My lovely sister-in-law is writing her first children’s book. As we discussed how she will design the cover, where she will sell the book and how she will market it – I realized that although writers and crafters may consider themselves more artists than inventors, the process for turning art into a business is the same as any other product.
Art for Art’s Sake?
Developing an entrepreneurial mindset is essential. This means that you are creating in order to sell and make a profit. This means that you must create for an audience – not for yourself. If this makes you uncomfortable, then please consider one of the greatest artists of all time – Van Gogh. The most famous of his paintings – the sunflowers in the cracked vase – was a commercial piece. In fact many of his most popular paintings were commissioned. His “art” – those pieces that he considered “great”, were not discovered or revered until after he died. If your aim is to be famous after death – that’s fine, but please abandon any notion of making money while you are alive – if you create for yourself, and ignore your audience.
Ever heard of Charles Dickens? Admire his use of language, his prose, his imagery? Well, he was paid by the word. Hence the long flowery passages and massive tomes – which were published weekly. He had no use for fame – he concentrated on earning enough money to support a very large family, by putting his talent to a profitable use.
Like all inventors, when creating, you must keep your market in mind, and your end goal – to make a profit.
Prototyping and Market Research.
Just as an inventor will design and re-design his product, a writer or crafter must tweak, – re-write and re-design, and then test, gather feedback, rinse and repeat.
This means doing some market research. It doesn’t mean asking your mum if she likes it. It means road-testing your work in front of your audience and asking for feedback.
For my sister-in-law, it meant story time with a class of children. Watching and listening to their reaction. For a crafter or painter, it may mean posting pictures on social media and asking for feedback, or asking a local gallery or public place if you can display some pieces. You may find that certain designs, or types of pictures sell better than others. Or certain sizes.
Once you have your creation in front of your market – listen to what they say and react accordingly.
Knowing Your Numbers.
The price of art, craft and books are market driven. And, because each piece is created by one person –you, and it’s not possible to clone yourself, having intimate knowledge of your numbers is essential if you are to grow a sustainable business.
Consider this – it may take a month of working 8 hours a day to produce three paintings that sell for $3000 each. That means if you work at that rate all year, assuming that you sell everything, your gross sales will be $108,000 per annum. Not bad eh?
BUT, in order to maintain that level of income you must produce and sell at that rate continuously, and if you are to increase your sales – you must work harder and sell more.
So this is when you must become creative in scaling your work….
What if you made prints or postcards of your art? They would sell for less, but after the print costs, they are a continuous passive revenue stream – you’ve already done the work!
Getting the pricing right for any kind of custom item is really tricky. Not only must you take into account the cost of your materials and the hours of labour, you must also consider what the market is prepared to pay.
Luckily, the market expects to pay a higher price for custom crafted goods, than mass factory produced.
In order to profit most from your craft, you must also become a frugal shopper for supplies.
Time is also a valuable commodity. Your sales will depend on your productivity, so you must be highly organised and motivated to make the best use of the time available to work – remembering that you also have to make time for…..
Marketing & Selling.
People cannot buy your work unless they know about it.
This means that you must be prepared to market it.
Many artists/writers/crafters are reluctant to market. They get all twisted up in knots and talk about “selling out” and “getting commercialized” – whatever that is supposed to mean!
The truth is, that if you have poured your heart and soul into your work, and a lot of your self-worth is tied up in your art – it’s very hard to put that in front of the world and have them judge it with their dollar.
What if it’s not good enough? What if nobody buys it?
The truth of the matter is that some people won’t buy it. They won’t like it. They won’t want to read your book, look at your paintings, or display your quilt.
It doesn’t mean your work is not good.. it means you are marketing to the wrong people!
Just as it is important to create with your audience in mind – it’s equally important to market directly to your audience.
Another good reason why people don’t buy your stuff, is because it takes time for them to get to know you, and want to buy from you.
As human beings, we don’t buy stuff, we buy stories and memories and meaningful connections.
Why do you think that souvenir stores do so well at holiday destinations? Not because people have a hankering to have another tacky snow globe on their desk – it’s because when they look at that snow globe, they remember the great time they had on that holiday…
To successfully market and sell your book and your art, you have to give a bit of your authentic self.
People love to hear how you came up with that story; why you painted that particular scene or how your grandmother taught you how to sew.
Lastly, marketing takes time. It’s no good putting up two posts on facebook and expecting to be deluged with sales – it won’t happen, it doesn’t matter how talented you are.
It takes a while for people to notice you. It can take up to three or four months of consistent marketing before it starts to pay off in sales.
Many talented people are reluctant to turn their passion into a business. They say that they are afraid that their hobby will become a job, and they won’t enjoy doing it anymore.
That’s an understandable point of view.
On the other hand, imagine earning a living from doing the activity that you love most!
If it’s just the “business stuff” that’s stopping you, have a look at our website www.inventorsbusinessacademy, and we’ll help you get started!
