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Tips To Becoming A Successful Artist &
Craftperson
by: Johnny JW Morlan
The world and the Internet are filled with artists. Artists are
everywhere! Because of the competition, only a few get noticed and
make money at it.
Take these for instance, on the Internet, www.wwar.com,
www.yessy.com and www.fine-art.com.
Sure they receive an immense amount of visitors per month, www.wwar.com,
has almost 16,000 artists and over 100,000 pieces of art, www.yessy.com
has at least 10,000 artists and over 90,000 pieces of art and www.fine-art.com
has 8,000 artists and 62,000 pieces of art!
It takes numerous traits to be an artist and businessperson! Some
can be taught and some can not.
The Tips Are Not In Any Particular Order, Each One Is Important
You Will Find Out, The More Tips You Initiate,
The More Successful You Will Become!
* Choose a medium that you have a passion for.
* Do your homework. Study that medium; study the style of all the
artists in the world in that medium that you can.
* Do what 99% of people won't do.
* Give yourself a business name, example: {First Name Last Name
Acrylic Painting Artist} and open a completely separate bank account
for the business.
* Create your own style! Be different and stand out from the
crowd. TV show producers and magazine editors look for this and it
also eliminates most of the competition.
* Offer your art in a wide price range. Have something for all
wallet sizes.
* Always give the customer more than they expected to get.
* People love to deal with professionals. Present a class act.
Always present yourself, art and business in a professional matter.
That includes having a logo, letterhead, business card and the
merchandising that accompanies your art.
* Sell your artwork merchandised with a certificate, folder and a
brief biography/profile, especially if it is a one of a kind piece.
People appreciate this and it also documents the piece for future
reference. Tell a little about the piece in a description such as
the title of the piece, what type of medias were used in creating
it, the style of art it is, its size, the year it was created and
always sign it.
* No matter where you are selling, if you give the majority of
people too many choices, they get confused, overwhelmed and can't
make a decision on what to buy. Depending on the size of artworks
you create, Exhibiting 25-50 should give enough of a selection
without being overwhelming.
Keep an album portfolio handy and if people wish to see more, you
can let them browse through it. Better yet, you can leave it close
to you and people will look through it. Just keep a close eye on it.
Make sure that all the photos are marked with the artwork name,
medium and price. They have albums with room above the photo so you
can place 1" x 3" white or transparent labels. You can
even write sold on the ones, you have sold.
You can also direct and help people decide which will create more
sales by for example if you sell limited edition prints, marking the
prints that sell best. Actually with the above, people will go one
of two ways, they will either decide to go with something that is
marked that they like or decide not to follow the crowd and purchase
something that isn't marked. All artists have favorites of their
artworks, just mark your favorite ones. If you have a lot, alternate
them with each show or exhibition.
* Get a Merchant account so you can accept credit cards. A lot of
people like using them to make purchases. 75% of my sales are paid
with a credit card and 9 out of 10 of my credit card sales, people
use either Visa or MasterCard. It is rare that anyone gets denied a
Merchant account, the reason being you are not applying for any type
of credit. The credit card companies will get 1%-3% commission on
every one of your sales.
* From years of experience, the best way to sell your artworks is
retail, you selling them directly to customers. Selling wholesale,
to retail stores and galleries, you are only going to get
approximately 50% of the retail selling price. Artist agents
{managers} usually receive 10%-25% in commission fees of each sale
they make. If they get a gallery to sell your artworks, their
commission comes out of your net profit. With the extra money you
are receiving, you can do a lot of self advertising and promotional
stunts. Besides, unless you have a lot places and they are vastly
spread out or they are in tourist traps that are selling your
artworks, you are only promoting your artworks and name to a minute
percentage of people in a very small area.
The three best ways to sell retail are at art festivals, arts and
crafts fairs or via through the Internet {WWW}.
Art festivals and arts and crafts fairs have their disadvantages.
Each one you attend takes you out of the studio {shop} 3- 6 days
depending on how far away it is. You have to setup and tear down
your booth, you can do well at a particular one, one year and the
next year have hardly any sales at all, because this year, the
economy is bad, the promoter did not promote the event very well or
just that they had it on the wrong weekend, and another event drew
more people's interest. Sometimes you have to carry large sums of
money around, the lighting and security at some events leaves a lot
to be desired. Again, in all reality, you are only promoting your
artworks and name to a minute percentage of people in a very small
area.
Even if you do get accepted to exhibit and sell at one of the
countries fine art festivals or arts and crafts fairs, it will cost
you $1000-$1500 for the booth fee for 3 to 4 days and there will be
300-500 booths. Yes, 50,000-100,000 people may walk through in that
short time, but the majority of artists either do not sell enough to
even cover the booth fee or just enough to cover the booth fee along
with their travel, lodging and dining. Only a small percentage will
actually make money {profit}.
