Five Revenue Streams for My Art Business

I have finally pulled the trigger and joined up with the Professional Artists Association and their individualized coaching program. This is a year-long program that intensely focuses upon my professional art career, and how I am going to achieve some very specific goals. I have a great coach, Cristina, who is an artist herself, and who meets with me virtually via zoom, and monitors my progress, keeps me accountable, and answers questions I have along the way. I've only been doing this for a couple of weeks so far, and I'm still totally impressed.

Each week I have specific goals, as well as goals for the month and the year. The idea is to become very strategic about how I can create and implement incremental steps, milestones, and benchmarks to achieve my overarching goal at the end of the 12 month period. I'm still in the early days of creating those systems and competencies that will allow me to be really professional in my approach to my art business. Like any new habit, it will take me a while to incorporate these new approaches into the normal flow of my schedule.

I know for many artists, the idea of creating a framework of planning and scheduling can seem like a buzzkill, because we all just want to run through fields of flowers and create as the spirit moves us. I want that too, believe me. But the sobering truth is that I want the sale of my art to support me financially, and that means that I must, must, must have a sound business approach to selling my art.

I wrote before about the importance of understanding how my art meets the needs of my collectors. No one buys anything without having a need or desire, and each buyer must find the right solution, at the right price, to fulfill that desire or satiate that need. Over the weekend I sold a piece from an exhibition that someone had seen on my Instagram feed, and she came in specifically during our "open day" to purchase the piece. I didn't have to pitch the sale to her, or give her a long story about how I created the painting. She knew precisely what she wanted when she walked in, as I might when I stop by the grocery store for butter.

As I reflect on that amazing and unexpected sale, and apply it to the work that I'm doing with the Professional Artist Association, I appreciate that such sales as this are wonderful when they occur, but they do not yet occur frequently enough to make a living off of them. We have suffered greatly since the pandemic because we have placed almost all of our energy in running a store. We open our gallery daily, and wait like a spider in a web for customers to swoop in and purchase our art. Ok, maybe the spider image is a bit negative, but you know what I mean. We're passive. We can market, put out flags, decorate the studio, hire a dancing bear, but at the end of the day, if they don't come, we don't make money.

I know that the answer in any business is to have multiple revenue streams, so that we're not as vulnerable to the whims of the economy, the weather, politics, changes in demographics, road repair, etc... One of our favorite restaurants has had road crews completely re-doing the road in front of their door. This work has been going on for 6 months now, and I can't imagine how that construction has impacted their income. If I hope to succeed, I need to insure that I have other means of selling art, and making a living. I need to do more than just open our studio door. And I don't want to go get a job.

With my new coach, I've created a list of five revenue streams that I would like to develop/enhance to strengthen my art business.

1. Direct Sales: These are activities like open studio hours, events, art fairs, pop-up shows, and exhibitions. I am referring here to any activity that allows me to sell directly to the public, or my VIP collectors. These sales are great, because I get to keep all the money (after taxes of course).

2. Commissions: These sales usually mean that I get all of the money, but there is a negotiation here with the client that must be satisfied before the sale is complete. I generally hate this kind of work, because I feel like it stifles my creativity, and there is always the possibility that the deal goes awry. Commissions may also come through a broker, like a designer or an art dealer. That means I may give up a percentage of my income, but well worth the price for a predictable sale.

3. Teaching: This is also something I'm not comfortable with yet, but I do know that many artists make the majority of their income from teaching classes. This may take the form of art lessons, business tips, tutorial videos, or webinars. Even though this will be new for me, I know how important it is for me to diversify my income. It is also very helpful to be viewed as a thought leader in our field, and becoming a teacher, or coach, can help to market the other parts of my art business as well. It can build community, and that is hugely impactful over time.

4. Online Sales: I know that other artists are able to sell their work online, though it has yet to work for me. We are living in an unprecedented age when a single artist has the ability to market to the entire planet virtually for free. Not developing a strategy for online sales would be a huge mistake, even if it means there are several false starts in creating a system that works.

5. Galleries: I hear a great deal about how today, artists don't need galleries to sell their work. That may be true to a point, but I have come to believe that gallery representation is important for a successful art business. Being represented by a gallery gives a legitimacy to an artist, and collectors are often more likely to buy from someone they perceive to be an expert in the art market. And if that weren't enough, the galleries have lists of collectors that I don't have. They may get a substantial percentage of the ultimate sale price, but they do a HUGE amount of the work toward securing that sale. They also allow me to promote my work in places I don't live. So finding galleries, particularly out of town or country, will be a high priority for me as well.

So there they are, the five revenue streams I hope to develop over the next 12 months as I work my way through the coaching program. The trick now is to develop the right strategies and steps to move me toward achieving success in each of these five areas. I'll keep you posted of course. What revenue streams are helping you to flourish? Let me know in the comments, 'cause I'm still open to new ideas.