Alyson Stanfield

Bluff painting by Marsha Savage

Organize Your Busy Art Career with Evernote

I am writing this draft in Evernote on my iPad while taking the light rail train into Denver to see a few art shows.

When I want a document that I will reuse and share with students, clients, or my team, I create it in Word, Pages, or Google Docs.

When I want to save drafts of documents or to store something to remember, it goes straight to Evernote where I can access it across devices.

Evernote is an app that organizes information into digital notes and notebooks. It would be impossible for me to keep track of all the information I need to without it.

Here’s a peek at how I use Evernote in my life and business along with suggestions for how you might use it in your art career.

Keep Your Travel Information in One Place

This might be my favorite use of Evernote. In your Travel notebook you might store:

  • Hotel arrangements
  • Flight details
  • Car rentals
  • Contact names and information
  • Directions
  • Things you want to do and see when you arrive
  • Local restaurants

You might also store travel information for your family or for friends who are visiting.

Capture Content Ideas

One of the problems I hear most often from artists is that they don’t have anything to say. And this is a problem when so much of your marketing is based on the written word.

No more worries! The minute you have a bright idea, you can start a note in Evernote. Save drafts for:

Organize Your Busy Art Career with Evernote Read

How to Make a Dynamite First Impression

You only get one chance to make a first impression. True? True!

Competition is fierce in today’s art market, and you must distinguish yourself.

How will people come to know you? More importantly, how will they remember you?

Consider this advice when you want to be memorable in the right way.

Be prepared.

There is no excuse to go into a meeting or situation blindly when you have the virtual world readily available. A simple check with search engines or a social media account might lead you to a treasure of information.

Conduct your research in advance to show people that you’ve heard of them – this always impresses.

You might also discover facts in your research that will help you skillfully navigate any conversation.

Be on time.

The little computer we all carry around in our purses and pockets has made it far too easy for us to be tardy to appointments. All we have to do is text someone to tell her we’re running late.

This is usually fine when you know the other person well. It’s not fine if it’s your first meeting or if you make it a habit.

Be interested.

People will think

How to Make a Dynamite First Impression Read

Painting by Carol L. Myers

Processing Loss Through Your Art

A gentle warning before you read this. This was supposed to be a celebration article, but things happened that led me in a different direction. You might find it sad.

Stick with me because there is a message here that you might need. Maybe not now, but someday. And I promise that there is a happy ending.

Thank you in advance for allowing me to share this story with you.

Let’s start with the celebration. This week I celebrate 15 years of writing a weekly email to artists, which I mark as the anniversary of Art Biz Success. The newsletter is now posted here on the blog where you’re reading it.

It was on March 25, 2002 that I sent my first private email as a sample to artists I found on the Internet.

I can’t promise this newsletter and corresponding blog post will go on forever. I can’t even promise they will happen next week. But I’m pretty proud that I have never missed a weekly issue. That’s 780 newsletters if you’re counting.

This week’s newsletter – the very one you’re reading now on the blog – was a close call. Here’s what happened.

Processing Loss Through Your Art Read

Karen Lockert textile art

The Art Biz ep. 7: 4 Levels of Business Insurance for Artists

Business insurance!

That’s our topic for this Art Biz Podcast.

Listen in as Claudia McClain, founder of HomeBusinessInsurance.com, addresses the various levels of an artist’s career and the kinds of insurance you need at each point.

You never think about business insurance until someone asks to see your certificate of insurance or, more likely, until it’s too late. Until something bad has happened.

If you are an artist selling your art and you don’t have a specific policy for your business, this episode is for you. Refrain from clicking the Play button at your peril …

Level 1: Homeowners Insurance Only

This is the earliest phase in an artist’s career and is for hobbyists only. You’re making art just for yourself, not to sell.

At the point when you start selling, you are considered a business by the IRS and must take additional steps to protect your business.

Level 2: Incidental Business Occupancy Endorsement

This is a very affordable option for your home studio, which is tacked onto your homeowners’ policy.

It doesn’t cover the instances when you take your art outside of your home, and it might not cover liability when you have visitors to your home studio. That’s when you need …

The Art Biz ep. 7: 4 Levels of Business Insurance for Artists Read

Jan Thomas California hills

Rural Artist Market (Curious Monday)

Start local, and then expand.

This is a piece of advice I offer clients who are trying to build an audience for their art.

The problem is that this solution doesn’t always work for artists who live in rural areas.

When you live in a rural area, is your best bet to expand your online following?

I’d love to hear from rural artists who have faced this dilemma.

Rural Artist Market (Curious Monday) Read

How to Offer Upgrades for Your Teaching

When you offer services, such as teaching, mentoring, or coaching, seize the opportunity to enhance the experience for your students and clients. This may also be a chance to create extra income for yourself.

