Well, it's about time!
I think I've reached the point with my education that I'm ready to get the ball rolling on starting up my own business.
Blam. Just like that.
What I want to do is sell my artwork in various forms. Flat art will be prints (framed or unframed) of my art, or the originals for a higher price. I also want to put it on shirts, jackets, mugs, calendars, note cards, and the like. Now here's the tricky part, the part I might not actually jump into until I've actually had some success - custom artwork and design. Tell me what to draw, I'll draw it. Tell me what tattoo you want, I'll design it. Tell me what logo, advertisement, or event poster you want, and I'll design it. It's the custom part which will probably make me more money in the end, but will be harder to figure out, unless I get lucky with the Amazon Webstore option, which is how I've decided to run my business online.
Now, before you go all hogwild applauding me for finally (finally!) doing what you, me, and everyone else has always known I could do, just hold up a minute.
I'm not actually starting the business anytime soon. I've set a goal for officially "opening the doors" on January 1, 2009. I'm hoping to have all the pre-business stuff wrapped up by then and more importantly, have a good line of artwork to start selling. Right now I'm in the very beginning stages of planning it all out, and I'm still in the listing stuff stage.
I need to determine exactly what I'll sell first and foremost, research basic prices, find bulk sellers of some of the supplies I'll need, find a good printer, and amidst all of that is the fun job of researching all the legal angles - filing a Fictitious Business Name Statement, talking to someone about tax stuff, figuring out contracts (for custom orders) if it seems like I might need them, all that jazz. And I need to actually buy my own Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator programs, which will most likely be my biggest expense by far (although my grandmother did at one point tell me to let her know about "any of that stuff" that I might need for school ... I bet she'd consider it for business, too).
Once I've got all of that figured and filed, I just need to draw like a madwoman, then finally set up a Webstore with Amazon, and spread the word. And hope.
I'm going to try to find information online about starting up a business to make sure I don't forget anything important. I'll also (finally) talk to some of the other students in the enterprenuership club and the arts and entertainment club I'm in with my school, and get feedback and ideas from them as well as the professors who run those clubs. Those alone should prove to be immensely valuable, but if any of you readers out there have any tips, tricks, or can point me in the right direction for finding information on what all I'll need to do to start up my own business, I'd be forever grateful.
Ok, ok, you can applaud now, if you wish. The whole thing won't come together for some time now, but I'm getting started on what I need to, and when all is ready, I should be able to hit the ground running and really do this right.
3 comments:
Sounds like a great plan to me! BTW, around here (and I assume there, too), there are many art- and art-related fairs. Usually, they're in parks or something... Artists rent out tents and sell their stuff -- mostly prints, but sometimes originals, too (originals usually for a LOT more). I've always thought that could be very lucrative... just put together a sampling of your absolute best stuff (like, 15-20 pieces) and have them reproduced by a printer. Then, have them matted at various sizes and put them in plastic sleeves for sale. Of course, you would sign the mats, and possibly number them if it's a limited run.
Others do live drawings of people, as you'd see on the streets of New York, for example. But, I never see those people getting the same volume of business as the artists in the tents. Since you seem to do a lot of fantasy-related stuff (e.g., dragons, etc.), you could probably do this at Renaissance fairs and other related festivals. Here in Pittsburgh, for example, there is an annual "fairy festival." It's small, but a lot of fun. (Just watch out for the evil fairies.)
Best of luck... Share the link when you're up & running!
Thanks! I've actually been considering events like that too, and my tattoo artist suggested I set up a botth at one of the annual tattoo festivals, too.
I'll definately put up the link when it's ready :)
Well, whenever you start this up, I'd pay you to design some tattoos for me. I've been trying to draw them, and I can't draw for shit.
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