What’s your view on asking friends and family to support your brand? We asked members of the community to open up and share their views on this controversial topic. Check out some highlights below.

Kenny Routt

Focus on your work first, and the support from friends and family will come naturally.
Your mom and your best friend are NOT your clients… So don’t put too much mental stock into their support.

Ask yourself, what does “support from family/friends” even mean in relation to your business? A Share on instagram? You’ll be ok if they don’t share your posts. Makes more sense to seek the support from industry peers and your clients. This support will come as you ship work, and build a reputation of reliability and quality. Read more>>

Fred Johnson

You should never feel ashamed to ask your friends and family for support. In the end they are helping you grow and at times may receive free services in the end, this is not the case in every scenario. There’s a pretty viral post where someone ask the artist, “how come you’re not famous?” His response how come you didn’t share my stuff, that’s why I’m not famous.” I believe in supporting one another, we’ll support a huge artist who will never respond to us but forget about our friends and family who were on the journey from the start. Read more>>

Carolyn Hardy

Friends and family can help support us by telling people about us, sharing videos we put on social media hand if they have a dog bring it in to come and play. Read more>>

Rachel Carrera

I’ve never been comfortable doing the “Hey, look at me!” thing to get attention. In fact, the mere thought of even going to an auction where I might have to verbally compete for an item rather than silently raising a paddle makes my skin crawl. I don’t appreciate anyone giving me a “hard sell approach,” and I assume they wouldn’t appreciate the same from me. Needless to say, this has made it difficult and uncomfortable to get on my various social medium platforms and proclaim to the world that they ought to read my books and even pay money to do so. Read more>>