The Ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” is one of the Delphic maxims and it was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Recently, I interviewed graduates of MAKING Art/Making MONEY, my 8-week, interactive, online, foundational business course for artists.

This course is an iterative, 8-part, methodology designed to reorient artists towards an entrepreneurial approach and it is delivering proven results, increased art sales.

When I asked students what they like the most, hands down, it is “Week 1 - Valuing.”

Through a series of ten exercises, and collaboration with their Master Mind group, students confirm their values and express their purpose, their mission.

Without a doubt defining their mission, their “why”, is the most important part of the course. It is the first line on their business plans, the start of their road map.

“Week 1 - Valuing” establishes the foundation for each artist’s unique creative enterprise, giving their artistic endeavors greater purpose and meaning and giving them much more confidence.

For the first time students articulate clearly who they are as artists and what they stand for. It is a satisfying and life affirming experience.

And it has got nothing to do with writing one of those tedious self involved artist statements.

As an artist and as an entrepreneur, knowing thyself is an absolute must.

Why? Because when you’re self aware you know your message and how you feel about it.

This is critical. Our purpose as artists, as thought leaders, is to communicate. To make people feel and then to think. Yes, in that order.

So many of us, never mind artists, are unaware of who we really are, what we stand for, and why.

If we do not know ourselves we are adrift in choppy waters with no reliable moral compass or value system to point us towards our mission, our purpose.

We are often pressured to fit into certain societal molds and too often we comply, surrendering our true purpose and abandoning our true selves.

Why do we do this? Because we do not know ourselves and we are often not sure where to start.

If an artist doesn’t know who they are and what they stand for they simply don’t have much to say. Their work is irrelevant.

As we know talent is not enough. If you just have talent you’re just a technician, not an artist.

If you truly have unique talent and you have something to say to the world, you must make art.

If you want to be heard, you must sell art.

 

Last week a staff editor of a business magazine interviewed me and asked if I primarily used social media to sell my art. 

My answer, “No!” Social media is simply a technology. It’s not a marketing strategy.

It’s a great free marketing tool. But it’s a$$ backwards if that’s where you think that’s your primary mode of selling art.

I’m not saying don’t employ social media, I’m just saying that’s one of many marketing tools that you can use once you have a clear understanding of your unique value proposition and target market.

Selling art is a very high touch, high feel business. You can’t give that online.

You want face time with collectors and then use social media to continue or to start the conversation with them, IRL (in real life.)

The fact is that most art referrals and sales happen offline.

It may look like it’s all happening online because all of those conversations or posts are forever captured electronically.

If you a major blogger with a huge platform that’s one thing but if you an emerging fine artist your online list and sales conversion rate is going to be limited.

Are you focusing on sending emails and posting because that is what is accessible and free?

How much time are you spending on this? Social media is a time suck.

Better to host a studio visit or create an experience for collectors face to face.

Until you have a huge online foot print, you’re just not going to sell much art through social media.

Sorry. That’s just the way it is.

Invest your limited time and energy in creating connections, face to face, in front of your art where you can close the sale.

Collectors want to know the artist and they are inspired by creative process. 

Be real. Be relatable. Be truly social. (IRL)

I have been writing Artists Who THRIVE since 2011, for free.

It’s not like I’m not busy running Ann Rea, Inc. but each and every week I gladly post to share my successes, failures, insights, and hard lessons learned.

Why? Because I think that the “Starving Artist” mythology is bull$hit and I want to empower artists to gain their creative freedom through business savvy.

Building a profitable artistic enterprise took me a long time and a lot of pain that I’d like to spare other artists.

Since I started blogging I have begun consulting and coaching, but trust me, Artists Who THRIVE is still a largely volunteer effort. 

So I’m frankly a bit galled and amazed at the occasional snotty rants I receive from readers. If you don’t like what I’m writing, don’t read it. 

But if you have constructive feedback; I’m all ears.  I’m down for positive dialogue and constructive criticism. I don’t know everything.

But please make like you are an invited guest sitting across from me at my living room table. Because you kind of are and I have feelings.

Why am I sharing this? Because, you too may be experiencing wrath that comes in the wrapper of online anonymity. 

This negative behavior is like someone’s willingness to flip you off in a car and spew profanity in a way they would never even consider if they were sitting across from you.

However, this is simply one of the hazards of putting yourself out there online. 

So remember this, online communication is not a democracy. You own your blog, email, and your social media channels.

If someone comes along, online or offline, and decides to take a dump on you, or the people who work for you, you have every right to hit delete or to show them the door. You don’t owe jerks jack.

If someone simply disagrees, invite a respectful discourse and be thankful that they are taking the time to read and engage with you. It’s good.

Word to the wise. As your success increases so will the number of haters. Whatever. We can’t let that stop us now. Can we?

 

 

Last week as I was driving over the hilly streets of San Francisco running errands with my former intern, a recent illustration graduate from the San Francisco Art Academy, she talked about her frustrations with starting freelance work and her struggles trying to establish herself as a professional. 

So I asked, “Do you have a website yet?”  No.

“Do you have a domain?” No.

“A business plan?” No.

“A marketing plan?” No.

“And why the heck not!?”  (Actually, I know her well enough to drop the ‘F ‘bomb but I’ll be polite.)

Her response. I don’t know. I guess I just don’t even know where to start.

“You mean they didn’t cover any of this in art school?”  No. 

