Betty Franks loves her business and life as an artist. She just might have found the secret sauce—a healthy combination of passion for the work and a continuing curiosity about business and becoming a better CEO of your art business.
Betty’s art business has exploded over the last four years. By 440%!
You can’t have and sustain this kind of business growth if you don’t have solid systems in place.
As I said back in episode 78, you need reliable systems to help you run a profitable business so that you can spend more creative time in the studio.
At the time of this recording, Betty had over 120,000 Instagram followers and sells paintings almost as fast as she makes them. (2025 update: 153,000 followers)
In this episode, we discuss the digital and analog systems that she depends on to support her growth.
She generously shares her real numbers, the new postage system she just started using (update since the recording: she loves it!), and how she organizes all of the digital images of her paintings.
Music by Wildermiss
One of my four core beliefs for art business success is that systems will elevate your professionalism.
[ Read or listen to my core beliefs for art business success. ]
Highlights
- Betty Franks shares the moment she fell in love with mixed media and decided to start her art career. (2:20)
- How to find your own style and way of making art. (7:20)
- Staying organized through the process of handling a personal and business name change. (12:25)
- Betty shares her business goals that resulted in a 400% increase in sales. (18:20)
- A breakdown of Betty’s income streams and marketing tools. (21:03)
- Knowing when it’s time to hire help for your art business. (28:13)
- Developing routines that stabilize your workflow. (31:10)
- Simple systems to help manage your inventory. (35:25)
- Building an email list that works for your business. (42:55)
- How to know when it’s time to make process changes for the better. (47:37)
- A look at what is keeping Betty’s attention in the studio. (52:24)
Mentioned
JCO’s Art Haus in Los Gatos
PirateShip.com for small shippers
Betty Franks Quotes
“ I put a stake in the ground. And I said, okay, from this day forward, I want to be an abstract artist.”
“I love learning, and every day I am always learning something.”
“I’m always so fascinated by how I can improve my art business.”
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not doing something to help move my business and my art forward.”
Related Episodes
These episodes focus on business systems.
About My Guest
Betty Franks was born in Toronto, Canada and raised in San Jose, California. She is a self-taught abstract artist who started painting when she turned 50. Although it seems late in life to take up painting, the timing was just right for her. After a long career in customer service management, Franks was ready to unleash her creative side.
Today her work focuses on her love of fields of flowers and flowers in general. She aims to share the emotion she feels about her subject.
Follow Betty on Instagram: @betty.franks.art
22 thoughts on “Systems to Effectively Manage a Dizzying Increase in Your Art Business with Betty Franks (80)”
This is a fantastic episode. Enjoyed it’s lot! Thanks Betty & Alyson
Very happy to hear this. Thanks for listening, Veronica.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Veronica! Thank you!
Very informative! Thank you, Betty, for your generosity.
Yes! I am so grateful to artists like Betty who are so generous with their stories. Thanks, Patricia.
You’re very welcome, Patricia! I appreciate your time!
As an artist I appreciate Betty’s story and information, plenty and useful.
Thank you much Betty and Allison.
So happy you could take some time to listen, Ambra. Come back soon!
Happy to hear that the information was helpful to you, Ambra! Thank you!
Great episode! Thanks Alyson & Betty. I’ll have to listen to this one a few times because there is so much great information there.
Kristen: Yay! Hopefully the time stamps posted here will help you when you go back to listen to your favorite parts.
Thanks so much for listening in and I appreciate that you’ll listen to it a few more times. I often do that myself when I listen to podcasts. There’s always so much great info packed into a short period of time!
What a delightful interview! I really appreciate Betty’s openness about sharing her process and journey. So inspiring. I especially love that she’s always learning and looking for ways to streamline her processes. She seems to balance her art with business and life very well.
Pirateship is one of my favorite resources. I use it for all of my web orders (and personal packages as well). It integrates with Etsy very easily, so you can import and print orders from there with a click of the mouse. You can save profiles and addresses. The commercial pricing really does save a bundle. Another benefit is that you can drop off at the PO counter instead of standing in line.
I use a Dymo 4XL thermal printer for all of my labels. I’ve had it for just over 5 years and printed about 4,000 labels on it. Huge time saver and labels look very professional. I also use it for the backing labels for framed paintings (excellent adhesion).
Wow, Beth. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with Pirateship and your printer for labels. That’s very helpful.
Thank you for listening to the interview, Beth! I’m learning so much about Pirateship and I’m loving everything about them. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience using them. Thank you!
I loved this podcast. I’m currently working on IG training with Ready Set Gram. It’s great training but hearing what works specifically from another artist is so helpful.
I love your podcasts!!
This is so nice. Thanks for listening, Renae! It means a lot to me that you find it valuable to tune in.
Thanks so much for listening to the interview, Renae! I bet you’re learning a lot from Sue. I’ve enjoyed her tips and suggestions over the years.
Thank you so much, Alyson, for your wonderful podcast in general and for this episode in particular, it is fantastic. My heartfelt thanks to Betty and best wishes for her continued success!
Laura: I’m so happy you found time to listen. Yep, Betty is da bomb!
You are super kind, Laura! Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to my story and experiences. I really appreciate it!
Thank you for this! I love your podcasts AND Betty’s work. I learned so much from this.