5 Ways to Organize Your Art Business (and Avoid Headaches!)

by guest blogger John Feustel

Is your art business organized? Save yourself unnecessary stress by getting organized with these 5 useful tips.

 

 

Is your art business organized? From creating art to marketing and sales, there’s so much else to do. With a full task list, it’s easy to let organizing your art business take a back seat. But, that can just add to the chaos.

Save yourself stress later and get organized. Whether it’s keeping tabs on your inventory or maintaining your contact list, get started today with these 5 useful tips.

1. Take Photos of Everything in Your Studio

We recommend taking photos of every single important item in your studio. This can mean all your artwork, machinery, tools, and art supplies. Use a high-resolution camera in good lighting to capture all the detail. You can also hire a professional photographer for your artwork. Keeping excellent photos of your art and studio ensures you have evidence for insurance purposes. You’ll always know what’s in your inventory, so you’ll be prepared if anything goes wrong.

 

 

2. Organize Your Artwork Online

Organize your art inventory on a cloud-based management system like Artwork Archive. You’ll have all your artwork along with its title, medium, dimensions, price or sales value, creation date, associated contacts, and location all in one place. It’s nice to be able to see your entire inventory at a glance. Cloud-based systems are especially useful too because you never have to worry about your computer crashing and destroying your data. It’s all online, backed up nightly and accessible on any device. You can show off your inventory to potential buyers and galleries wherever, whenever!

 

 

3. Keep a Running List of Tools and Materials

It’s helpful to keep a running list of art supplies in a spreadsheet – not including your artwork. We recommend recording the item type, number of items, purchase price, replacement price, and item condition. You’ll be able to see when you’re running low on a specific product or when it’s time to pitch old items. And you can track how much you spend on tools and materials. It’s also easy to see if an item has been misplaced. Consider selling, donating or recycling products you no longer need.

 

 

4. Record the Location of Each Piece

Ever lost track of a piece? It can happen. Avoid calling up all your galleries by recording the location of each artwork. We recommend doing this for temporary locations as well, such as art shows and competitions. That way you’ll always know where each piece resides and who to contact to get it back. A system like Artwork Archive allows you to easily attach a location and/or competition to an artwork. You can save two organizational headaches with this one simple tool.

 

 

5. Maintain Your Contact List

Whenever you meet people who love your art, take down their full name, phone number, and email address. Ask for their mailing address too if you think they’re a snail mail candidate – e.g. key prospects, strong supporters, and collectors. Be sure to keep all this information in one place where you can access it anytime, anywhere – such as a cloud-based system. You never know when and where you’ll want to add a new contact. It’s also useful to record which piece each contact is interested in. That way you can send them specific information about that artwork or similar pieces. Remember, your mailing list is unique to you and can be your biggest promotional tool!

 

John Feustel is the founder and developer of Artwork Archive: the number one online tool that helps you organize your work, grow your business, and share your art with the world. From inventory and contact management to sales and location tracking, Artwork Archive gives you everything you need to manage your art business so you can spend more time in the studio doing what you love. Get organized today at ArtworkArchive.com!

 

 

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