Welcome to the premiere edition of our new column: Divas on a Mission.  Each month, we will be featuring young women under 40 who are making outstanding contributions to their community.  This month’s featured diva is creative pioneer, Evelyn Bandoh.    

Evelyn Bandoh has been engaged in personal financial coaching and advising since 2005 and is the founder of EAB Creative Planning Services, LLC, a business and financial coaching firm for creative entrepreneurs. Evelyn frequently addresses civic, youth and business groups on how to plan for personal and business financial success.  Her mission is to help creative businesses and entrepreneurs maintain sustainable enterprises by providing training, advising and coaching services that are relevant to the needs of the creative community. 

She facilitates personal finance and small business workshops throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area and publishes a blog called Fiscally Fit Fashionista, where she provides practical business and financial advice to her readers.  Evelyn also teaches financial, business and investment education to youth in the DC Metropolitan Area and teaches at the Art Institute of Washington in the Fashion and Retail Management Program.

MGS: Let’s start with your journey into entrepreneurship. What was the inspiration behind launching EAB Creative Planning Services? How did you find the courage to pursue your dreams and what was the defining moment when you realized it was finally time to make the leap?

Evelyn: In short, the inspiration behind EAB was to help creative entrepreneurs generate wealth through their creativity. My business initially started out as a regular small business training company, but I soon realized that this did not fulfill me. One day while having a heart-to-heart with myself I asked: “What’s missing?” The immediate answer was “creativity.” From there, it took about four to five months of soul searching to place that statement into context and put things in perspective.

I have never bought into the concept of the “starving artist,” but realizing this is a reality for many creatives I wanted to take a further look at why they often struggled to make ends meet or even gain recognition for their work. After many years of research, traveling, working with various people, and just being observant, I discovered that it was an inability to focus on the business side, or the left-brained side of their art/creativity. 

In terms of the leap, it got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. My job was literally sucking the life out of me. I had no energy and I became fed-up. It was my fear of not being able to support myself that kept me chained to the desk. However, after a series of events, I realized there is never a “right time.” There is only “my time” and “Spirit’s time.” Once we were aligned, I knew I could take that leap of faith and feel at peace with my decision.

MGS: Describe some of the challenges you faced in starting your business and making the transition from employee to business owner. How did you overcome these obstacles? Was it difficult to walk away from a career you had invested so much time into building?

Evelyn: Honestly, one of the biggest challenges was myself… vacillating between faith and fear. This type of energetic movement is very disruptive to the flow of success. I also had to learn how to set boundaries and define my ideal revenue model. Since pursuing entrepreneurship, I have learned so much about myself in terms of how I like to work and the type of work I like to do.

Money and cash flow were other obstacles. When you don’t have a steady paycheck to rely on, it’s important to forecast your cash flow and remain mindful of your spending by creating a budget. It’s hard to be productive when you’re worried about how you’re going to pay your bills.

In terms of the career, it wasn’t difficult to leave because I realized it wasn’t something I wanted in the first place. Granted, I did miss the paycheck, and I did miss the stability and the infrastructure provided. When I struck out on my own, so to speak, I had to create a work schedule that was productive and conducive to my needs. It took awhile for me to find my rhythm and flow in my work cycle. My new motto is “never work harder for someone else’s dream than you would for your own.” Repeating this mantra keeps things in perspective and allows me to make better strategic decisions.

MGS: For individuals looking to make a sustainable income from their creative ventures, please tell our readers a little about the services you offer and how clients can benefit from your services?

Evelyn: To sum it up, I offer services that provide education and awareness; and empower creative entrepreneurs and creative organizations to make great strategic decisions including: holistic business advising, personal finance coaching, program development services for creative organizations and nonprofits, and entrepreneurial training workshops.

Some of my more popular workshops are: Creative Entrepreneurs Boot camp, Financial Planning for Creative Entrepreneurs, Your Money Personality and Exploring Entrepreneurship. In addition to the live trainings, I’m also working on a series of webinars and self learning tools that clients will be able to download directly from the EAB Web site. I will start rolling those out during the first half of 2010.

MGS: You recently added non-profit advisory services for creative/arts-based organizations to your ever-expanding repertoire of services. How have you continued to build your business during the current economic downturn?

Evelyn: I’ve actually taken a step back to re-evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Time is money and if you can provide value in a shorter amount of time, you have truly hit the nail on the head as a service provider. I’m also spending more time developing self-guided tools that can be downloaded, so clients can use them at their discretion and on their own time.

MGS: In hosting seminars and workshops, you have partnered with numerous nonprofit organizations to provide financial literacy and business training to local community residents. Why do you think it’s important to be active in your community and reach out to other organizations with a similar mission?

Evelyn: I think it’s important because you reach a greater audience, and often times you help that organization with its capacity building by providing a service needed in the community. Fostering mutually beneficial partnerships provides both parties with greater exposure and an ability to get the message out to a larger audience.  By collaborating with community-based organizations, I feel as if I have filled a need and because of who I am and what I look like, I serve as an inspiration to others in the community that they can pursue their passions and live their dreams as well.

