How's Business?

Kent Curole · 02-11-2007, 11:43 PM

I'd like to know how has business (portraits) fared for everyone in the last few years up to this point. I live in a small town where it is extremely hard to get commissions even from very wealthy people. I like to hear a few comments from different parts of the country as well as artist in different points in their careers.

Thanks,

Kent

Julie Deane · 02-12-2007, 10:41 AM

I got a bumper crop of lower cost charcoals this year. It is mainly through being associated with one charity event.

Also several oil commissions. One came about through getting an article published in a local magazine. The others through charity auctions.

Debra Jones · 02-12-2007, 02:42 PM

Kent, don't let your location confuse your goals.

A couple of years ago, my landlord sold my rental from under me. The new owners were quite disreputable, and in spite of jolly, friendly, happy assurances they had many properties and would put me off for renovation, they evicted me on Jan 10. A month of business in the busiest month down the drain and no place to stay in a pinch, so I was a roommate for a few months. The woman who came to install my phone, a little girl who worked for the phone company, saw my pictures on the wall (finding places for the art was the BEST part of this situation... possibly the ONLY good part) and wanted a watercolor. Although she did small and inexpensive pieces, during the course of that year she got over a thousand dollars in work! If a blue collar single mother will spend that sort of money, never decide in advance WHERE you business is coming from!

I too, found it to be an amazing year. I was never so booked that I felt like I had "arrived" but as I am totaling my income for taxes, I have exceeded the average income of five years ago in my day job!!! Still hanging on to that day job.

I did an 8 subject family for Christmas kicking me into the four digit norm, but I do most of my work in the $300 - $700 range. One or two of the big ones, which require selling your multi person or full figure skills, help your confidence and I swear, when I started BELIEVING I was worth it, I had no trouble finding people who agreed.

Confidence and seeing your successes not your defeats will actually make a difference in your approach to finding and keeping clients.

I am still very heavy in the donation field but have skipped one or two of my charities to see if they miss me, that way I will create a stir by my absence! I have found that NOT giving up is important. However, making a decision to change direction will leave a void that has resulted in a flurry of attention and appreciation!

AND of course, never for a day, do I stop marketing myself.

I am still intimate, in that I have face to face, no travel projects. I do over half my work in pet portraiture, which the forum does not support, but it is a very reputable foot in the door for less furry subjects.

I also do Trophy portraits for hunters. I am more and more active in the AKC and UKC dog shows, and I find most of my clients do repeat business. A PACK of dogs would keep me busy for a year, or the human pups! It is all paint an canvas.

Julie Deane · 02-12-2007, 06:23 PM

Kent, I do think that your location will have a lot to do with how ready your clientele is for a portrait, but there are so many levels of portraiture, you could align what you do to what the local market will bear (or venture out of your local market). This forum has artists who do everything from sketches that take a few minutes to big-bucks oils.

Debra, do you work full time or part time? I get tired just hearing about all you are doing. When I get done with my fulltime job it is hard to get into gear for the evening art work.

Debra Jones · 02-12-2007, 06:34 PM

HA HA. I am doing less painting now that I am doing less day job. I am self employed as a manicurist who used to work a good 40+ hours a week and has rapidly dwindled to about 20 if I am lucky. There is the potential for a lot of quicker cash than many other part time careers.

The work I am finding hardest is the salesmanship, demonstrations, donations, visibility, publicity, teaching - anything to let them look for me. I am easy to find. Google me and put art with it and I think I come up like most of the page... but WHY! You have to know what a Debra Jones does to want to find her. Painting is easy.

Michele Rushworth · 02-12-2007, 07:35 PM

My revenue has grown steadily year by year. Most of my work is done for out of town clients nowadays.

David Draime · 02-12-2007, 08:01 PM

Well...

I'm still waiting for that first commission. So, I guess you could say: it couldn't be worse!

But the good news is: it's not going to get any worse.

...I never was very good at marketing. Sad really....

David

Tom Edgerton · 02-13-2007, 04:06 PM

Find the most well-connected, influential wealthy person in your area, the one with the most out-of-the area contacts. Maybe a politician or business person. (If the next town over is way bigger than yours, go over there.)

Tell them what you're trying to do. Offer to paint them for free, if they'll let you keep it for a year as a sample, they'll say nice things about you, and they won't reveal your deal. If they say no, ask them if they know someone who might be interested, and ask them if you can use their name when you contact the suggested party.

You'll be painting for the practice anyway, right?

Work your rear end off to make it the best painting you've ever painted in your wildest dreams. Paint it as many times as this takes (don't let them badger you into a deadline). Make sure they agree to your rights to reproduce the painting for marketing purposes.

Follow through with your part of the agreement.

Portraiture is mostly a word-of-mouth business. Bart Lindstrom's two rules for marketing are:

1) Make exquisite paintings
2) Show them to as many people as possible.

The first commission is the hardest to get.

All the best--TE

Michele Rushworth · 02-13-2007, 04:36 PM

Excellent advice!

Debra Jones · 02-13-2007, 06:54 PM

And the key is to KEEP TALKING IT UP!

I did my first hotshot portrait 4 years ago. Mayor and Gov at the dedication of the facility named after the portrait. BUT I did not have a clue where to go from there. Some people get it and others don't. I am a general DON'T. BUT it is that 80% is showing up thing!

This forum, especially, is great for listening to the hotshots making the hardest part of this sound easy. The MARKET is where we live and the marketing is where we live or die.

This is simple but it is very not easy. And that line "follow through with your part of the agreement" has a lot of the planning stage in it. Setting the business plan is as important as laying the composition of the painting. You just can't do it right if you WING IT!

(You all may read this as a lot of personal pep talk. I am daily convincing myself that the least productive I feel, the longer ahead I will see the results.)