Blog - Art Biz Success

The art biz blog features articles and solo podcast episodes that have substantial articles to accompany them. To reach podcast episodes only, visit The Art Biz page.

Portrait by Ruth D Moore | on Art Biz Success

The Art Biz ep. 100: Qualities and Tools That Lead to Achievements Worth Celebrating

When I started thinking about the 100th episode of The Art Biz podcast, I had very little enthusiasm around marking the milestone. The podcast exists to talk about artists’ challenges and the strategies they use to improve their results.

Celebrating 100 episodes didn’t seem aligned with that mission.

Fortunately, my good friend Cynthia Morris helped me find the lesson in this occasion that would help you. Cynthia is a rock star coach and podcast host herself who was the guest on the first two episodes of the podcast. In this episode, she says:

And I think that what I’ve seen in the people that I’ve worked with is when we don’t acknowledge the milestones—when we don’t pause to savor and appreciate and see what we did that brought us here—we really lose out on a lot of the benefits that we’ve accrued in the course of making our way to that milestone. It’s almost like running past the finish line and not high-fiving the people.

I agreed:

I do know how important it is to see that you’re making progress. And every milestone shows you that you are making progress. I know how hard it is to look at to-do lists (without the DONE list) and see what you haven’t done.

More than just a self-congratulatory episode, together we discuss the value of acknowledging your progress, however imperfect it may be. We share what it takes to do the work, create the content, and develop the tenacity that results in milestones worth celebrating.

It’s not unlike the tenacity it takes you to make your art and run a business. Listen to see if you agree.

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September 2, 2021

acrylic painting orchid artist Shannon Deana Johnson | on Art Biz Success

The Art Biz ep. 99: A Realistic Strategy for Increasing Your Income

Don’t be content to break even when running an art business. You need money to survive and shouldn’t be ashamed to admit it. Everyone needs an income to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.

That means you need to make a profit. You need for your expenses to be lower—far lower—than your income.

One of the best things you can do to improve your chance of success in any area is to create a plan. If you’d like to make more money—especially if you’re trying to make a living from your art—you need an income-accelerating plan.

I’m going to tell you exactly what that looks like and how to go through the process. I think it’s helpful to start with an income-accelerating plan before you make other plans. It helps to know how much you need and want to make and then you can select the projects to support that goal.

If you’ve been listening awhile, you know that one of my super powers is to help artists make plans. It’s not affordable for most artists to hire me to walk them through the planning process. But you can make a business plan customized to your own goals during my Artist Planning Sessions, which are very affordable.

So what if you’re hyper focused on profitability and need that income-boosting plan before you join me in the planning sessions. How do you do it?

I developed a process that we use in my programs called, conveniently, the Income Accelerator. We actually make a plan to increase income.

I know what you’re thinking because I’ve heard it many times before. It goes something like this: How can I plan for more money when I don’t know when my art will sell or who will buy it?

I get it. You make a plan because you’re the CEO of your art business and that’s what CEOs do. They make business projections. They have to in order to attract buy-in to their products and services.

While you don’t have any control over results, you do have control over the actions you take (or don’t take) to get the results. Take charge, like I said back in episode 96. Be the CEO of your art business and of your life.

Here are the 4 Steps to accelerate your income.

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August 26, 2021

Jen McCaw bouder opal ring | on Art Biz Success

The Art Biz ep. 96: Ensuring a Profitable Art Business

Are you seeking a profitable art business?

This is the Art BIZ Podcast on the blog at Art BIZ Success. I assume that, if you’re listening, you are interested in an art business, not just an art hobby.

There’s nothing at all wrong with art hobbies. I highly recommend them. But it’s a whole new ballgame when you turn your art into a business. When you begin asking for money in exchange for your talent.

I want to talk about being a profitable artist. What it takes to not just make and sell art, but to also make money. To ensure that you have a positive net income in your art business. Stick with me.

I’ve talked with many artists who try to make a little money here and there, and then find they no longer enjoy making art after trying to sell it. The pressure to make money in a business is real.

