Build a Business
Around Your ART

What does it take for a creative entrepreneur to succeed?

What separates the artists and musicians who never get their ideas off the ground from the self-made icons who create global brands, perennial best-sellers, and have a lasting impact on their market - and society as a whole?

This is a question that the team here at Parsons Entrepreneur Academy have studied obsessively…

And the insight that has emerged… is that there are some key “factors” that nearly ALL successful entrepreneurs have in common.

Let’s call them… 

The 4 M’s of Entrepreneurial Success:

1 - Mindset

2 - Mentorship

3 - Methodology

4 - The Mastermind Effect

Now, to be clear, these 4 factors are the things that allow a talented, creative genius like yourself to make it in BUSINESS.

You wouldn’t be here, reading this, if you didn’t already have something incredible to add to the world… You’re already a talented and innovative artist,...

You’re starting a new creative business and you’ve got all the feels. You’re excited about the possibility that your art, music, designs, or creative work might impact more people. You’re eager to jump in and start making money from your art. And you’re worried about how much it’s going to cost and if you have enough money to cover your startup expenses. 

If this sounds like you, you need a  startup budget. A startup budget helps you plan your startup expenses, prioritize what’s most important, and keeps your spending on track. So you can spend less time worrying about money and more time being creative. 

Startup budget vs operational budget

Not all budgets are created equally, which is why it’s essential to understand the difference between an operational budget and a startup budget. 

An operational budget is a plan for how you’ll allocate the money you earn from your creative work. It’s based...

FFORA Founder Lucy Jones on how to build purpose into your mission-driven business, find mentors, work with investors, and protect your work.

Lucy Jones didn’t set out to have a career in fashion. “When I was younger, I thought it was just a hobby,” she says. After a textiles class opened her eyes to the possibilities, Jones enrolled in the Parsons BFA Fashion Design program and established her path. Her thesis project, Seated Design, which focused on clothing for the seated body, specifically people who use wheelchairs, won her the 2015 Womenswear Designer of the Year award and landed her on the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Since then, Jones has solidified her passion for creating clothing and accessories for people who have disabilities. In 2019, after an educational fellowship with Eileen Fisher and a stint at the XRC Labs accelerator program to focus her idea, she took a leap of faith to launch FFORA (a play on the phrase “fashion for all”), a line...