The rise of the internet has provided creative professionals with a whole new medium to promote and make a living from their art. But given the sheer amount of individuals using the internet, especially social platforms, the competition is immense. However, whether you’re an author, crafter, or any other type of artist, there’s no need to fret, as this article by the Tavares Chamber of Commerce explores numerous ways to get your work in front of the right people, get discovered, and make a living from your passion.

1. Create a Good Website

Designing a good website should be your first priority, as it is the best platform to showcase your work, make sales, and collect inquiries for commission. Additionally, it helps to make a strong first impression on potential clients that can translate into long-term relationships, as reported by Anita Louise Art. 

2. Get Active on Social Media

Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are the go-to places to share your work with the world. As a new account, your goal will be to post as frequently as possible and make use of trending hashtags that will capture people's attention and make them want to follow you. Additionally, create diverse content such as images, videos, stories, and more. Out of these, videos will provide the highest reach and engagement, so try to create as much video content as possible, advises HubSpot.

3. Seek Out Collaborations 

Teaming up with other artists or brands (whether big or small) will help expose your work to new audiences and open up opportunities for joint ventures and cross-promotional activities. Along with pre-recorded content, consider doing live collaborations. On social media platforms such as Instagram, going live will automatically notify all your followers, increasing the chances of having a high viewership count.

4. Become a Contributor

Contributing articles to publications related to your field is a great way to establish yourself as an expert. Not only will this help promote your work, but it will also help you build important relationships with editors and other writers for future contributor opportunities. Additionally, you can include links to your website and social media handles to increase brand awareness regarding your art.

5. Participate in Online and Offline Competitions

One simple search on Google will provide a list of writing competitions for you to participate in. While winning prize money is great, participating in competitions can help to establish yourself as an artist in the community. Doing well in multiple competitions is bound to catch the eyes of small to medium-level sponsors who may then reach out for collaboration deals or hire you for projects.  

6. Apply to Work with Businesses

Along with building a personal brand on social media, seek to gain industry experience by working with established companies. For example, working in a local publication as a writer is not only a great experience, but your content may even be used in publications for customers! Highlighting these achievements on social media will only build your brand further.

7. Update Your Resume

If you plan to apply for jobs or participate in competitions, having a good resume is important. In your resume, focus on highlighting your strengths, work experience, and all extracurricular activities (participation in past competitions, etc.). To keep the resume-editing process easy and simple, always save your resume as a PDF. You can use a tool that lets you edit PDF files online any time you want to add relevant experience — it’s a good idea to do this regularly so you always have an up-to-date resume.

8. Bonus Tip: Establish an LLC

Selling products as a sole proprietor means you’ll have to bear unlimited liability for business-related debts. The better option is to work with a formation service and establish a limited liability company (LLC), as it provides the benefits of limited legal liability and tax write-offs. Here is a resource to help learn more about how to start an LLC.

Making a living as a creative professional can be tough but not impossible! By following the above-mentioned best practices, such as creating a website, keeping an updated resume, being active on social media, and more, you'll be well on your way to getting discovered and making a name for yourself in the industry.

Adobe Acrobat is a versatile software suite that offers a wide range of benefits for small and local businesses. From document management to collaboration and security features, Acrobat is an indispensable tool for organizations of all sizes for many reasons:

Efficient Document Management: Acrobat provides robust document management capabilities, allowing businesses to create, edit, organize, and archive documents seamlessly. With features like merging, splitting, and indexing PDFs, businesses can streamline their document workflow and reduce paperwork clutter.

Cost Savings: Acrobat offers cost-effective solutions that eliminate the need for expensive printed materials, courier services, and physical storage space. By going digital with PDF documents, businesses save on printing and shipping costs, reduce paper waste, and lower their overall operational expenses.

Enhanced Collaboration: Collaboration is key in today's business landscape, and Acrobat facilitates this through features like commenting, annotation, and real-time co-editing. Small businesses can collaborate with remote team members, clients, or suppliers, allowing for seamless communication and feedback on documents. This collaborative approach can significantly improve productivity and the speed of decision making.

Professional-Looking Documents: For small and local businesses trying to make a mark in a competitive market, the presentation of documents matters. Acrobat offers a wide range of formatting and styling options to create professional-looking documents. From customizing fonts and colors to adding watermarks and headers, businesses can enhance their brand identity and create visually-appealing materials.

