The First Step For Your Art Business: The Paradigm Shift

The starving artist is a prevailing archetype. It’s well-documented by Puccini in La Bohème, later reprised and updated by Jonathan Larson in his 1990s rock opera RENT. It’s echoed in the myth of Basquiat, whose paintings now sell at auction for over $100 million. This outmoded notion keeps many people from choosing art as a career.

Being an artist can be a sustainable career choice if you’re willing to rethink what that means to you. It’s important to see yourself as a self-employed business owner. The business you own is that which conceives of, creates, and distributes your art. Crass as it may seem, you’re in the manufacturing industry; there’s merchandise, inventory, marketing, sales channels, and cost of goods sold.

This is the view of Amy Davila, who founded ArtSmart, a consulting firm based in Los Angeles that helps artists create sustainable livelihoods. Davila discusses the emotional blockage. “Artists have fallen victim to the romantic idea that in order to make great art they must suffer. This antiquated construct perpetuates and continues to plague artists, resulting in feelings of guilt, confusion and shame. Artists want that financial success and independence, but they stop short of embracing it for fear of selling out or placating the market.”

Working with artists, Davila focuses on three goals — exposure, context, and financial independence. Once Davila has convinced her artist clients that it’s OK to want to be financially successful, she helps with the practical things — setting up a legal business entity, financial management and advising, cash flow management, budgeting, general bookkeeping and accounting, payroll, tax planning, inventory database management, gallery liaison — all the things that most artists need but are often not willing or able to do themselves.

Learn Much and Prosper

Outsourcing business and financial management is not an option for everyone — so what are some practical first steps? There is no shortage of basic business and financialplanning texts.

Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover, Jen Sincero’s You Are a Badass at Making Money and Laina Buenostar’s Happy Money are all personal-finance bestsellers. A book I found transformative is Jerrod Mundis’ Earn What You Deserve: How to Stop Underearning and Start Thriving. Books like these not only offer practical advice but also begin to change the inherent “underearner” attitude to which so many artists seem to capitulate. There are also basic courses on financial planning and business management — both online and in-person. Browse Coursera’s online course offerings at coursera.org. Look for your local Small Business Administration chapter at sba.gov. Check out some of their online tools, like how to draft a basic business plan — then write a business plan!

The Foundation Center is a more art-focused resource. Not only does it offer a comprehensive database to search funding opportunities, but it also gives courses, many of which are available later as podcasts, on the basics of art-business management. Local nonprofits also offer programs, but getting into one is often competitive. Check with your local art museums and nonprofits to see what exists near you. One nationally recognized program is Springboard for the Arts, in St. Paul, Minnesota.