Art Biz Blog

8 Ways to be more financially savvy

You’re tempted to ignore this post because you don’t like to think or talk about money. That would be at your peril. If you want to make more money as an artist, you can’t ignore the unpleasant stuff. Read on if you dare take care of your financial health.

1.
Don’t rely on a spouse to take care of all the financial stuff for you. YOU need to know how to do it. You need to be aware and able to take charge if, heaven forbid, something should happen to your spouse. And I hate to even bring it up, but I’ve heard so many stories recently about people being duped out of their life savings by their spouses who made poor financial decisions. These weren’t in the paper or a television exposé, these were artists I was talking to. ("You're in charge" is one of the 6 principles guiding my book.)

2.
Value your work. Don't ever discount what you do and the contribution you make. No one will value your art until you understand and embrace its worth (emotionally or financially). As much as you may despise pricing and talking about money, the fact is that art is a thing and things have an attached value (rather real or perceived). Figure out a way to get comfortable with this idea.

Image ©Ella Maria Ray, Always II.

3.
Keep up with your accounting each week. The further in time you get from a financial transaction, the more likely you are to forget details, which you may need for tax purposes. Don’t let receipts stack up and bills go unpaid. Set aside a regular time that you spend with your financial records. Input your expenses and income and send out invoices, receipts, and statements. Know how much debt you owe at any particular moment and what the balances are in your checking, savings, and retirement accounts.

4.
Use QuickBooks or some other software that allows you to track your expenses and income. Having everything in the computer will make your life beautiful. You can generate monthly reports (see next item) and tax records in the blink of an eye.

5.
Bank online. Sign up for and know how to use your online banking, credit cards, and bill paying. These records are gifts from the money gods, which allow us to check our situation at any moment. They're a blessing when we do our weekly accounting since we no longer have to wait for monthly statements.

6.
Create a monthly check-in. Write down where the money came from and where it went. Compare it to previous months and analyze trends. Try doing this on the 5th of the new month for the previous month.

7.
Start a financial support group. It doesn’t have to be an investment group, although investing could be part of it. There are four of us in a group we call Rich Women (founded by Cynthia Morris). Each month we get together and talk personal and business finances. We give ourselves homework to do before our next meeting. Sometimes, this homework doesn’t get done until the last minute, but who cares? If it takes a deadline to tackle (and I do mean tackle!) this stuff, so be it.

8.
If your finances are complicated, consider investing in a bookkeeper. Hiring a bookkeeper over a year ago was one of the best business decisions I ever made. I’m pretty good with my finances, but my books had become a mess because I couldn’t really keep up with the numerous daily Internet transactions as well as the in-person sales, workshops, and more. I was doing my best guess as to where things should go and how they should be coded. I love having a partner to help me figure all of this out and it’s not a huge expense.

---

Related

Check your financial health

Patch the hole in your wallet

Where's the hole in your wallet?

From the Vault: Pricing issues

This is the new weekly feature where I group things together for you and highlight the best of the Art Biz Blog, the Art Marketing Action newsletter, and my book, I’d Rather Be in the Studio!

Today, it's pricing.

As always, keep in mind that some of the links might be broken by now. After all, they've been buried in the vault for a while.

ART MARKETING ACTION NEWSLETTER

Nail your prices

Podcast: Nail your prices

Settle on pricing, part 1
Settle on pricing, part 2

Stand firm with your prices

ART BIZ BLOG

Should you get paid what you're worth or sell more art?

Are you devaluing your art?

Regional, transparent pricing

The golden rule for pricing your art

Updated thoughts on pricing

Does retail pricing work for art?

Make a pricing chart

10 Rules for pricing your art

Savings or discounts?

Secrets to buying art now

Edward Winkleman has a great post on his blog: How to Buy Art in a Recession: Part I. He gives you a look at behind-the-scenes gallery dealings such as discounting, payment plans, and down payments (or pre-orders). I am looking forward to Part II.

7 ways to price your art

Angela Fehr recently shared a couple of good posts on pricing your art. She gives 7 ways to price your art: by size, by time, by cost, by comparison, by circumstance, by experience, by instinct.

Read the first post: How to Price Your Art, Part 1

And the second post: How to Price Your Art, Part 2

I think she's spot on. We can make up all of the formulas we want, but we have to use instinct to arrive at those formulas. Read her posts and let me know what you think.

Art pricing--here we go again

Here are some current/recent/updated thoughts on pricing fine art. Am anxious to hear if you have other experiences or insight.

• You have one price for your art and one price only--regardless of where you sell it (from your studio, at a gallery, to a designer).
• Always give your galleries the retail price and expect it to be offered at that price. Any discounts the gallery might allow should be in your contract. See SNAG's Professional Guidelines for consignment agreements.
• If a designer asks for a discount, offer her 20% that she can pass along to the client. If she has a showroom, you can work out a consignment agreement. But do not give her the wholesale price. Designers are used to buying stuff wholesale, but fine art is not a wholesaling business.
  
• When you just give a wholesale price, you are allowing the other person to sell at any price they choose. You are giving away your power to control your prices.

Check out the blog category Art Pricing.

Contract for partnering with another artist

Jan Heigh is soliciting advice for this question.

I am an abstract acrylic/mixed media artist and generally work no larger than 30x40". I've met a woman who does realistic wall murals. She has a good web site and does the work in her studio on canvas, rolls it up and mails to the client. She would like to have someone available to do abstract murals. It will be challenge for me to work so much larger but I'm excited about giving it a try!

Details have not been worked out yet but I need information about what things to be aware of before I sign a contract. Here are some things I know.

