# Plan Your Creative Business: Your Path To Creating Income As An Artist - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/plan-your-creative-business-your-path-to-creating-income-as-an-artist/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Business & Marketing · Quick win · Rated 6 /10 # Plan Your Creative Business: Your Path To Creating Income As An Artist Updated September 2026 Mimi Purnell · Illustrator & Content Creator Beginner · 45 min A quick planning framework for turning art into income, but light on concrete marketing or sales tactics you can execute today. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fplan-your-creative-business-your-path-to-creating-income-as-an-artist%2F694252881) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. Mimi Purnell's class is less a business course than a guided worksheet session. Across eleven short lessons and a companion workbook, she walks beginner artists through a sequence of reflective questions: what do you want from a creative business, what values will you not compromise on, what type of product fits your lifestyle, who is your customer, and how will you reach them. The structure is clean and logical, moving from purpose and values down to product and marketing in a way that mirrors her own house-building metaphor: foundation first, then framework, then bricks. ## What actually gets taught The most substantive lesson is the sales funnel explanation in the marketing module, where she breaks the customer journey into three stages: broad awareness (a social post or market stall), value and trust building (free content, behind-the-scenes posts), and conversion (the actual product offer). She grounds this in her own path, spending roughly nine months building an Instagram and YouTube following before she had anything to sell, so that she wasn't starting from zero when she launched. That sequencing insight, build audience before product, is the one piece of concrete strategic advice that could change how a beginner approaches their first year. The finances and legalities lesson is honest about its own limits. Rather than giving country-specific guidance, it hands off a checklist of questions (business registration, tax obligations, expense tracking) for the learner to research locally. That's a reasonable choice for a global audience, but it means the "getting on top of finances" module functions more as a to-do list than instruction. ## Where it falls short The class is explicit that it teaches general principles rather than tactics, and that shows. The social media growth lesson offers a four-step recipe (clear profile, consistent posting, shareable content, audience engagement) that any creator who has spent time on Instagram has likely already absorbed. There's no walkthrough of an actual post, caption, or content calendar, no specific pricing formula, and no real example of a profitable product with numbers attached beyond a passing mention of "over six figures a year." Learners looking for tactical depth on pricing, platform algorithms, or product creation will need to look elsewhere after finishing. The workbook-driven format is also a double-edged sword. Most modules end with an instruction to pause and fill in a page, which means a large share of the actual value depends on how seriously the learner engages with the exercises rather than the video content itself. Someone who watches passively will finish with a loose sense of business concepts but no actual plan. Where the class succeeds is in giving structure to a process that otherwise feels shapeless: turning "I want to make money from my art" into a written framework covering purpose, product, customer, and channel. For a total beginner who has never sat down to plan anything, that structure alone has value, even if the tactical meat is thin. The standout The sales funnel breakdown, paired with the teacher's own example of spending nine months building an audience before selling anything, gives a concrete sequencing lesson most beginner business content skips. ## What you will learn - · How to define a business purpose and personal values that guide product and platform decisions - · How to choose a general business path (physical products, content creation, illustration commissions, or in-person workshops) - · How to build a target customer profile based on the transformation or problem your art solves - · How to brainstorm and select a product or service using a value-versus-profitability filter - · How to map a basic sales funnel from audience awareness to purchase across platforms - · How to identify the financial and legal basics to check before launching, like business registration and expense tracking Best for: A hobbyist artist who has never made a business plan and needs a structured worksheet to move from vague ambition to a written direction. Skip it if: Anyone who already has products or an audience and needs tactical execution help, since the class stays at the level of prompts and self-reflection rather than step-by-step tactics. Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Actionable Steps Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fplan-your-creative-business-your-path-to-creating-income-as-an-artist%2F694252881)