Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elisabeth Ladwig, Founder of Elisabeth on Earth, located in West Milford, NJ, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am a photographic artist. My Earth-centered images are photo composites, so like collage, I cut and paste my own photographs, blending them digitally to create magical scenes – photographs that cannot be photographed. They have a painterly feel (and are often mistaken for paintings) due to photos of textures that are ghosted in the art. Whether the subject is polishing the stars, witnessing a planetary alignment with her animal friends, or hanging from the moon by a rope, the works are an invitation to rediscover the miracles we witness every day.

When my work sells through an art gallery, I’m not often privy to who purchased the art. But it’s safe to say that some of my customers are art collectors or art lovers. Other customers are nature lovers, animal or bird lovers, and some are entrepreneurs themselves, often with spiritual leanings – yoga instructors, healers, life coaches, and the like.

Tell us about yourself

My current work was a pretty natural transition for me. I had been a graphic designer by profession and enjoyed collage art as a hobby. One day I asked myself, "What would I create if I had complete creative freedom without the input of clients or professional superiors?" Motivating me each day is the desire to stay connected to nature and the question, "What if...?"

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I release a new artwork into the world every six weeks or so, and those are always huge accomplishments. Every sale of my work, every group show my work gets accepted to, and even every social media heart is an accomplishment. But I think my biggest accomplishment as a business owner was winning a contest to have my work on the cover of Professional Artist Magazine’s 30th-anniversary issue. Of course, my father immediately went to the local Barnes & Noble and put all the issues he could find across the shelves, in front of all the other magazines, so it was a sea of my art.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

The hardest thing for me as a business owner is the very thing I’m supposed to be good at: making art. More specifically, completing an artwork. I discovered that the more popular my work becomes, the less time I have to actually create it. I get busy with the business side of things – expenses, paperwork, emails, packing/shipping art, writing thank-you notes, and researching opportunities to grow and market my work. I also have a tendency to severely underestimate how much time something will take. If I think something will take a half hour, sometimes I’ll reserve an hour on my calendar, or else I’ll write myself a note not to spend more than a half hour on that particular item.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. I think the most important thing to remember is that you don’t have to know everything there is to know about running a business to get started, and you don’t have to have everything in place before putting your offerings into the world. These are things that can stop you in your tracks. Taking on everything at once can make your head spin, paralyzing you before you even get started. Start with what you do know, and if that’s not much, identify just the first step toward your goal. Chunk it down into doable tasks, and approach the process with a sense of lighthearted curiosity. Put on some music, open a window, make some tea – create an environment that welcomes you to begin. Take the first step. Maybe it’s typing a question in your browser and hitting return. You’re closer to your goal already! Then identify the next step, and so on. I still don’t know everything about running a business, but somehow I’m doing it anyway. You just learn as you go, making adjustments and improvements along the way.
  2. Identify where your time is most valuable for your business and commit to spending large chunks of it on that thing. It’s easy to get distracted by the little things that are completed more quickly and give you the instant gratification of crossing them off your to-do list. You’re checking emails or otherwise procrastinating until, all of a sudden, your day is gone. You’ve been busy all day, but you can’t think of a single thing you’ve accomplished. Start by creating a schedule that you think will work for you. It probably won’t at first, and that’s ok. Adjust it as you get more familiar with what your day-to-day looks like. You may want to dedicate specific time slots for social media and emails so you’re not checking all day long. Maybe check in the morning, after lunch, and at the tail end of the day when you’ve wrapped up everything else. And you don’t have to post on social media every single day. You really don’t. If you’re not familiar with the golfballs in a jar theory, it’s worth looking it up.
  3. Keep a monthly list of the celebrations. Sometimes there’s only one thing on the list, and that’s ok. Maybe I stuck to my calendar for a solid week and did all the things. Maybe I sold work or released a new artwork. Maybe my work got accepted into a group show or was acquired for a permanent collection on public view. No matter what’s on the list, it’s always a great motivator and a reminder of why you’re super amazingly awesome.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://elisabethonearth.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElisabethonEarth
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elisabethonearth/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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