Advice For Creating An Art Business

An arts business is a creative niche that an artist can control on their own terms and as such they can tap into many arts niches if they want or specialize in an arts area that they know a lot about. Art businesses usually center around one artist and their products that they create, but it is not uncommon for a husband and wife to be an artist partnership and between them they each bring their own unique art and skills to creating new art products and also help support each other with marketing and promotions.

Making a start

When it comes to making a start in your art business there are certain things that really need to be thought about, like first of all, what arts niche and what products you want to create, maybe you have an idea already. The key is to start in an area you know well and you can create your art and you actually enjoy doing it.

You might do paintings which could be portraits, fantasy paintings or life art, but then you could choose to specialise in a certain technique of art such as abstract art, which relies heavily on a simplistic view point of painting and drawing which many art collectors enjoy. Or you might consider other forms of art, like painting specific objects like cups and figurines as this is an art form that can be profitable too.

Whatever you choose it is the best thing to really choose something that you are passionate about, so that your enthusiasm for it will motivate you to create ongoing supplies of works of art.

A business plan

Behind every business should be a business plan, because without one, will your business succeed? well that is up to you whether you have it all planned from the start and how your business will grow. Business plans can be as simple as a couple of written sides of A4 paper on the main business aims of your business and of course what you're business actually does.

Your business plan should also include what you are going to do to market and promote your business, this should be a clear indication of what you will do, so a good idea is to have a budget set for any paid advertising (If applicable) and of course offline and online marketing should be kept separate so that you can identify more clearly which one is working more effectively.

Your art products can be sold online from a website and also at local art fairs and exhibitions and galleries, so always keep an eye out for any potential spaces to promote your art online and offline. So your business plan will reflect your goals and business objectives.

Expanding into other art areas

Once you have a selection of art products for sale and this becomes a moderate success, it is time to expand and you can do this in many ways, you could create variations of your current artwork to maximize the selling potential or you could start over with a new art niche and go the way of the entrepreneur and take a risk, although by a risk I wouldn't go into it without any research because that would be foolish as you would want another success to add to your first successes.

Making art is great because once you create some, you have done a body of work that can be proved against your name that you have created it and you have sold these art pieces and so eventually this will have a sort of snow ball effect where later on down the line you may get recommendations to your artwork from others who have bought it already.

Aside from creating more artwork, there are other options, such as creating information products that teach others how to create the art that you do and this is a good income stream to add to your already established business. Art is a broad area to cover and you could do lots of things like online video tutorials and drawing and painting seminars or if you do specialist craft work that involves specialist tools then you could give a whole series of videos on the subject a go.

Above all the best thing to do with an art business or any business type for that matter is to make a start and just get on with something, so long as you know how you are going to proceed with a business plan and market research plans written down for reference.

Know your customer

Finding out where your customers are and if that particular customer would buy your products is the most essential thing about a business, because quite obviously without sales there is no business and without customers there are no sales too. This is done at the market research stage initially, but there could be more specific places as you go on with your business where your potential customers can be found.

For example I draw horror and fantasy art stuff, so some might say that my market would be goths, students and young people and this is fairly typical as a generalisation. So where do they hang out? online? you bet! offline? yes, but where?

These are the things you must research very well for your art business to succeed, customers and sales are the most important thing for your business and they should be dealt with as a priority. Seeking outnew customers and also catering to existing customers is what a business is all about.

Creating an art business is about knowing your market and your customers and your art in depth and out and be able to explain your business and your products in fine detail, once you've set up marketing campaigns for your art, it's time to create more income streams around your art business and you can do this in many other ways.....

More income streams grow your arts business

Consider adding income streams like a wig with a bald patch, each strand of hair represents an income stream that will fill the bald batch and that bald patch completed with hair will be your financial future and the possible freedom that a growing business can create.

Possible income streams include:

Affiliate marketing - Promoting other art and maybe tools and products that relate or compliment your own could result in affiliate commissions which could start to add up in time. This is also done with writing product reviews of other products that your own website readers or subscribers may find useful or interesting.

Consulting - In some niches this may be a top hourly rate, but try and be flexible with an arts niche, because whilst some of it is considered a hobby, others will be applying the knowledge you know to their own business, so it is in demand information still like any other business niche. You could create a special video that you put together for others to watch which explains your art techniques in great detail or you could provide a one hour phone call giving advice on being creative or using your time effectively as this is a problem for many.

People always need the help and support, so consulting is a great idea and one that can take many forms of presentation through online PowerPoint presentations, in person seminars and paid memberships.

Ebooks- An art business can be created out of just ebooks alone, you could do actual drawing tutorials or explain the particular creative processes of your art with techniques overviews and samples of your art....Ebooks can also be a cheeky link back to your main website and even another product that you have or some affiliate products that you also recommend.

Other types of products can also fill the gap like DVD's, audio CD'stalking about your art and creative thinking which could help spread awareness of your art.

All arts businesses should have a blog

A blog helps to keep in touch with your readers and customers and you can also announce new products as and when they are created, butalso a blog can help to promote your art products too with writing reviews as mentioned earlier in this article or writing about specific tools of the trade and your own personal insights all help to make your business feel genuine.

What I've been getting into lately is the whole idea of video blogging as this is a brilliant way of letting your subscribers know about you and your business, as wellas the personal insights you can bring to any review or arts techniques and processes that you care to talk about.

A face on a video is what people might want to see rather than a faceless person, so try and be yourself on these videos and hopefully that will come across and people may warm to you, but beware, the process of creating videos is easy, but if you are not used to talking on videos and stuff like I was, then you may need to practice and that is what I have done on my drawing art Youtube channel - although I do need to do more of me on camera instead of just my hand drawing.

Video promotion is a key area to get into as is blogging with video, so make use of them and get on with it!

An art business is what you make it, there will be mistakes, there will be days when you just feel like giving in, but you must stick with it, because every business has a tipping point, where one day you are doing average, then the next you are making enough money to live off and then the day after that you could be making a really good success of your arts business, so never ever give up.