Top 10 Things To Do If Starting out as a Professional Artist

From reading countless social media articles, attending entrepreneur seminars, writing workshops, taking business courses, and much more, what all this boils down to is what really works, this is the most valuable advice from all this that I've learnt.

Practise and test on a daily basis from your own experience what works for you, just make sure you are trying and testing things on a regular basis, because really in the end this is what will come out on top. 

Working as a Full-time Artist from home, without a back up plan or part-time job, here is the list I found highly beneficial so that you no longer have to waste anymore time, reading, writing or anything else that is wasting your precious time not being in the studio painting your latest and greatest masterpiece.

Here is a list of the Top 10 Things you must do regularly if your starting out as a Professional Artist and you want to be noticed more...

1. Start a Facebook Business page today which brings value and peace of mind to your customers ! Host a  monthly competition where your customers can win FREE stuff. People want social proof now more than ever, they want to know where they can find you and possibly even make contact with you, so you can't isolate yourself away, after all your not from outer space.
Being an Artist means you have to be accessible to your fans, especially once your fan base has over 5000-10,000 people. They need to know you are reliable.

2. If Facebook is not your thing, then make sure you stick mainly to 1 social media channel/platform. This is where you will focus most of your daily & studio posts on, otherwise you will be stretching yourself too thin. It is not all about the different types of social media you are on, but that you are on.

3. Post once a day. You must stick to a plan and make a daily effort, in the long this will greatly pay off for you. Also this will show people a variety of what you can do. Because people want to know they can trust you and the best way to do that is if your reliable and stable in your business, which means you have to know what your plan is.
If you mainly post new paintings in the form of photos then do that consistently, if you mainly post videos, then do that consistently, or it maybe quotes from other sites, whatever your mainly known or recognised as doing, just do it and no excuses.

4. What is your goal? Do you have a plan for your work? You must have a plan. The best way to get recognised is by having a body of work or series of paintings, prints, drawings (or whatever other creative medium you are working in) with a common theme. This also shows you are a serious Artist if you create a body of work over many years, it also adds a great deal of value and worth to your work as an Artist, so that your work will be worth a lot of money in the years to come.

5. Again work on your plan. 1 year plan, 5 year plan, 10 year plan. If you have no plan then you won't know where you want to take your work and your business.
It is always a good decision to make a business plan that includes these 3 simple strategies:
What is your social media plan? How many times will you post per week?
What is your income plan? How much will you make per year and how will you do it? 
What is your body of work plan? > Income Plan
All these 3 are interconnected, especially if you plan on making an income online.

6. You must invest in a website. Your website will be your portfolio, whether you create one on it or not. If you want to make a full-time income selling your work.

7. I highly suggest personally selling to your work friends, family and your current fan base, this will save yourself money on advertising. You won't need to spend money on advertising when your 1st starting out, it will be a waste of money if your unsure of what you are doing in relation to advertising. Internet advertising is a tricky business.

8. Share your work in other Facebook groups or social media groups to save on advertising. This may one day become the pinnacle point of your work. This is a must.

9. Have somewhere on your social media platform or website for your customers feedback, this is what customers will be looking out for if your name is not yet established. And because trust is the most important thing you will need to build with your customer, especially if you want them to keep coming back for more paintings from you.

10. Its going to take work, a lot of hard and consistent work. Learn to know what your customers want and write about the content of your work and what you've learnt as a practising Professional Artist through blogs, I'm sure other budding Artists would love to hear about it and this will be a chance for you to know about valuable feedback from your customers and fan base, this will be the most valuable asset to you and the growth of your business and work. But it will all be worth it in the end and if it is your passion, your purpose, your dream, you will not notice it as much because you will love what you are doing. And because this passion will show, your customers will love it too !

I hope you enjoyed learning about being a Professional Artist.

The decision & responsibility is in your hands and with the right planning and know how such as this, it makes doing daily tasks that much easier when you know in the long run that your daily goals will achieve the greatest results that you are looking for.

Learn more about Mirree here: www.dreamsofcreation.com
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