Creative Ways to Survive the Recession

By Ligaya Figueras and Kim Hall

Ligaya Figueras is a communications consultant who specializes in business writing, marketing and media relations for visual and performance artists, writers, nonprofit organizations and specialty service providers. She can be contacted at figuerasl@sbcglobal.net.

Kim Hall is the editor of Art Calendar. She can be contacted at khall@artcalendar.com.

This is an article that appeared in Art Calendar magazine www.ArtCalendar.com

Most business owners react to a volatile economy by cutting costs, hunkering down and waiting for the storm to pass. Unfortunately, in many cases, this can do more harm than good. For artists, this strategy can lead to irreparable loss in market position, devalued work and reduced income. If the recession is impacting your livelihood, the best approach is to stay on the offensive.

"When a recession like this one comes roaring in, the first urge for most individuals is to step back from their brand-building efforts and save funding until the marketplace warms up, but the truth is the most powerful brands never rest," says Bruce Kupper, a marketing expert, founding partner of Black Twig Communications and author of the book Personality Sells.

This means revisiting your business plan, or perhaps articulating one for the first time, so that your career goals become clear. Refocus your efforts, re-strategize your spending and keep pushing forward.

Here are some approaches to consider

1. Stay positive.
As soon as one person starts talking about the economy, things can begin to spiral downward, and it's easy to get caught up in a circle of negativity. If you are socializing with people who make you feel worse and worse about the current state of the art market, without offering any solutions or positive feedback, try to avoid the topic with these folks. It's one thing to be empathetic to each other's situation; it's another to let someone else's attitude drag you down.

One of the best ways to stay positive is to keep making art. Don't cut back on your studio time, regardless of how much you are selling. If you keep creating art that is interesting and exciting to you, your enthusiasm will come across in your conversations, e-mail exchanges and marketing materials. A positive attitude can go a long way.

2. Manage your budget.
You are inevitably going to have to adjust your finances to accommodate tougher times, but don't just start slashing spending for the sake of slashing. Instead, take a good look at where your money is going. Write everything down, or better yet, start using a budgeting tool, such as Quicken (you can get a basic version for about $20). Identify areas where you are spending too much, or where you aren't getting a good return on your investment, and eliminate or reduce those areas.

3. Shop smart.
One of your biggest expenses is probably your art supplies, so your first inclination might be to try to save money in that area. However, if you start consciously thinking about how much your art supplies cost while you're creating a piece of work, it can take a toll on your creativity. Rather than trying to skimp on materials or downgrade the quality of what you are using, examine ways to purchase your supplies more affordably.

Sign up for your art supply retailer's newsletter - they often announce sales, discounts and coupons. Watch for sales at your local art retailer, or see if there is a membership perks program you can join.

Join a membership organization, such as the Alliance of Professional Artists (www.allproartists.org), that entitles you to discounts and coupons for multiple art supply retailers and services.

Buy products in bulk, and reduce impulse buys. Plan in advance as best you can so that when you place an order, you can order it all at once, instead of a little at a time, and save on shipping or travel costs.

4. Focus your marketing. Sometimes, in a state of panic, people begin to spend loads of money on new marketing initiatives. More often than not, it doesn't work.

"Heavier advertising is not the answer," says Kupper. "Limited budgets cannot handle the high expense and the very fragmented media platforms. Big spending needs to occur for a minimum of 18 months to have any significant impact. Most of you cannot afford 18 days, never mind 18 months, of spending. Big advertising spending tends to be unprofitable and even when new customer acquisition is factored in, the return on investment is almost always disappointing."

Instead, focus on the things that have been working for you, and drop those that haven't. For example, are you paying membership fees to Web sites that promise to promote and sell your artwork? Are you reaping enough rewards from that to justify your monthly investment? It might be more effective to focus on your own Web site.

Then, use free marketing tools, such as the social networking sites discussed in Renée Phillips' article to get the word out and keep people coming back. Consider blogging which is free, and creating an E-Newsletter, which is inexpensive and highly focused.

Set specific goals for yourself, such as, "I expect to have an additional 50 people sign up for my E-Newsletter over the next three months" or "I want three media outlets to cover my next show."

While you might not reach your goals right away, hold yourself accountable to the goals you set, and adjust your marketing strategies often, based on the results you achieve.

5. Maintain and strengthen your brand. Your "brand" is the way that people perceive you and your art. Your Web site, marketing materials, online posts, newsletters, e-mails and the way your art resonates with your audience contribute to building your brand. Take this opportunity to make sure it's cohesive and deliberate, starting with your art.

"Every successful artist creates a brand aura around his work," Kupper says. "You brand is your biggest asset and with creative work; the personality that you develop to represent that brand is one of your most important values. Make your work personal. Add to its awareness, and sharpen its perception."

6. Identify your best prospects. Now is a great time to re-examine precisely where you have been focusing your marketing efforts. Most often, your best prospects are past collectors. Second are those who have shown interest in your work at some time, such as recipients of your E-Newsetter.

