Before we get into the questions of how to make your art career amazing, let me ask, “Do you have a marketing plan?” If you do, I trust you use it as a guide to make wise choices and take smart actions to further your career.

If you don’t have clear art career goals, stop now.

Stop all your marketing until you have clear, believable goals that are within your stretched reach. Only then should you begin to create your marketing plans. It’s easy to get hung up on any number of things that make you feel busy, but in the big picture are just non-productive. Having a solid business plan is a great step to top-level productivity.

You can't work on while you're working in your business.

If you are too busy working in your business, you don’t leave yourself enough time to work on your business. A good example is tweaking things that are working while avoiding doing things that are more important, but that are difficult and perhaps boring to you. A secret to success and getting things done is by doing the necessary things you would rather avoid. If the colors of your logo are just a few shades off perfect, but only to your critical eye, leave them alone. You cannot afford to waste time on menial things at the expense of epic things.

Okay, you have clear career goals.

Then dive into these questions to start the work to make your career amazing.
  1. What is the reason for your marketing? This answer is a direct result of examining your art career goals for your art career
  2. Who is your ideal art buyer?
  3. Does your art fit into a definable niche?
  4. What are the benefits of buying your art?
  5. What are your competitive advantages?
  6. Have you established your personal brand?
  7. What tactics, strategies and tools do you use to get your work to market?
There are many more questions to ask yourself as you refine your business plans. Getting clear on these will make answering them easier. You may struggle with answering these questions. That’s typical. They aren’t meant to make you feel good or to be easy. They are for you to test yourself.

Most fine artists and photographers are solopreneurs.

If that’s you, then you can’t put getting these answers on someone else. If you have employees or partners, you still can’t avoid addressing these questions. Getting clear on answers to these questions is too important. They represent your future and your livelihood. If you want your career to go somewhere, you need to take charge of it. You have to know where you are going, why you want to go there, and how you are going to get there. If you don’t lead the way with precise determined action, you are just leaving things to chance. As Lewis Carrolls’s Chesire Cat told Alice, “If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

What you need to get there — to gain success.

You need talent. You need ambition. You need to be smart about getting the most from your resources. I could go on for 3,000 words as I have in recent posts, but I won’t with this one. I could break down each question and give you many examples and suggestions to help you, but I can’t. I don’t have time. Besides, this is too important to your career for you to not take this serious and act upon it. I want you to be proactive. I want you to stop everything else you are doing in your business and take the time to work on your business. This is how you succeed. You start at the beginning. Get clear on what you want and how you will get it. You can fill in the blanks along the way once you nail this down. See you at the top!

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