Say My Name...Save My Name...

Thanks to Dean L. at Prosperous Artists for this one

Stop thinking about Beyonce for a moment. We can always go back to her later …

Start thinking about how many people you know. The number of contacts made between you and all the people you’ve met over your lifetime, if we could count them all would be staggering. OK, let’s just limit it to those you’ve met over your professional career? Now, what have you done with the information you’ve received on all these contacts … and what are you doing with all that valuable data?

Let’s make it a bit easier - just think of the last few months … how many stacks of business cards, piles of flyers and scraps and scrapes of data have you accumulated that aren’t effectively working for you? Please … I’m not trying to guilt or shame anyone here … just make a point.

One of the most important steps in the evolution of Roundtable P&P has been and continues to be how do use the data of the people with whom I come in contact. I will confess it is an ongoing situation I have to solve, and my best success has come at points when I’ve effectively solved it.

Here’s the three questions to ask yourself …

1. How many contacts do you have … your best guess is probably wrong if you don’t generally know - you may have more or less. Right now, I have about 6,500 contacts, from various sources. But my main list is about 3K.
2. How do you work with them … are they all over the place, or are they in some sort of system that makes sense for you to work with. I will discuss this in future blogs, but useful data is more effective then collected data.
3. What is it you want them to do which they are not … and don’t say “make you money.” You need to develop a personal process of understanding who all these people are, what are their value to you and how best to work with them.

So, as you exchange business cards when you network, pay attention to them. Pretend each initial contact information is worth $5. If you grow and develop the list, it could be worth thousands of dollars or more if you can grow them into a life long clients.

I will share more about the ways in which we work with this data … and that’s all any of it is right now - raw data … in the next few weeks. We will talk about CRM’s, Email Blasts and working your lists … and I mean lists plural. YOUR ACTION STEP: Pay attention over the next few days to the ways you come aware of new people and then how you collect information about the people with whom you come in contact.

– Dean L.

Things that make me say UGGGGGGGGGGGG

There was a great article in BusinessWeek "Creative Artists Confront Sales Anxiety". You should read it, but that is not what made me write today. This comment about the article is making me write.

Cristobal Senior
Feb 9, 2008 12:41 AM GMT
Ms. Miller is deeply confused about the concept and definition of Art, which is certainly not about trinket making and fantasy jewelry designs. Art is about conveying in the highest esthetical form visions and messages about the salient aspects of human life and nature. Artists shoudn't be afraid of sales because good art is not made for sale but to be meditated upon and for the stimulation of the spirit. That artists need an income? Yes they do but there are many ways of providing this income in an advanced civilized society that pursues higher forms of living. And if worse comes to worst, good art will always "sell" easily.

Here is my response. I tried to be nice but this kind of thinking is exactly why many artists and artisans are afraid to or don't know how to make a living doing what they love. "Art" or "art" is not some sort of competition about who can be the most transcendental or suffer the most

The previous comment ruffles my feathers a bit. There shouldn't be a competition about what is "real" art (or art with a capital "A"). We are all creating and need to support each other in that endeavor. Being creative and making money is not a bad thing or selling out. It is doing what you love and making a living. Until all creative people stop judging and start supporting each other, how can we expect the rest of society to support the arts as well? This is exactly why artist is the only profession with the word "starving" in front of it. "Artists shouldn't be afraid of sales because good art is not made for sale but to be meditated upon and for the stimulation of the spirit." That is nice, but it hard to stimulate a spirit when you can't pay your rent. All the "great artists" that we know today, Picasso, Rembrandt, van Gogh are only known to us because they or someone else marketed and sold their work.

Are You Running Your Business Like a Horror Film? V

Now you are working more hours than you ever would in a "regular job". So why is that?

1. You are afraid that if you stop for even one day, this precarious tower you have built will come crashing down.
   
2. You feel guilty because you should be working hard. If you took time off that would be slacking.
   
3. You don't actually know what you have to do or when it has to get done so you just keep working and hope it all happens when it is supposed to.
4. You truly believe that working 24/7 is the only way to make money in a creative business.
   
5. You are stuck in a cycle of too much work and then not enough.

Last but not least, #5.

