Artists Who THRIVE

Make art and make money, business planning and strategic marketing for artists

Traditional business plans do not work for artists. Why?

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Traditional business plans do not work for artists. Why? Because Artists sell emotions.

Artists are really in the business of selling emotions and that is why traditional business plans do not work for artists and that is also why artists don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs.

We artists actually sell “products” that evoke feeling, products that connect the buyer with their humanity. That’s much more powerful value than a pair of new sneakers or the latest technical gadget.

So a huge amount of money always has and always will change hands in the art market.

According to “The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) estimates, 3.2 percent — or $504 billion — of current-dollar GDP in 2011 was attributable to arts and culture.”

In comparison, “BEA’s estimated value of the U.S. travel and tourism industry was 2.8 percent of GDP.”

What prevents artists from getting their share? Simple. They see themselves just as artists and not as entrepreneurs.

A successful attorney who runs their own practice is an attorney and an entrepreneur. A plumber who sells their services a plumber and an entrepreneur. You get the picture.

“Every artist is an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur is an artist”, so eloquently stated by my friend Dr. ‘E’ (Elliot McGucken) whose “Hero’s Odyssey in Arts Entrepreneurship, Business, and Technology” Course has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Business Week.

So why don’t artists see themselves as entrepreneurs?

The confusion is fueled by the loud and unquestioned “Starving Artist” slur, a disrespectful and destructive belief.

Ironically, this slander is continuously broadcast by the same culture and economy that values art so highly, 3.2 % of the US Gross Domestic Product!

So why else are the “manufactures” of these highly valued “products” so very confused?

Because an artist often can’t see beyond how they feel about their product.

Why?

Because unlike traditional businesses, artists sell products that reflect what is deeply and personally meaningful to them.

Target market? That is not something they even mention in art school.

So artists don’t identify with traditional business and traditional business does not identify with artists. Each party is often outright hostile towards each other.

Artists believe that their values are different from business people and they don’t speak the same language. We often hate what we don’t understand and what intimidates us.

However, successful artistic and conventional entrepreneurs have much more in common that they think.

They each have to effectively answer these questions.

  1. Who are you and what do you stand for?
  2. What do you stand against?
  3. What problem is your product solving that is really worth solving?
  4. How do you solve this problem in a way that is unique and effective?
  5. Who has this problem? Who is your target market?
  6. Where and how can you find your target market?

If you want to make art and make money you must be able to answer these questions in clearly. No B.S. No fluff. Your artist statements won’t help.

Can you answer these questions? If not, start to by giving it a try. We all have to start somewhere. There’s no shame it that.

Please share below.

 

 

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

You’ve just graduated from art school. Congratulations. You’re Fucked Robert De Niro

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Robert De Niro delivered an ironically inspiring commencement speech by opening with, “You made it. You’ve graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts and you’re fucked.”

Sadly, De Niro is generally right. These art students are fucked and the audience is roaring because they all know it.

Why are art school graduates fucked? For starters, Tisch School of the Arts students are currently paying an annual tuition of over $50,000, not to mention the expense of living in New York City.

When we trade a future filled with inescapable student loan debt for the very dim hope of a bright future as an artist, we screw ourselves.

What destroys artists is their banking on hope rather than taking planned and focused action.

The sad thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way. The Internet gives us a fighting chance to build and own our platforms and connect directly to our fans and collectors.

But art schools are skipping this subject and heaping some of the highest amounts of inescapable student loan debt on their students while teaching them skills that will render them ill equipped to repay their debts.

According to the Wall Street Journal, arts-focused schools are shown to rack up THE most student loan debt. The default rates are so high that US Department of Education has arts focused schools under much needed scrutiny.

What’s also really sad is that in a few short years from their commencement, these enthusiastic art school graduates will stop making art all together.

Why?

The demands of repaying of student loan bills, then car payments, and increasing rent, and children, you get the picture, will eventually twist them away from their passion and point them towards a sensible job. If these art school graduates are lucky enough to get a sensible job based on their unmarketable skill set.

Now hold up. I’m not talking about graphic and industrial design majors. If they’re talented, experienced, and connected, their prospects are much brighter.

