Artists Investing in their Businesses

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CIAI was pondering the investment required for my one-on-one artist consulting and coaching services.  Recently it has been suggested to me that the cost of these services are too low for the value that’s provided.  Although every one of my artist clients is different, and so are their results, most artists increase their sales to cover the fee during the time we’re working together.  If they don’t, artists can see clearly how they will increase their sales the near future.

This got me thinking and I decided to examine the current annual cost of the fine art education that I received. I attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, established in 1882, a prestigious member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.  This year the annual tuition is $47,780! The investment for my services? They’re a small fraction of the current annual tuition.

In 1987, the bachelors program I attended required five years.  I can’t imagine taking on that investment of money and time at this point in my life without a clear path to success in mind.  But for those students who have, I wish them the very best.  Because the odds are not good, even with the finest education from a prestigious art school.

Part of the artist dropout is simply unavoidable but tragically much of this is avoidable.  Even the very best art schools do not adequately prepare their graduates for the realities of the art market. If a student wants to become, and remain, a professional artist they’re going to have to make an additional investment.  That is an investment of time, money, and effort in learning and applying business and marketing principles to their art career, or rather, their art “business.”  If there’s no employer involved, we’re talking about a business, not a career.

I’ve said before that I believe that becoming a top artistic talent is much more of a challenge than learning about marketing and the business of art.  Evidence of this abounds.  We see mediocre talent in the art and music industries everyday. What’s happening?  A lot of mediocre does well when it is effectively targeted to a well-defined market.

Besides instruction, just think of what we must invest in art supplies, photography, framing, or show fees, etc.  Now why is it that are we not investing more in our businesses?

So you want to publish a book of your art?

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-guest post by Ralph James, an Artist Who THRIVE community member (We welcome your submissions.)

A published collection of an artist’s work can be a powerful marketing tool. But only when the publishing process is carefully planned well ahead of the actual design and printing. Lacking adequate information and a good strategy, it can be a colossal waste of time and money, time better spent on your art.

This is intended to be a brief overview of where to begin. For a more complete description of design, materials, and printing, I would like to direct you to my web site for a more extensive article I wrote on these subjects.

Learn more at…

https://ralphgradyjames.com/PrintingYourBook.html.

Your first consideration should be, why do you want to print a book and what is the end use of your book? Is it to showcase your art, or maybe to teach art technique and theory? You may think these are silly questions, but they are foundational in your planning and often overlooked or ignored. The reason they are important is because the design, the narrative, the marketing of your book, and even the type of binding and materials used should reflect and agree with these objectives.

If you plan on selling your book, what compelling reason does a customer have for purchasing your book? Let’s face it: you may be a great artist, but unless you are nationally or internationally known, basing your sales only on displaying images of your work will limit your sales. Consider designing your publication with several levels of appeal. For instance, if you also teach something new about technique or business, or share beautiful places to create art, then you’ve increased your potential market.

The last critical thing to ask is do you have the funds to finish your project? Take the time to think through your project from beginning to end and make sure not only to include design and printing cost but also think about any associated costs, such as advertising, shipping, or storage. Also, remember, because of the time required in design and print production, it may be a while before your book is ready to start returning your investment.

I want to encourage anyone interested in publishing a book to go for it! It can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience if you are willing to invest a little time and thought before beginning. It will also leave a legacy for the future, which is priceless.

What was your worst ever gallery experience? or one that you know of?

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All right, I’ll go first.  I have a few experiences with art galleries and let me just say they are not all bad.  But I’ll share the first one that pops into my mind. A  gallery owner asked if I would participate in a fund raising auction.  I was to receive one half of the sales price and I set the starting bid.  This is the only way to go (if) you are going to participate in a charity auction, which generally I do NOT recommend.

Anyway, one of the two framed paintings I offered sold and fetched a good price.  The other painting was actually returned to me in a perfectly sound and stable box.  But when I opened it, I discovered the frame had been shattered into smithereens and the oil painting was just laying on top of the frame fragments.  No note, no call, nothing from the gallery owner who sent it. I think the gallery owner was just being hateful and to this day, I honestly don’t know why. I wrote him emails, I left him messages, and I sent him letters trying to get an explanation and payment for the broken frame.  Again, nothing, no response.

So I contacted the Executive Director of the charity and I let her know what had happened, and I shared my obvious displeasure.   She was appropriately horrified about the way I had been treated and the charity promptly reimbursed me for the frame.  The gallery owner, I’ve never heard from him.

Needless to say, this gallery may offer excellent representation to some artists.  But just in case, I’m happy to offer fair warning below and to a provide a blog that  explores profitable alternatives.

https://www.efgallery.com/

https://artistswhothrive.com/

Time Spent Creating versus Marketing

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People often ask how much time I spend engaged in my company’s sales, marketing, and administrative work.  I would estimate that I can spend about 50%-80% of my time.

