Making Sure You Have the Right Art Business Strategy

In this episode, Patrick and Nick discuss the importance of having the right art business strategy for photographers and artists. They emphasize the significance of focusing on direct sales, where artists can control their customer list and maximize profits. They highlight common problems artists face with indirect sales through third parties like galleries and publishers, and the drawbacks of using generic websites for selling art. The discussion includes real-life examples from Art Storefronts members and insights from their Zoom sessions with non-members. They also invite viewers to join their upcoming Zoom session for free art business consulting, as well as a special offer for those interested in joining Art Storefronts.

Podcast Transcribe

Patrick Shanahan: We then, Robin, even. Yeah, all right, cool, we're live on both. All right, so yeah, what we're gonna talk about today is making sure you have the right art business strategy, okay? And I specifically wanted to talk about this one today because I've been doing a lot of thinking on this, and I've been doing it based on, obviously, we've talked to thousands and thousands of photographers and artists. We have 3,500 members that are photographers and artists at Art Storefronts, right? But you and I have been doing these Zoom calls with non-Art Storefronts members, right? So it's really, really interesting, and here's why.

So to give you guys the context, for the last couple of months, Patrick and I have been running Zoom sessions with non-Art Storefronts members to help them with their, you know, what they believe are their biggest struggles, okay? Now, this is really interesting because the members that join Art Storefronts, they already know what I'm about to tell you, okay? They've already solved the problem. They already have the right art business strategy, and that'll become clear in a second. But it's this, it's the setup of your business, the way that you think about the business, and your strategy overall, the way that you approach it right from the start, right? That is proving to make the biggest difference in everything, and so I'll tell you what I mean by that.

So upfront, right, if you're going into war, you would not go and fight a battle if you knew that that battle plan would fail upfront, right? Common sense. However, as you and I continue to talk to people, they have started their art or photography business, or sometimes they have been running it for a long time, and they have had the wrong strategy the entire time, and it's actually the thing that's been killing them, right? It's literally as simple as this one thing. All right, so you need to make sure that you have your strategy right, okay? The first part of it, the first thing, is selling direct, okay? You need to make sure that you are selling direct, that 80 to 90% of your sales are coming from direct business, okay?

I'll just summarize it really quickly. Direct business is when you're doing your own direct marketing, your own direct sales, you own your customer list, and you make the most money from your artwork, and nobody can take anything away from you because you own all of it, right? You are not dependent on any third parties to make sales. Indirect is when you are selling through third parties, in other words, galleries, publishers, whether they're online or off, okay? What happens with the indirect and the third parties is the rug eventually always gets pulled out from underneath you, as many people learned the hard way during this pandemic, right?

So upfront, if you have not been focusing on building a direct business, if you never heard those words, which is what we're finding, we're finding that this is like nobody's ever been told this, right? Now, this is actually, it's never, it's never taken over. No, it's never taken hold, and we're asking people, I'm like, you know, have you ever heard of this? Because this is common sense in, you know, in entrepreneurship, and the answer is no. And what I normally am finding here is that, like, whether it's from the galleries or it's from publishers or from any, or even friends, you know, there are friends in the art industry, everybody thinks that the indirect way is the way, that you need that, that you're supposed to go the way that you're supposed to go, and it's the source of the starving artist problem.

I just told you right here, guys, this is the source of the starving artist problem, okay? Is building your house, building your business on third parties that give you a 1099 check, you owe nothing in the end, and then the rug can get pulled out from underneath you, and see you later, you've got no business anymore, or you've been significantly hurt by it, right? So okay, first thing, you gotta get that right, okay? Now, if you're like, okay, I got that right, I understand it, I'm gonna build a direct business. All right, now we've talked to some people that are like that. Who are those people, Pat, on our non-member Zoom sessions? It's the gal who is already selling twenty thousand dollars a year from her website, right? It's the guy who's the photographer who's selling, you know, ten thousand dollars or five thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars from his website. It's those groups of people, right? They're already selling direct, but they're not properly equipped, right? They're not properly equipped, and so they kind of just bumble around.

