1. Duplicate the template

If you already know how to do this, feel free to skip this section!

For everyone else:

• If you don’t yet have a Notion account, sign up here.
• If you do have a Notion account, I suggest that you first create an empty workspace before proceeding with duplication. This isn’t a large workspace, but it might help with organization and concentration to start fresh.
  • This is unless you already have an art-business-related workspace! In that case, duplicate this into there for an easier time moving over info afterwards.

Steps

1. Click on the Duplicate button at the top right corner of the landing page. You might also see a Start with this template button instead; if so, click it.

   

   or

   

2. Once you’ve optionally logged in, you’ll see this popup:

   

3. Select the workspace to duplicate this template into. This page does not allow for on-the-fly workspace creation for some reason, so if you would like to duplicate into a new one, simply do so in another tab, then refresh the page.

4. That’s it! The template has now been duplicated into your workspace.

   

   I recommend that you expand the sidebar to two levels in order get a clear overview of what this template has to offer.

   

   There are no nested pages beyond this, so no need to expand more.

2. Use your new workspace

Feel free to explore! Here is the suggested workflow (though note that just the first few steps might be a multi-day or continuous, month(s)-long process):

1. Go to the page and write down one or two upcoming events. You can take a look at the same content to get a feel of what will be generated when you create a new event.
2. Brainstorm some product ideas! There are two great places to do this:
   1. Go to the What to sell section in the General notes pages and list out some product types that you might have design ideas for. Ex. Stickers, keychains, pins, etc.
   2. Once you’ve gotten down the types, it’s time to get specific! Go to the , check out the column descriptions, switch to the Idea bucket view, and go ham; this time, add specific, individual designs to the table.
3. Now that you’ve thought up some concrete stuff you’d like to sell:
   1. Compile a list of manufacturers on the General notes that will help make the products you planned, if not self-producing. Vograce for example is a popular manufacturer that will help make all sorts of stuff…but beware heavy shipping and duty fees!
   2. On the Schedule page of the closest event (ex. Schedule ): Think of your priorities and how much time you’ve got to produce everything. This is where you will jot down a quick ordered list of how production is probably going to go down; and if you’re not sure, just place the things that will take the longest to manufacture at the top! The previously mentioned Vograce tends to have long shipping times if you’re based in North America.
4. Once you’ve got the basic schedule down, go back to the . Look through your idea bucket and decide on everything that you really want to do for your upcoming con, based on the time it’ll take and the estimated popularity (and your desire to do it!). While this can change in the future, establishing a basis early on is still useful. Simply uncheck the ‘Maybe’ checkbox at the end of the item’s row to set it as a ‘must-do’!
5. Now that you have a list of things that you are going to be working on for the next x months, switch to the Todo view; all the must-dos will be there. Based on the schedule you had come up with in step 3b, start adding priorities to all of the items—the table will automatically put the highest priority ones at the top. This gives you absolute clarity on exactly what needs to be done first, allowing you to go to the next step with confidence.
6. It’s finally time to properly schedule your work! Switch to the Calendar view, and check out this guide on how to get your schedule set up.
   1. Note that it is not necessary to put down all tasks at once; motivation is important, so it’s fine to only place down one or two tasks that you genuinely feel like working on first (though their priority must be considered as well). The key here is that you should have a good idea on how long you have for each task (especially based on the art style, merch type, and your own speed), such that empty future slots won’t cause you to go completely off track.