Why am I surprised?

So I remembered.  I once didn’t know where to start. I didn’t even understand the lingo. So let me break it down. 

To launch an ecommerce site you will need to secure seven main entities and they will need to shake hands electronically. 

1. Domain registration/an address for your store
2. Ecommerce site/the store itself
3. Web hosting company/a space to lease your store
4. Merchant services/ a cash register
5. Bank account/place to send the money
6. email marketing system/system to keep in touch with your customers
7. Google analytics/on-line traffic measuring

If you know this stuff.  Good for you.  You’re ahead of the curve. But other artists may not, so please share this post below.

First things first. You really don’t want a website if you want to sell your art. 

You need an ecommerce site. Why?  Because an ecommerce of site has the functionality to automatically transact sales on-line.

If you just have a website, you have a store without a cash register. 

Why bother when you can make money 24/7.  My favorite moments are when I wake up to online orders that happened while I was sleeping.

Now imagine.  You should be good at this.  What if you had a real store or gallery filled with your art work? You know.  One made of “brick and mortar.”

Now we are just going to translate those elements of a real store into an electronic version.

1. Imagine an easy to find location for your store, an address.  That’s your domain.  My domain is annrea.com. 
2. Imagine your store filled with specific inventory and signage. That is your eCommerce site.  Just like a house you can build it anyway you want.  Using a WordPress ecommerce template is one way.  As a matter of fact, annrea.com is being rebuilt in WordPress now.
3. Imagine you need a landlord to lease your store space. That would be a web hosting company. 
4. Imagine you need staff to deposit the funds out of your cash register and into your bank account.  That would be a payment gateway provider like Authorize.net or PayPal.
5. Imagine your bank account. May sound obvious but you need pick one and direct your merchant services to it.
6. Imagine your store opening.  You need to announce it and get visitors to keep coming back.  For this you will need an email marketing system.
7.  Imagine knowing you who is visiting your site, where they are from, and knowing what specific are shelves of inventory they are browsing through.  That’s what Google Analytics will do for you.

Word to the wise. An eCommerce site is an extension of a marketing plan and that is a product of a clear business plan. 

Too many artists rush to create a website without first building critical underlying business and marketing strategies.

 Time is money. That means you are incurring opportunity costs if you don’t yet have an eCommerce site.

So get crakin’!  The longer you you wait to define your business objectives and draw a clear road map, the more potential sales you are loosing out on.

If you need help with your business plan or marketing plan, I know I did, study up!

Or you can take the faster path to cash and book a consultation or apply for one-on-one coaching today.

“An artist’s website is just a store without a cash register.” Ann Rea

Leverage your content, give people what they want, and make more money so that you can make more art.  Get an eCommerce site.

As I often say, first things first.  You must first do your homework before you can launch an eCommerce site.

A Webmaster can build your online “store” but you still have to do the following, at the very minimum, before you can open youronline store for business:

• Articulate your unique value proposition
• Determine your target market
• Stock a range of ready inventory
• Professionally photograph inventory
• Write interesting and detailed product descriptions
• Price your inventory
• Confirm current sales tax rates
• Outline your business terms
• Decide where you will or will not ship, there are taxes and tariffs involved for products shipped outside the US
• Set your shipping rates
• Write compelling and interesting copy about the artist
• Choose an email management system
• Determine what social media links you will use to market your site
• Choose a merchant payment system
• Outline an SEO strategy so that art, music, craft or photography collectors can find your store

Once you have done all of the above then you are ready to stock your online store and then launch your new online business.

Too many artists think that the webmaster is going to do all of this for them.  So what happens?  They never launch their eCommerce site.

The webmaster can build your store, but its you who owns your business and so ultimately it is you who is responsible for:

• learning the technology
• stocking the inventory
• fulfilling the orders
• accounting for the sales and paying the taxes
• managing and promoting the store

This may all sound very obvious but you really are much more likely to get things done when you have a clear and current plan.

Most artists want to sell more art.  Many of them want to sell their art online.

So where do they start?  Generally, the first urge is to start by building a website.

Artists may ask a friend to build them a snappy website on the cheap or they may try to do it themselves, but this is like cutting your own hair. I don’t recommend it.

Even more important is that having just a website is like having a store without a cash register.

If artists actually want to sell product online, artists need an eCommerce site.

But before an artist can start an online enterprise they must ask themselves a very important question.

“Do I want to try to find an art gallery to represent my work or do I want to build my own business, cultivate relationships directly with collectors, and keep all of the money.”

Why ask this? Because, in general, art gallery owners will not appreciate your honing in on their market for your work.  And they may even refuse to represent you. So this is an important decision that deserves considerable attention.

Let’s just assume that you want to sell your work and keep all of the money.  Wa La!  Now you are not just an artist, you are now an entrepreneur!

So how do you even start to develop your art business?

Well, there are many paths to truth, so this may or may not work for you, but here is the basic sequence that I followed to build my art enterprise.

1.    define Blue Ocean Strategy
2.    define the target market who will benefit
3.    outline features versus benefits of your art “product”
4.    define brand positioning
5.    complete one page business plan
6.    calendar marketing strategies
7.    launch eCommerce site
8.    rinse and repeat

“Rinse and repeat?” Yes. Every business must evolve and improve as new lessons present themselves.  Yes, “lessons” versus problems.

Business savvy artists should complete this eight step exercise at least once a year and review it continuously.