Struggles Of A Creative Entrepreneur

When I first started this blog, one of my first blogpost was about 7 ways to be highly productive (if you haven’t already, you should read it here!). Although there are so many ways to stay productive, it can often get quite challenging to produce content on a consistent basis. As some of you may know, aside from running this blog, I also run a digital branding agency Collective Culture that I co-founded with my business partner/ photographer Ross. And although a lot of what we do is exciting and new creative content, there are many behind the scenes and hard work that many do not see.This is why I wanted to get more personal with you and share the struggles of a creative entrepreneur. These are my personal struggles as a creative entrepreneur and I hope this gives you a little more insight into what I do and how I overcome them!Before I start, I wanted to give you a very brief background of how my journey of as creative entrepreneur came to be. Growing up, I had many different interests and hobbies, but one thing I knew for sure was to pursue a career in the creative field. I have always envisioned myself owning a business one day that involved creatively making or executing a project with clients or a team. This entrepreneurial spirit stemmed from high school, when I started my name sake label “Hadiwibawa”. What started as an art project in school turn into products and services I would make and sell online to customers all throughout my time in university. This was definitely a journey and experience I hold near and dear to my heart and it had opened up so many doors I never thought were possible!

Fast forward 5 years later, I’ve recently launched this blog along with my branding agency! There are so many things and projects I’m excited for and all the new things I’ve been learning have been so rewarding for my personal as well as professional growth. Having said this, it can also get quite overwhelming at times and there are several things I have struggled with that have taken me a long time to realize as well as to learn from. This is why I want to share with you 3 real struggles I deal with as a creative entrepreneur, and also some solution on how I overcome them.PerfectionismAlthough I know this something many people struggle with, the perfectionist in me to create the best work never allows me to complete anything. Especially in the creative aspect, there is always the refusal to accept any standard of short perfection in my creative work. I end up procrastinating because I would have to picture the final piece in my head before starting it. And that can end up taking too much longer than needed, especially when there is a deadline to meet (oops!).Overtime, I have realised that perfectionism isn’t a standard that can be ever met. As a creative, you will never be happy with the work you produce if you only dwell on adhering to your own standard of perfection (which could always change). Although there are many times I feel I could further improve on a certain piece of work, most of the times “done is better than perfect”. One big lesson I’ve learnt is to stop procrastinate and just do it!

Lose focusOften times, I will joke with people saying I have an attention span of a goldfish… (don’t quote me on that one, I have now changed!) As a creative person, it can be challenging to stay focused on one task when you want to explore many different ideas or you stumble upon different inspirations that you want to save for other projects. I have been there, and to say the least it can be hard to get out of it when you’re distracted.Although this is still something I struggle with, being a creative by nature allows me to be more fluid with my work and creation. However, implementing a more structured time line and task list has helped me immensely with my time management and staying focused on my creative duties. Everyday I have made it a habit to have a few things/tasks written down that I will need to check off to make sure I stay on track!ImpatienceThis last struggle is also still something I deal with at the moment. I can easily get impatient with myself when the process of creating an art piece, drawing or creative content doesn’t get to where I want it to in a short amount of time. This may also be due to the perfectionist in me and also I want to see results fast!Having learnt this the hard way, I have recognised to set myself more realistic expectations and give myself a more workable and defined timeframe for the process. We only have so much time in a day, and sometimes it’s okay to accept that there are certain processes that will take longer for trial and error.I hope this more personal post gave you more insight on more about me! Do you also have struggles you deal with in your workplace? Let me know in the comments below!

Photography by yours truly and Ross Vickers.