When did you hire your first sales person?

I’m probably looking at this a little differently because I’m a one man creative business, not a larger service company with crews in the field.

For me, I don’t think the next hire would be a traditional salesperson. I think I would need support on the visibility and opportunity side first. That would probably look more like a social media/content person, and eventually maybe an agent or representative who can help make connections that I cannot realistically chase down myself.

Right now I am the artist, fabricator, photographer, marketer, social media team, admin, follow up person, and the one constantly looking for opportunities, shows, features, grants, galleries, competitions, and anything else that could move the business forward.

A big part of that also comes through the art community and the organizations I’m involved with, like Artists Open House Weekend, North Branch Art Trail, Kitson Arts Alliance, Metal Artists With A Mission, Metal Artist Collective, and other groups where relationships and opportunities matter. Those connections are incredibly valuable, but they also take time, communication, follow up, and consistent involvement.

The hard part is that I know the opportunities are out there. I have seen firsthand that putting in the work and pursuing the right things can open doors that most people never get to experience. But finding those opportunities, applying for them, following up, documenting the work, and staying visible takes a huge amount of time. As a solo owner, that time has to come from somewhere.

So for my business, I don’t think the bottleneck is sales in the traditional sense yet. The bottleneck is attention, time, and access. I need more of the right people seeing the work, and I need help getting in front of the right opportunities.

If I brought someone in too early as a straight salesperson, I don’t think I would have the volume, structure, or consistent lead flow to make that role make sense. But someone who could help with content, outreach, applications, press, galleries, organization relationships, and opportunity tracking could probably move the needle faster for where I am right now.

That’s one of the hardest parts of being a one man show. You can be good at the work, but the work does not create opportunities by itself. Someone still has to package it, present it, promote it, and keep knocking on doors.