Patrick Shanahan: Like you remember Gonzo, remember Gonzo? He's a member. Gonzo, doing just, doing pretty well with his sales, right? But he was not properly equipped, so he's, you know, outsourcing his printing, he's doing his own printing. You know, the gal that we talked to the other day, if you remember, she's handling her own printing, right? It's like running around, she's like, this is, this is a disaster. I got a local printing company, I'm running to them to get prints made, and I've come back, you know, there's all these different things that are in there, and so they're not properly equipped. And so they're stumbling in there, and it's harder than it needs to be. It's like pushing a cart up a hill, right? And when I say they're not properly equipped, it's not, it's not about, it's not necessarily about, you know, the print fulfillment. That's the big problem. It's actually like number one, having the proper art gallery website, and then having an ongoing solution to the marketing problem. The marketing problem, you have to have an ongoing solution because the marketing is what's going to get you more eyeballs consistently over time, which is going to turn into more leads, which is going to turn into more sales, right?

So those are the things. So it starts off by having the right strategy upfront, understanding that you've got to go direct, right? And 80 to 90% of your business has got to be there. You mess that up, you're dead, right? You're going to struggle or fail, like, and you're probably going to wonder why. Get that one done.

Patrick Shanahan: I think the easiest way to think about that is like, you know, if you're going to go to the bank to get a loan, you know, a small business loan for your business, and you're an artist or a photographer, or you were going to go to the VC...

Nick Friend: Your mic is hard to hear.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, I'm just saying if you tried to do either or, like, you know, go to a VC or go to a bank, and you're going to tell the bank, and you're going to tell the VC, all of my sales channels are indirect, and I don't own my customer list, and anything could happen. Would you write the check? And they would all say absolutely not. They would tell you to pounce, and they would say we wish you the best of luck, we're not going to give you a dime, right?

Nick Friend: That's how it would go. Yeah, so like, but like the way that I thought about that right there is, is that, you know, this sums up almost every call that we're having. Yeah, it sums up almost every non-member call right there. It's like, you know, do they, do they get through the first, it's like this is a series of doors, right? You got to get through the first door first, right? Have the right understanding about your strategy. Because think about this, Pat, what are so many people doing? They're spending years, like all of their time and energy and mindshare, and even money to invest into the third-party world, which is, it is a dead end, and it always gets pulled out from underneath you. So, that's the other side. It's nonsense. It's total nonsense. So, if you don't know, like, wait a minute, that side is the gravy. The other side is what I got to spend my time, energy, and focus on, you know? You will spend ten or fifteen years, doesn't matter how long, going down the wrong path and investing in the wrong area, and you will have gotten nowhere on the other path, you know what I mean? So, you have to get that right. It's not optional. You have to get that right.

So, once you get that right, then you're like, okay, I'm going to build a direct business. How do I properly equip myself, right? Then you have people who are using generic websites, right? That like, they're using the wrong tool for the job. They're giving their customers a poor experience. Why would you do that? Why would you do that when you know that this is what you need to do, right? So, you got to solve that, and then the second thing is you gotta solve the marketing problem, right? So, you're going to hit a wall somewhere in there, you know, and you have to solve that marketing, the ongoing, the consistent, for the next ten years, solve that marketing problem, right? And then that's how you're going to get there. So, that's why you see the people who have gotten through the first door, they get to the second door, and they kind of get hung up at that five thousand to twenty thousand range, and they're stuck on printing, they're stuck on marketing, you know what I mean? Like, it's because they're wasting their time on all sorts of stuff that are involved in all, it's such a recurring theme, right? Like, you could even say, like, fifty times, seventy-five times, I hear about all the time and energy and effort that put into a website, right? And, you know, just looking so beautiful, the way that they want it, and it's flawless, and it lays everything out, it's so wonderful. And then you ask, 95 percent of the time you ask, well, how much have you sold with it? And you know what? You'd expect a bell curve style answer there, right? You'd expect a bell curve style answer, a couple of people here and there that are saying, you know, I'm doing really, really well, and then the middle of the bell curve, I've sold a couple of pieces, and then down here at the bottom, it's like, I sold nothing. But it's not a bell curve, is it?