In an effort to reduce spending, Alicia Drakiotes, a painter who lives in Marlborough, New Hampshire, has decided to focus on her past clients as well: "I will eliminate direct mailings to patrons which have proven little response in the past." Drakiotes figures she will save about $500 a year on printing and postage. She earmarked that money for the building of her new Web site, aliciadrakiotes.com, which she hopes will be a better avenue for exposure.

7. Adjust your sales strategy. Pricing your work during slumping sales can be tricky. With art, it's important that you not reduce your prices because you can affect not only future values of your work, but past sales you have made. Reducing prices can make a lot of past clients angry, and re-adjusting to your normal prices when the economy begins to recover may be difficult to justify. Instead, consider offering smaller works at lower price points, offering options for framed or unframed, and finding innovative ways to encourage sales.

In Art Calendar's December 2008 issue, painter Lynden St. Victor shared that when he attends festivals, he holds silent auctions for his works instead of asking for specific prices. He sells nearly everything he brings. He found a way to connect with his audience and their desire to purchase art. What was really interesting about Lynden's results was that even when a buyer hadn't won an auction for his art, they felt comfortable committing to spend whatever amount they put down on the bid sheet at someone else's booth.

In short, they made a commitment to purchase art that they otherwise may not have.

What new ways can you find to connect with your audience and make them feel comfortable and excited about purchasing your work?

8. Help your gallery. While it's certainly your gallery's responsibility to sell your work, do what you can to promote things on your end as well. Keep those on your mailing list informed and excited about what you are doing. You might be able to foster sales leads for the gallery, even if you aren't doing the selling yourself.

For example, back in the January 2008 issue of Art Calendar, cover artist Erin Cone shared that she sets up a special section on her Web site where she puts all of the artwork that will be exhibited in an upcoming show. She then sends out an e-vite to past collectors and others on her contact list, and in conjunction with her gallery, pre-sells the show. Her results were that more than 60 percent of her work was selling before the shows even opened.

9. Identify areas where there is a need. Columnist Eric Maisel's series on Creative Tourism (May, June 2009 of Art Calendar) is a great starting point for this. Essentially, Eric is recommending that you identify a need in your community and try to fill that need.

Some artists are demonstrating innovation by rethinking how they use their studio space. About a year ago, Christine Shea of Albany, New York, opened up her mosaics studio to offer birthday parties. Children are given cut-out glass and gem pieces to glue around a 5" x 7" frame. "People are watching what they spend, but for some reason they will go the extra mile for their kid and have a birthday party," explains Shea.

Coincidentally, her studio sits behind an ice cream parlor; Shea frequently partners with the owner of the ice cream store, resulting in added value - art activity and ice cream - to birthday events.

Shea also says she has begun to offer a "Mosaic Lab" in which visitors pay $5 an hour to work on a mosaic project. "It's starting to catch on. People are finding that mosaics can be great gifts - like stepping stones for the garden, mirrors and wall hangings."

Similarly, Anthe Capitan-Valais began offering "Floating Workshops" at her studio. Two days a week, she opens her studio to students who have enrolled in a flextime class schedule. Students pay in advance for up to 10 hours of class time and can attend classes when it fits into their schedule.

"If they are going to miss one week, they don't lose anything. I'm not losing anything because they paid up-front. These are days when I am already in the studio anyway. I see it as a win-win situation."

10. Think local. Now probably isn't the time to be shipping huge pieces of art across the country, or be driving from California to Indiana to exhibit at a festival, unless you are certain it's been very successful and cost-effective for you in the past. Seek out the opportunities that are more local, where you can avoid high travel expenses, overnight hotel stays and high shipping costs. There are probably plenty of opportunities to show and sell your work locally. Maybe you can do a live demonstration at an event, and accept commissions, another suggestion by Diana Moses Botkin back in the October issue of Art Calendar.

11. Seek alternative funding sources. This can be anything from seeking grants, to teaching art courses at your local college or even starting your own summer art camp.

Be creative. Now might be the time to propose that community mural, and see if you can get a grant to cover it. Or maybe it would be a good time to go back to school, if you can get grants and scholarships to cover your expenses and then some.

Avoid taking out a loan of any kind, unless you have a very specific plan in mind of how you are going to pay it back.

12. Manage your time. You're going to trim out the excess from your budget, so trim out what you can from your daily and weekly schedule and put that time to better use. For example, you may need to limit how much time you spend online - being busy doesn't always mean being productive.

Take a day, and make a list of everything you do and how long you spent doing it. This should include everything from talking on the phone, to running errands, to answering e-mails, to updating your Web site. While it's certainly important to keep your communications flowing, a lot of time goes into menial tasks, and you want to make sure your spending your time as productively as possible.

Set a schedule - for example, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to make art, and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to work on marketing.


You may also want to read

Build Yourself Up During A Down Economy by Renee Phillips

Art and The Economy: Crisis or Transformation by Renee Phillips

Social Networking: Marketing in the Digital Age by Renee Phillips

Visit the Art News articles Index for 20 art business related articles.

Visit Renee Phillips The Artrepreneur Coach blog at http://reneephillips.blogspot.com