Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evan Price. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Evan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?
Oh gosh, the creative industry has struggled with profitability for a long time. That stigma of a “starving artist” is something I have been aiming to demolish since I started over a decade ago.
I think the main struggle is creatives hesitation to sell & inability to charge more for their services. They think by charging less they are staying competitive, but it’s actually hurting them more.
What we do at Artist Collective is help talented creatives package their skills into irresistible offers. We help them price based on the value given and not the amount of time it takes for them to do the task.
For instance, when a handyman charges you $200 for 2 hours of work on your drywall, they aren’t charging just for the couple of hours needed to do the task, they are charging for the years it took to be able to do it in such a small amount of time, A task that might take many of us 8+ hours to do. When you think of it that way it’s much easier to raise prices.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I began as a musician myself. I played in several rock bands in the midwest, but overtime I started to realize my real passion was in business building. This came after I started managing bands, promoting live shows, booking tours, and finding creative ways to generate a following and revenue.
After a well needed push from my mother to follow my passion, I left home to go to school in Chicago at Columbia College and obtained a bachelors in Music Business Management. Ultimately I decided that working for someone else wasn’t in the cards for me, so I started Artist Collective out of my dorm room senior year in 2013 with a childhood friend of mine Steve Linn.
Today, my team and I work directly with creative entrepreneurs who I have started calling “Artistpreneurs”. We help them build powerful offers around their expertise, attract their clients, and scale it with simple marketing strategies.
1:1 coaching really helped me accelerate my growth as an entrepreneur and we provide this to creatives who are feeling stuck with their business ideas. We provide them with a proven plan to get their product or services to the right audience so they can finally start making money from their passions (just like I did).
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Oh yes. I have pivoted a lot. And I think that is something that holds a lot of creatives back. They are afraid to start something because they are afraid to potentially change their mind on it later. It’s okay to change your direction, to pivot your focus.
For instance, I started my journey as an artist manager, then pivoted into marketing, then again into consulting. You are allowed to grow as a person and with that comes changing your direction slightly, or sometimes not-so-slightly.
I went to college thinking I would be working for some major label or working with an up and coming artist in the music industry. But found myself enjoying building businesses instead and not working for someone else. None of us know exactly where we’ll end up, you gotta just start and trust yourself.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
This is a good question. I see so many creatives stuck at the beginning because they are “looking for investors” or trying to “raise capital.” But then I ask them what they would use the money on, and they have no idea. The reality is for a lot of businesses (especially online businesses) you don’t need a lot to get started. $1000 max to register your business, setup a website, and get the essentials you need.
Myself and my business partner funded ourselves at the beginning, and every penny we made the first 3 years went back into the business. Most of the money we spent as a company went into hiring coaches and increasing our knowledge of certain things. Knowledge is the best thing to spend on when you’re first starting out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artistcollect.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ac_evan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evan.price89
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ac-evan
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/evan_ac
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@artistcollect
- Other: Book a Free Strategy Call With Us: https://www.artistcollect.com/book