Nick Friend: It's different, like no one said they've sold decent. Everyone else is like, yeah, pretty much nothing. Yeah, pretty much nothing.

Patrick Shanahan: Because it's senior websites, those that are actually like doing or like, there was that gal the other day, like twenty thousand dollars last year, you know, on her Squarespace site. That is like one of the biggest anomalies I've heard out of all of them. It just doesn't exist. So, they see like that you can work it on nonsense, right? You're working on nonsense, and you know, somebody like that, they actually equipped themselves with a proper art gallery website. Oh my goodness, like, because you're like, you're like trying to push an elephant through like a pinhole. That's what you're doing. When you actually have like the tunnel for the elephant to walk through, it's just gonna be like, room, you know?

Nick Friend: Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. And it's so, this is a great lesson for all of you, like what Patrick just said right there, for anybody listening right now, right? If your website, if you are married to your website, and you love your design, and you paid a designer, and you spent all this time to do it, and your website is selling anything, get rid of it. Yeah, it's like, it's not doing anything. It's not helping you. Earth to, ocean to, to, you don't know what for me.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, it's so right, right? When you talk to them and you say, how much did you sell through it in 2019? I've basically sold nothing. It's like, right there is when you put the pinprick into the, into the balloon and the air starts coming out, right? Because for the third time in their mind on life, I've done that exact same nonsense. I know we all have.

Nick Friend: We all have.

Patrick Shanahan: Ten times in the time I was a kid till now, being a perfectionist, big, and it's so awesome. And then you get it there, and you think it's so awesome, and then no one, and then, and then finally somebody says it, well, how much have you sold? And guess what? The emperor's got no clothes at that point. Yeah, it's all BS at that point, right? Like nothing. Okay, well then are you in business to, to make money, or are you in business to have a pretty website? Which one is it, right?

Nick Friend: I'm in business to make money. I would like to support myself by my craft. Okay, then it's a conversation. But before that, it's not a conversation, right? Can you remove my design? Can you move my design over to exactly what I've got on my old site to my new site? No, no, we cannot. You want to know why? Because it doesn't work. Why would we do that? Why would we do that? Yes, we know ours works. We know it works.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, I'm telling you. Well, yeah, that's it. Thank you. What we're talking about here is exactly the point about making sure you have the right strategy, right? Like that's, these are the, like I was saying, the doors, that's at least the way I'm explaining it right now. You got the first door, you got the second door. Those people are getting hung up on the second door where it's like, I want to hang on to my, you know, generic website, right? Like, which is the wrong tool for the job. That we live in the world, in the age of customer experience. It gives the worst customer experience possible. It's below the industry standards when you have thousands of photographers and artists that have the right tool for the job. And then all the big players that are out there will have it. You can't be below that industry standard and think that you're doing a good job for your customer, thinking that you're impressing your art buyers, thinking that you're, it's going to make sense to charge the prices that you're charging or that you want to charge or that you're building a great brand. You are literally cutting yourself off at the knees. Like, you kind of stop that, right? So, have the right strategy.

Nick Friend: Yeah, and by the way, if you don't own everything, you are blowing it. That's the other myth, right? Like, you shouldn't own your own email list. You shouldn't own your own customers. All of the website traffic shouldn't be yours and your responsibility. You shouldn't be able to take that with you whenever, whenever you want. Like, you should own it all. We live in a day where there are no more damn gatekeepers that can stand in your way. And the people that don't own all of their stuff, it's like, oh, my business is going pretty well. Yeah, how many customers do you have? I don't really have any customers because I can't email them, or I can't call them. What? You have nothing. You have nothing. You are.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, yeah, those are the rent. Richard had a comment on their Facebook. I own the website and the SEO. I can pick and choose my fulfillment partner.

Nick Friend: So can everybody. So can everybody. I can't tell how the customer, he's not a customer. I can't tell if you're a customer or not, but at Art Storefronts, you can pick your own fulfillment partner. It doesn't matter to us. We're here to get sales.

Patrick Shanahan: And you own the website and you can pick your, you own the SEO and you own.

