5 Things To Focus On In Your Art Business In 2024

Understanding these 5 Things To Focus On In Your Art Business will get you set up for success from the get-go. The worst thing you can do is somehow blunder into this year with your fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Now unless YOU take control and decide what results you want for your art business…you will get results, they just might not be the ones you’d actually like!

The results you could get would be things like: Exhibitions with no sales, applications with no response, marketing effort and only 5 people on your mailing list…

So, if you’d prefer to decide what you want and plan out a strategy to get you there, then this blog (and video) are for you!!

Let’s talk about those 5 Things To Focus On In Your Art Business In 2024:

 1: Creating Your Business Plan

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I always talk about having a completed Artist’s Business Plan!!

And here’s why: This will help you with…

1. How to make the money you want from your art business.
2. How to choose which products or services to focus on first.
3. How to define your ideal target audience for what you are selling.
4. How to get that pricing done the fast and easy way.
5. How to know which marketing strategies will get your products and/or services in front of that target audience, so they can buy.
6. How to nail your business finances, so you can love counting all the money coming in!!

Without a clear plan, honestly you are just going to waste hours of your time and possibly hundreds of dollars trying out different things… Trust me, we’ve all been there!

Check out my little course: Build Your Artist’s Business Plan - it’ll help you achieve this fast! 

2: Growing Your Mailing List

The second thing you want to focus on in your art business this year, is building and growing your mailing list. Why?

• You own and control your mailing list. 
• When you focus on growing a following on Social Media, you are using someone else’s platform
• Super risky
• Plus it’s harder to build an audience of your actual target market on Socials
• When they join your list, they’ve opted in to hear more from you

So, in order to do this you’ll need to first set it all up.

Then choose a strategy to grow the list - for example, YouTube is a great list building platform…Or you can use Ads to speed things up - consider a discount voucher for the first art purchase etc.

3: Improving Your Marketing Skills.

Talking about marketing, this is one area to focus a LOT of your time on this year.

Whether you sell online or offline If YOU are in charge of your marketing, you need to up your game.

So, what does this look like?

• First up focus on where your audience are hanging out (which you’ll know after your Biz Plan)
• Then choose 3-5 strategies, such as YouTube, Pinterest, Ads, PR, Email, Networking,Blogging etc
• Decide on how they might work together (Pins - Blog - Link to Freebie of offer)
• Use a Weekly Planner and commit to doing marketing tasks daily
• Example: 1 x Blog; 20 x Pins; 5 x IG Stories; 5 x IG posts; 2 x emails
• Honestly the more you put yourself out there, the higher your sales!

Remember: Someone needs to see your offer around 7 times before they buy

4: Focus On Your Figures

This often gets totally overlooked!

If asked you today: 

• What’s your business break even point?
• How much profit did you make last quarter?
• How many items do you need to sell this month to hit your target? 

How many of you could answer all 3 off the top of your head?

Please let me know in the comments below.

Understanding your business numbers, even of they are super simple right now, is going to help you take action on your marketing tasks, stay on top of your potential sales and of course means that you are on your way to building a successful art business.

5: Working On Your Mindset

Lastly, but most importantly, working on your Mindset is crucial.

Your mindset comprises a collection of beliefs that mould your perception of the world and your own identity. It plays a massive role in shaping your thoughts, emotions, and actions in various situations. It means that what you believe about yourself impacts your success or failure.

For example: If you don’t believe you can sell your art, then you won’t.

On the other hand if you confidently believe in yourself and your artistic ability and you act according to those beliefs, you’ll experience a totally different outcome.

Now, Mindset itself is a huge topic and I believe that 80% of your success is determined by your thoughts and feelings (mindset) and only 20% in your strategies…

With this in mind surely this is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to focus on this year in your art business.

You can start out by reading or watching The Secret - or picking up Ask & It Is Given, Think & Grow Rich, The Power Of Now and many many more...

And make sure you also read: The Biggest Mistake You Can Make In Your Art Business In 2024 - because it’s related to this one!!