Art students may have learned how to make art in art school but they haven’t learned how to make money from their art.

De Niro asserts, although these art students are fucked, The good news is that’s not a bad place to start because, “you’re path is not easy but it’s clear.”

I disagree.

Our path is not clear. One trip to the Career Office at your local art school will confirm this.

The Career Office does not have the answers and it’s not their fault.

Why? Art schools teach how us how to make “art.” They won’t and they just can’t teach “sales and marketing schools for solo-preneurs.”

In fact, business schools don’t even teach sales and marketing for solo-preneurs.

Even if art schools could teach you the necessary skills vital to running a small business, art school academics are the very last group I would turn to.

Why? Academics are not a reliable and current resource to learn about how to build a business. You need to learn from someone who has been there and done that.

Academics are just not entrepreneurs; they are academics, employees, with an employee mindset.

Entrepreneurs learn about how to build a business from other entrepreneurs. Always have.

Let’s keep this real. Some artists have absolutely no interest in business.

Guess what? It’s these artists who are really fucked.

So what’s the answer? We need to start with an honest conversation before students limit their futures by shackling themselves with debt.

De Niro goes on to explain that these art students didn’t have a choice, that they succumbed to this choice because of the nature of being an artist.

An artist’s “common sense” is trumped by their passion.

Bullshit.

De Niro is implying that passion and common sense are opposing and incompatible forces.

Please don’t swallow this destructive assumption.

Succumbing to one’s artistic passion does not equal succumbing to bad sense.

We are all responsible for our own well being, regardless of what we do for a living.

The fact is, passion, creativity, and strategic thinking, the highest form of common sense, are the very best combination for entrepreneurship. And this is exactly what we artists are wired for.

Could we please just stop with this false, limiting, and very tired assertion that artists just don’t possess good sense? It’s condescending and disrespectful.

It’s not true of me and it’s not true of so many artists who I have had the pleasure and privilege to work with.

What do you think? Are you “fucked?” If so, tell us why.

 

 

 

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

The Top Art and Design Schools Alumni and Career Offices Hold Back Their Welcome Wagons

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The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Here’s why…

I recently re-launched The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester, eight, interactive, foundational, business courses teaching a proven, iterative, sequential process of building a profitable artistic enterprise while connecting a community of Artists Who THRIVE.

I thought it would be a fantastic idea to partner with the top art and design schools by giving their alumni free access to two hours of high quality online training. For each alumnus who enrolled in The Semester, I offered to make a donation to their art school’s endowment.

The top art and design schools have woefully unfunded endowments and that is the main reason why their tuition rates are so steep.

It actually costs more to attend the Rhode Island School of Design than it does to attend Harvard Law School.

Yet you’d probably be more successful selling your art if you attended Harvard Law School because at least your alumni network could easily afford it.

The other big problem that U.S. art and design schools are facing down is that the U.S. Department of Education has them under much stricter scrutiny and they are limiting the number of student loans to art students.

Why? Because the high loan default rate of art students who are graduating, or not graduating, from art and design schools, without marketable skills, is a real problem.

I thought when I reached out to the top art and design schools they would either:

  • Love the idea
  • Ignore the offer
  • Or somehow perceive my offer as competition, even though the program is limited to art school alumni and not students

As you can guess, the response from the top art and design schools was very mixed, generally including:

  1. We would first like to see your curriculum. (I’ll bet you would. But I own and protect my intellectual property, as I instruct other artists to do. In fact, I’ve trademarked “making art making money.”)
  2. What you are offering competes with our career office’s services. (I don’t think so because you just used the word “career” and there are no jobs for fine artists so they don’t have “careers”, they have businesses.)
  3. We are not interested in participating “at this time.” (As if there will be a next time.)
  4. Last but not least, an “Associate”, you know who you are, from one of the most established art and design schools scowled at me, “What could you possibly have to offer that the staff in this Career Office, with over 100 years of collective experience, has to offer?!” (Let’s start with kindness and professionalism.) It gets worse but I’ll spare you.

Giving art and design school alumni free training and their school’s endowments ongoing donations. What was I thinking!?

I know that the path to hell is often paved with good intentions.

