She’s a very talented artist, and she’s been at it full time for years.
But, the art market is fickle, if you don’t have your own platform and audience yet.
Will that gallery pick you up?
If they do, will they sell you?
If so, can you be sure that they’ll still carry you next year?
Impossible to predict.
Which is why every artist, no exception, should work on building out their own audience and email list.
I don’t care if you’re in a gallery, if people flock to buy your work, whether or not you’re wealthy: if you don’t have your very own permission-based list of contacts, any change in external circumstances can put you out of business in an instant.
It’s a risk you don’t want to run.
So this artist in particular, she’s an illustrator and a damn good one.
And while she’s building up her audience, it would make sense to do some illustration work.
You know, to earn some money dayjob style, but also to expand her network.
Who knows, maybe it’ll even get her in front of people who want to buy her originals.
“But”, she says, “it’s difficult. There are so many illustrators out there”.
Fair enough – competition is something you need to reckon with, especially if you’re offering something service-based.
Even more so when your offer is business-to-business.
But competition doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
It just means you need to be clever and strategic.
And that means you shouldn’t compete on price.
If you go that route, you might as well stop and get a dayjob at a library or office or whatever.
Competing on price is a race to the bottom, and only very large companies can do it effectively.
No, if you’re an independent creator, you want to compete on quality, not on price.
Don’t try to be the cheapest illustrator for hire – be the very best they can get.
That’s healthy competition, and that’s what will enable you to create things (illustrations, design, logos, interiors, whatever it may be) that pay the bills and leave you with enough money to invest.
And, it’s a lot more fun too.
Would you prefer ten clients who pay too little and ask too much? (Odd how those two tend to go together.)
Or would you rather have one client who pays well, respects your work, and whom you want to go all-out for?
Precisely.
But how do you find such clients?
How do you, actually, compete on quality, and get paid the rates you deserve?
That will be a whole lot clearer after you watch (or attend, if you’re in Spain) my upcoming seminar ‘How to build and grow a healthy creative business’.
For this seminar, the ticket price is $25.
But that’s a one-time only offer.
Three hours of hard teaching is worth more than that, so if you want in at this rate, the deadline to get it is February 6.
And here’s where you can go to get it http://martinstellar.com/find-buyers-sell-art/
Cheers,
Martin
