Feeling a little isolated in your efforts to market yourself as an artist?

Take a web savvy excursion to a site that will remedy that!

Art Biz Connection art marketing salons provide a structure to help artists work together and support one another.

It’s all about building artist communities where they don’t exist and strengthening them where they’re already in place.

Art Biz Connection is a project initiated by Alyson Stanfield, the ArtBizCoach.

“As long as you believe what you’re doing is meaningful, you can cut through fear and exhaustion and take the next step.” — Arlene Blum

Are you serious about your art business? Are you clear about your purpose? It’s crucial to know what you want to achieve and why before you proceed to the “how am I going to do it and promote it” steps.

If you haven’t done any goal-setting for your business, there’s no time like the moment! It involves dreaming, and it is fun!

Start with the big picture of the Ideal You in your Ideal Life. What do you truly want and how does your art fit in? In your Ideal Life, are you making a full-time living from making art? Are you traveling the world teaching your craft? Are your designs sold in multiple outlets? Have you won lots of awards? What is the ultimate for you? Write a descriptive paragraph, draw a picture or mind-map it.

Next, jot down in point form what you want to achieve to move you towards the Ideal Life. Set goals for yourself three years from now, one year from now and three months from now.

Write them as if they are already happening or have come to pass. Example:

Within three months:
• I am writing regularly on my new blog
• I have an online shop at etsy.com
• I’ve developed a curriculum, samples and photos for my jewelry-techniques course, and the local arts council has agreed to pay me to run it at their center.

In one year:
• my jewelry is sold in three outlets
• I have participated in at least one group exhibition
• I’ve converted my jewelry course into a series of online “eclasses” and started selling them on the web.

In three years:
• I work full-time as an artist earning an income of ______
• I have had a couple of solo exhibitions
• I’ve published a book on my jewelry techniques.

Get it down on paper and date it. As time passes you can revisit this document to adjust and refine your goals as well as your reasons for setting those goals.

Getting clear about the what and the why will make it so much easier to plan the how.