We created the “Artist Business Plan” template to help artists over this hump. Just $4.99 and you’ll have an instant download!

Additional helpful information can be found (as we mention in the introduction) at both the Small Business Administration (SBA) and SCORE is a sub-chapter of this organization.

Rieva Lesonsky

At the end of the year, most people are in dual modes of looking back at how their business did over the past year and looking forward to what can be improved in the New Year. It’s probably time to blow the dust off your old business plan and see what’s missing. Most likely, there’s room for significant improvement. Here are three ideas to craft a fresh and effective business plan for 2012……….

http://www.score.org/resources/columnists/rieva-lesonsky/three-things-business-plan

Think that living your dream and becoming an artist is about how talented you are?  It’s not about the talent, it’s about sticking with it! So what a great story about determination and perseverance! And hey, throw in a little revenge…..:-) Read this excerpt from the article about Barbara Corcoran (SHARK TANK!) and see if it does not inspire you to read the rest of the story!

………But you want to know, when I had the courage to end that partnership, he gave me the best gift of my life. He said to me, ‘You’ll never succeed without me.’ And I knew, right then and there that moment, I thought, ‘Oh yeah? I’d rather die than let you see me not succeed.’ And you know what? That was an insurance policy for success. Every time I was thinking of failing or giving up, I would think of one more thing, just because I didn’t want them laughing at me! Maybe not the best motivation but whatever, it worked for me.
http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2011/06/02/my-first-million-barbara-corcoran-the-corcoran-group/

Keep this whole thing in perspective. There is no need for an artist to “justify” her expenses to anyone.(and I use “her” as this seems to be a predominantly female trait!) Not to her friends, not to her spouse, not to her relatives. Art is no more expensive than golf, video games, gardening, fishing, scrapbooking or any other hobby that someone chooses to have.  Only in art does one’s hubby (and I see this with women ALL the time) say “you can sell this, Honey and make some money”.  Well why doesn’t he take his fish to market and pay for the boat? Or his golf score last week to sell and amaze on Ebay? You see my point.

So relax. Only when you find your sales REGULAR and “real” should you even consider going the business route. Regardless of all the “easy” ways to sell your art that “experts” all over the Internet are selling or advising, use plain old common sense. There is no such thing as an easy business .

Theresa
Art Career Experts

The good news with the results of our art marketing from the trenches (so to speak) is that we were slammed this Christmas with orders for our art! As entrepreneurs, we are used to the ups and downs of self employment and so are not as quick to blame “the economy” for everything that  is “not” happening.  We just work harder. Still it was nice to see clients loosening their purse strings and enjoying spending some of it with us!

Keep in mind too that none of our success this quarter was by accident. We did not stumble upon clients, burn incense or randomly hope they would show up at our studio….we continued to promote our art via our usual tried and true channels: in person, on Facebook, our monthly newsletters, phone, postcards, email…the point is that we persevered. We earned tens of thousands of dollars these past few months because we “kept at it.”  We were prepared whe it hapened.  We were successful not because we are the greatest artists around. Not because we have secret weapons for marketing art. Not because we lucked out. We earned what we earned through sheer hard work and the constant promotion of what we create.

It all goes back to the”rule of seven”-that the average client needs to see you, your message, your art, etc approximately 7 times before committing to investing in your product. Sometimes it is 4 times. Sometimes it is 9. But 7 is the average. So what does that tell you?  Did you go to one show and quit?  Did you offer one art class and quit? Did you send out newsletters twice and then quit? Did you email that prospect once and then quit? If you gave up after only one or two tries, you will never be able to realize your dream!

So look at 2011 as a new beginning! Layout, Study, Complete and Implement your business plan! Have a destination in mind before you start that journey! Then you will see that “making money with your art” is NOT random. It is because you stuck with it

Happy New Year!

Looking Good the First Time

Posted By Eilis Flynn on September 2, 2010

Author Eilis Flynn: The Reality Beyond

If you don’t bother to sepll-cehck, nobody’s going to take you seriously

by Eilis Flynn
1st Turning Point Crew Columnist
Copyright © 2010 Eilis Flynn

As a copy editor, the one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that everybody thinks that their spelling and grammar and punctuation are just fine.  “Oh, you don’t have to do anything to my work,” they always say, sometimes with a smirk.  “My mom’s always said that my writing was so good!”

