June 16, 2010

 ACE Newsletter

Success means doing what others don't want to do!

by M Theresa Brown

Hi [[firstname]] 

We have heard it all a thousand times before. "If I made my art my business I wouldn't enjoy it" or "selling art is only selling out" or...whatever. Who says these things? Artists who are afraid to try. Artists who hide behide rote statements that they personally know nothing about. I often wonder if they take comfort in those  crusading words as the years and opportunities pass? Yet we know that ANY objection is an invitation to tell people more. So we actually know, that these same artists would secretly LOVE to sell their art.  But fear of rejection and fear of going against the grain of conventional thinking of art marketing  keeps these dreams unfulfilled. And it is sad because you really don't know until you try, right? 

If you’ve been with us any length of time, either through our art marketing products or our online forums, you’ve heard us reveal one of the MAJOR discoveries (truths) of  what it took to become  successful artists:  “Successful artists force themselves to do the things the unsuccessful artists don’t want to do.”
This fact is why Steve and I have been able to live the lives of an artist. We have FORCED ourselves to learn and do the things we didn’t want to do – marketing, selling, pricing, and merchandising. We even continue learning about marketing as it changes constantly with every new invention for communication! We give credit to our initial epiphany that "there has to be a better way", not to any artist marketer, but to a marketing photographer, Charles J Lewis and although we adjusted and tweaked many things to fit into our artist life and business, we found that his marketing advice epitomizes and mirrors the advice of ALL successful entrepreneurs! So learning and applying that knowledge to those four areas of marketing, selling, pricing and merchandising is critical to your success as an artist!

Art marketing will change your career forever if you do it correctly. You will have people wanting to work with you, regardless of your fees. Why? Because your “target market” will know about you, and will WANT to work with you – regardless of the economy or your prices. What did we learn? Regardless of where you live, you can become a “big fish in a small but lucrative pond.” That’s the key to this. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.

Art sales can bring you thousands of dollars that you otherwise would never have had. In art, unlike perhaps car sales or time shares, we are not talking about  pressure....We're talking about using the proven principles of HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY to help your clients invest in your ART in ways that will GREATLY increase the enjoyment they receive from having your art in their lives.  We learned to find out what people want, and then help them to get it. Help them. Take good care of them. Give them exactly what they want. Do these things, using your talent, and you will prosper.

Art Pricing is another one of the most important aspects of your success. Most Artists charge way too little for their photography. They are scared to charge what they feel they are worth. We did. And as a single mom artist it was my biggest fear-the fear that raising my prices would lose my clients. If you have my CD you'll know the answer-I lost no clients. I just went to the next level of "qualified" clients! You must get over your fear of rejection. No matter what you charge, there will be people who will complain about what you charge. You can’t work with everyone anyway. So charge what you honestly feel you are worth – and then learn how to market and sell it and merchandise it in ways that will bring your “target market” to you even though your fees are considerably more than they initially were.(or you feel they are worth)

Art Merchandising is the area overlooked by artists.  This is HOW you put your products and services together into “collections” and other ways to make what you do very attractive and desirable to your target market. For example, all photographers  know that “collections” generally outsell a la carte. Facts like that can alter the way you merchandise your art product. If you don’t know them, you don’t make anywhere near what you should be making with your art.  In other words, think about the art you are selling. With portraits, for instance, you can often help your client invest in a larger portrait by offering, for an additional cost, prints of the portrait (for the grandparents, etc.) that easily help the client to "justify" the added investment! Seriously think about what you create and how you can do something similar.  

So our advice: put as much time and effort into these four areas as you do into your art and computer skills. You will grow and prosper beyond what you ever thought possible and at the same time, enrich the lives of your clients with your art! The huge point is that YOU must believe that your client NEEDS your art!

Here are two quotes you might find interesting on this subject:

“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” – Thomas Edison

“There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.” – Michael Dell

Until Later,
Theresa and Steve