One question I always get asked a lot: What if your business doesn’t work out? What are you going to do?I’ve definitely thought of that for sure, I guess I’ll be back to my Creative Designer profession, spending countless OT nights rushing projects.
I always feel insecure with my business. What if no one like miniatures anymore? What if I have no more money to sustain my business? What if I have a crazy client/customer who bashes my stuffs and no one trusts me anymore? (HAHA DRAMA AGAIN) But hey, these thoughts run through my head every single day.
Then I have friends saying: “Aiyah, you have so many followers, won’t happen one lah!” I have to say this, your number of followers doesn’t define your success. But again, what is success to me? Followers? Fame? Salary? Nah… success to me is when I have my cozy little shop (Which will not be happening VERY soon, too poor to make it happen haha) Naive, but that was my dream since young 😉
Since I’m not working with a bunch of people when I used to in Digital Agencies (before I became a full time Miniature Artist), I get to learn a lot from my seniors. That’s the great thing about working in an office, people will always be there to teach you new stuff. But working for my own business, there are a lot of problems that I’ll have to tackle on my own. Problems to solve, shits and mess to clean up, and I have to reply to messages on instagram and emails 24/7. Therefore, I have to force myself to grow. I have to learn a whole new bunch of things about PR, tax, updating myself on techniques handling polymer clay and many other more things. Since making this my full time job, this is no longer a job that requires me to make miniatures alone. Making this a full time job really makes me feel like a multi-task-super-girl haha! There are just so much to do!
To keep myself “out there”, I force myself to join art markets at least 5 times a year, including once a year at Publika, once a year to Public Garden in Singapore, once a year to Comic Fiesta (as long as they want me there T_T), and once a year for christmas markets.
To be honest, I don’t like selling at art markets. I have to lower my prices to make it affordable to shop. But it crushes my heart whenever I think of the time and effort spent for every piece. Oh well, I guess that’s something I’ll have to work on it (Tahan jer!) With our Malaysian Ringgit currency value, it’s a struggle to earn money, because everyone is spending on necessities instead! It’s okay, I can do it! (chanting everyday whenever shit hits the fan haha)
I hope there are many more years to come for TinyPinc. I seriously hope I can make this my job till the day I die.
you can do it! is 2020 and you are getting better! years to come!