Well, guess what?  Your mom lied.  Your work needs editing.  It needs to have the spelling double-checked (and no, if you’re an American, you can’t use British spelling, and no, you can’t just randomly capitalize words because you think it looks neat), the grammar double-checked (and since grammar is no longer being taught in schools, double-double-checked), and if you can’t figure out when to use a semicolon and when to use a colon, why would you think they’re interchangeable and everyone else is wrong when they say they’re not?

Anyway, as you might have gathered, I think it’s fair to say that everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to have their work proofed and read by someone else.  This needs to happen simply because your work—your writing—is the face by which you want to be known.  And if your work is littered with misspellings, poor grammar choices, and illiterate attempts at punctuation, your work doesn’t come off so good.  Spell-check, while it is a wonderful stopgap measure, can’t do it all.  First of all, remember that the feature was designed by engineers, and engineers are notoriously poor in their spelling, grammar, and punctuation choices.  And second, spell-check was designed to make sure that the words being used in the document are real.  Whether the words are appropriate in the document, again, that’s not spell-check’s job; it’s yours.

Haven’t you ever looked at a website that’s littered with typos and grammatical errors and winced?  Of course you have.  Everyone has. And if that website’s a retail site, trying to entice you to buy something, haven’t you had second thoughts about buying?  After all, if the website owner can’t be bothered to check for spelling and grammatical mistakes, who knows what else they aren’t bothering to do?  That goes for your writing, too.

So do yourself a favor.  Read and proofread your work.  Learn the grammatical rules and apply them to your own work.  Punctuation isn’t just a suggestion, it’s a given.  Make your writing the best it can be by making it the easiest to read.  Or I’ll hunt you down and I will use my red pen on your work.  Don’t think I won’t.

• Setting up a data base, and training someone to help me keep up with it.

• Printing some thank you cards to start sending out to all pet portrait clients.

• Getting back on track with sending out e-mail newsletters starting this month.

• Work harder to follow up with leads and dropped ball potential clients that for whatever reason fail to follow through with placing their portrait commissions.

• Remind myself every step of the way that having a marketing plan is not just about making more money or more sales, it is also about taking care of my clients after their portrait commission. I like my clients so much, and with the amount of repeat business I am fortunate to have I really need to take much better care of them after I deliver their artwork.

If you have been thinking of making your own prints from your artwork without spending a fortune or investing in a lot of expensive equipment, and you are not sure how to start or what to do, then our April 14th workshop is for you! We will not only cover everything you need to know about creating your own giclees but the best ways to market your prints after you have created them!

I hope none of you EVER participates in a show or sale where this is the headline grabber!

“Well”, you say, “What else should we use? It IS a sale and we ARE starving!”

Humor aside, think what you are implying. You might as well yell “ART GIVEAWAY!”or “CHEAP! ALMOST FREE!”
Most of all, who do you think you are going to attract? Even cheap won’t be good enough. They will still see you as desperate and negotiable.

Think creatively! The “outside the box” comes into play everywhere- your headlines, your signs, your ads…everything. So what else could you use? What words could you substitute for “starving artist sale?” Here are a few:

“spring art extravaganza! ”
“Artists celebrating Winter”
“Rainbow colors-Art of the Watercolor ”
“Winter Celebration in OILS”……the more you start to think about this the more ideas pop into your heads. In a few minutes you will have started to come up with something that fits your art product and captures a reader/viewer’s curiosity. Once they have either viewed your work in person or on your website, then you have attracted the people who you are most interested in.

If you use the starving artist sale headliner you will get the starving artist crowd. The ones with discretionary income simply assume it is not good art!

January Art Marketing Workshops

In the Raleigh NC area, we are holding two mini workshops on  Art Marketing!  Sign up is at the Jerry’s Art Store. The January 14 from 5-7 pm is sold out. The second (identical) will be Jan. 21 from 5-7.

We’ll keep you posted!