Quartz 4

Importance of systems in businesses

3 min read

Refer to this video:

Takeaways:

  • Real business is built on systems not people.
  • If your business doesn’t have a system, you don’t have a business.
  • I’m stressed out with my art commissions because I handle everything: Customer Service (Spending time with clients), Manufacturing (Drawing), Marketing (Being active on twitter), Business Planning etc. This is the reason why my art commissions always fail because I burn out after just doing a few.
  • Hustle/grind is not a good business strategy because your business dies the moment you get sick, get flooded/ravaged by typhoon or anything happens at all that prevents you from putting in work. Building a system that lets your business run like clockwork is the way to go.
  • Systems = Repeatable process that guarantees the same result every.single.time.
  • Think: How can someone do this without me?
  • The caveat tho is that this relies on labor from other people, which is something I couldn’t afford just yet.

Brainstorming:

To be clear, I don’t think this thing is at all applicable to commissions. Commissions I feel are just inherently not scalable. Which is why 21glucose is likely never going to sell services. Only products. Hence, why these two are under my personal name nichiii

SFW Commissions

NSFW Commissions

Currently:

  1. Client dms me if im open for commission
  2. I reply and ask what they’d like drawn
  3. Client gives me info
  4. Price negotiations ← the worst thing ever, drains the fun out of drawing, now you’re doubting your abilities and how much your shit is worth, obliterates self worth
  5. I take it, tell them I’ll make the sketch
  6. Make sketch
  7. Send to client, see if they approve of it
  8. If not, either revise or just drop it entirely
  9. If yes, proceed with refining
  10. Send wips, ask if there’s revisions needed ← most painful
  11. Implement revisions
  12. Deliver
  13. Wait till they approve it manually so that I can get paid. If not I’m fucked. ← This is a specific issue with unifans
  14. I get paid, I thank the client

Streamlined a bit:

  1. Client sends me info, and how much they’re willing to pay for it
  2. I approve it or decline it
  3. If approve, draw it
  4. Send wips ask if there’s revisions needed ← this is the most painful part
  5. Implement revisions
  6. Deliver
  7. Wait till they approve it manually so that I can get paid. If not I’m fucked. ← This is a specific issue with unifans
  8. I get paid, I thank the client

There are still problems with this, consider the client side, they’re not sure if they’re going to get their money’s worth. And they’ll also worry about whether they’re underpaying or overpaying the artist. It requires trust, tho tbh, if a client doesn’t trust me, they really shouldn’t try commissioning me in the first place.

The ideal scenario is really the Skeb model. Japanese artists are blessed:

  1. Client gives info and how much they’re willing to pay for it.
  2. Artist approve or declines request.
  3. If approved, artist draws picture.
  4. Delivery, with a thank you on it attached.

There’s nothing wrong with step by step wips and revisions. I think it’s necessary for certain projects. Especially with design work. But due to the amount of workload it adds, I feel like it should just be reserved for commercial use art.

Edit:

==This is obsolete refer to → Importance of removing bloat==

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