It is often hard for those in the creative industries to handle the business side of art; some even feel that if you are a creative person that you cannot handle the money side of your business. In order to help artists get a grip on business matters, Andrew Patricio recently hosted a seminar at the York Small Business Centre in Vaughan.
The seminar was a sell-out and drew artists from every genre of art, including printmaking and sculpture. Designed to advise artists on business matter and to teach them some basic business practices, Patricio stressed the fact that artists need to set a clear business plan and have a vision on how they would like it to play out. He divided the seminar into four sections of necessary business steps; marketing, goals break even and cash flow, talking about how artists could save money on marketing by using the many free tools available such as free blogs, websites and social networking sites. Patricio did however stress that in order to run a successful business you needed to hire an accountant and a lawyer; you also need to find someone to mentor you.
The main think that Patricio stresses was that your business must be customer focused; without drawing customers to your business you might as well just be creating art for yourself. One way to market and to introduce your art to a potential customer is to include a piece of your art in any correspondence you send out. Stationary printers can help you to create an outstanding product that will bring you business.
This was just the first of three informational seminars to be presented by the York Small Business Centre in October. The next two will be seminars on intellectual property and on developing a marketing strategy.