The Internet is the best way to sell retail. You are promoting to
many people in a vast area. Below is a text link, going to a page
that displays a world and United States map indicating the
approximate location of my websites last 1000 trackable visitors. It
may take 30 to 40 seconds to fully load, the maps are large.
http://www.morlanwoodgifts.com/storefront.asp?pageno=112
There are numerous online websites that are inexpensive to sell
your artworks on that get a fair amount of traffic {visitors}. They
charge $0-$100 annual fee and 10%-15% commission on each sale.
Excluding my personal business website, I have my artworks on 50 or
so websites around the world. I do get a few sales, referrals that
led to a sale or inquiries. The one that I have received the most
sales {excluding my website} from or referrals that led to a sale,
is http://www.architecturals.net.
They do not charge an annual fee and they only charge a 10%- 13%
commission fee. 100% of my sales come from the Internet and
approximately 95% from my own website.
You really do not know who could be looking at your site or your
artworks featured on another site. I have received numerous e-mails
asking me If I would be interested in exhibiting my artworks on
other websites, interested in exhibiting in a brick and mortar
gallery, brick and mortar retail stores telling me they were
interested in selling my pieces, gallery owners and managers,
magazine and book editors, TV show producers and even art managers
wanting to know if they could represent me.
Yahoo Business has their Merchant Solutions Starter website
service for $39.95 a month. You can create your website with no HTML
knowledge. You can have sales up to $12,000 per month. You get
10GB's of space and 200 GB's of data transfer {bandwidth} a month.
For $22.95 per month you can get the Paymentech account that is a
merchant account that allows you to accept credit cards. Both total
$754.80 per year. As 99% of artists have their studios in a
basement, bedroom, unused room of their house, a one or two car
garage, or a shed or building on their property, you can see that is
not much overhead, for a website!
* On the Internet, it is wise to have and display a toll free
number people can call. It will increase your sales almost
immediately! My sales and inquiries increased by 25%, in just the
first 6 months after getting one. It gives people more confidence
about purchasing from and dealing with you because a lot of times
most people associate toll free numbers with buying something or
getting information from a business entity. From experience, a very
high percentage of people will not call your business long distance
if it is their dime. Most of my calls are to place an order. A lot
of people are very apprehensive about using a websites shopping
cart, even though it is secured, but will not hesitate to give their
personal and credit card information over the phone.
Some people just like speaking to a real live person. Stop and
think about it, if you talk to a person, say for 10 minutes, at 7
cents a minute, that is 70 cents. If you only get a $25 order, it
was worth every penny of it! You will have to shop around, but you
should be able to find a plan for a monthly fee of $5 per month or
less and 5-7 cents per minute.
* Always include a minimum of 6 business cards with each piece
sold. The majority of people have an inner circle of 6-9 friends.
You can bet those friends are going to see your piece probably in
the next few months. Believe me, people give those cards to their
inner circle of friends. In fact, several times over the years, I
have had people contact me and ask if I could send them some more
cards, because they had more friends that had seen the piece they
had and were interested in my work.
* Don't be afraid to be different. Do not follow a trail, make
the trail for others to follow you.
* Always price your art so you have room to barter. Leave
yourself say 10% for this. A certain percentage of people love doing
business this way. It makes them fell good. Caution do not take this
too far!
* Give a small percentage {3% is good} discount for customers
paying in cold cash versus say credit cards.
* If you accept credit cards and the customer is paying for the
artwork with a credit card, offer them a two or three-payment plan
if the purchase is say over $100.00. This will generate more sales
and give some of your customers a chance and way to buy and own your
art. This is especially good during the Christmas season.
* Have a quantity buying discount schedule. This works well for
companies and corporations that like to buy gifts for their
employees and during the Christmas season.
* Always respond and return phone calls and e-mails as promptly
as possible. It makes one extreme difference! Preferably within 24
hours. When I phone or e-mail people a lot of times the first
response over the phone or line they write in their e-mail is thank
you for contacting me back so quickly.
* Hard work! Long hours! These are the two most important factors
that will help you create your own luck.
* Remember all criticism is are people stating their opinions.
Should go in one ear and out the other. After all, you are the one
expressing yourself! Only a small percentage of people are going to
like your art. All artists have their followers.
* Remember that there are three ways to do anything in life the
wrong way, the right way and your way.
* Believe in yourself and know when your art is among the best.
You will know this from the body language, facial expressions, and
the eyes {eye contact} of the people viewing your art.
* Convey a positive attitude at all times and only associate
yourself with people that have positive attitudes about you and your
work. Get rid of the nonbelievers and pessimists!
