While not all entrepreneurs are artists, all artists are entrepreneurs. Artists, like entrepreneurs, put their life and soul into their creation, and sell it for a rightful price. Entrepreneurs like artists devote a major portion of their lives into building a product or a service that they believe in. If you want a serious art career, you, besides your impeccable artistic skills, need to possess a keen sense of entrepreneurship.
So what are some of the steps you need to follow in order to build a successful and sustainable art career?
Aditya says that the first and foremost priority of any art entrepreneur should be to adopt a signature style. What mark of yours do you want to leave behind? This is the question you need to ask yourself before adopting and defining your style. Aditya adds ‘Once you have developed a style, you can then present it seamlessly to your audience. Your style will help you understand what kind of audience you want to target and not vice versa. Once you have established your style, you will be able to figure out the kind of audience your content is attracting’.
Next step is to understand your audience. It is important to understand the psyche of people who consume your content, and not in a stalkerish sort of way. Every entrepreneur studies the habits of their audience. You should know the price your audience is willing to pay for your product.
Aditya adds a nuance to it with an example. He says- they know that buyers will be different at local art fairs than at trade shows or galleries. By identifying your audience early, and re-evaluating often, you’ll be better able to keep up with demand, price your work, and know where to spend your precious time selling (and more importantly where to avoid).
It is necessary for a good art entrepreneur to gauge the feelings, emotions, and ethos of their audience.
One of the biggest mistakes that art entrepreneurs commit is undervaluing their work. In order to start their career as an entrepreneur, they tend to undervalue their work and sometimes even overvalue- says Aditya. . They feel that by doing this they will be able to find a strong foothold in the market, and then later they can start charging more. This is an extremely wrong approach. Aditya says 'There are many methods to pricing and evaluating work. In book Secrets of the Art World: Getting Real About the Process, Business, and Selling Your Work, Lisa Spanos, owner and president of ADC, breaks down just how to price one’s work on a price-per-square inch basis as well as various other methodologies common in the art world'.
If you think art is all about being colorful and creative doesn't require hardcore numbers and marketing, you are horribly wrong. Every entrepreneur knows the key to getting their idea or product to market is through marketing and sales and art entrepreneurs are no different. You need to advertise and market your product well to make a living. Today, in this digital age, you should build a strong digital presence, to reach a wider audience and sell more. You need a website that reflects your signature style, which includes high-resolution pictures and descriptions of your work, as well as a means to buy the work directly from the site (or has links to contact information or the galleries that represent you). You also need to have a social media presence and post glimpses of your work there regularly. Remember, social media is a strong tool that, if used widely, can open multiple avenues for your business.
Keeping in touch with and building an audience is key to selling one's work. With social media tools like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and search engine tools like Google and Pinterest, there are no more ways than ever to reach audiences.One should also take advantage of resources that will promote their work for you. Aditya adds- Art Design Consultants (ADC) owns and publishes Blink Art Resource, which is sent to interior designers all over the country, as well as Curated by Blink Art, which is sent to residences.
Every business has some money coming in and some money going out. Aditya believes that one needs to record everything diligently and accurately and ensure that everything can be traced back to its source.Maintaining and cataloging your work is key to your success as an artist. One simply cannot overlook the details. Small details can make or break your art business and you should not be callous with them.
Entrepreneurs know that networking is more than trading business cards-says Aditya. Business is all about relationships. And, having a network of great people around is a key to success. Most entrepreneurs know they can’t run a business on their own. They get advice from other successful business people and they reach out when they need help or don’t know what to do.