Lack of money. Naturally when our business isn't doing great financially, we can still. But our attitude towards money in these times is what makes the difference in getting us out of this rough. second only to time in our limited resources is money. It's kind of a given that most creatives struggle with cash flow at some point, especially when starting out. When I quit my job and decided to go freelancing, I had plenty of weeks, sometimes months.

That went by with not even a penny thrown my way. Over time, I began to trust the universe, morning who had who whatever money goes there all that something will show up, because at the last minute, it always did. As long as I kept putting myself out there, sending the odd nudge email and playing nice. The money would come. Okay, that's great, right? But what if you still don't have enough money to do XYZ?

Understand that there are always options. None of them are perfect. That sound complained to me if you can't try at least one of them first. Before you do anything, work out your monthly nuts. How much do you require to live if you cut all of the extra frills, this will be different for everyone, but have Italia have things like rent, bills, subscription services, insurance, food, transport, miscellaneous bits of the house. Don't forget toilet paper.

Sometimes that we can reduce our monthly expenses, but the first step is knowing what they are. From that you can calculate what you need, at a very minimum to live on. Anything else is a bonus to be saved. When those savings equate to around five or six months worth of minimal living costs. You can start getting cheesier with what work you take on and repay anyone who's helped you out of your rough patch. If there's one thing I've learned from my years of freelancing is that what goes down must at some point come up This isn't to say be totally passive or reckless In the meantime, just keep your chin up.

This too shall pass. Now some practical tips. So option one, ask for help. Asking is hard. We've covered this already. But chances are no matter what you want, there will be someone to support you.

This might not be somebody you know personally either. Although I think there's no shame in asking a loved one for temporary support, if they can give it to you. It could be that you try to crowdsource a project using a platform like Kickstarter. These come with their own intricacies, of course, and not every project is going to be a roaring success. But there are many artists who have raised life changing amounts of money to fund their creative projects. The best part is that the backers the folk who play to the money, get something in return.

It's actually an incredibly smart way to test the water for any new projects. People have to put their money where their mouth is Before you can make the thing. One example of a success story model is Robert Allen, who raised over $30,000 to fund his work on an elaborate large scale solar themed painting. If you just focus on the outcome, he might think there's no way I can get people to fund my art. But there's a lot we can learn from Rob's pitch. Here's what he covers the goal of his project, the costs, why he makes these paintings or his story, and examples of previous work.

The pledges themselves start as low as $5 and $10 supposes they get assigned postcard of the print. Not too shabby considering you also get the warm feeling of knowing that you felt somebody. This is key to remember. Yes, you need to give people reasons to understand what you want to create, why you want to make it happen, and why they should trust you. But remember, they get something too. We'd like to feel Help.

Creatives do on the whole want to support other creatives when you approach asking like this, and even when you have your doubts, act like this is the reality, and people will respond to remarkably option to work well. I used to complain about not being able to get temporary work. But looking back I realized how picky I was being. I had just begun my freelance career. And I relied mostly on my old agency throwing me a bone whenever I got too big whenever they got too busy, which was a massive help, but it wasn't a smart way to work in the long run. I had virtually no contacts, a limited portfolio.

I needed the experience. Of course, I'm not going to tell you to do just any old thing to pay the bills. But there may come a time when Yes, you do have to take any old thing. Think about it like this. The work that you take on that isn't ideal is your security blanket. getting enough so that you can be more choosy ideally, with that six months of living costs?

Job is the best way to move on quickly. It often calls for being a bit creative with your options. Right now the amount of virtual assistant work and creative outsourcing that gets done online is insane. You might need to leave your ego at the door for a while that the work is out there. work out where your boundaries I'll bite the bullet. I realized quickly that I prefer doing underpaid web design work than underpaid illustration.

Ultimately, ideas came from browsing sites like people per hour Fiverr and Upwork. I'll admit that it's not easy to compete with somebody living in another country with lower living costs if you live in an expensive city. But remember that people aren't just looking for the cheapest option. Most people value skills like communication, as well as your passion and dependability. You can make these clear from the get go and you'll be worth the extra few dollars. option three, change your priority as hard as it might be to hear it those last two options don't appeal enough to you.

You probably don't want the thing that you think you want enough. This doesn't mean that you failed or aren't cut out for this big dream. It just means that you might need to go back and tweak your dream. reassess your push goal, rethink your number one priority. What matters to you is the thing that you'll make happen regardless of lack of time, lack of money or anything else. Yes, those things will help.

But in dire situations, the one resource you can't run out of is drive. I recommend going back to the class where you worked out your touchdown in order to have another think about what you want, and what you're prepared to do for that action Step. Pick one of those options and go and do it.