Last night I fucked up on a caricature job in Santa Cruz. I got the dates wrong for the gig and showed up a whole day late! Needless to say I screwed myself out of my fee, the half tank of gas it took to get there and back and had to send an apology to the person that contracted me for my mix-up. At this moment I feel pretty stupid.
But it does bring home the major flaw with my caricature business as a business model. Though I make more money per hour doing caricature than I do in any other capacity, I have no real equity from it. The business only makes money when I go out and do these gigs. No different than if I was playing piano bars for a living. On the long drive back from Santa Cruz, I realized that I have no more equity now than when I did when I started 20 years ago. I don't so much have a business, as I really just own a job.
Which brings me to thinking about the whole concept of Equity for artists. For my business to create equity it must build value from something other than my direct labor. I've been working on my illustrations and a plan to market them as greeting cards, t-shirts and flash art for tattoos. I've been feeling foolish about this idea because it takes much more money to do than caricatures and doesn't promise as big a cash flow. But it is a business model that would allow me to start building equity from my art.
It is like a musician moving from doing live shows to producing records. You can make a lot of money touring but if you don't tour you don't make money. But once you make a record and get it out there. You can make money for years (if it is popular) without stepping in the studio again. Of course this is a vast simplification of the music industry but it shows the difference between a model that makes money now compared to one that makes money over the longer haul.
My business plan for my illustration work is a lot more complicated, risky, expensive and just harder to do than my doing caricatures. But driving home from Santa Cruz made me realize that I can't count on doing caricatures for the rest of my life. If for no other reason, at one point I will be too old for this crap. I need a business model that creates equity from my work rather than just generating a cash flow.
But it does bring home the major flaw with my caricature business as a business model. Though I make more money per hour doing caricature than I do in any other capacity, I have no real equity from it. The business only makes money when I go out and do these gigs. No different than if I was playing piano bars for a living. On the long drive back from Santa Cruz, I realized that I have no more equity now than when I did when I started 20 years ago. I don't so much have a business, as I really just own a job.
Which brings me to thinking about the whole concept of Equity for artists. For my business to create equity it must build value from something other than my direct labor. I've been working on my illustrations and a plan to market them as greeting cards, t-shirts and flash art for tattoos. I've been feeling foolish about this idea because it takes much more money to do than caricatures and doesn't promise as big a cash flow. But it is a business model that would allow me to start building equity from my art.
It is like a musician moving from doing live shows to producing records. You can make a lot of money touring but if you don't tour you don't make money. But once you make a record and get it out there. You can make money for years (if it is popular) without stepping in the studio again. Of course this is a vast simplification of the music industry but it shows the difference between a model that makes money now compared to one that makes money over the longer haul.
My business plan for my illustration work is a lot more complicated, risky, expensive and just harder to do than my doing caricatures. But driving home from Santa Cruz made me realize that I can't count on doing caricatures for the rest of my life. If for no other reason, at one point I will be too old for this crap. I need a business model that creates equity from my work rather than just generating a cash flow.
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Building Equity
Sun, June 8, 2008 - 12:24 PMWhen you figrure this one out, please share. It's the same concept for me, but with mural work involved. I'll probably have to die before the equitable value of my framed and canvas work evolves! -
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Re: Building Equity
Sun, June 8, 2008 - 1:41 PMWhy wait? It seems to me that once you have a good body of work, then the question become how do you leverage it to get the best deal for it? It is sort of like what one guy wrote about McDonalds hamburgers. He said, "how many people can make a better hamburger than McDonalds"? Well, practically anybody. But then he asked, "Okay, but how any people had a better business system set-up to make money off of making hamburgers?" Not many.
I think a lot of artists got it ass backwards when they talk about marketing their work. The thing is not how you market your work but what type market you are selling it in. It doesn't matter if your are doing the job right if you are doing the wrong job! It seems to me that you want to make money off your images, not just your canvases. Because once you sell your canvas (or do the mural) then you have made all the money you can from it. It's no different than when I was selling caricatures at amusement parks or street fairs. Yeah, I can make ten bucks doing a caricature in five minutes but that ten bucks is all I will ever make from it. That is why after 20 years I have zero equity for my caricature business.
I believe as artists we need to think beyond just how we sell that physical piece of art and into how to make money from the art itself! -
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Re: Building Equity
Tue, June 10, 2008 - 5:19 AMUp to a certain point, I had a mindset that I would never cut cost for my mural work...that it was a talent worth the money for those who wanted it. However, as does happen, when work dropped off (as well as income), I found myself undercutting my pocket for pittance, going on the theory that "something is better than nothing". I even did a few freebies in commercial environments hoping that it wold generate referral business.
