Business Planning for Artists

            Business planning can be challenging for artists who often reject the business side of their work in favor of the creative process.  Here I examine the perspectives of two artist business managers and their advice on creating artist business plans.

Jennifer Lee is the author of “Right-Brained Business Plan” and a professional in her field.  She founded of Artizen Coaching, a business coaching program for working artists.  Lee explains how to use creative techniques to be more engaging for artists, such as vision boards and eye-catching graphics.  Many artists think visually and by incorporating visual aspects into the business plan can help them to become more engaged in the process and to communicate their vision more clearly.  She argues that having a business plan makes an artist more focused and helps them to set goals and achieve milestones along the way.  She also points out that the research done during the business plan writing process helps artists to know what other artists are doing and what steps they used to get there.  One of the most unique tips that she gives is that artists should reform their relationship with money so that they can better price their work’s worth in a way that is not so limiting to their financial success.  Such work should not be approached as “selling-out” but rather as attaching value to the projects that they feel so emotionally attached to.

            Rebecca Ann is a renowned author and blogger in the field of Artist Management.  She runs a video blog series entitled “The Productive Artist.”  She encourages artists to break a business plan down into a series of seven questions and to think of these questions as legs of a journey towards their ultimate goals.  Breaking down business planning into steps helps to make it easier to accomplish and helps to center an artist so they can determine their best market placement for their work.  Too often artists have trouble defining measurable steps and creating action items in order to get to their vision.

            Investors want to see information on the artist’s target market and their unique value proposition so they know how the work is different from that of other artists and why their work is a worthwhile investment.  This differentiates the artist from others and helps to monetize their ideas.

Work Cited:

Huff, Cory.  Business Plans for Artists, Here I Did it For You!  October 25, 2011.  http://theabundantartist.com/business-plans-for-artists-here-i-did-it-for-you/ as accessed on Thursday, May 8, 2014.

Ann, Rebecca.  The Productive Artist.  http://www.theproductiveartist.com as accessed on Thursday, May 8 2014.