But the fact is the alumni from the top art and design schools are already reaching out to me. They have been for over a decade.

Alumni from the top art and design schools are applying to The Semester, they are reading this blog, and they are booking phone consults with me.

Why? because these artists are not getting what they need from their “career” offices and or their alumni departments. They want to make art and make money and they don’t know how. They need help.

Art school alumni paid a huge premium for their tuition and many are now forever shackled with inescapable student loan debt. They are looking for a return on that investment of precious money and time.

One art school representative said, “If it were just up to me, we would partner with you immediately but I just can not use the words ‘making art’ and ‘making money’ in the same sentence with the administration of this art school. I work with ‘Marxists.'”

I responded, “Let me just guess, you have a pretty bad relationship with a most of your alumni, don’t you?” “Yes, we do. They just don’t want to engage with us.”

She was actually very polite and more receptive than most but she never phoned me back as she said she would.

There’s a big fat elephant in the living room and I’m not havin’ it.

We’ll just go around the obstacle, the permission and scarcity based art establishment. That’s the beautiful thing about the Internet.

How has the career or alumni office at your art school helped you? I’d love to hear some really good examples. Please share below.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

When do you know you that you are ready to quit your “day job” to become a full-time artist?

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When do you know that you are really ready to quit your “day job” and become a full-time artist?

I jumped in with both feet but I do NOT recommend this.

I do recommend that you first examine the following seven factors.

  1. Do the math. It never lies.
  • What are your monthly living expenses?
  • How much do you need to bring in from your art sales to cover your living expenses, accumulate some savings, and pay your taxes?
  • Do you have a year’s worth of living expenses in the bank in case your art sales tank?
  1. What does your support network look like?
  • Do you have a group of loyal collectors?
  • Mentors?
  • Friends who really believe in you?

Don’t underestimate this factor. We all need encouragement when we are taking a new path in life.

It’s so much easier to take on a big challenge when you have friends and family who really have your back.

  1. Do you have talent that is affirmed by sales?

Do have talent and that it has been recognized by experts other than your friends and family?

Creative talent is very subjective but one reliable measure is your sales history.

  1. What is your motivation?

Do you just want to get away from a job you hate?

Better to get another job that you can deal with and that doesn’t drain you while building your artistic enterprise part-time.

Move towards a clear goal that inspires you rather than run away from your dissatisfaction.

Hint: Having a clear written exit plan makes a dissatisfying day job a means to an end rather than an on-going burden.

  1. Do you have a Making MONEY Plan?

A plan to do business without a plan, is a plan to do no business.

In The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester students create their Making MONEY Plan. Although it is a simple one-page outline, creating it is not.

So I can’t give you a quick lesson on how to do this in the space of this blog post.

  1. Are you willing to do what it takes?

A day job is easy and breezy compared to a start up.

Why? You receive a consistent paycheck.

That goes away when you start your own business and so you need to be prepared financially and mentally to hustle.

  1. Are you self disciplined?

You’ll be the boss of you and your employee. That employee would be you.

  • How well do each of you perform?
  • Do you have a positive attitude?
  • Do you know how to manage fear and stress?
  • Can you cap your inefficient perfectionist tendencies?
  • Do you set and achieve your goals?
  • Do you always meet your commitments?
  • Do you deliver excellent customer service?

Honestly, I did not have each of these seven factors in place and it worked out.

But I would much rather that you stack as many odds in your favor as possible before you take the plunge into life as a full-time artist.

  1. My art sales record did not justify a full-time venture.
  2. I did not know anyone in San Francisco, my new home and I had no family support, partner, or Sugar Daddy.
  3. I felt that I had talent because my mentors Wayne Thiebaud and Gregory Kondos assured me that I did. But what really mattered is what the market thought. They were not going to pay my bills.
  4. I hated my job; my last boss earned the nickname Snotty Scotty from his colleagues.

If being a “full-time” artist is your goal ask yourself why?

If it’s just to affirm your identity as a serious artist, I’ve got news for you. That is not a good enough reason.

Are you a full-time artist, who is not receiving any financial subsidies?

Are you a part-time artist who wants to become a full-time artist?