Nick Friend: Oh, yeah, exactly. You own all of that. Exactly. So essentially, we are in complete agreement.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, so that's, that is, that is the whole thing, right? So you see, what do you see what I'm getting out there when you start really thinking about these, these non-member, the non-customer Zoom calls that we're doing. And by the way, guys, we're doing another one tomorrow. Let's talk about that. Patrick and I are doing another Zoom session with non-members tomorrow. What can we stick to at the same time we did, whatever? To be honest, to the nine, the nine Pacific, 11 Central on the Wednesday. That's what we've kind of been doing. So nine Pacific, 11 Central, 12 Eastern. So if you guys want to join, if anybody on here wants to join and talk to Patrick and I for free, get some free art business consulting, tell us what your, what we want you to do is think about what your one biggest struggle is, right? The one thing that's holding you back, that you think is holding you back, and bring that to us. Let us unplug the drain. Let us help you get past that. We're finding these sessions to be just amazingly valuable, and people are staying on for like two hours. I mean, it's usually better on it, but people are coming for multiple sessions.

Nick Friend: You're the question we should, we should, we should reign about that for a second, because that's like another interesting part of it. Like, let's talk about it, you know, and I love transparency, right? And, and it's a situation where you go online and you create content, and the first thing you're looking for is attention, right? Like, the most important thing is attention. Are people actually hanging around and spending time? If they are, you're winning. What's your next most important thing? Is it driving business results, right? But you can't have number two without number one, if the attention's not hanging around. And as much as I think you and I are so good at video, it's such good-looking people and all the rest. It wouldn't be the case if we weren't really thinking.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, we don't, we're over the target. That's why people are hanging around.

Nick Friend: And the target is my old website's not working. I have a marketing problem. I've been floating around to marketplace, to marketplace, to marketplace. It's not working. All my offline revenue sources have dried up. I suck at marketing. And I actually wanted to build a business where I can support myself from my art and photography. It's not that difficult. Those are the issues. Everyone's got them. We know it. That's why you're hanging around and listening, right?

Patrick Shanahan: Yep. Simple. It's so simple.

Nick Friend: And everyone hardly practiced. Like, we are doctors and, you know, we're seeing patients constantly. And at this point in time, you know, you have a fever, and I know what the fever, I know it's a fever. I can see you're flushed, and you got a temperature. And I know what's causing it. It's not that, it's not that difficult. Like, it's only six or seven different things, and everyone's got the problem. Everyone's got the same fever.

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. And you know what? If like, and going back to this whole thing about having the right strategy, these things that we're talking about here, like, this is, this, this is like the greatest service that could be provided to the art industry. I'm dead serious.

Nick Friend: Yes. Yeah, well, no, everybody is so, everybody is so off base about the, the strategic part of it, right? Like, like, not, not having 80 to 90% of your business being direct, not knowing that that's what you need to do from the get-go. You know what I mean? Like, think about this, Pat. Think about how literally almost like 99 percent of the people that we talked to, you know, for the last five years, three years, ten years, whatever it is, they set out, and everything is about through selling through third parties, right? Essentially, like, they're not even thinking it through. And it's the same thing as me going, if I told you that I could show you like fifty thousand photographers and artists where that plan failed, would you still go and do it? It's like, it's a failed battle plan, right? And then if I showed you on the other side, every single person, Pat, I met, like, a hundred percent. Let's like, let's just say this, a hundred percent of the photographers and artists that we know, our members, and even people that are not, okay? Like, the Wyland's of the world and the Peter Liks, right? Like, the biggest ones, the, the most successful are following a direct strategy, end of story.

Patrick Shanahan: That is it. If that is it, right?

Nick Friend: They don't have...

Patrick Shanahan: Galleries.