Businesses, by definition, seek profit. Breaking even with the numbers can only work for so long. If you’re claiming deductions on a business here in the U.S., the IRS is going to come after you if you continue to operate at a loss. See the “hobby loss” rule for the details and talk with your accountant. Look for similar rules if you are outside our borders.

As I said, this episode isn’t for hobbyists. It’s for you if you are ready to step up and be the boss of your art business. To be the CEO.

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is the person at the top of a company’s hierarchy. The buck ultimately stops with the CEO.

You must BE the CEO of your art business. Because, like it or not, that’s exactly what you are.

Let’s break down what that means.

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August 5, 2021

Jenny Hope Antes watercolor painting | on Art Biz Success

The Art Biz ep. 92: Are You Playing It Too Safe in Your Art Business?

We are hard wired for self-protection.

The moment we smell risk, our physical bodies start preparing for the encounter. Our mental faculties begin telling us how we can avoid it or, short of that, deal with it.

This is a convenient human feature you were given. It keeps you safe. But it can also keep you small when you give it all the power for decision-making. It can hold you back from becoming the person you dream of becoming and the artist you were meant to be in the world.

Playing It Too Safe

I want to share some of the ways you might be allowing your built-in sensor to rule your life and impede your growth. See if any of these ring true.

You enter the same exhibitions year after year. 

When you just started your art business, you began entering juried shows. You found one that was a good fit. You got in. Yay you! That wasn’t so bad. So you enter again the next year. And then the next.

Juried shows are a natural first step for artists, but what I’ve witnessed is that many artists use them like a crutch. They’re easy and comfortable.

You maintain membership in a group whose members are not growing.  

This is similar to sticking to the same shows year after year. You’re comfortable with the people you already know, so it’s easy to stay involved. The problem, of course, is that you get frustrated because the group members aren’t thinking at the same level you are. You become angry and resentful about the time it’s taking up.

There’s no reason to get mad. You can’t expect

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July 8, 2021

Is Being Too Cheap Hurting Your Art Business?

I am tired of watching artists and arts organizations live on leftover scraps.

Mind you, the organizations and agencies aren’t cheap with the patrons and board members with the big bank accounts. They are cheap with the artists, without whom their passionate interest would not exist.

Artists, in turn, grow to feel they are not worthy of more.

Don’t get me wrong. Frugality isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it can be good.

I don’t believe in spending for spending’s sake or in extravagance.

But frugality becomes detrimental when it feeds the notion that we are not worthy of more.

Many of my clients develop this sense of unworthiness that is perpetuated by the very organizations that were created to serve them.

I confess that I behaved similarly in the past.

For years I have been writing about how artists can show that their work has value. But I continued to allow the organizers who hired me for workshops to do things “on the cheap,” and I was doing the same with the workshops and events I organized myself.

How can I save money? was my modus operandi.

My first workshop, in 2003, was held at an office building that a friend managed. I recall my parents (!) picking up and delivering boxed lunches to the group.

At a much later workshop, I ran my team ragged making coffee all day long – trekking repeatedly to the kitchen on the other end of the building. Coffee! Because I didn’t pay for a venue that had food service.

No more.

I began attending

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June 20, 2021

How to Feel More Abundant in Your Life and Art

In this blog post I encouraged you to consider how your frugality might be hurting your art business by sending the wrong message to potential collectors.

At the end of that article, I posed 3 questions for you to think about, which we will now look at in depth. The intention is to ensure that you are not only living with an abundant heart, but that you are projecting that way of being into the world.

1. How do others treat you?

Perhaps a better question is this: How do you allow others to treat you?

For example … If you’re a member of an artist organization, what is the room like at your artists’ meetings? Is it dark, gray, and lifeless?

Do something to combat the drudgery and nurture abundance throughout the organization. Ask members to bring snacks on beautiful trays – preferably handmade by an artist – instead of paper plates.

Assign alternating people to arrive early at each meeting to clean the room and serve as welcoming hosts.

You can be the catalyst for change within any organization to which you belong.

We teach people how to treat us by

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June 14, 2021