Why? I’d LOVE to know. Please leave a comment below.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

You are Not a Real Artist

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You are not a real artist.

You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.

Have you heard this? Maybe you’ve actually said it and meant it?

Over the years I have be subjected to a number of rules that other people expected me to live by.

When I lived by unquestioned rules that did not serve me I have been injured.

So let’s have a good long look at this rule, “You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.”

The truth is that the only reason that I am a “full-time Artist” is for two reasons:

  1. I’m unemployable. I haven’t updated my resume in about 15 years.
  2. I don’t like following rules just for the sake of it. And when you work for someone else you have to follow their rules.

Before I was a “full-time” Artist I was a “part-time” Artist.

When I quit my job and moved to San Francisco to be a “full-time” Artist, I had invested several years as a “part-time” Artist.

By the way, I don’t recommend doing what I did.

Why? There are smarter and less pressured ways to become a full-time Artist.

My art definitely changed and evolved when I became a “full-time” Artist because I had more time to make it.

But I was the same person, the same artist. I did not become a more real person or a more real artist.

I’m bringing this up because there are many artists who I’ve worked with who happen to have a day job and they don’t hate it. Thankfully.

These Artists also enjoy the stability of receiving a consistent paycheck. Amen. What’s the shame in that?

Artists Who THRIVE is all about making art and making money while thriving.

How much time should you devote to making art and making money? That’s entirely up to you. There is no mandate.

“You are not a Real Artist unless you are a Full-Time Artist.”

Really? Says who? And on what authority?

Where is this ruling coming from?

I’ll tell you where this rule, or judgment, is coming from.

It’s coming from other artists who are struggling financially and justifying their choices by asserting this myth.

Are the “full-time” artists who receive financial subsidies from their family or partners “real Artists?”

Look. If you really believe this rule, that’s cool. But don’t be smug and arrogant by imposing it upon other artists. Live and let live. “Do you.”

I know many talented Artists who also fulfill other roles that are important to them, which makes their pursuit of making art and making money, part-time.

So if this rule does not serve you, and you’ve been living by it, consciously or unconsciously, give it a rest.

The point is to pursue a healthy and happy balance that works for you. Living by other people’s standards will always lead to disappointment.

Is there a committee that christens Artists? I don’t thinks so; art is in the eye of the beholder.

If there is a committee, it’s not other artists. It’s our collectors.

How has this rule unnecessarily pressured you or eroded your confidence? I want to know.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

Your Artist’s Statement is Irrelevant

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Yes. You read that correctly. Your artist’s statement is irrelevant.

Why? Because no one really gives a damn.

Because an artist’s statement is about you and your creative process and it is usually nearly impossible for collectors to understand what the heck you are talking about, much less sincerely care.

If you want to sell your art then it can’t be all  about you. It has got to be about them, your target market. When you make it all about them, then it will be all about you.

Yet artists cling so tightly to their artist statements hoping that they will do the job in place of a real marketing message.

Hoping is not marketing.

Selling art is a privilege; it’s not a right.

The fact that you really really want to sell your art and be recognized as an artist has no absolutely no bearing on how marketable your art is.

“Just do what you love and the money will follow” is bullshit.

If people paid you for just doing what you love to do, when it pleased you, that would be charity, not business.

Do you really want charity or do you want to add value?

Now if you want to do, what you want, whenever you want to do it, for your pleasure, cool. Do it. That’s called a hobby and there is absolutely no shame in that.

But you will never be able to pass off a hobby as a business.
Why? The market won’t let you.
How? They won’t pay you.

Selling art is a very big business and it is subject to the same basic economic rules that all other businesses operate under.

If you want to grow your creative enterprise then you have to solve a problem or alleviate a pain.

This is very challenging concept for many artists to get their heads wrapped around.

I get it. I am introducing a new world-view to many artists but you know deep down that I’m right. You have deliver value to get paid.

Most artists have no idea where to start to define their unique value proposition and the target market it serves or what this really even means. I didn’t know.

Determining your unique value proposition and the target market that you serve, or don’t, takes time and brutal honesty. In fact, answering this vital question is the central thesis that I teach in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.