This is so common. You market and get a bunch of work. You get caught up in the jobs. One day the jobs are over and you have no work. You market feverishly for more jobs, you get them and stop marketing. One day you run out of jobs so you start marketing again...

Ugggggggg!

This is a fairly long discussion and you can read and hear all about it in The Hearty Artist Toolkit. Here are the nuts and bolts of it all.

You have to balance your work and marketing. There will always be ups and downs but if you consistently market, even during the busy times, you will consistently get work. This does mean taking 2-4 days a month for just marketing but it is so worth the more consistent cash flow.

Marketing is part of your business, just as much as creating and doing your books and meeting with clients. So set up a schedule to market yourself and you can spread out your work time and down time.

Lisa just commented on one of my posts and I just had to comment on it.

I don't have a business for my art.
I give it all away to family/friends/anyone who'll take it. My other artist friends give their creations away as well.
Just never thought anyone would give a "plug nickle" for anything I paint or sketch.

This is so common and the very root of why there is a term "starving artist" out there. Society often doesn't value our work but we don't either. Every time you give away your work you are actually de-valuing it.

You have to be paid.

No, this is not selling out. It is reality. The reality is that your talents and the years and effort you have taken to hone them are worth something but, no one else will believe that until you do.

Start thinking of yourself as a true professional. You have spent as much, if not more, time honing your skills as a doctor or lawyer or architect has spent. You would never assume they would give their services away. So, why should you give yours away?

Are You Running Your Business Like a Horror Film? IV

Now you are working more hours than you ever would in a "regular job". So why is that?

1. You are afraid that if you stop for even one day, this precarious tower you have built will come crashing down.
   
2. You feel guilty because you should be working hard. If you took time off that would be slacking.
   
3. You don't actually know what you have to do or when it has to get done so you just keep working and hope it all happens when it is supposed to.
4. You truly believe that working 24/7 is the only way to make money in a creative business.
   
5. You are stuck in a cycle of too much work and then not enough.

And now for # 4...

This is a common issue for many business owners, not just creative ones. Let's face it, it is scary to own your own company and depend on yourself to pay the bills. This fear sends many business owners into a working frenzy.

There is always something to do and you have been told over and over again that you have to work hard, really hard, to earn money on your own. This goes back to what I discussed in #2 to a certain extent. But it is even more than feeling like you are slacking. It is a true belief that if you are not working on the things on your list at all times, your business will fall apart.

Don't get me wrong, you do have to get those things done and in a timely manner but "timely" and "right this second" are not the same thing.

This is not emergency surgery, it is a business. No one will die is you don't call them back in the next two hours or if you take a Saturday with your family and wait until Monday to work on your website.

Many successful business are run with people taking vacations and the office closing over the weekend. Your business can too. You just have to let go and let it.

Are You Running Your Buiness Like a Horror Film? III

Now you are working more hours than you ever would in a "regular job". So why is that?

1. You are afraid that if you stop for even one day, this precarious tower you have built will come crashing down.
   
2. You feel guilty because you should be working hard. If you took time off that would be slacking.
   
3. You don't actually know what you have to do or when it has to get done so you just keep working and hope it all happens when it is supposed to.
4. You truly believe that working 24/7 is the only way to make money in a creative business.
   
5. You are stuck in a cycle of too much work and then not enough.
   

And on to #3.

Between your business and your life it can often feel like your head is going to explode and just the thought of writing out everything you need to get done can make you nauseous. Well, get the bucket ready because here is what you need to do.

Write down everything you can think of that needs to get done. I mean everything. Just purge your brain of all of it. Do not put it in any particular order or try to organize it, just get it down. (You may need a big piece of paper for this.)

Now you need to decide what categories your life fits into. Examples: marketing, kid time, personal time, paperwork, client visits, home time, and finally creating ( you know, the thing you say you do for a living). Then get a bunch of different colored highlighters and color code each category. Yeah, color!

Get out your calendar and color code sections of time for each category each week or month and start plugging the stuff on your purge list into their proper color codes.

Here is the big trick, once a section of time is color coded, it can not be changed. I mean it. If you have marketing time set aside, you can not deal with the cable guy. If you have personal time scheduled, you can not meet with a client.

You will mess this up at first but the longer you do it the better things will get.

P.S. Re-look at you schedule every few months to make sure the current configuration still works for you.