Many artists, I have discovered, don’t like the word “business” and despise the word “marketing”. Several years ago I was at a dinner party chatting with the host’s sister who had brought with her an exquisite water color she had painted. It had a price label in the lower left corner. I love original art, and so I complimented her work and, after a moment, asked how she went about marketing herself. Ooops! Bad word. Bad question. I was summarily dismissed as being totally unaware of what real art was all about. Then she snapped, “If I wanted to be a marketer” I’d have gone to business school. I’m an artist, my work speaks for itself.” She then walked off in a huff. So, I took the high road, I poured myself another glass of wine and stuffed a cheese ball in my mouth.
Can art and a microBusiness coexist?
Do you create exclusively for your own enjoyment, or is your art also your livelihood? If selling your art is necessary to your nourishment and shelter, then you have a whole lot more going on than just creating art. You need to create and sell; and so you’ve been forced to augment your artistic talents with a substantial measure of business sense. Undoubtedly, you’ve established a marketing plan. You’re involved with supply and demand, you network and you know your market, you know what sells, and you create “product” (sorry) to satisfy that market. You’ve got a bank account, and you understand the fundamentals of accounting. Sometimes you eat lobster. Sometimes you eat beans.
If this sounds like you, my friend, you are a microBusiness.
Meet Soniei
Soniei, (pronounced sO.nE.A) is an up and coming artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I met her on Twitter. I looked at her website, which in turn led me to her blog, and then her store. Soniei’s work is beautiful, and as it turns out, she's not opposed to business, or marketing. We started a conversation.
L. Are you a microBusiness?
S. I have never used the term microBusiness, because I had never heard of it before I read your post, but [now] I definitely consider myself a microBusiness. Reading your definition, especially under the lifestyle heading, is like reading my personality profile!
L. Tell me a little about your business.
S. I call my business Soniei’s Contemporary Art, and I sell original paintings only--no prints, not yet anyway--primarily on eBay. I wear many hats, and I work solo with occasional computer help from my boyfriend.
L. Is this your dream business?
S. This is definitely my dream business. I get to do what I love. I loved sketching and painting since I was a child. I did it every chance I had, for free! Now I get to do it and make a little money. I pretty much get to do what I want to do when it feels right to do it. I can grow my business at my own pace.
L. Tell me a little about how you got your start.
S. I just turned 29 in September. I started working on this business when I was 24 years old. However, I only became a registered small Canadian business in 2006. It took me two years just to learn how to start a small business.
I didn’t have any knowledge or training in owning a business at all. I was working full-time at the local Hospital and in my free time I was reading everything I could on how to run a home-based business. This journey all started with me reading a book called Canadian Small Business Kit for Dummies. It showed me the steps I needed to take in registering my business. I opened a business account at my bank, got a P.O. Box address for Soniei’s Contemporary Art, got my [sales tax] account set up, and started selling my paintings on eBay full-time, from home, starting in February 2006. I’ve been selling paintings primarily on eBay ever since.
When I started working on my business, I craved control over my schedule. I also wanted control on what projects I would work on and when I would work on them. I grow my business when it feels right to do so. I wake up every morning, and I decide what goes on my to-do list. It’s a kind of freedom I couldn’t get at my previous jobs.
L. Is Soniei’s Contemporary Art your only source of income?
S. I paint full-time; sometimes I work 12-16 hours a day. This is the only way I make my living so that’s why I work long hours. At the moment, due to the weakened economy, if I didn’t work so much I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent and student loans. I’m not complaining though. I’d rather work 112 hours a week at a job that I love than work 40 hours a week at a job that I’m not passionate about.
L. How do you market your business?
S. For any artist, I believe that eBay is one way to start selling paintings online. Any artist can show her art on eBay and get instant exposure to millions of buyers. Also, my boyfriend, Peter Cyr (who’s a programmer) updated my website this summer to incorporate things like my blog, my eBay store, twitter.com, ustream.tv, and facebook.com. I also joined Flickr.com and FineArtRegistry.com to show some of my favorite paintings. I’m putting myself out there [more]. I used to rely on eBay to show my art to potential buyers. Since the economy has taken a dip, it was time for me to learn a few things about marketing. I’m only just beginning, but I’m having great fun meeting new people!
L. What’s the biggest challenge in running your business?
S. Juggling the large amount of time I need to work to pay my bills [while] trying to find time for my friends. It’s a lot of hard work and it takes time and patience. Most of my male friends, and none of my female friends, have owned their own business. I felt like they didn’t quite [understand] how much work it really takes to run a business, especially in the beginning. So, right now I can’t be there for all of my friends all the time. This has been the greatest challenge and sacrifice.
L. What gives you the drive to keep working in your business even when things get difficult?
S. One word, passion, is what keeps me going when things get difficult. I believe that without passion, I would have quit my job this summer due to the weakened economy. I have two degrees, and I could find a job that pays me more than what I make now in half the time. Also, I believe that patience has such an important role in the success of a business. Sometimes it can take years just to make a decent income. Rome wasn’t built in a day. My boyfriend is 100% supportive of my dream. I think it makes it much easier when there’s at least one person who believes in you unconditionally.
L. Where do you see yourself in 3 to 5 years or beyond?
S. I don’t know if I’ll be an artist, or only an artist, for the rest of my life. I certainly enjoy it very much now and I don’t want to do anything other than what I’m doing at this moment. However, I never know what opportunities will find me and what opportunities I will want to grab. I have a feeling that I will be self-employed for the greater part of my life, if not always, because I am grateful for the freedom it brings me. So, my only hopes and dreams for success for the rest of my life are to be as free and happy as I am now. I can’t imagine another job giving me the freedom and the passion I’ve enjoyed in the past couple of years.
Final note: microBusinesses keep more people working than any other industry. Soniei is an artist, a soloist, and a microBusiness. She’s done her homework. She has a plan, and she’s working her plan. Is it difficult? Sometimes it’s very difficult, but she’s determined to make it work and to live her dream. Please take a look at Soniei’s work today, and consider offering your support to another hardworking microBusiness owner.
I'd love to hear your comments! Please feel free to post a comment here or let’s talk on Twitter or Plurk.
I'm glad you are exploring this topic, Lloyd!
Artists who embrace the "business side" of their artistic enterprise get to sustain - and grow - their artistic endeavors. It's unfortunate that some artists feel engaging in the business side of art is somehow mitigating to their art.
I visited Soniei's site after seeing your referral on Plurk. Bravo for her approach to honoring both the creative and microbusiness aspects of her artistic pursuits.
Posted by: Jane Chin | October 24, 2008 at 05:14 PM
An artist today is not only an artist, we must (I'm an artist too) embrace the business side of been an artist. The time of waiting for a gallery to discover our art and give us a good living making what we love the most or what we were born to do is gone. If we want to make it as artists in the sea of really bad art, we have to learn not only to paint better and more efficiently but we have to learn marketing both online and offline, business ethics and more.
Since many of us do everything, from painting, packing, selling, promoting, marketing, contracts, online presence maintenance and tons of other things, we sure are super-microbusinesses.
Posted by: M.Valenti | November 30, 2008 at 01:11 PM