{"id":698,"date":"2011-05-27T08:47:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T15:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/?p=698"},"modified":"2023-09-04T13:55:03","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T20:55:03","slug":"artistic-and-financial-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/artistic-and-financial-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Artistic and Financial Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Artistic and Financial Success<\/p>\n

There’s nothing easier than being a good artist and a poor artist. \u00a0Just look at artists that you know, past and present, and you will see what I mean. \u00a0Most likely you don’t need any convincing. You already know this fact to be true.<\/p>\n

Art and business simply do not mix very well, at least not when done at the same time. \u00a0They are unlikely bedfellows, more like oil and vinegar than water and grenadine.<\/p>\n

And yet, financially successful artists do exist. \u00a0What is their secret? \u00a0They practice art and business separately, not simultaneously.<\/p>\n

That’s because creating art requires a different mindset than running a business. \u00a0Maybe it’s because\u00a0one is left brain oriented and the other right brain oriented. \u00a0Or maybe it’s because one is creative while the other is logical. \u00a0Whatever the case might be, it is simply not possible to create art and run a business at the same time. \u00a0To be a successful artist in business one has to do these two things separately: make art at a given time, then run a business at a different time. \u00a0One simply cannot make art while negotiating prices on their cell phone or discussing taxes with their accountant. \u00a0If you try to do that, one or the other will give, if not both. \u00a0Most of those who try to do this end up being good but poor artists. \u00a0Some \u00a0end up being both bad artists and poor artists. \u00a0Losing everything is not uncommon for artists. It is unfortunate, but it is a reality.<\/p>\n

So what should we do? \u00a0We need to learn that knowing how to do something well — in this instance making art, be it photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, music, etc.– and making money selling what we do are two entirely different activities. \u00a0These two activities require different skills, different mindsets and different knowledge. \u00a0There is, quite simply, nothing in common between the two. \u00a0It would seem, at first, that there should be a lot in common. But the fact is that there isn’t. \u00a0Making art and selling art profitably are just two entirely different endeavors. In fact, they are two entirely different professions. \u00a0The first profession is called ‘Artist’ the second one is called ‘Business Person’.<\/p>\n

The problem is that artists study only one of these two professions. \u00a0Therefore, they know how to be artists. \u00a0They have no idea how to be a business person. \u00a0So what should you do? \u00a0If you are in the situation that most artists are in, the one I just described, you need to learn how to be a business person. \u00a0You need to learn how to market your work, how to run a business, how to create marketing documents, how to advertise your art, how to find customers, create special offers, file your taxes, write contracts, set goals and deadlines, and the millions of other things that are part of running a financially successful business.<\/p>\n

I know, this sounds a lot less fun than creating art. \u00a0That is why the vast majority of artists don’t do it. \u00a0It’s simply not the same as creating art. \u00a0if you are a photographer, you probably miss hearing the key words that make your heart (and mine) sing: great light, beautiful composition, perfect exposure, stunning print quality, superb resolution, great use of hyperfocal distance, etc. \u00a0etc. \u00a0I know. \u00a0I feel the same. \u00a0But if you want \u00a0to make art and be financially successful, you need to put these aside for a moment and focus not just on making art but also, and primarily, on selling art. You need to focus on making art a business and not just a creative endeavor.<\/p>\n

I wrote a book on this subject to help you succeed in this endeavor. \u00a0This book is titled Marketing Fine Art Photography<\/em> and it teaches you my approach to selling my work. \u00a0Before learning what I wrote in this book I was like the artists I describe in this essay: I thought that making good art was going to make me financially successful. \u00a0It did not. \u00a0What made me financially successful was learning how to market my work and how to run my business according to sound financial principles.<\/p>\n

It is this knowledge that I share with you in my book. \u00a0This knowledge is not based on theory, or on attending business classes. \u00a0I never took a business class. I don’t have an MBA. \u00a0I did not study business in school. \u00a0Instead, I learned how to be a financially successful artist by finding out what works and what does not work. \u00a0The school I attended is called the SOHK University. \u00a0The School of Hard Knocks! \u00a0And Hard Knocks I took. \u00a0Quite a few of them. \u00a0It doesn’t feel good and it is not fun. \u00a0So one of my goals when writing this book was to help you not attend the SOHK University. There’s no reason to if you know how to do things the right way. \u00a0I’ve done the hard work for you, all you need to do is read my book and apply the knowledge in it. \u00a0It will work. \u00a0I guarantee it.<\/p>\n

Here it is. You can place your order at this link:
\nhttp:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Articles-Books-3-Marketing.html <\/a><\/p>\n

I wish you artistic and financial success. \u00a0Yes, you can have both.<\/p>\n

Alain Briot<\/p>\n

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Artistic and Financial Success There’s nothing easier than being a good artist and a poor artist. \u00a0Just look at artists that you know, past and present, and you will see what I mean. \u00a0Most likely you don’t need any convincing. You already know this fact to be true. Art and business simply do not mix…Continue reading Artistic and Financial Success<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[27,43,28,29,26,32,35,33,38,52,37,47,40,48,39,30,36,44,31,34,42,50,41,49,46,51],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success","tag-alain-briot","tag-antelope-canyon","tag-art-2","tag-canon","tag-composition","tag-digital-photography","tag-fine-art","tag-fine-art-photography","tag-grand-canyon","tag-landscape-photography","tag-landscapes","tag-leica","tag-lightroom","tag-marketing-2","tag-navajoland","tag-nikon","tag-painting","tag-personal-style","tag-phase-one","tag-photography","tag-photography-ebook","tag-photography-workshop","tag-photoshop","tag-selling-photographs","tag-sony","tag-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16752,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions\/16752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beautiful-landscape.com\/Reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}