The other principle that I teach is that artists should not try to sell their art. Yes, you read that correctly.

Don’t try to sell your art. Why? Because selling art sucks.

You are just not talented enough to sell your art and neither am I.

So what you need to do to compete in a market over saturated with raw talent is to create value above and beyond your art and to sell that.

If you are not enrolled in The Semester, allow me to give you a head start in determining what unique value you offer to your target market.

Here’s a weekly update from an artist who I am working with directly.

“I sent out an email to a small group of collectors to see what it was that made them want to buy my art. When I got responses, I was stunned at what the work meant to them. One of the people that wrote back was so eloquent, and what he wrote helped me to understand a bit more about my potential tribe. A work in progress to be sure but he nailed what I have been thinking.”

Do what this artist did, survey your market. Examine their responses critically.

  • How many of them are just being nice?
  • What insights did you gain?
  • What perspectives have you not considered?

This is not necessarily going to give you absolute clarity about your unique value proposition but it will head you in the right direction.

It will point you outward so that your concern is less about yourself and how you are served by your art and more about how you serve others. This is the place to start if you want to sell your art.

You must know what value you offer and to whom.

Why? Can you imagine if a shopkeeper tried to sell you a new product but they couldn’t tell you what it was actually going to do for you?

This analogy explains the embarrassing and awkward disconnect between the artist’s statement and the collector.

This may sound like a bit of rant but its just reality.

  • What is your reality?
  • How do you serve your target market?
  • Are you making it up or are you absolutely certain?

I want to know. Leave a comment here.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

Are you an “Artist?” How do you know?

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Are you an “Artist?” How do you know? Why do you identify with this title? Did someone else have to call you an “Artist” before you could?

I feel that my identity as an “Artist” is so charged I’m reluctant to call myself this.

I’ll bristle when someone introduces me as an “Artist” as if I’m special.

I’ve developed a sixth sense for when this designation is about to bring me a reaction of fascination or of sympathy.

So many tedious assumptions are layered over the “Artist” archetype.

No. I’m not starving, egotistical, or crazy. In fact I LOVE business and marketing and please don’t compare my paintings to your aunt’s, the one who honed her artistic skill by watching Bob Ross on PBS.

Can I just say how tired I am of having to cautiously set the record straight without being perceived as “too sensitive” or “defensive” or “insecure”?

And oh yes, I enjoy the phrase “artsy fartsy” about as much as “flatulent lawyer” would humor an attorney. Please, just stop and think before you speak!

Last night I was having dinner in the Castro in San Francisco with my Master Mind, my Producer from Creative Live and a friend who I referred to as a “writer.” Why? Because he’s actually a damn good writer.

But he wouldn’t accept that title. “Why?” I asked. “Because there are two camps of writers. Those who are actually really good writers and those who proudly call themselves ‘writers’ but they’re just not. Making everyone around them a bit uncomfortable.” A la an “American Idol” “Musician” who should have never been auditioned.

I asked what title he preferred, “Adventure monkey who types a little bit, sometimes.” “Fair enough.” I said, “That’s what I’ll call you.” So that’s what I just did.

Here’s the problem with the title “Artist.” It’s been abused and twisted.

For many “Artist” is forcing an impossible ideal. It pressures people to feel as if they are over reaching.

Others excitedly proclaim that they are an “Artist.” Then you see their work and you cringe silently.

To escape these misperceptions, many creative folk dub themselves with an alternative title, “maker,” a member of the “maker” movement.

I really don’t care what people call themselves or don’t call themselves. Live and let live.

This is why I maintain an art agnostic policy at Artists Who THRIVE because art IS in the eye of the beholder.

It’s just worth noting that no other professional reference confronts us with such a mixed bag of bold stereotypes.

Depending upon our financial success as an artist we are either celebrated, even revered, or pitied.

Note that Artists, like athletes, are among the most highly compensated and the lowest.

Our language shapes our perception. More precisely, our reality.

So it’s worth examining your internal, and your external responses, to announcing “I’m an Artist.”

I much prefer “Creative Entrepreneur” because “Every entrepreneur is an artist and every artist is an entrepreneur.” Dr. ‘E’

 

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

How has the “Starving Artist” Slur Impacted You?

