“I failed… now I’m making millions”

ALESSANDRA SALITURI, 31, became an art dealer aged 19. Now she owns Citizen Atelier, an online gallery loved by the likes of Jessica Alba. Read on

Find key people to collaborate with When I first started Citizen Atelier, I had to get the website seen by the right people for it to take off. So I started by looking for high-profile influencers on social media and within the art world to collaborate with and gift pieces to. I contacted a well-known interior designer, Christine Dovey, who allowed me to run a giveaway on her site and partnered with us on some of her own projects, which created buzz and led to artwork from my site appearing in Jessica Alba’s bedroom, after just four months of being live. Connecting with those who already have an established platform is crucial in getting a business off the ground, but you have to offer something in return. Spend 30 minutes each day learning

Each morning I spend half an hour absorbing knowledge from successful business brains in various fields. I’ll look up interviews or TedTalks on YouTube, or use the Blinkist app, which condenses entire non-fiction books into 15 minutes. I didn’t have anybody to look to for guidance when I wanted to set up my own business, so tapping into the stories of other successful people was crucial. ➤ Never underestimate the power of PR I first began selling art aged 19 for my mum, who’s an artist. I spent a year building a website for her that I had invested my own money into and was proud of, only for it to fail spectacularly: we sold three prints. It sounds naïve now, but I thought if I created a great product, people would automatically flock to it. I learnt the hard way that that’s definitely not the case. Now I say that 70% of your business is marketing your product and a great product is the remaining 30%. ➤ Don’t overshare your goals When it comes to building a business, it can definitely be a case of too many cooks spoil the broth, so I only share certain aspects with certain people when I need a second opinion. Think of your business as broken down into blocks: marketing, financing, the product, etc. Arrange lunches with friends or connections who specialise in each aspect to discuss that element with. You don’t need a friend who is in finance to comment on branding – keep it separate.