* Never give up no matter how hard it gets. Have persistence and
determination.
* Don't listen to relatives, friends, neighbors, and coworkers or
any one else that gives you that line of bull that artists starve!
* Be a jack-of-all-trades master of none. Learn as much as you
can about business, self-promoting, advertising, merchandising,
photography or any other subjects they will help and save you money
in your business. After all an artist is an entrepreneur. The only
one that can truly sell your art is you!
* Treat all clients as if they were made of gold because they are
precious.
* Never do commissioned work without a written and signed
contract!
* Even with a written and signed contract never start work on a
commissioned job without first receiving 30%-50% deposit upfront of
the total price!
* Never sign or sell a creation you are not proud of!
* Pricing their artwork is very difficult for most artists! There
are so many variables involved. If you do #2 & #4 above you
should be able to command the price you want. If you are doing the
same style as other artists, price your work competitively to
theirs. With limited editions, the fewer that you will be creating,
the more money you can charge. With one of a kind, custom made and
commissioned pieces, you should be able to argue and command the
price you want, as there will be no other like it.
You should always price your work, regardless of where it is
being sold. You should include shipping and handling in the USA in
the retail price. Most people will not take the time to contact you
for a price and they hate to ask. Also people will think you are
playing the price game. Here's how it goes. The first person or
couple of people that contact you, you quote a price. If they accept
without hesitation you will probably assume you are not asking for
enough and raise it. The next contact you raise the price. Vice
versa if you do this say a couple or three times and they do not buy
you will probably assume you are asking to much and lower the price.
The problem is that customers know this.
Pricing your work shows professionalism, shows you have
confidence in yourself, you have put a price on yourself and that
you are not playing the price game. Remember price is a matter of
opinion; you are not going to please everybody!
* Have an unconditional 100% money back guarantee, the longer the
time period from the time of purchase the better. Include that
shipping and handling will be paid by you to return the piece back
to you within that time period. Your customers will believe that you
must have a lot of confidence in the piece to sport such a powerful
guarantee, which in turn gives them a lot of confidence about buying
from you.
* Never sell your pieces on auction places like ebay or Ubid. You
are not going to get anything for them. The majority of people that
place bids at such auction places are only looking for bargains.
Handcrafted and art pieces have no place at these types of auctions.
Once you start selling at the low price levels, you will have one
heck of a time ever getting more for your work.
I once had an art critic and appraiser tell me when he looks at a
piece, he arrives at a certain price in his mind, if the price the
artist is selling the piece for is under priced he turns around and
walks off, never giving the piece or artist another thought. The
reasons being are, the artist could not possibly know their self,
have very much confidence in their self, know how much talent they
actually have and apparently are not too worldly as to know what the
finer material things in life sell for.
* Never stop learning!
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About The Author
Johnny JW Morlan
As a young boy helping his father with carpentry jobs,
Johnny Morlan could never guess that one day his gorgeous
wood pieces would adorn not only the finest American and
European homes, but would even be presented to the President
and First Lady of the United States.
When Johnny was just seven years old, living in Moberly,
Missouri with his family, he began assisting his father,
working on various carpentry projects. By the time he was a
teen, the artistry that would later make him such a success
was already apparent. "My dad would get annoyed with me
because I would always want to make the finish moldings and
cabinets more intricate," Johnny chuckles. He loved
making small wood objects, but was often told by his father
and others that there just wasn't a market for such items.
"Well, in 1989, I stopped listening to the nay-sayers,
"Johnny says, "and I've never looked back."
Having already worked for a furniture contractor and in
the lumber and hardware businesses, he had a solid base of
knowledge as he founded J.W. Morlana's Unique Wood Gifts.
But he also had a passion to keep learning and growing in
his craft, reading over 220 books on the subject and
constantly striving for perfection. Now working in Lubbock,
Texas and a recognized master in his trade, Johnny Morlan
has worked with over 500 species of wood and keeps more than
125 species in stock. He cares deeply about the environment,
works with woods endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance Smart
Wood Program, and in the last few years was nominated for
several distinguished leadership awards.
Johnny has worked with unique woods since 1983. People
from over 130 countries have viewed and admired his
creations. He is a member of the International Who's Who
Historical Society {his short biography is featured in the
2001-2002 edition of the International Who's Who of
Entrepreneurs}. He is a member of the following
organizations and associations: Rainforest Alliance Smart
Wood Program, National Arbor Day Foundation, International
Wood Collectors Society, Woodworker's Website Association,
Woodworkers Book Club and a lifetime member of Handyman Club
of America.
Some of Johnny's creations have been bought by or given
as presents to professional people, foreign dignitaries of
state, celebrities and even the President and the First Lady
of the United States.
morlanwoodgifts@fastmail.fm
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