The Business Side — From a Marketing Perspective —

We did a bit of survey and asked several artists and crafters how they handle this business side of their art or craft life…. what kind of activities are addressed, how often they address them, and whether they do so on an “on-going basis” (like 1 day every week or a couple days per month) or on a less planned, more irregular “as needed basis” (like for a specific event or show).

Here’s the various comments and approaches we received … good and practical advice from artists and crafters in the business.

• In general, some thought of the business side of being an artist or crafter pretty well all the time… It infiltrates their interactions with everyone they meet and everything they do. “In my studio, I am at my place of work, and it is no different than any other business in that respect.”




• Others try to segregate their various business tasks to allotted days or times.




• However, all agreed that setting time aside to address business matters is a necessary part of being an artist or crafter. It is the only way to be able to make a successful living. All agreed that although this “business part” was not their favourite part, it was “worth it” so that they could be an artist… and work at a job they love.

So what is this “business side” of one’s art or craft?

When we’re talking about the business side, we’re referring to the marketing of your art or craft business, not the obvious paying of bills, doing taxes, your bookkeeping, and that common administration side of the fence… Our focus in the Dollars & Sense articles is concentrating on that business “stuff” you do to sell your wares and to generate your revenues and become successful and to maintain that success as you grow in your talents, your craft, and within your market.

Getting Known:

• Attending public events and demonstrating or displaying your art/craft

• Networking at any shows or events — communicating with peers and the public, handing out business cards, etc.

• Entering shows — either participating in a group show or an individual show of only your own work

• Donating artwork to charity

Correspondence:

• Returning phone calls, letters and emails

• Contacting other Artists and Crafters in the same field

• Contacting Galleries

• Contacting Suppliers

Marketing Materials: (making sure you have created the following and have a good supply of each on hand)

• Business Cards

• Brochures

• Artist Profile or CV and Artist statement and Bio, etc.

A Website or Internet presence:

• Creation of website

• Updating on a regular basis with fresh content and images of new work

• Finding other sites to link with and making arrangements for it

• Taking measures to ensure good search engine ranking for your website

• Getting yourself listed in online Art or Craft Directories

Investigating New Materials:

• Often happens by chance as in seeing something in a store when going for something else

• Checking prices and availability of products and supplies (the more you can keep your materials costs lower, the more profit you can make or more competitive you can be in your pricing)

Outlets For Your Art Work:

• Approaching galleries

• Cold calling various venues to see if you can meet to show your work

• Respond to any “Calls for Artists”

• Applying to shows

• Finding and applying to art and craft sale venues

Art Community Involvement:

• Networking with peers and the public during art and craft community events

• Joining and participating in local art organizations working in your media

• Volunteering with local galleries and art organizations in general

How much time does it take?

Obviously this varies from person to person and depends upon numerous other factors… a couple of the keys ones being:

• whether you have an established customer base of repeat buyers

• method of sales used

Those who sell most of their work at “art and craft events” as opposed to through a gallery, will necessarily spend more time seeking out and attending the shows and events. However, you get to keep more “art time” if the showcase for your art or craft work is at a gallery or public studio. In that case, the gallery finds your customers for you but of course they take some money for doing so.

Based on our general surveying of the market and some guessing, it seems that about 20% of an artists’ time is spent on business. It will be higher when you are just getting started as there is so much to get prepared and done (networking, taking courses, designing and printing business cards and brochures, building a website, etc.). Once many of these are in place, they just need to be kept up to date, which subsequently takes less time and effort. One suggested spending half their time on art and half on the marketing until they get filled with orders and then adjust the mix to more creative time for a while.

How do you tackle these?

Most of the people we spoke with set aside specific time for this business work. This varied from a portion of each day for certain tasks, like the first couple of hours each day for correspondence (which was fairly common) to perhaps one morning a week or one to a few days per month. It really depended upon the kind of artist or crafter they were.

There were times when more was required, for example, for their first show which meant they had to get all their marketing materials readied and in place.

Everyone agreed that you have to learn to value your time.

So how do you strike the balance between the business work and the creative work? How do you preserve your time?

This often involved teaching themselves as much as everyone around them that “studio” time was going to work and must be respected as such.

Likewise time spent meeting with prospective clients must be respected too… Your time is valuable. If a client doesn’t show up on time and does not apologize for the inconvenience nor call to explain… leave. Often these are the same kind of customer who are the late payers too…. Some customers are not worth having if they take too much work to satisfy or are simply too “high-maintenance”.

As many an artist likewise voiced, “Time to me is extremely valuable. I have too many paintings in my mind to start, art shows that are coming up to prepare for, and an extreme desire to paint. I have to consider my family as well, and the matter of taking care of the business end of art.” It’s no doubt a bit of juggling act and every part of the equation is important…

Act professionally yourself and those dealing with you will treat you professionally.

Be pleasant, provide enough information as required, and be upfront about cost and delivery and all those related things.

ALWAYS value your own time and skill…. There is the story of an artist being asked how long they took to do a painting, to which they replied, “69 years and twenty minutes”.

Quotes:

“This is not a hobby that I am in. It is something that I love to do, and it is also my way of making a living.”

“The business side of arts and crafts is not my favourite. Actually, I'm sometimes quite resentful of the things I need to do for the business that takes me away from my real work! But I've found that all these things combined help to increase an artist's visibility and have a positive effect on sales. It really takes some of the “oomph” out of creating when you have to worry about marketing and making ends meet, but it's worth it!”

“The trick is to cover off the business aspect without it becoming dominant… making sure there is time to create the art work, too.”

A&CNet Comments:

We’d like to thank Terran Ambrosone, Maggie Cole, Loraine Laustsen and William Band for sharing their tips and experiences.

We at A&CNet fully realize that creating your art or craft work is one part and marketing and selling it is the other. And obviously one without the other does not an artist make… We can help you with many of these business marketing tasks…. so that they will take less of your valuable creative time.

We can help artists and crafters looking for places to sell their art or craftwork. Our Industry Directory can provide you with the key “B2B” links to get you in touch with galleries, stores, shows and events where you may have opportunity to showcase and sell your art.

A&CNet also provides numerous Marketing and Small Business Consulting services that can help any Artist or Artisan and Crafter, or Studio or Group of Artists.

We at A&CNet provide the linkage between you and the Art & Craft commmunity at large, and between yourself and a broader market beyond your own local one. There are also countless supportive organizations you may not be aware of, which can, like ourselves, greatly assist you in your artistic endeavours. We encourage you to use our 12 Industry Directory Search engines and take advantage of what the Canadian Arts & Craft world has to offer.

It is human nature to only do that which we know to do… or in the marketing sense, sell ourselves and our art through the traditional or common means we are used to… The fact is, there are other new means and approaches to marketing that should be duly considered in “maxing out” your exposure and broadening your customer base.

A website can be a valuable tool in reaching customers. Surprisingly, in comparison to other business sectors, much of the art and craft community has not fully embraced nor come to grips with the inherent benefits an internet presence can offer them. With a website, your customers can now visit you online anytime of the year, not just when there’s no snow on the ground… And your market need not be just your local or regional one anymore – you have an open door on the world if you desire…

A&CNet offers “irresistibly affordable” highly creative Website Template Packages and Custom Website Solutions. We offer a wide variety of features to suit all of your unique needs. When it comes to More Exposure and More Customers, MORE is ALWAYS BETTER. Everyone who is serious about growing their Art or Craft business should definitely consider some kind of web-presence… Give us a phone call. We’d be pleased to talk with you about this.