1. The muralist would charge me a small monthly fee to have my images on her web site.

2. She said to price my work for her as I like and she will add her commission on top of my price. I don't want to over or under price my work. What is the usual commission in these circumstances? She said to base it on what I need to make per hour plus materials.  Materials for a large mural would be a large factor to consider too. She usually ends up charging clients $30 to $50 a square foot.

3. So we need to come to an agreement on her commission and sign a contract that is beneficial for both of us. She would hire me as a sub-contractor per job.

Jan, regular readers and subscribers know that I don't like the idea of her "marking up" your artwork. That means she can get any price she likes and give you only what you requested. What if she marks them up 100%? I doubt this seems possible at this point, but I strongly dislike you giving control over your pricing to anyone. I'd rather you give her a list of your prices with the commission listed on it.

I also dislike that she is charging you for Web site space AND her commission. So, I would offer a very small commission. What that is, I'm not sure. Perhaps others have an idea. The smallest commission I've heard of (from art consultants or interior designers or even nonprofit spaces) is about 20%. But none of those charge the artists for anything else (like Web site or gallery space). Perhaps a good model would be a vanity gallery or co-op gallery--where there is a space rental fee or monthly dues in addition to a commission.

After having reread that last paragraph, I would negotiate a "No Web site fee" in your contract and a set commission fee. This would be more of an incentive for her to sell your work.

Can anyone else please help Jan out?

Image (c) Jan Heigh, Ampersand.

Deep Thought Thursday (on Friday): Raise the prices on your art?

I hate to miss a week, so here’s a belated Deep Thought.

Is it better to have lower prices and hope to sell a lot or to raise your prices and get what your worth--even if it means working extra hard for a newer audience?

Deep Thought Thursday: Art Pricing

Should pricing be regional?
How transparent should your pricing be?

This is why I ask. . . .
I received this email some time ago from Robert G. Breur, who addressed it to me and to Clint Watson of FineArtStudioOnline.com. Mr. Breur wrote:

A couple of months ago ONE of you suggested that we artists should make an inventory of our work for OURSELVES. As I recall, it was mostly to set in our minds just how much work we had on hand to sell and to fix there a general over all picture of what the uniformity of it was such as for prices etc. Okay, I took this advice and made this sort of use of it. As Clint suggested, I also went and added all these prices to my web site.

Then last weekend, I went to visit a few new galleries and as part of my introducing myself, I provided a copy of it to two of the most likely gallery owners. The response was positive from both of them and the primary gallery owner even thanked me saying it was very helpful.  This is where I wondering if this is likely to be something I one day regret making a practice of. First of all, my prices being open to all in my web site make it impossible for me to price higher in a gallery in a wealthy area than one in a lower priced real estate town.  I'm in both already! Secondly, I have been thinking that I am being too open handed with these NEW to ME gallery owners who will surely rank me among other art providers in worth and use to them as sources for their products.

Perhaps as I write this I am thinking that I must simply TRUST my gallery owners if I am ever to build a working relationship with them but IS THERE A WAY TO DO THIS and a way NOT to?

Image: Clay torsos (c) Robert G. Breur

If you'd like to read my response, click on “Continue Reading.”

Deep Thought Thursday: "I can't afford it."

I know you've heard this from some of the potential art buyers you come across. Seth Godin gives you a little bit of advice  for how to respond to . . .

"I can't afford it."

That's not true.

At least it's not true almost all the time. Very few of your prospects literally can't afford it. What they are really trying to say is, "it's not worth it." As in, it's not worth reprioritizing my life, not worth the risk, not worth what I'll have to give up to get this, not worth being in debt for.

One response to repeated cries of "I can't afford it" is to lower your prices. A better response is to tell a better, more accurate story, and to tell it to the right people. The best response is to make something worth paying for.

(This is the entire post from Seth's blog.)

(This is the entire post from Seth's blog.)

Practice your pitch with your pet

I absolutely loved Marcia Yudkin's Marketing Minute newsletter this week. I'm featuring it below with credit and my suggestions for you in purple. And I'll add that it might just work on your other pets as well. Doesn't it look like "Penny" here  is just waiting for you to talk?

** The Marketing Minute **
brought to you every Wednesday by Marcia Yudkin
Marketing Consultant, Author, Speaker
http://www.yudkin.com/marketing.htm
http://www.pressreleasehelp.com
http://www.namedatlast.com
mailto:marcia@yudkin.com

*******************

One town over from mine, schoolchildren can sign up to read to a dog.

No kidding! The trained dog listens attentively, and its non-judgmental attitude improves young readers' confidence as they sound out words and narrate the story on the page.

This suggests some great variations on practice methods I have advocated for marketers.

* Stating your fee. Many people noticeably stumble or hold back when asked what something will cost. Tell your dog how much you charge, again and again, until both you and the dog believe it. (Since pricing seems to be a major stumbling block for most artists, why not try it out on your pet first?)

* Practicing speeches. Got a keynote coming up? Delivering it to your dog may prepare you better than practicing to the mirror or an empty room. Ditto for your 30-second networking self-introduction. (Well, you know that I think your networking intro should be under 10 seconds, so see if you can hold your pet's interest for that long.)

* Putting life into your voice. Curing a monotone requires conscious and even crazy vocal contortions before settling into a naturally livelier speaking pattern. Entertain a dog - or an infant - with your voice exercises. (This is great. Of course I never talk to my cats!)

* Preparing cold calls. Have fun telling the dog what you'll say when that stranger answers the telephone. The playful spirit can energize your pitch when you make it for real.

Image (c) Peggi Habets, Penny.