Art x Business Cheat Sheet

Apr 5

Hello, fellow artist!

I’ve created this “cheat sheet” for folks like you who reach out to me in search of mentorship and/or guidance in your professional creative career. I want you to succeed, and I believe in community lifting each other up. Also, I’ve decided that for me, it’s a slippery slope from individual consults into becoming an art business teacher full-on. I’m a visual artist, and I want to remain a visual artist. For me, that means that I say no to all but a few teaching opportunities, and I never take on commissions. Those are my personal boundaries. Not advice, just an explanation :)

So, rather than meeting with you one-on-one, please accept this resource that outlines some of my general advice and how my business succeeds specifically.

All my best,

Brianna

Penrose Press

Penrose Press is just me. I use a branded name mostly because this practice evolved out of something else that used to directly involve more people. I also like it for a sliver of anonymity. The more my practice takes off, the more strangers know who I am, which is the point but also a little unsettling at times. I think you should use whatever name for your practice that you wish, but PLEASE make your first name (‘Brianna’) available on your website or Instagram bio. As a small business, your biggest advantage is that you are small, and people relate to people.

I make art via linocut and letterpress prints, as well as books and cards. My business is entirely funded by art sales directly to individuals, and I make about 25% online through my website, and 75% in person at markets and art fairs. I do not use Etsy or recommend it because 90% of your sales are going to come through you (your Instagram, your emails) with people following a link through to Etsy (or another marketplace). If you’re going to send people to a website, make it your website.

My biggest advantages as an artist are:

I’m a printmaker (originals and multiples, which is what every single other product business wishes they had)
I’m good at talking to people, and I genuinely care about them (partly innate, partly special interest, partly cultivated over many days with a booth at my local farmer’s market)
I always have creative ideas in the wings. I don’t know how much of this is innate, practice, or mindset. I’m not ALWAYS motivated to work on those ideas, but I always have them. I’ve also kept a sketchbook for the last sixteen years, and it’s a place for ideas, not finished drawings.

Your advantages will be different, but I recommend that you identify them and build your business around them.

Basic Goals

Do you want to be a full-time, self-employed creative? No really. Does that level of inconsistency and unpredictability work with your personal wiring?

Do you want to be a technician or an entrepreneur? Aka, do you want to work hands-on forever, or do you want to scale and have employees?

Know the answers to these questions and be honest with yourself. It will help you to know which strategies are for you on a case-by-case basis.

Money

An exercise that I have been doing instinctively for many years is this:

What is your income goal? (for your art practice specifically)

What are your income streams? (art sales, teaching, commissions, grants, CARFAC fees, etc)

How much work do you have the capacity to produce in each category? Be realistic, and don’t burn yourself out.

Does the math math? Do your efforts x compensation = income goal?

example: (this is so much easier for me to scribble on paper than type out, FYI)

8x10 art prints 3 x editions of 30 $55 ea $4950
artist book 1 x edition of 50 $85 ea $4250
original artworks (paintings, tufted rugs, sculptures, etc) 7 $500 ea $3500
teaching gigs 2 $475 ea $950
Total $13 650

I like to think about a year at a time, because art sales aren’t consistent and I’ve found that I make 80% of my income in April (art fair) and in the Nov/Dec holiday lead-up (lots of markets). But you are absolutely welcome to break it down month by month if that makes more sense to you. Especially if you’re doing custom work like commissions, it’s easier to identify your monthly capacity than your yearly.

For a long time my annual goal was 30k because that is the income line at which, as Canadians, we have to start collecting and remitting sales tax. Which I accidentally got into years ago, unnecessarily. Quickly, on the legal front, I registered my sole proprietorship “Penrose Press” when I moved to Alberta, and haven’t thought about it since. I am not the person to get legal advice from. I am very bad at taxes. Be better than me. Hire an accountant.

Here’s the other thing that may feel daunting. You’re not going to sell 100% of what you produce, esp not in the first year (or if you do, you are likely being waaaay under-compensated). Personally, I have a system: I want my prints and other editions to sell out within 2 years of when I make them available.

So think: efforts x compensation ÷ 2 = income

The silver lining is that each year, I have the backlog of inventory from the years before, so even if my creative output remains the same, my earning potential is increasing. This is a long game, but it is the only game we get to play as professional creatives. I practiced my craft for 7 years without trying to sell it and then practiced making and selling for another 7 years before I started making a modest but livable income with it. If you’re an adult with all your life experience behind you, hopefully, it won’t take you nearly as long, but know that this isn’t instant or guaranteed.

BUT! It is possible. And it’s not as hard and way more rewarding than winning the lottery. I believe in you.

