What does it mean to 'do things that don't scale' as an artist?

Doing things that don’t scale means engaging in manual, time-intensive, one-on-one activities that help you build your business early on—activities you couldn’t possibly maintain at a larger scale. These are scrappy, hands-on tactics that bigger businesses simply can’t do. For artists, this might mean personally reaching out to every new follower, handwriting messages, offering special deals to early supporters, or doing custom work that’s too time-consuming to offer long-term. These activities help you build relationships, understand your audience, and create the foundation for growth. They’re essential in the startup phase but naturally fall away as you scale up.

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Asked by an artist building their business · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2017-06-12