Topic: Importance of understanding the business of every craft. - page 2. (Read 566 times)

It's because Ronaldo's story better than Messi.

We're all know Messi is a gifted talent, he was lucky to met Pep who want to give treatment for him, and another his luckiness FIFA is always favoring him.

While Ronaldo, he born from poor family, he was trying hard to become better even though he's not a gifted talent, always become the second best player because FIFA is favoring Messi etc.

People prefer with Ronaldo since people don't like unfairness.

It is very important to think positively for the future, by understanding the potential of  business you are running it is better, the need for perseverance in developing it and full of self-confidence, that is what needs to be applied and always continue to learn to cover the possible gaps in the weaknesses of the business you are doing.

Very important, haven't you heard of the saying "Talent isn't enough". Messi is more talented than Ronaldo but who's richer? Who understand the business behind their talents better.

 Things might be different in the future but right now it is showing that Ronaldo understood the business part of football or he hired those that understood what's needed to be done and he's making a fortune.

Having that talent or skills isn't just enough, how good are you at marketing yourself that's what matters because, it's the marketing that matters and not what you're really selling.

There's a reason coca cola and other big brands still market their products irrespective of how popular they already are.

Good marketing takes your product to where you couldn't have imagined that you'll be able to get to so after getting that skill or discovering your talents, the next thing to do is to understand the business associated with that hustle.

That's absolutely true. You may not be the best into the craft that you are right now but if you know how to strategize well and understands how business works there and you're able to incentivize it properly, you're better than the best. There's a big difference why someone is staying on specific niche even if they don't like it, they just like it on the process because it's profitable and they're able to monetize it based on how they've studied it carefully. Gaining knowledge on a specific business and having yourself prepared for strategizing how you can do it in the long run is a big plan that many doesn't do. Like you've mentioned, some are good in video editing and programming but that's it, they don't expound the capabilities that they do and don't explore more of it. But once a person who have gained an idea on how it can be expanded and make more money from it, he's better than those experts because he knows where money is flowing and how to catch them.

This is a very good angle to this discussion. It's almost like we're talking about two major instances of iether focusing more on your skillset or combining both getting the prerequisite skillset and understanding how best to use it to your advantage.

Somehow, people that are just focused on getting only the skills might gain good expertise in what they do and outperform others but understanding how to earn more from your skill could even make you an employer of another that's of the same skills you have.

you're 100% correct. Being just skilled is not enough. You have to gain the skills and also understand the marketability in it. For extablished firms, it's quite easy to employ different staffs that are in charge of marketing, research and a lot of other roles but outside of that, if you're an independent person, you have to know how to do a lot of things all by yourself and still remain productive.

It should be like that, don't let those who are still young always be spectators of the progress of the development of internet technology today. But, that's true and if I notice in my place, especially the younger generation, they are starting to position themselves in taking some of the opportunities that exist and can be used as side income/passive income for them.

A small example is like the item you mentioned above, they start using Facebook then create their own Fanpage with various titles and concepts, whether it's just for pictures using AI with unique concepts or for their own real content. After all the requirements are sufficient, they submit it and the results if pursued consistently are quite good per month, especially if one of their posts goes viral, it will really boost their income.

I do agree that there is a specific skill to learn to sell our product and service, but all the same, the business side will matter. A very good example is the world of content creation, several content creators with fewer followers or views across different content can make more by diversifying streams through brand deals, paid subscriptions, or even ad revenue across multiple platforms. In fact, YouTube remains the most lucrative platform for creators, beating TikTok and Facebook in earnings for 2024. It is not all about business, either. Some creators struggle with algorithm changes or even with reach, despite understanding the business part of it. While good understanding of how to make money from one's skill is extremely important, adaptability and a strong personal brand are just as important in the long run.

When you start with anything, you should always have the passion to do it. Also, need to be open about unexpected circumstances and so you need to plan about contingencies that you need to do in case of failure.
And everyday you are in your business, is also the time to learn more of your business. As you gain insights, you will come to the point that you will also gain some tricks that you can use in improving your managing skills.

That's why we need to love what we do, what ever anyone pick as a career or what ever someone has as a talent, it should be something that you are proud of and something you can do proudly. Some persons decides to go into a career because they see how profitable it is for some other people that are into it and not because they really love that career and after they have ventured into, just some little challenges and problems can bring them down.
 
For example, I know so many people that were coming up as an artist in my country but failed, some started business and failed, some started social media influencing and failed, etc.

Skill is not everything, you must love your skill, do it with passion, learn how to improve and become better and also teach yourself to be patient.

Telegram and Discord would be great for these, when you are learning, those type of chat channels will allow you to ask questions to people who already know how to do these things, and they will show you how to market it as well. I can do a bit of design these days, not making any money from it because I am not learning as a business but for hobby, one day I want to be able to make my own game, not going to be employed by anyone, but I know where these people look for jobs.

Most of them do not look for jobs in upwork or fiverr, because those places are too crowded as it is, and getting a job there would be hard and usually they do not get enough to cover their bills let alone anything else. They have their own forums and places they go to, and reddit isn't bad neither.

Depends on what your goal is when you are dealing with a  craft. For example, if you want to shoot a movie, your aim could be making money, or your aim could be adding something to cinema, or your hope would be both, doesn't matter. Sometimes you aim to make as much money as you possibly could, which is normal because we are in a very economy oriented world, but sometimes you end up with wanting to just do something because you want to do that thing.