MGS: Speaking from someone who has successfully launched her own company, what advice would you give to women looking to transform their part-time hobby into a viable business?

Evelyn: 

• Make sure you’re truly passionate about what you want to do.
• Understand that it’s about the journey and not the destination.
• Strengthen your personal finances as much as possible.  Pay down debt, fix your credit, and save money to live on. If you start from a strengthened financial position, when (not if) you have those financial challenges, you will be in a better position to deal with them.
• Understand your lifestyle pre-job and post-job. Have you built your current lifestyle around your job? If so, how much do you need to earn to maintain your lifestyle?
• Reduce your living expenses as much as possible. This will save you grief in the long run. Trust me!
• Understand and know where your sources of revenue are coming from for the next year. Forecast this out even if this is coming from savings and not a client.  It’s better to know so that you can make more informed decisions.
• Develop your support network and start talking to those you trust about your idea.
• Thoroughly research and understand your market. What is your niche? Who is your ideal client? What is your message? How do you create value?
• Start networking.  It’s not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it’s a very necessary part of the process.  Do it with purpose, and it will be a more beneficial experience.
• Take the time to write some type of business plan,whether it be a traditional one or an EAB Cosmic Business Plan.  Also, make sure  it’s feasible and can support itself in the long run.
• Lastly, have fun!

Both speakers presented a lively discussion on how to get grants and donations for your creative project. While the event was mainly geared towards filmmakers, any artist, writer, musician or photographer can benefit from these juicy tidbits of advice.

Here are the highlights:

Outreach: Emily Verellen suggests you formulate a plan for how you will engage and connect with audiences before you start seeking donations for your creative venture.  Important factors to consider are whom your project will serve, the message you’re trying to send, and concrete ways to get people involved in your movement.  For example, distributing pens, t-shirts and buttons with your logo, hosting events, or sponsoring a contest.

Research: Both presenters stressed the importance of doing your research before approaching donors. Past projects funded and the amount of money donated are just a few things to consider when recruiting funders.  Investigate how your project ties in with the mission or philosophy of the individual, small business, corporation or non-profit organization you’re seeking financing from.   Also, pay close attention to application guidelines; make sure your project meets the requirements of the grants in which you’re applying for.

Partnerships:  There’s no greater way to create awareness for your creative venture than to team up with complementary organizations.  You can reach out to student groups, churches,  or non-profit organizations to co-host events.  Or better yet, you can offer your services at a discounted rate in exchange for exposure and access to their mailing list. 

Maybe you’d like to start your own business, but you haven’t scaled back on your lifestyle to invest more money into your creative endeavors. Or perhaps you’re allowing fear to prevent you from taking more risks. Regardless of what’s holding you back the question remains: Are you willing to do what it takes to have a more successful and fulfilling career?

Defining Success on Your Own Terms
As professional women, we’ve all experienced times when we want to throw up our hands in frustration. We become stuck and are uncertain as to how to proceed because we have either lost our passion for work or never had it to begin with. Oftentimes, we lose sight of the “why” and focus on the wrong things in attempt to fit in with the mainstream view of success. We then find ourselves in a career that fails to satisfy us emotionally or creatively.

In order to escape your career rut, it’s important to determine what success means to you. For some, it might mean building a media empire with thousands of employees, while for others it might simply be working for a small non-profit organization that serves the local community. Knowing what you want out of life and remaining focused on why you’re in your chosen industry will motivate you to take consistent action, regardless of how scary it might feel.

Breaking through the Psychological Glass Ceiling
We often settle for less than we deserve because of our self-limiting beliefs. For instance, we get a new idea and immediately talk ourselves out of it by thinking of all the ways it can’t work. “I don’t have enough time” and “I don’t have the money” are among the top excuses people have for not aiming higher and going after their dreams. Sound familiar? Rather than put ourselves out there and stretch beyond our comfort zone, we sit by the sidelines and then wonder why we’re not achieving our desired level of success.

We say we’re willing to “do anything” to accomplish our dreams, but let’s be honest: Are you really taking all the necessary steps to create your dream career?

If not, make a list of all the things that are standing in your way. Then write down all the possible solutions you can think of for overcoming them and take one action within the next hour – whether it’s making a phone call to a mentor for advice, scheduling an appointment to meet with a career coach, or introducing yourself to a new business in the area.

The Need for Action
How many times have you invested in books, business courses and seminars only to discover you’re no further in your career than when you began? You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you’re not implementing the ideas, they’re useless. What separates the success stories from the stories of disappointment is our willingness to take action. When we allow fear and a negative mindset to dictate our performance at work, we set ourselves up for failure. Despite our best intentions, we slip back into “bad behavior” and continue to do the same things we’ve always done.

So what’s really holding you back from the career of your dreams? Is it money? Time? The economy? Whatever you “think” it is, it’s time to confront your demons. Create a list of all the things you’ve been afraid to do in business and in life. What immediate thoughts surface as you review your list? Acknowledge what they have to say, and then write out all those self-sabotaging beliefs that tell you how you’ll never make but a certain amount of income or achieve a certain amount of success. When you really think about it, is it true? There are others who have overcome great odds to achieve professional bliss. Why not you?

Photo: Zappos.com