We are great at squirrling away some of the profits of the booming sales leading to Christmas, however it seems like some of the down months (January, February, March) when there is little of any art events going on, and our income drops sharply is just when all of the big applications are due. We had thought we planned sufficiently for those costs, as well as operating expenses but this year we have underplanned, and find ourselves scrapping together funds to apply for shows.
1. How do you handle the cost of jury / booth fees for upcoming shows?
2. How do you carry yourself through those dry months?
We have been working at this for 5 years, and are still surprised by unexpected expenses, and a budget that runs super lean. I value all of your input.
Comments
I want to thank both Ernie and Barbara for responding to my various comments on this thread. The encouragement is quite heartening and reflects well on what has always been a very welcoming community of creative people. Back in the early 80s when my wife and I were starting out as artists in Philadelphia the art community was not so congenial,...in fact I sometimes felt "getting hit by a bus" was the mutual wish amongst artists there. Too many artists and too few avenues open for them to actually make a living. The street shows are nothing like this. Here it almost has a tribal feel, a common totem or spirit is shared and circulated in a most positive way. It's really a very unique community of entrepreneurs, sort of a free market communism if you will. An odd yet perfect fit.
Peter, how very encouraging to hear. We have history that is similar, and i think we are very tough, and resilient. In 2010 within 4 months of each other my husband and then i lost our fulltime career paycheck. We went from 6 figures to $10k for the next year in income. oh, and also no health insurance, with a hubby with health issues. it was a wake up call, and trust me, life could hold us down... but i am too stubborn and too unwilling to lay down and let the bus run over me. We started our little art business on a shoestring.
Yes, we have a business plan, a marketing plan, a social media plan, we blog, we actively prospect our products to galleries, boutiques, and seek out wholesale accounts. Currently we are positioned in 15 shops in a 3 county area around Cleveland, with interest in several tourist towns in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
And wow - we are doing this all debt free, and credit free... We have taken the Dave Ramsey course and purposed to keep our lives very clearly free of any form of debt. Yes, we have a built in financial projection plan, and we have set asides for taxes, marketing and dry times.
I think there are times when i wish i was cushioned by the big paycheck, but the freedom to do what we love is indeed a good trade off. I still work a day job for the health insurance, and a stable income, but the dream is this will one day come to an end giving way to the full time artist life. Simplifying our lives has brought us to the place of knowing what is the valuable things in life.
This is what i love about the art community - how willing to share, and provide feedback. Thank you all. i am taking everything in, and im blown away by how many people have responded to this post. You are all awesome.
I agree Connie, turn a "bad" into a "good". My sh*# day job made it possible to buy a whole assortment of goodies to begin a brand new body of work, drawing from a totally different part of my brain and personal history. This is good. Two top quality printers, a scanner, a new digital camera system, cool ink pens, imported papers,...from this point of view I'm grateful I have a job. Many around here can't find a job anymore. "Be grateful" I keep telling myself. But I was spoiled by the massive success I enjoyed for years. This is my problem and it isn't pretty. Those years far exceeded my wildest expectations when I was starting out,...and the bust exceeded my darkest worries as the cracks started to form around me. It's a "baby boomer's" lament and one I tell young people to not feel sorry for: we had it easy compared to artist, or anyone for that matter, starting out in today's world.
Great story, Ernie! Thanks.
It is so easy to get caught up in our own private hells trying to make ends meet that we can lose perspective. Taking the ____ job is not the end, but a bridge to another opportunity. I was listening to a story on NPR this week about a man who helped people in Peru start small businesses. It was appalling, years and years of filling out paperwork, paying bribes, graft, etc. Not saying it is easy, but we can go to Manpower, substitute teach, clerk somewhere, paint houses, etc., but we live in a country where all that can be the bridge to self-employment. Go to the corner on a weekend and sell our goods ...