If you need to tweak the numbers in the chart above to make everything multiply out to meet your needs, don’t default to adjusting for higher production. You were honest about your capacity at the beginning. Try removing a high-energy, low-income section (for two of my friends last month, those sections were teaching and greeting cards). Try raising your prices. It’s less scary than you might think.

Regarding pricing: have 3 categories. Mine are $10, $50-100, $150-500, and multiple thousands (actually, I have 4 categories). Until 2021, I didn’t have anything over $160 so work your way there.

$10 - greeting cards and tiny chapbooks

$50-100 - small prints (for collectors who are new fans of your work)

$150-500 - medium to large prints (for collectors who are true fans of your work)

multiple thousands - big multimedia artworks (for collectors who are fans of your work with money to spend)

Yes or No

It’s often difficult to determine whether an opportunity will serve you and move your career forward. I’ve heard the advice “say yes to everything”. I don’t agree with it. In 2018, I said yes to a thing against my better judgment because it was creative work that paid an hourly wage (rare), but I ended up working with an infuriatingly inconsistent creative director and leaving the project after a year with very little progress made. Rich people’s pet projects are not a good setting for my particular creativity.

Now, I have a system (and a spreadsheet). I determined a number of strategies for my practice:

financial award
exposure
sales
library
professional development

Yours will be different. ‘Library’ is not particularly practical, but it is spiritually on-brand for me. It just means “affiliated with a library in some way”. All of the opportunities that you accept or apply to should progress at least one of your strategies. And they should balance out a bit. If too many of my strategies are in “exposure, “ I starve. If too many are in “professional development” then I become more of an academic artist, which is not my goal.

Marketing

Did you jump down and read this first? Lol, go back. The other stuff is important.

I am only an expert in my own specific marketing. No two businesses need the same marketing approach. It will take you time and concentrated effort to figure yours out, but trust that you will have a better grasp of what works for you than anyone else.

I try to be consistent. I send out an email to my mailing list every Friday morning (this is new though; I used to do monthly updates). I try to release new work at least every few months. I try to post on Instagram multiple times every week, showing my face, showing my art, and showing emotion (this is phasing out soon!). I have a few markets/fairs that I’ve determined are a good spot for me and my art (and my price point), and I do them every year or as often as they happen.

Don’t worry too much about your target audience. It is not something that I could figure out until years in. I have recently outlined it as: queer folks in their 20s and divorced women with really good jobs in their 40s (I fall almost directly between these groups, haha). But a ton of my collectors fall outside of those categories. My audience is: people who love to read, people who see the world through a romantic lens, highly sensitive people, and people who want to share big emotions with relative strangers.

Use your name. Use first-person pronouns (I, mine). Write in your own voice. Pick one place (digital or physical) and show up there consistently. When that habit is established, consider showing up consistently in one more place. Don’t pay for professional branding until you have at least a basic understanding of your brand (1 year trying to be a professional creative, minimum).

More Learning

I used to spend A LOT of time listening to art business podcasts. I have a few concrete takeaways, but more than specific strategies, I think what I was doing was immersing myself in the mindset of a professional creative. I don’t have any podcasts that I recommend wholeheartedly, but if you’re begging for suggestions:

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast (a little unrelatable, but some good web-design tips; I stopped listening when they started advocating for AI)
The Art Marketing Podcast (but the host idolizes Joe Rogan, and I couldn’t keep listening after I learned that, lol)
The Artist Business Plan (podcast by Superfine Art Fair, which I exhibited at after listening to this podcast for a couple of years)
Creative Pep-Talk Podcast (more about creativity in general than professional creativity, but entertaining and occasionally brilliant, extra recommend if you’re neurodivergent)
Off the Grid (a podcast about leaving social media but also about diverse marketing efforts; solid listen, a little woo occasionally)
a warning: watch out for professional creatives who teach you “how to make a living with your art” and who actually make their living teaching other artists. This is specifically who I’m trying not to become.

I have paid for two separate coaching programs, “Create and Thrive” by Jess Van Den (Australian) and “The Aesthetic Way” by Emma Natter (American). The first one was slightly helpful and cheap at like $30 per month (I think). I stayed in it for a year, but it was a little too Etsy-specific. The second one, I loved and involved one-on-one and group interactions with the coach. I quit my day job when I was halfway through the first year of coaching with Emma (some of her influence, and some personal and world circumstances). The first year was $100 per month. I also spent a second year in her advanced coaching program, which I could not afford, so I proposed a skill trade and made her a bunch of custom notebooks and “school map” artworks for her students. It was wonderful, and I now consider her a friend. Her coaching programs aren’t available anymore.

If you’re going to pay for business or personal coaching, only do one program at a time, and consume all the free content that person is offering before paying for their course. If you get value from that, chances are you’ll get something from what is behind their paywall.