How do artists use goals and plans to develop and sell their work?
The idea that it is necessary to have clear goals and a business plan for reaching them may be a ‘given’ in mainstream business. Whilst some artists do exactly this, for others it is something they avoid or considered as ‘not for them’. Some feel they go where-ever their creativity takes them and to plan is impossible or somehow limiting. Others might be happy to think about how they are going to develop as artists, but do not consider themselves to have a business they need to plan for. That’s completely fine, so long as they are able to sell as much work as they want to and make the money needed to make their art.
There are plenty of other artists who recognise the need for goals and planning, but don’t know where to start or think it has to be done in one particular format they will find difficult. I think it can be a very simple and helpful process.
‘Find out where you are at, where you are going and build a plan to get there.’ Robert Kiyosaki
There are lots of simple, creative and visual tools to do this and a plan doesn’t necessarily involve lots of formal writing, but it does need some time set aside to do it, - and this is a challenge for many.
‘If a goal is worth having, it’s worth blocking out the time in your day to day life necessary to do it.’ Jill Koenig, Live your dreams
A Michigan State University study by Dr Gail Matthews looked at different factors to improve the chance of reaching your goals. The most successful group were people who wrote their goals down, scheduled the actions they would do towards their goals and also provided regular updates on their progress, to a chosen ‘supporter’ The group that did all these things were 33% more successful, than those who didn’t. Would this be true for you – and do you have all the factors in place?
I have workshop coming up on Friday 14 Feb that will set you up to do this – or you could book a 1:1 support session with me. Becoming a member of Living from Art provides the opportunity to have a supporter (me) helping you to stay accountable. Find details of all these options on the website www.livingfromart.co.uk
I’m also interested to hear from any successful artists who don’t set specific goals or record the actions they will take in order to achieve them, and to hear from artists who have developed their own visual, holistic ways of planning that match their natural learning/thinking style.
And lastly to the image I created for this blog. I certainly don’t include it as art, but as a strongly left brained, sequential person who is a committed planner and sequential list maker, I wanted to set myself the challenge of getting across what I thought the process could offer to artists, in a way that you might appreciate! The idea is not to take you away from all the glorious creativity, that is always there – but this can be a bit overwhelming at times. The point of a plan is to give you a clear pathway to reach your goals and for you to gain focus and direction through the planning process. This ,in turn, allows
you to create wonderful work.
Do contact me if you are happy to share how you do this for yourself or if you would like some support from me.
Anna Poulton 07747032912 anna@annapoulton.co.uk www.livingfromart.co.uk