Not so romantic, but it’s vitally necessary.  The good news is that I don’t mind it.  Many years in the corporate cubicle trained me for it but I’m investing in my business now.  And its what we must do if we want to build our brands so that we can spend more relaxed time creating.  I doubt it’s much different for other young businesses.

I’m also asked “Would I rather be painting?”  The answer is, not necessarily. I enjoy business and I particularly enjoy art marketing strategy.  Again it’s not an either or proposition.

But yes, when I do paint its like entering another realm.  The time flies, I’m relaxed and engaged in an entirely different and purely creative way.  My thoughts are focused; I’m peaceful and emotionally responsive.  The skills and experience I’m drawing on and developing are entirely different.

The good news is that over the past four years my on-line art sales have averaged about 8% of my total sales.  These sales are the easiest and most profitable transactions.  But in 2009, that number jumped to 27%.  What does that mean?  I have more time to create.  And I’m very happy about that.

Biggest Mistake Artists make in their Careers

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I was recently interviewed for an article profiling successful artists.  The interviewer asked, “What are the biggest mistakes that you see artists making in planning their careers?”

That was easy to answer.  The biggest mistake that I see an artist making early, and sometimes too late, is that they do not recognize and or respect the fact that they are “in business”.  It’s not a career!

Artists are not sure how to even start to be savvy entrepreneurs.  They are trying, often without much success, to follow a prescribed career model of working solely with art galleries and keeping their fingers crossed that one day that this tired formula will work.  The problem is that this scarcity and permission based model does not work 99.9% of the time.  And if it does, too many art galleries fold.  Those are not good odds and this does not make for sound risk management.

Part of this mindset is ingrained by a cultural stereotype that artists should not, or could not, be concerned with money and business.  I can’t tell you how much I hear this disrespectful crap. So I purposely have my full title on my business cards and the footer of my emails, “Ann Rea, Artist, CEO, Ann Rea, Inc.”

One of my favorite quotes by Oscar Wilde is “When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money.”

The good news is that there’s a lot of money changing hands in the art industry, and artists can get their piece of the pie.

I’ll remind artists that I consult with that no one is going to “discover” them, no one is coming to save them.   But once an artist recognizes, respects, and embraces their business, we’re ready to work together.

And those artists who I work with have surprised and delighted me with the leaps of progress that they make.  And they even inspire me to up my game, to dream bigger, make a plan, and move into planned action.

Back it up! Every which way!

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I’m typing on my iMac after a huge data fire.  I’m still sifting through the charred remains of my intellectual property.  The digital images that I reproduce of my paintings are responsible for well over half of my annual income.

When I bought my shiny new iMac last year I thought that I was smart because I bought the computer system that they recommended to me at the Apple store.  I bought an external hard drive to store my huge image files and that hard drive contained another drive that would mirror my data, two backups.

But one morning I was getting ready to print one of my images and my hard drive was not in my finder window.  What?!

Here’s what happened. Despite what they sold me, they did NOT configure the external hard drive correctly. I only had one drive and it was fried.

After a whole lot of valuable time, I’m still discovering what creative assets have been lost, and maybe forever.

Fortunately, most of the unformatted images were backed up on CD but each one has to be painstakingly reformatted to print.  And that’s time that I could be spending painting or selling.

To the credit of the Apple Store on Chestnut they tried their best to make it right.  One of their Geniuses even walked me through setting my system back up after he had clocked out.

What now?  I do have an external hard drive, with two drives, configured properly.  And in case a tsunami comes roaring through my window off of the Pacific Ocean, I’ll be backing up to Mozy, an online data storage site.  For $4.95 per month, I have unlimited storage, which I’ll need for my huge .tiff files.

Learn from my pain.  Your images, your creative assets, could represent significant future income.  Take the simple steps necessary to safe guard them.

Quick Insights after 12 Coaching Sessions with Ann Rea

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Once I’ve worked with an artist for six months I like to ask them what they’ve learned.  Obviously, it helps me help other artists, it lets us both know what progress they’ve made, and it helps reinforce what they have learned.

So I asked Colleen Attara, a Mixed media eco-artist from Philadelphia, to share at least ten things that she’s learned in the last six months or insights that she has gained.  I suggested that she not labor over this exercise but simply rattle off what popped into her head.

I asked for ten, she gave me sixteen, quoted below.  Colleen agreed to share what she learned so that other artists in this community could also benefit from her experience.

  1. Know what unique value you bring to the seller.
  2. You run your own show.
  3. Talk size, not price.
  4. Never discount your work; it is unfair to your collectors.  Instead offer value; i.e.:  shipping, cards etc.
  5. Your website design should not overpower your art.
  6. Write down your policies and how you do business; this will allow more time to create and sell.
  7. Write your bio in 3rd person; let others speak highly for you.
  8. Write down six things you are going to accomplish before going to bed.
  9. It is hard to control time, but you can control your priorities.
  10. *Positive energy sells art.
  11. *See what you want to be as an artist.  Have that vision, put it on paper……and watch what happens.
  12. Protect your art and your images.
  13. Make the buying process as easy as possible.  Wine and credit cards are very good.
  14. Position yourself as an authority. Talk to groups of people.
  15. Contact interested buyers and past buyers once a month.
  16. Showing art and selling art are two different things.