Keep the faith, Peter. Your hard work and dream to return to the lifestyle you love will happen, probably in ways you didn't plan on. Afterall, the number one rule of planning - plans change. My design business boomed for about 15 years until 2008. Then it vanished like someone flipped the switch to "off". My wife also lost her sh_t job and our health insurance. To top that I had to have an operation and was left on full time oxygen therapy. Tough to interview for jobs with a hose in your nose. I was also over-qualified for the available jobs and more experienced than the person doing the interview.
Oxygen service was $150/month and no way to pay for it. Then one of my wifes friends asked if I still painted. She wanted a picture of an elephant. While I was working on it I found an ad on Craigslift for an oxygen concentrator that normally retails for $3500. Asking price for the equipment was $800. I offered $400 and the seller hesitated, excused himself and returned with a photo album. He gave me picture of the German shepherd he trained in the marines. He took my $400 and a portrait of the dog. I started painting after a 20 year break from art and started selling art again last summer. I sold over $2500 in paintings in 4 hours at a farmer's market. When i returned home I had 5 new houses to design. Now I'm filling the 2015 calendar with art fairs, exhibitions, auctions and a couple gallery locations as well. Keep the faith. Bad times don't last, but tough people do.
"fluctuation in income". Is that ever an understatement. In 2009 my income fluctuated to dead zero, after a slow and painful slide, and a bevy of part time day jobs I added in around 2007 to try and keep things alive. I stuck a fork in the whole fiasco after Bethesda Row supplied me with a goose egg and two very cold and wet nights sleeping in my van. Enough was enough. Today I and my wife have full time sh*# jobs that pay the bills and them some, but most importantly we are using the surplus to retool our creative life and hope to set sail again full time as artists, when our guts say it's time. We've practiced really all the habits and methods everyone suggested here and they all worked until there was simply no more market for our stuff. The comments here confirm my horror at needing to work a normal "sheeple" job but I frame the necessity as a bridge to a future that is once again "free at last". Moral of story: there may be a place for day jobs, full or part time, to bridge difficult times,..but compensate the misery by having a plan that includes an exit strategy and a return to full time art.
I have been a self-employed business ower for 45 years this month (since HS). I have also spent a few years with j*bs but kept the business ongoing. Most of the time I worked as an architect designing mountain homes, a seasonal business with slow winter months. Recently, I'm changing from architecture to painting and have been encouraged with some success.
My wife has held, lower paying, but steady income jobs in electronic manufacturing. Her steady income stream is used for paying monthly, predictable bills. And her benefits include health insurance for both of us. My variable income can be saved for larger expenses like taxes, insurance, auto and home repairs and emergencies.
I think of my job as playtime, not work. I have fun and it's no probem to work 12-14 hr. days and nearly 7 days a week. We do reward ourselves and disappear for two weeks each year during the winter slow season on a sandy beach sipping margaritas.
Today our income in slightly above poverty level, but we own our home and other real estate, paid cash for cars, etc. and saved up a retirement fund. Actually, retirement doesn't appeal to me, but it's still an option.
Pay off your mortage by adding as much as you can to the principal each month. Our 30 yr mortgage was paid off in 15 years. On the first payment we added $20 that would have been spent on hamburgers. Saved about $130,000.00 in interest. We are debt free.
We stay at home and entertain friends and family, grow a vegetable garden, shop at discount stores, practice fuel efficient heating, cooling and driving techniques.
Stay to a tight budget 6 days a week and plan a reward for the 7th day. (gone fishin')
Be frugal for a month and eat out on one day.
Be efficient and save money all year except for two weeks and jet off to Puerto Vallarta.
Can't complain,
Happy Camper
Like your comment, Barbara. Don't fprget to take out what you'll have to pay at salestaxtime too. That part of the $$ belongs to the state and not to the artist.
I was wondering about that, Connie, and tried connecting the dots of reverse psychology. Living in an expensive area means not doing anything there, thus not spending any money? LOL!
Adding something more to this "carry through" list...
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