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If you haven’t yet signed up for my free four-part video training series. Do it now. This training will not be up for long.

I was blown away by some of the comments posted under the first of four free training videos.

“Starving Artist” What a shameful destructive slur!

What is the antidote to this? It’s simple. Business savvy.

It’s time to take back our power. Selling art is just another business. Big business. I want you to get your piece of that fat pie.

Read what a few artists said about the first training.

For me the term starving artist makes me feel like a victim, as though I have no control over my life as an artist, as though I’m at the mercy of the collective consciousness about what it means to be an artist, as though I have to wait for whoever the authorities are to give me the honor of being a “real artist.”

The term degrades self -esteem and puts us all in the victim category.

We need to start looking at ourselves differently.

 

The “starving artist” belief began for me as a young child… I was always told by my parents that I was very creative and talented, but when I talked about becoming an artist when I grew up, they would say things like “oh you don’t want to do that, artists starve” or ” you can’t be an artist – only a few ever make it and the rest starve”.

By the age of 12, these comments took away all of the dreams I had with regards to choosing art as a career.

My self-esteem took a big hit and I believed I would never be good enough to make it as an artist.

After years of many, many different jobs I finally studied and became an interior designer. My next goal is to become a full time artist – assuming I can release my ingrained fears and go for it! Looking forward to all of your videos… they are very inspiring!

 

Stunning. Thank you.

It was incredibly kind of you to come back and create this video.

I’m so stuck as a photographer grappling with the whole notion of value. I was recently forced, by a business-minded friend, to really write out my fixed costs for photography workshops I run for women.

Then she made me tell my client a real price … not a starving artist’s price.

The client was rapt. I was quite surprised.

Your video is so timely.

You see, I had completely bought into the starving artist idea, sometimes I arrive home with 10euro in my pocket after traveling in Italy, working … happy just to have been out.

I read something lately that said, ‘Love yourself … for the sake of your better future.’

I’m very curious. How has the meme of the “Starving Artist” impacted you? Please share below.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

Are You Investing Money as an Artist or Just Spending Money?

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Profiting, 8th sequential realms of building a profitable creative enterprise.

Last week one of the artists who I mentor sent an update on her 2014 expenses.

She reported that she spent about $11,000 less on her business in 2014 then in the year before. Here’s how:

1. “I spent less on my website in 2014. I’m building a new website by myself, and I’m not hiring a designer like I did in 2013.”

She became more confident with technology.

This is very empowering. With fantastic tools, like Square Space and Shopify, artists can build and maintain their own ecommerce sites.

2. “I spent less on print materials, like letterhead and business cards, which I don’t even use.”

She examined unnecessary expenses.

Often artists will spend way too much money on websites and business cards before they have tested their value proposition with their target market.

I’ve seen artists waste thousands of dollars having a website built, only to have to redo them.

3. “I spent less on supplies, because I don’t use expensive canvases any more.”

She used to think that she had to buy the very best materials. And she paid for them.

When she understood her mission and how she served her target market she became a much more confident person.

When she became a more confident person, she became a more confident artist and the quality and ease of her art actually significantly improved.

When she became a more confident artist, she didn’t need to by the very “best” materials to try to prop up her confidence.

She also realized that the other problem with buying expensive canvases is that they make a painting too precious. That causes perfectionism and that kills creativity. With a regular old canvas she feels freer to toss it if the painting is not working out.

Do you think her patrons have ever asked to see the receipt for the materials she’s purchased?

4. “I don’t rent booths at art fairs anymore, so I don’t pay those fees.”

This is a big one. These fees add up quickly and there is no guarantee that they are going to pay off.

Now that she has her own creative enterprise she is not dependent upon the gatekeepers of the art exhibit and she does not have to pay their tariff.

More importantly, she is not surrounded by competition as she’s trying to sell her art. Most of her business comes by way of referral so she doesn’t need to “exhibit” her art. She is the bell of the ball. She is the “go to” for her particular niche.

That is how she saved money. How did she spend money?

She actually “invested” money on my mentorship program, soon to be discontinued, and she “invested” money on building her creative enterprise.