* knew this; needed the reminder

Do you think that these insights have helped Colleen’s business and increased her sales?  You bet!  So if your ready to invest in your career, applying for coaching, click here.

Academy of Art University of San Francisco – Ending an Artist’s Career Before it Starts?

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The Academy of Art University of San Francisco was founded in 1929 and it currently has almost 16,000 students enrolled.  The Art Academy is a for-profit (not a dirty word) institution and a Hasbro Monopoly-like landlord of San Francisco.

I’ve hired several eager and capable interns from the Academy of Art and I have to say that I’m concerned that they will, like so many graduates with a fine art degree, never be full time artists.

I’ve got no doubt that they have received capable art instruction or the Academy of Art couldn’t possibly enroll so many students.  However, it puzzled me to learn that the Academy of Art has no admission requirements.  Prospective art students do not have to have “any art experience.”  They don’t even have to show a portfolio of their work.

Can you imagine applying for Julliard and not having to audition?  Images of American Idol come to mind.  We all know that the arts are a tough business so stacking the odds in your favor with the best education available is a minimal strategy.

It also appears that the Academy of Art University pays little to no attention to teaching the business and marketing aspects of selling one’s art.  This is mission critical and this missing piece of education could end an artist’s career before it starts.

Like it or not, art school graduates had better be good at something else besides creativity or they’re not going to make it.

The good news, in my opinion, is that developing a “marketing mindset” is not that difficult nor is it beyond the capability of a reasonably intelligent person.  So why not make business and marketing a cornerstone of the standard curriculum?  One reason?  Because generally professors are academics, not entrepreneurs.  And so there’s no need for them to fuss about unique value propositions and target markets, or even respect these basic business concepts.  But guess what?! A thriving full time artist is an entrepreneur extraordinaire.

What’s your attitude?

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I have experience coaching and consulting with artists, from across the globe on their business and their marketing.  And what I have been struck by is the number one determining factor of their success.

And that success factor, hands down, is their attitude.  Of course their artistic training, their talent, their marketing strategy, are vital factors but they are just the basic cooking ingredients. They are the chef that needs to cook the recipe.

And despite the fact that my artist clients have hired me specifically to coach and consult with them on growing their businesses, for some of them, we spend a LOT of time on examining and adjusting their attitude.

Despite inevitable setbacks, those artists who maintain a positive attitude are the ones that I have witnessed reach success with more ease and in less time.

If you’re reading the Artists Who THRIVE it is most likely because you want to grow your art business.  If that is so, then what is your attitude? You know, most of the time?  What do you believe about yourself? About your work?  About selling your work?

Don’t underestimate the importance of this question.  Be honest.  The truth will set you free.  And the truth is the first place to start when you want to make a change.

What are you doing to manage your attitude? Do you meditate?  Exercise? Do you have focus?  Do you have a well thought out plan to reach your market?  Do you know who your market is?

Steering your attitude is a discipline and it’s a choice.  What choice do you make each day?

Going to Hollywood

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We all know it.  There are a whole lot of artist wanna-bes. This month I was in Beverly Hills for a number of evening events with famed chef  Thomas Keller.  I was having lunch one day and I couldn’t help but to overhear a group of men talking about actors.  One remarked that Hollywood, as the hub of the film, TV, and the music industry, must have the highest number of broken dreams per capita.

He went on to say that he has met so many who announce themselves as actors but they really haven’t, and don’t, do much.  They exert a minimal amount of effort, taking occasional acting lessons, and inconsistently going on auditions, to maintain a thin veneer of identity as an actor.  And it’s really the identity that they’re invested in, not the diligence required to be an actor.

Then he said there are a few actors who are relentlessly pursuing their career.  Doing whatever it takes, without complaint, because they are committed, they will not be dissuaded, and they are talented.  They accept rejection as par for the course.

It sounded all too familiar.

During my events in Beverly Hills an actor was hired to assist me. He shared his experience as an actor in Hollywood.  We mused about whether it was more difficult to achieve success as an actor or as a painter.  I maintained that he had a tougher road because his industry was even more scarcity and permission based. Without having your Actor’s Guild card, the number of auditions you can go to is limited.  And without the right part, fulfilling specific criteria, you can’t get your card.  A vicious circle.

The next day I met a patron, who is also a friend, for lunch at the famed Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel and we sat among they Hollywood glittered and saw a number of recognizable faces.  I thought of my actor assistant and I was struck by the limits of his opportunities.  But when I decided to become a painter, the limits of the art world did not daunt me. I thought only of how I could create more value to set myself apart.