Secure Document Handling: Acrobat provides robust security features, including password protection, encryption, and digital signatures. Small and local businesses can ensure the confidentiality and integrity of their documents, especially when handling sensitive information like customer data and financial information.

Mobile Accessibility: In today's fast-paced business world, being able to work on the go is crucial. Acrobat offers mobile apps that allow small businesses and local businesses to access, edit, and share documents from their smartphones or tablets. This mobility ensures that critical tasks can be addressed promptly, even when employees are not in the office.

Compliance and Legal Benefits: Acrobat helps businesses maintain compliance by providing tools for digital signatures and document tracking. This is especially valuable for businesses that need to meet stringent regulatory standards, like healthcare and financial institutions.

Streamlined Workflows: Acrobat integrates seamlessly with other popular software applications, including Microsoft Office and various cloud storage services. This integration streamlines workflows, making it easier to convert documents to PDF format, collaborate on documents, and access files stored in the cloud. Small and local businesses can save time and reduce errors by using these integrations.

Electronic Forms: Acrobat allows businesses to create interactive electronic forms that can be filled out online, reducing the need for paper forms and manual data entry. This simplifies the customer experience and ensures accurate data collection.

Just take a look at how Acrobat revolutionized the way The J. Morey Company runs its business. As an insurance agency, J. Morey handles a lot of paperwork — all of which was physical documentation until 2015, when president Joshua Morey digitized the firm’s paperwork with Acrobat. Because they no longer rely on wet signatures that have to be scanned into the computer system or sent via snail mail, the process of signing, password protecting, and sending signed documents takes only a minute instead of 20 minutes, freeing up as much as 10 hours a month per employee.

Acrobat’s features and tools allow The J. Morey Company and more than 500,000 other organizations worldwide to reduce costs while scaling their businesses. In fact, when Joshua took over the company in 2015, it had four offices with a total of 18 employees. After just three years of implementing Acrobat into its workflows, the company grew to 150 employees across 11 offices.

Acrobat offers a wide array of benefits for small and local businesses. From efficient document management and cost savings to enhanced collaboration and security, Acrobat empowers these businesses to operate more effectively and competitively in today's digital age. Its user-friendly features and mobile accessibility make it a valuable tool for businesses looking to streamline their operations, improve productivity, and deliver professional-quality documents to their clients and customers. Learn more about how Adobe Acrobat can help your business here.

Social media can play an integral role in the growth of your business when used correctly, which is why it’s so crucial to make sure your content is strong, consistent, and engaging. Utilizing the right platforms can help you grow your audience, ensure stellar customer service, and make beneficial connections that can help your business for years to come. So how do you create the best possible content for your social media accounts? 

There are several aspects to building a great social media plan for small businesses, from implementing marketing methods to learning about your target audience and how to speak to them. When you’re ready to take some steps toward generating great content for your social pages, consider these tips from the Tavares Chamber of Commerce.

Get some inspiration for your content

If you’re feeling stuck when it comes to content creation, look for inspiration by checking out several different social media platforms. What are your competitors doing? What are individuals within your demographic responding favorably to on TikTok and Instagram? Trends come and go quickly these days, so it’s important to continuously check out these apps and stay on top of the most popular content. Not only can it provide inspiration for you, but it can also keep you informed on your competitors’ movements. 

Make your posts appealing and consistent

One of the main things to remember about social media content is that you only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention, so your posts need to be extremely engaging and appealing without relying too much on filters or other trends that might come across as gimmicky. This means that photos should be clear and well-lit, and that videos should load quickly. Your content should be direct and to the point, and it should speak to your audience. Consider utilizing live video in order to connect with your customers, but remain consistent with most of your posts by sharing them at certain times of the day. It may help to schedule posts; this will boost your ranking in the algorithm if done correctly and ensure that the right people are seeing your content.

Use promotional tools, such as an ad template

Once you’ve created content that you’re proud of, it’s essential to promote it with the right tools. Most social media platforms offer some form of paid advertising option, but you can use a resource such as a Facebook ad template that will allow you to create a free, colorful ad using a template. Simply fill in your logo or images and add your copy and the colors of your choice to build an eye-catching promo that can be shared over and over again. This is a great way to incorporate your branding into an ad that shows potential customers what you’re all about, and you don’t have to hire a designer for the job.

You may find that you have great promotional content, but it’s stuck inside a longer PDF document. Instead of overwhelming your audience with too many pages, grab only the content you want by separating PDF pages. Then, you’re free to extract only the page you want and upload that to your social media profiles.