Billionaire, Warren Buffets wise and encouraging words ring true:

The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Very few people get anything like their potential horsepower translated into the actual horsepower of their output in life. Potential exceeds realization for many people…The best asset is your own self. You can become to an enormous degree the person you want to be.

What can you do? Look at what you are spending money on and how are you investing money.

What is the return on your investment? If you are not investing in yourself, why not?

Tell us why below.

 

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

How To Sell Your Art and How Not To Sell Your Art

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Realm 6- Selling Art

Realm 6- Selling Art

I just received a weekly update from one of the artists enrolled in my private mentoring program. It may sound familiar to you. By the way, I’m phasing out my mentoring program to focus my attention on The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester so that I can have a greater impact. Here’s what she said.

I realize that, after I reach out to prospects and when they do not get back to me I feel chicken to reach back out to them and I assume it is a price thing and not a deal or not an urgent need of theirs.

I feel I do not want to bother them or be too pushy by calling and saying what’s up?

The first thing that strikes me is that she did not “level the playing field”, more about this in a minute.

The second thing is that she thinks that she is being a “bother” instead of remembering that she is on a truly worthy mission.

This mission offers her prospects an opportunity of a lifetime.

Trust me I’ve heard plenty of artists whose missions ring hollow because they are self centered and or inauthentic. Her mission is grounded in her soul’s truth.

There are two big problems here. Boundaries and attitude.

These two things will make or break an artist.

Let’s start with boundaries because it’s always a good place to start.

Selling is not manipulation, its simply a guided conversation.

There are eight stages that you must guide the conversation through.

If at any time you discover that you can’t solve your prospect’s problem, you end the conversation and move on your next prospect.

You are in control. It’s your job to set clear boundaries and expectations.

The eight stages of selling art are:

  1. Building rapport.
  2. Leveling the playing field.
  3. Exploring the problem.
  4. Determining the budget.
  5. Determining if you are speaking to a decision maker.
  6. Asking for the sale.
  7. Delivering the goods.
  8. Asking for referrals.

I’m not going to go into all of the stages of selling art; it’s too much for a single post. I delve into each stage in the Selling Course, one of eight courses in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester.

Here’s how you “level the playing field”. You say,

I’d like to ask you a few questions and give you an opportunity to ask me any questions.

If at the end of this meeting it looks like we have a good fit, could we both agree on what our best step is and when to take it?

That’s it. That’s exactly what you say. Easy.

Had this artist “leveled the playing field” she would have:

  • not been left hanging or feeling like a “bother”.
  • taken control of her time by not leaving herself open to the endless back and forth of chasing a sale.
  • known at the end of the last meeting if this person was really a prospect.

Better to know sooner rather than later that someone is not a prospect. Then you can just take them off of your list and save yourself precious time and energy and move on to someone who will buy.

Next it’s about attitude. Her attitude is stuck in her old mindset.

She’s clearly forgotten her mission and she’s still trying to sell, draining her confidence.

All she has to do is determine if she can help her prospect by solving their problem and share how she has solved the problem for others.

If she’s not talking to a qualified prospect, so what.

They will very likely be inspired by her mission and tell other people. They may even refer her to other prospects.

Referrals make for the easiest sales because if you are referred to a prospect they already trust you, shortening the length of the conversation. 

The formula for selling is simple. People buy from other people who they know, like, and trust. Relationships equal revenue.

If your offer does not solve their problem, and or there is no budget, just move on to the next prospect.

If you don’t know how your art solves a problem then you have a much bigger problem that you must solve before you even try to sell your art.

You must master the first five realms of building a creative enterprise. Selling is the sixth realm of eight, iterative, sequential realms.

Have you been left hanging on a big sale? Share your experience below.

About Ann Rea

Ann Rea is a San Francisco based Artist and Entrepreneur. Her inspired business approach to selling her paintings have been featured on HGTV and the Good Life Project, in Fortune, and The Wine Enthusiast magazines, profiled in the book Career Renegade. Rea’s artistic talent is commended by American art icon, Wayne Thiebaud, and she has a growing list of collectors across North America and Europe.

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