How to get started on the right foot, Part 1

This is the first of a two part series designed to help you start the new year off. So instead of biting off a mouthful of resolutions you may or may not be able to achieve read this carefully and pick a couple of steps that you think would work for you over the next year. Select no more than six because six allows you to work on a new one every two months. Write them in a calendar and don't do anything on them until you get to their start date. Then focus on those steps.

Today's part of the series addresses the importance of defining your commitment to your art as a business, so you can set objectives consistent with your vision of your business. An important point here is to understand the connection between how you see your business and how it actually is. Not making this connection can and often does lead to disappointment down the road together with an accompanying sense of failure. A simple attitude adjustment and re-focus can be of immense value over the course of your year

Finally, today I'll cover some basic steps you can take right now to focus or re-focus your marketing by offering some different ways to really know how to identify the right buyers for you.

Define your business and your commitment

Before you do anything further this year, take a few minutes or more and think about why you are doing what you are doing and what you want your business to be.

Part time

Did you accidently “fall” into your art business after a job loss? If so be honest with yourself by asking whether this is what you want to be doing or if it is just something to “fill the gaps” until you find a “real” job.

Accepting your commitment level will help you adapt full time expectations to your part time schedule, in other words don’t expect to make a full time income off of part time work.

Full time

What does full time look like to you? This is very critical if you're just starting out, because you could easily burn yourself out in the early phases of your art business. So be realistic, ease into it, don't start out in a panic thinking you have to work 20 hours a day! If you are experienced, you know this pitfall, so take a look at what isn't working for you and make an effort to change it for the better.

Whatever you decide, decide to live with it, don’t set full time intentions and expectations if you are only temporarily working as an artist. Likewise, if you are working only as a way to supplement your household income with something you like doing, be honest with yourself and accept your commitment level as the best you can do. If you set full time expectations and goals and don’t work full time you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Adjust your attitude

Start defining your own game by  seeing your business as something different than you have always thought. To do this, define your business so that it best fits you, your values, personality, and vision.

A key element at this point, is deciding to ask for what you are worth, not what others think you are worth but the value you want your buyers to derive from owning your work. Do not expect this process to be accomplished once, it is and likely will always be an iterative process of continual adjustments...it can also be one of the hardest things you'll do.

Figure out how many different ways you can earn from your business and your skills, how many ways can you give your buyers to own or experience your work. Evaluate the options and choose a few to focus on for the next 12 months.

Start seeing your self as a successful artist and not a starving artist. Visualize your success at the end of 12 months. Is it financial? If so what does it look like? Is it skill based? What does that look like? Do this for each level then figure out ways to monitor your progress so you can make adjustments.

Develop a mindset of intentions built to continually reinforce your visions of use intentions instead of goals. Goals can imply inflexibility whereas intentions not only keep you in the present, they also let you adjust to changing circumstances without being self judgmental.

Be prepared for pot holes and develop a learning mindset by keeping your focus on your intention and not the outcome because one thing is for certain...stuff will change. Use the following techniques to help you stay focused on intention:

• Banish the words starving artist from your vocabulary.
• Banish limiting thoughts that will only sabotage your goals.
• Use WHEN and stop using if when you talk about your business
• Banish the word "if" from your vocabulary because "if" reinforces non-comitment and Fear whereas "When" reinforces commitment and courage.
• Start networking to find other artists who are like minded to limit your sense of isolation. Encourage the others to reach out for help in tough times. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or support.

Most importantly...

Do not go it alone!

Know your buyers and design their experience

Understand your buyers by figuring out just who your stuff is best suited for, develop a profile of these people and include why, what and how they would be attracted your work. A good way to is by doing what I call  “Being John Malkovitch”, spend  a day as if you were them.

Put yourself in their skin  approach your business and art decisions from their point of view. If you spend enough time being those people, the ones who feel comfortable to you will show up and because you feel comfortable with them, like you’ve “known them forever”, you won’t feel like you’re compromising your values. Instead, you’ll feel like you are making things for a friend.

Taking time to really know your buyers is key to de-commoditizing your work and putting your focus on those who like your work. In this way, you stop trying to get the wrong people interested in your work, in fact you can forget altogether about them.

Once you have made this transition, it'll be easier to frame the buying experience around the value or your stuff. You’ll have the time, energy, focus and knowledge to display your work in ways that emphasize its’ value to those most interested in your work.

Because you know what your work does for them, how they will use it and how it improves their lives it will be much easier to design their buying experience so that they automatically feel your  connection to them.

Really knowing your buyers also makes it all the more easier to insure every point they interact with you and your business is not just satisfying but wowing and reaffirming that they made the right decision to  buy from you. Paying attention to this detail will make a difference for your sales when there is little else you can do to stand out in the crowd. While all your competitors are busy under pricing each other, you can be secure in the fact that the more your buyers enjoy working with you the less you will be seen as a commodity and more as a creator of value in their lives.

The more you make your sales venue shout your creative vision the more those who resonate with those values will be drawn to you. In order to have that happen, you need to make sure that at every point potential buyers come in contact with you and your work they experience your message, which in turn will cull out those who are only interested in price.

So for example, if you sell on-line make sure your images are clear, write your descriptions to reflect how your work can be used and if needed show them in use. But don’t stop there, do whatever customization you can to reflect you because you are your brand. If you can change colors do so and make them consistent with your other on-line venues.

The same can be said for street fairs, design your booth so it visually stands out from the rest and draws the right people in. Street fairs tend to take on the visual style of a nomadic tribe hawking their wares, the more you can visually separate yourself from this image. the more likely the right folks will find you.

Finally, an important point to remember in designing the experience, is to choose the venues that are likely to enhance your buyer’s experience and reflect their values. Pay attention to the location of galleries you exhibit in, fairs you enter, and on line venues you might test. Make sure sure that your brand is compatible with that of the venue, doing so will help ensure your buyers will be here.

Photos: All mine Bill Weaver Photographers copy right 2009 processed using High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques

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Tagged as: adjust your attitude, define your business, know your buyers, Marketing