I’m talking about offering upgrades to your services.

An upgrade is an offer that adds value to the service for an additional fee.

The most important reason to offer an upgrade is that it improves the experience for your students. The additional income is a bonus for you.

Upgrade Options

Your upgrade offer is limited only by your imagination. Here are some ideas to help get you started:

  • An additional, but different, workshop or class
  • Printed and bound copy of your notes
  • Audio recording of your notes
  • Video lessons
  • “Club” membership
  • A lifetime Facebook group that includes club-only email tips
  • A package of programs and bonuses, like the Art Career Success System
  • Personal coaching, mentoring, or critique sessions (live or via video conference)

If you are hosting a multi-day workshop, consider adding:

  • Private tours
  • 30-minute coaching/critique sessions before or after instruction for the day or an additional coaching-only day at the end
  • Meals

What can you offer to a large number of people at a reasonable price?

How to Offer Upgrades for Your Teaching Read

Painting of Red Shoe by Cheryl Wilson

5 Lists You Need for Your Art Career

I live by lists. They’re so beautiful on the page: one item after another after another.

Whether we process each item in the order in which it appears on the list or, more likely, get around to them someday in no particular sequence, lists help us create order in our hectic lives.

The most valuable thing about making lists is that it gets tasks, projects, and ideas out of our heads and into a place where we can find them again. At least that’s the idea.

With that in mind, here’s a list of 5 lists (yep, a list of lists) that are useful to artist-entrepreneurs.

1. Your To-Do List

This is the list that you’re probably most familiar with.

Your to-do list consists of urgent or near-future items that you must accomplish. It might look like this:

  • Pay bills.
  • Order framing supplies.
  • Write draft of newsletter.

If you’re disorganized, your lists are probably all over the place – likely on sticky notes covering your desktop or computer monitor. Not the best way to be productive.

If you’re organized, you have a single to-do list in a single place. You know where to find it and how to prioritize the items on it.

Next, you need a place to store the not-so-urgent things. This is …

5 Lists You Need for Your Art Career Read

Ways of BE-ing

Goals are about action and achievement. They’re about DO-ing. Consider these examples:

You identify challenging goals to move closer to the vision you have for your art career (and life).

And … because you don’t want your vision to get lost in the busy-ness of working toward individual goals, it’s important to remember how you want to feel as you’re striving toward those goals.

With that in mind, I asked my Art Biz Inner Circle members how they wanted to BE in 2017.

Many artists chose a word-of-the-year to answer the question. I thought it would be fun to share with you the wide range of be-ing words, which I’ve grouped into seven categories in this article.

I hope you’ll take a look at this list of ways of be-ing for artists and see if any of them ring true for you.

Ways of BE-ing Read

A.B.E. (Always Be Evolving)

You might have noticed something about Art Biz Coach and me: we’re always changing.

I can’t help it. I am continually learning, so why should my services and offerings remain the same?

I always look for ways to offer more information in a fresh way that best serves my clients.

This is why there is no more Art Biz Bootcamp or Organize Your Art Biz – because I found ways to improve them.

Last year I introduced the Art Career Success System, a 5-month program to grow your art business. This year … Yep! It’s changing. It’s still around, but in a radically different format. (Stay tuned for that.)

Creative Evolution

I believe in personal and professional evolution. In fact, I may be addicted to it.

As an example, I expressed frustration with my coach recently about the fact that I seem to reinvent my programs every year. Won’t it ever calm down? I wondered.

She suggested, gently, that this is my nature. I have an artist’s soul and I like to create things.

Guilty!

There’s such joy for me in growing, planning, and improving. I’m guessin’ that you’re the same. You’re an artist, after all.

You’re all about making and creating. New! Next! Again!

New experiences add to your palette.

New visions force you to think differently.

New encounters ask you to question the same ole same ole.

Ignore these urges at your professional peril because the alternative is stagnation. Stuck-ness.

A.B.E. (Always Be Evolving) Read

How Do You Know If You’re a Real Artist? (Curious Monday)

Does this scenario sound familiar?

You’re at a <party/meeting/wherever> and Smarty Pants asks you what you do.

I’m an artist, you say with confidence (of course).

Not missing a beat, Smarty Pants says, “Oh! My aunt is an artist. She does these …”

You restrain yourself – resisting the urge to stomp your feet and throw a tantrum while shouting, You don’t understand! I’m a REAL artist!

Okay, so what does that mean?

What is a real artist anyway? How do you know if you are one?

Please leave a comment with this post and share your experiences.

How Do You Know If You’re a Real Artist? (Curious Monday) Read

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