Business for Artists

You want to have make money from your artistic talents? Most of the time, folks will tell you (often right as you are graduating with that BFA in hand): "That a a couple bucks will buy you a cup of joe." Yeah, thanks a lot.

The words "business" and "plan" are not easily uttered by artists. I've done (partial) business plans at least twice. Ugh. Then I heard Jennifer Lee, author of The Right Brained Business Plan on a podcast. She said some of the big-bad business plan words like: demographics, target market and market size and then spoke about pulling off a plan using visual aids. Yeah, I'm all over that one.

I got Lee's book after looking it over really carefully. My first reaction was that the visuals were a bit cartoon-y but pretty quickly saw that this was a selling point for me, it opened me up. There are other good books on the market right now. The Creative Entrepreneur has gotten good reviews. Poke around on Amazon.

I got out my gel pens, my markers, scissors and glue stick and have actually made inroads in my plan. Forecasting? Yeah, baby! Jennifer actually explains to you how to do the research for finding your target market, etc. Oh Joy! I don't feel like an idiot.

Jennifer also suggested the Levenger Circa notebook. Levenger licenses the disc and hole punch technology from Rollabind and if you are a binder person, you will love it. Some of the tools (such as the hefty hole punch, which is all you REALLY need) are cheaper over at the Rollabind site. 

If you want to make money at your artwork, you want an art business and if you want an art business, you need a plan. Start slowly. Artists deserve to make a living; to make a life from their art. Dag-nab-it! You are not "selling out" if you do so.