The Passion

Remember when you first put your artist marketing plan together? Remember when you received your first box of artist business cards with your name and your company logo on it; the tingle of excitement when you handed your beautiful artist cards out to friends and relatives, proudly announcing that you were now a `business owner`?

There are a lot of important things that you accomplish with the passion you first started your art business with. The passion you had in the beginning was motivational. At first you talked to everyone you knew about what you did.

You may have even done brilliant things like Tony Rockliff did. But as you look back, doesn’t it seem like you peaked? You’ve been busy and now you’re out of steam? Where did all the art business go anyway?

Now what?

The Purpose

Why do you own an artist small business? You must have this clearly defined so that you can communicate it to others when the passion is running high; and yet follow it diligently when the passion seems drained. When you look up and say ‘Why?’ you need only to review your purpose – your reason for being in business and you can keep serving others.

The Plan

This is where the `rhythm` of an artist in business comes in. You must have a formula, a plan, that when applied to your specific art business with the discipline of an athlete in training –organized, finely tuned, and flawlessly executed every day which will reward you with steady growth of new clients. I’m talking about the mechanics of how you contact potential clients and bring new customers in consistently; how you service them when they’ve done business with you once; how you keep them as loyal fans.

To be successful in an artist business you must have clearly identified activities that are your money making daily duties so that you don’t get off track with busy work. For example, you might have on your list the following:

· Contact 5 new prospects each day
· Call 5 previous customers each day
· Create 1 new influencer relationship
· Follow up on 2 current influencer relationships
· Add 5 new link swaps to website today

With a list like this – if you’re just not up to doing business as usual you can give yourself the day off if you do the list. It’s remarkable what transformation you will go through if you create a list like this. Your art business will grow daily and you will get more creative ideas for marketing and new products then you might realize just by going through the motions.

Remember, when the passion of your art business seems gone, look to your purpose and put the rhythm of your plan to work for you. When the success is steady it will create the passion again.