As an Entrepreneur and LOVING what I do, I'm completely fascinated with this blog and the writer's way with words, and her business sense, so very inspiring! I just read this post and it really got me to thinking about MY business and MY art and what MY goals and dreams are, what will make me the most happy? http://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/sometimes-money-does-equal-happiness-sometimes-livin-on-a-prayer-gets-old/
I’ve been painting and selling online and in galleries for several years now and have been fairly successful, but, about 2 years ago I discovered the business of licensing my art for companies to use for manufacturing on their products and I knew this was what I wanted to do! I’ve had some success with a few companies but I constantly battle with myself on balancing the selling of originals and prints with creating art for licensing. It’s a tough business and very time consuming to get started and research and understand the licensing industry.
I continually struggle with finding the time to do both the licensing and continue to create art to sell online on a daily basis. I do it all on my own (with a little help from my husband now and again J), the painting-of course, taking photos, listing on my website, posting links and art info on Facebook, then responding to e-mails from collector’s/potential collector’s, packing up the paintings to ship, ordering supplies and all the minute details it takes to be an entrepreneur, all while being a wife and mom too!! Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming, but I just put my nose to the grindstone and keep moving forward, but, is this enough? What will feed my creative soul and make me the most happy with my art, and my chosen career as an artist entrepreneur?
IS it enough to just to get by with my art? Not for me!! I want to achieve every possible dream I’ve ever, or could ever, imagine with my art. If I dream it and I follow through with it, I know I can make it happen. Sure, there will be unforeseen bumps and twists and turns along the way, but, If I stay true to what I want, I CAN and WILL make it happen, I do believe this with every part of my being!
The First step in achieving my goals is to find the balance within my business, which means continuing to sell art online AND dedicate more time and resources into art licensing. I try to keep my art reasonably priced when selling online so that I can reach a larger audience and make it accessible for everyone, but this also means I have to paint more in order to create the money I need to provide for my family. The more time I dedicate to this side of the business the less time I have for art licensing, the Dream I have for my art. This is making me realize I have to re-organize my business and have different options available for selling online, and restructure my pricing and selling venues to allow me more time to focus on the licensing side of the business.
I’m going to begin to offer more print options, including gallery wrapped canvas prints, which I’ve never been able to do up until now. I just received my first sample of one of my prints on gallery wrapped canvas and it’s wonderful! The quality and colors are great and the wholesale pricing with this company now makes it possible for me to offer this option to my clients. I also am now offering prints on laminated blocks (standouts) that are also beautiful and don’t need framing. These two options will give people the opportunity to have MADART images in their home at a reasonable price even if they can’t afford an original. As soon as I have the gallery wrapped prints listed on my website I will be posting the information on my Facebook page.
When I first started out selling online eBay was my main selling venue, and then in 2008 they made some crazy changes that strongly impacted all artists selling on eBay. So, I moved my main selling venue to Etsy which up until the end of last year was doing well. Then, they made some changes that have made it more difficult to sell there and I came to the realization that as an entrepreneur I can’ t rely on another company’s business goals to dictate MY business. I then created my own website that I now market on Facebook and the results have been tremendous! I’m selling prints and originals on a consistent basis which is very liberating and a relief to know that I am in total control of the content and search functionability of my online business. It was scary at first to think this would eventually be my main online selling venue, and it also took a lot of time to set it up, but now it is creating a profit and I will continue to focus my online selling efforts and marketing directly to this site versus other sites. This was definitely a step in the right direction for me and made me realize that we have to take big leaps and some risks in our business in order to be successful. The next leap for me is to focus much more on the art licensing aspect of my business.
I’m also going to be raising the prices of any new original paintings I create, the paintings on my website will remain at their current prices, but any new ones added will be a slightly higher priced. I’m not going to be doing a major price increase, just enough to help me towards my goal of spending more time focusing on the licensing side of the business. I do believe that my art is worth more than what I price it at, but I also want to be able for everyone to afford to have it in their home, office or to give as a gift. By offering different print options and still keeping my originals affordably priced I can begin to balance my priorities and dreams as an artist entrepreneur.
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