Curate engagement with your posts

Even if you have great content, it can be a challenge to get people to engage with social media posts. Sharing ads is a wonderful start, but it’s also important to make sure you’re getting clicks so you can turn a promo into a sale. Utilize several different visual methods to drive your point home, from gifs to infographics, and consider running a contest to curate engagement depending on your needs. For instance, if you’re looking to boost your follower count, your contest could involve users tagging a friend or liking, commenting on, and sharing your post in order to gain an entry. You can also make the contest a creative one by asking followers to share their ideas, which might help you build content down the road.

Sharing great content on social media is easy with the right tools and a little planning. By utilizing invaluable resources like a free ad maker, you can ensure that your social accounts are thriving so you can grow your business exponentially. 

Social media is a great way to drum up business, but connecting with your local chamber of commerce is a great way to network too. Consider joining today!

Paper’s out, people.

Award-winning comedian, writer, and producer Hasan Minhaj has partnered with Adobe Acrobat to celebrate 30 years of PDFs and to promote the power of paperless creativity and collaboration in today's digital age. The partnership highlights the importance of using digital tools to streamline workflows and enhance productivity, especially in the current work-from-home era.

As part of the partnership, Minhaj is featured in a series of videos showcasing how Adobe Acrobat can help professionals across industries to create, edit, and share documents seamlessly — no paper needed. The videos also provide tips and tricks for using Acrobat's features to improve collaboration and communication among team members.

Adobe Acrobat is a leading software solution that enables professionals to create, edit, and sign PDF documents securely and easily. The platform offers a range of features, including the ability to convert documents to PDF format, edit text and images, and add comments and annotations. It also integrates with other Adobe tools, such as Creative Cloud, to provide a seamless workflow for creative professionals.

The partnership between Hasan Minhaj and Adobe Acrobat kicked off with a range of digital and social media activations. Paper’s out, people, so stay tuned for more updates on how Acrobat is empowering creativity and collaboration in today's digital landscape.

The holiday season is a crucial time for small businesses. It's often make-or-break time, as holiday shoppers are out in full force looking for gifts. If you're a small business owner, you need to have a plan in place to make the most of the holiday season. Here's a checklist from the Tavares Chamber of Commerce with everything you need to do to get your business ready for the season.

1. Add Some Sparkle

The holiday season is a great time to spruce up your storefront. A little bit of festive decoration can go a long way in making your business more visible and inviting. Whatever you choose, make sure your decorations are well-made and securely fastened. After all, the last thing you want is for a gust of wind to send your hard work toppling to the ground.

2. Hire seasonal staff

You'll need extra help during the holiday rush, so Software Advice suggests making sure to hire some seasonal staff to pitch in. They can man the register, wrap gifts, and assist with customer service.

3. Offer a gift guide

Help your customers find the perfect gifts by creating a gift guide and sending it out via email or in a catalog format. Be sure to include items for everyone on their shopping lists, from kids to adults.

4. Market for the season

LinkedIn points out the importance of getting the word out about your holiday sales and promotions with some targeted marketing. Put up flyers in local businesses and send out emails to your customers letting them know what's going on at your store this holiday season.

Make it easier to share your holiday flyers by creating PDFs with all the relevant information. Include things like sale dates, discounts, and special offers. You can print these out and even turn them into JPG files and post them on social media to help spread the word. You can use an online tool to easily convert PDFs online for free, a quick and efficient way to get the job done.

5. Give back

Small business owners play a vital role in their communities, and they can have a big impact during the holiday season. There are many ways to give back, from donating products or services to hosting holiday events. Giving back is a great way to build goodwill and strengthen your relationships with customers, employees, and other members of the community. When done right, it can leave a lasting impression and make a difference in the lives of others.

6. Entice last-minute shoppers

Anticipate the shoppers who procrastinate by offering special deals and promotions reserved just for them. This way, they'll think of your store when they're scrambling to find gifts at the last minute. 

7.  Keep your cool

It's going to be busy, so make sure you're prepared for it. Have a game plan in place for dealing with long lines, crowds of shoppers, and any other challenges that come up. And above all, try to have a good time! The holidays are supposed to be fun, after all. 

8.  Take advantage of social media

Social media is a great way to connect with potential customers and let them know about all your holiday promotions. So make sure you're active on all your channels this time of year. 

The holidays are a time when small businesses can really shine. By preparing for the holiday season now, you can ensure that your business is ready to take advantage of all the opportunities that come with this busy time of year.