I like coding games at times for example, obviously very simple click here and there stuff, nothing major, but I do it, and I could never make money from it because I do not have any time at all to learn how to do it properly. But, I still do small stuff sometimes when I have a little bit of time on rare occasions and share with other devs and get support and I love it. Was this business part of it? Of course not, this was just pure fun and yet I still did it and this is all I care about, nothing more.

True, prioritize learning when you're starting our and genuinely help people solve problems with your skill. Indeed, having a skill is not all, it's a start, but you need to know how to market those skills and get clients, and not just any clients, but clients that pay you well for your time and value.

One of those ways is to  join a community while learning, and interact in those communities. You can join job boards like Upwork, join professional platforms like LinkedIn, where people showcase their skills and get clients.

Try connecting and cold DM  people on those platforms, connect professionally and learn to support people too, because in supporting people's journey, they know you, and they also recommend you, that's how referrals come.

And be visible, and show up with solutions to peoples problems, any platform you choose, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, be visible, don't be a post and ghost somebody, always show up. Be active, be around, let people see you, let your profile be popping.

Learn copywriting, learn how to use words to market your skills, learn basic marketing and positioning skills, position yourself properly. Always upskill to be one step ahead of others that are in your field.

And don't be ashamed to market yourself, some people are ashamed, go out there and tell people what you do. When you want to introduce yourself, when you say your name, you say your skills too.

Let it keep occurring to people that, you are, for example, XYZ, a software developer, before you start saying anything. Always put yourself out there. A good skill in a box is of no use to the person that learned the skill and somebody that needs the service.
Go out there and help solve someone's problems with your skills.

Absolutely well said, I believe the summary of your whole explanation can be described in a single word "Genius". being exceptionally excellent in what you do, is the Level of communication you pass across beyound the vocal words. Sometimes people don't get what they desire due to lack of mental skill upgrade or being dominant in knowledge. Sometimes it is good we check our actions or activities and what makes us to be stagnant or dumant. And then we Become creative, innovative and add quality instead of quantity.

Although people are of thesame type according to how they are created by God. our grace differs. There are some people that has that grace in them which whatever they do usually prospers even without forcing it, it's just like an inborn or inbuilt kind of thing which doesn't need them to study but when they do it, it is always effortless, seamlessly and tiredlesly. Just like some people in this forum started together but the level of quality post they have made here has made them surge higher than their fellow that registered thesame time because of the speed of learning and contribution to the forum compeard to their fellow. So I believe in the notion that "grace" is one factor that should be considered as a propelling force of most success. Just like Satoshi Nakamoto created bitcoin which not everyone could do it no matter how long they try to study it till they are no more.

You are right. It is about who can sell more. It doesn’t matter if you have the best one in terms of quality but if you are not targeting the right market then you might just never sell your product. Price can also be a factor in what you can sell. This is why I emphasize the need to know your market and who are you making your product for. Know the people and know why should they want to buy your products.
Of course, it is the most important. Business is not an easy feat. If you go into it without any knowledge you will most likely just lose a lot of money.

Precious stones like gold are worthless, except it is refined and taken to the market for sale. One might have some exceptional skills, but he needs to keep improving on them to suit the current trend of such a profession. But the most difficult part of the pathway to success is how to take your services to people who need it. Without a proper or effective market, a good product or service will forever remain dormant in the warehouse or the mind.

This is why it is important to study the business behind your skills. You have to learn how other successful people in your endeavour were able to overcome challenges and properly market their service. You should also closely monitor successful people. Find a community that suits your skill and network with others. These days, talent is not enough because many talentless people are making so much money in diverse industries just because they understand how to persuade people to buy what they are selling.

And don't forget there's a big difference between becoming the best engineers and someone who manage many engineers.

Becoming the best engineers we can learn and work together with other engineers, the risk to fail is low because we're the one who work for it, we know if we're doing good or not.

But, someone who manage many engineers will be alone, all the pressure and responsibility are on his shoulder, they can't ask other people to help them anymore. Moreover, you're not supposed to work together with other engineers because your main objective is to manage people instead of handle the jobs.

It's always like that, how to market yourself is a lot more important than your skill but still not disregarding the important of the skill. because in a nutshell, poor performance but big talk means we're a liar.

if you ever worked in a job with clear career path and in a big company, you'd realize that the good impression of higher up toward you will yield better result than working endlessly.
I've seen it first hand and although it might seem unfair, but such is the reality.

so innate skill of hustling is definitely a need in this competitive world, because this means you're way ahead of your competition by several steps.

You have a very valid point here Mr Plguedeath as you have stressed the importance of mastery and exceptional service delivery which the Op did not address in his post. Although I try to understand the OP from the important of business which requires that one should be able to market the business properly because that is how contracts are secured. I know some good fashion designers that are not doing so well in their business whereas there are people that they are better than but because of how the package their business, they have more clients.

Marketing is a good way to gain popularity after having what it takes to compete with your competitors. But I have also realized that most businesses or skills require much time, and for the company or individual to handle the marketing by itself is a lot of stress which will reduce productivity. Every business needs a business developer and marketer to handle publicity and sales. Now we dont need to understand the craft business to do so, we just get to hire someone who will be in charge of that. Having the skills, and talent is more than enough to become successful. We just need to collaborate or hire someone who has what it takes to push so far.

That's the difficulty of having a business. If you want to make more profit, you need to not just understand how to do the business itself but also how to market it. It's a competition, and most of the time, other competitions have either better marketing teams or a better start. If you're fine with selling what you can, then I reckon it doesn't matter much. But if you want to compete with other businesses and grow, then yeah, a definite understanding of the market is needed. It's also the same with individual jobs, the best example I could probably give would be as a programmer and applying in FAANG. It's not just knowing how to program, it's going above that.