How much art did you sell in 2016? If you don’t know, just venture a guess. Would you like to sell more of your art in 2017? Success is not complicated. If you employ the three simple game-changing rules you can and you will have a more prosperous, and fulfilling, new year. Rule #1 Make a Plana. The very first thing that you’re going to do to so that you can sell more art in 2017 is to get very clear on the exact dollar amount of art that you would like to sell. Why? Because there’s no way to measure the sale of “more” art. You have to be clear and precise about how exactly much “more.” If you want to improve, you have to be able to measure. Choose a number you that can believe is possible, but that will be a stretch. It should excite and scare you a bit. Do you want to double your sales? Increase 10% or 20%? You decide what works for you and don’t compare yourself to other artists.
“Anyone who doesn’t want to measure doesn’t want to be held accountable.” -Keith Cunningham
b. Once you have your 2017 sales goal, you’ll need to draft a written plan to sell your art. Does it need to be a “written” plan? Only if you want to succeed. Why? Because a plan to sell art without a plan is a plan to sell no art. By writing down your thoughts, it forces you to do three things.
- Clarify and confirm your thinking so that you can realize what you know and what you still need to learn.
- Define and schedule your actions.
- By writing down your goal and drafting and updating your plan to achieve it, you will increase your chances of succeeded over 80%.
Just draft it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It will evolve as you take action. Take your dream of selling more art and turn into a plan. Rule #2 Find New People Your success and happiness is the average of the five people who you are spending the most time. So if you want to increase your success as an artist, then you’re going to need to increase the quality of your relationships. It’s time to meet new people, those who support you in your artistic endeavors, and they might not be other artists. We don’t succeed alone. It’s too hard and too lonely to try to sell your art by yourself. Many artist communities are filled with bitter jealousy and competition. That is a toxic environment making it damn near impossible to thrive. Rule #3 Practice Prosperity Many artists refer to their “art practice,” their “creative process,” their “technique,” their “inspiration.” What many artists do not relate to is their Prosperity Practice. Imagine a talented pie maker named Patricia. She has a great artistic practice, like a pie maker, but she doesn’t Practice Prosperity, so she suffers the consequences. She says things like:
“It’s all about the art of making the pie.” “I’m only interested in my creative process which you can read about in my artist’s statement.” “Money is not important to me. It pie that matters.” “Your pie should speak for itself.”
So, Patricia, has stacks and stacks of lovely and delicious pies filling her bakery cases to capacity; apple pies, cherry pies, rhubarb pies, you name it. But because Patricia doesn’t Practice Prosperity, she serves no customers, and no one gets to enjoy her pies baked with love and fresh ingredients. She’s the only one enjoying her pies, and her posterior is showing this. Patricia’s beautiful pies are rotting while she spends a ridiculous amount of talent, energy, and financial resources making the pies. Patricia practices her art so she is:
- gathering and storing all of the ingredients to make the pies
- maintaining a kitchen to bake the pies
- paying to store the pies to keep them fresh
- purchasing the best equipment to bake the pies
- spending hours making pies and cleaning up
But her pies are left rotting, so she starts asking herself,
“What’s the point in making pies? I’ve entered competitions and even won blue ribbons but look how many pies I have.”
Her self-confidence is deteriorating, and she just doesn’t know what to focus on. Sound familiar? She asks herself,
“Maybe I should invest in a new oven? Or try a new recipe, a whole new body of work? Maybe I should try baking cupcakes? They’re popular.”
NO! She should Practice Prosperity. Do you have art stacking up in your art studio like Patricia has pies piling up in her kitchen? Then it’s time to make a move today so that 2017 can be different. Apply to enroll in The MAKING Art Making MONEY Semester. Please note. There’s no guarantee that you will be admitted. If you are admitted, to officially graduate you’ll be required to earn back your tuition investment with the sale of your art during the Prototype Project. If you’re not financially able to make this investment in yourself yet, do what I did when I was in the same place.
- Where do you want to be at the end of 2017?
- How about five years from now?
Someday is today. Apply now.
