We all have a tendency to complain about everything we’re “supposed” to do to build our businesses.
Must post to Facebook!
Must update Twitter!
Gotta get one of those fancy new business pages on Pinterest!
Have to blog more consistently!
I can sense when students in my live seminars are on the verge of whining about all of the work required of business owners.
I ask them to remember what artists 20 or 30 years ago had to do to get noticed. About the only self-promotion tool at that time was to send a set of slides to gallery prospects.
One set of slides = 20 slides @ $1.50 = $30 without postage, and recipients rarely acknowledged or returned your package. Thirty bucks thrown out into the ether – never to be seen again.
Next time you feel like complaining about all you have to do, remember the marketing tools (most of them free or inexpensive) that you have at your disposal. Repeat these 4 words, as I request students at my seminars to do:
I am SO lucky!
You ARE lucky! Be grateful for everything you have available to help you share your art with the world.
So, in this time of Thanksgiving in the U.S., consider four things that you probably take for granted.
4 Gratitudes for Your Art Business
1. The Internet
As frustrating as it is at times, can you really imagine your art business without the Internet?
Your gratitude: “I am grateful for how I can use the Internet to showcase my art with the world. Artists 25 years ago had infinitely smaller audiences.”
2. Software
We take for granted that we can click on a button and see how much money we’ve made this year or which exhibit a particular piece of art is promised to. If you’re still doing all of this by paper . . . um . . . Why?
Your gratitude: “I am grateful for the software that keeps me organized and able to focus more fully on my art.”
3. Email
Stop cursing at your overflowing inbox and consider communication without email. Not so pretty, huh? If you really want to get your inbox under control, join us for the Organize Your Art Biz online class.
Your gratitude: “I am grateful that email allows me to communicate instantly with other artists, curators, collectors, and fans.”
4. Postcards
You can get 1,000 postcards with 4-color images of your art on the front for under $100. How amazing is that?! When I worked in museums, we used to have most of our printing done in China because 4-color printing was so much cheaper there.
Your gratitude: “I am grateful that I can have postcards printed inexpensively. The cost to mail to my own qualified, targeted list is minuscule compared to the cost of advertising or sending a bunch of slide sets.”
What other everyday business tools are you grateful for?
By the way, I'm very grateful that you are here reading this. I don't say it often enough, but I really am.
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