of ways to make money. The easiest thing to do is to get a job with little responsibility and a pay cheque, why on earth would I want to start up an art business just to make money??!!

So I asked deeper questions. Why do I want to do my art, what is the point, what do I want other people to take away from it?  I have been mulling that over. I finally sat down and wrote out a list of questions…. and answered them, in full sentences. It was a really valuable exercise. I then removed all of the questions from the page and was left with just my answers. There is was in front of me. What I hoped to accomplish, for whom, what do I offer that is different,  how I would do it and what values did I want to see throughout my business. I started eliminating information that was useful to me, but not anyone else and removed repetitive answers and was left with two concepts to work with.

I put together a few options, refined, asked for opinions from those close to me and landed on a mission statement that I am excited about! So here it is:

[quote style=”boxed”]As a fibre artist, I present compelling images of nature that focus on biodiversity. I use materials from sustainable sources and explore innovative techniques in the fibre art medium.  I endeavour to inspire individuals to explore their own vision of the natural world through fibre art.[/quote]

UPDATE Jan 2018: I have since added so much more to the core values I have with my business. You can read more about them on my About page

Building an Art Business

The Long and Winding Road Back

I’ve realized that the way back is a very twisty and windy road. I have looked back at all of my past posts (five, clearly I am not a blogger!) and they are all about starting again and again… and again. It would seem that I’m not serious about this… but that is not the case! I am realizing that none of this is actually starting again, it is all part of the journey. All parts of my life are connected and will make sense together eventually.

Next Steps

Now I have to figure out how to put those skills into a business plan for my art business. It’s one of the hardest things as an artist. Creating is the fun part, we get feedback on how people feel about our work and usually, it is positive. We live for that!

Having to track inventory, sales, create letterhead and logos, communicating with clients and keeping contact lists is mundane and certainly does not feel creative. But really without a good business/marketing plan, we are winging it and it shows. I had no idea how important this all was early on in my career as an artist. Now that I have had some perspective I can see, it’s essential. So I will embark on this endeavour with excitement for the spreadsheet, create goals and tasks, contact lists, social media streams, and interesting content for my website and utilize systems to streamline all of this. Then I can get to the fun part of creating.