Now, however, I have gone back to the original mindset that, because of the uniqueness of some of the mediums I use, I turn away jobs when people ask for discounts. Ironically, by doing so, I have, in the long run, gotten most of the work regardless! As for canvas and framed work, I have never had a problem selling when I put the work "out there". I have found e-bay to be an excellent venue for selling, as I can set a minimum and let the bidding wars take it from there. I just don't produce "general" canvas work in bulk...it's more of a hobby for me. I kind of run with an idea that pops into my head and sell it.
My primary artistic income is murals, borders, stained glass windows, interior makeovers, and related services. Because of personal contacts, I am introduced to brand new home buyers by a local builder, and, normally, get a lot of work to keep busy for at least 9 months out of the year. However, with the current housing market being what it is, that work has dropped off significantly. I also do interior painting, so when all else fails there is still that.
The starving artist syndrome seems to be influenced hand-in-hand with the economy. I will tend to hold a lot of my work for the desperate times, and then go to a local gallery and do a show to unload it for the cash. Anything on canvas that doesn't sell after a couple of shows gets painted over! The real comedy for me is...everything I do for personal use sells off of my walls, so I find myself realizing tht the passion I put into the personal art must be something, and now produce things for certain places in my own home, and then, upon completion, selling them instead.
Of course, having someone supportive of my efforts has made a huge difference, as well. My boyfriend has been GREAT in showing me support, and not feeling the pressure to "procuring cash" on canvas has really made a difference. I don't feel the pressure of relenting my talent to "the norm" that sells in department stores just to get income. It's rather nice :) -
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Re: Building Equity
Mon, June 23, 2008 - 5:22 PMWhat you're describing here as "equity" is about what CPAs, lawyer, MBAs, etc, call "good will," and you do have some built up in your business -- notwithstanding showing up a day late one person's job.
The good will that you have in your business is the list of satisfied clients, your reputation in the community, and the expectation of repeat business and referrals. That package of intangibles has genuine economic value -- it's what a lawyer (for example) sells to the guy who takes over his practice when he retires... You're looking for a way to capitalize on those intangibles now, without selling them -- ie, without leaving the business. As it turns out, McDonald's could be the best model.
The difference between your caricature business and McDonald's is not the fact that you have a unique talent and anyone can make a burger ....The truth is that are some people who could do what you -- it's true for all of us, just as it was true for Ray Kroc when he invented McDonald's. But what Ray Kroc built into a multinational business was not the "invention" of ground meat on a bun, it was the business systems so that any reasonable operator could open a franchise and make some kind of profit. So in fact, if you can figure out some way to package the business end of "art production," and sell that to people to know how to draw but not how to run a business, you can be the next Thomas Kincaid or Bob Ross ...
So a caricaturist sells a package that shows here's where to advertise, here's what to charge, here's what to bring to the party, here's how to do set ups of stuff in advance, blah, blah, blah ... And a muralist sells a package with ready to blow up patterns or something.
I understand this sounds Plain Goofy, but it's not the business logic that's flawed -- it's the fact that artists (except for Thomas Kincaid and Bob Ross) want to be artists ... designing and executing unique works, and not packaging the crap that surrounds a formula. So I'm not thinking this note constitutes a break-through, but maybe it'll start new ideas percolating ...
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Re: Building Equity
Mon, June 23, 2008 - 8:23 PMWell I remember reading how someone once asked Ray Kroc what business he was in and he replied "I'm in Real Estate". The genius behind McDonalds wasn't it creativity but it's consistency. With minor differences, every McDonalds around the world is the same as every other McDonalds around the world. The idea behind how to build and run a McDonalds, proved to be a better thing for Ray Kroc to sell than any individual McDonalds could ever be.
I don't think it is a goofy idea at all. The idea is to come up with a consistent and profitable system to sell your product to your market. Kroc found the best one for hamburgers. I just need to find the best one for art. In the long run, developing the system may be more important than developing what product you are going to use it to sell. -
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Re: Building Equity
Mon, July 7, 2008 - 1:26 AMWhat you see is what you desire.
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Re: Building Equity
Mon, July 7, 2008 - 1:32 AMMaybe some idea's:
- invest. The money you make now, invest it in some other business that is sustainable.
- teach. Give workshops.
- different mediums. You were thinking about photography. Making your art into cards.
Or what about famous ...eg: football players. Make a whole serie of mugs."Collect them all"!!!