Nick Friend: They own, yes, they have galleries, but they own their own galleries, right? They own their own. Eighty to ninety percent, if not a hundred percent of their sales is coming from the direct business model, okay? That's what they invested in. That's how they built, you know, and got to where they are at. So you've got to get that right. You don't get that right, you're spending ten years going down the wrong path. You have to understand that, and you have to get it right. If we can get that message to everyone, you, whole, history changes after that. Then, you know, like, okay, if I'm selling direct, I gotta properly equip myself. How do I do that? I don't, if you're gonna build, if you're gonna, you know, build a swimming pool or dig a swimming pool, you're not gonna use a spoon. You're gonna use a tractor, right? Like, the right tool for the job makes a huge difference. We see it all the time. People come from a generic website that they have. They move over to Art Storefronts, and what happens? Their sales go up. If they had existing sales, their sales go up. Oftentimes, if they have no sales, they actually start getting sales. Surprise, surprise. That's what happens when you give an amazing customer experience done right.

Patrick Shanahan: It's truly baffling, right? Like, there's a book I love so much. It's called "Ready Player One," right? And it's sort of like sci-fi, virtual reality thing. And first-time author, amazing book. And somehow, Steven Spielberg directed the movie, and the movie came out like, I don't know, like a year ago or so. Anyway, it's like dystopian future, and, you know, they're jacked into this world in virtual reality, and they're trying to solve this, this puzzle, right? And the puzzle is a car race, and you have to build the car, you have to get to the end of it. And it's like this treacherous race where, you know, like Godzilla's in there throwing things off the track and everything else, and everybody lines up at the, at the appointed time, and everyone just keeps going the track, down the track, and just getting destroyed. Godzilla gets them, the car rolls over, they blow up, they get shot in the sky, but everyone just keeps going the same damn direction, right? Everyone just keeps going the same direction. That's what the offline, that's what, that's what, you know, the art industry does. They just keep going that way, going that way, going that way. Finally, the one guy that cracks it, everyone steps on the gas to go forward, and he puts the car in reverse and hauls butt in reverse, and that was how he fixed it. That's how he solved it, right? He went a completely different direction. It's like, that's how bad the disconnect is. That's the level that the disconnect is at. It's, it's that severe because everyone just keeps driving the same way when it doesn't work. There is no promising big business at the end of that stupid road. You got...

Nick Friend: Exactly. There's no consistent income. Do you remember how profound this was in that Zoom session? Like, just looking at people on video when I asked the question, like, guys, has nobody ever told you this before? Like, seriously? And, and heads were shaking. No. No one ever told us that we needed to build a direct business. I don't know if you even caught that when I asked because I was like, how is this not, like, this is common sense, but in the art industry, it is not. In the art industry, it is not. And, and it's, there's so much BS that's out there that if somebody comes into it, they talk to their friend, and the next thing they know, you know, they're being told to upload their images to Fine Art America, right? Or Saatchi Art or one of these. And they're like, and then I got to go to galleries. Like, that's my, that's my business model. And it's like, oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. You're in trouble. You're in trouble. That's the thing, right? And so they go down that...

Patrick Shanahan: Yeah, like, we're not knocking any individual company or any platform because I could care less. If any of them worked, we would be shouting their praises to the heavens.

Nick Friend: It matters. Exactly. Equation.

Patrick Shanahan: For example, if a gallery can sell your work, you should be in that gallery. No problem, right? If any gallery, offline or online, can sell your work and add value to you where you're, where you're not doing all the work for them, 100%, you're in those. That's what we're talking about. That should be the gravy. But everything else, every minute of your time, your mindshare, and your thought process and how you educate yourself on business and marketing should be spent on building the direct business that you own. End of story. That's how you end up with consistent income. That's why nobody has it because how few people, Pat, how few people are actually working on a direct business outside of Art Storefronts?

Nick Friend: Every single person at Art Storefronts is. That's what we do. That's why, it's what we help people do, right? But outside of that, it's like, what, one in a hundred, one in a thousand?

Patrick Shanahan: Almost none. Almost none. It's so rare when we're talking to everybody. It's so rare that they're actually thinking that way and doing it that way. So, super interesting. Okay, so something else to announce, guys. For those of you who have known about us for a little while and you're thinking about joining Art Storefronts, we are running a summer special. It ends at the end of June, okay? That is one week from today. But you gotta get it, request a demo if you're interested. You can do that. There's a link in this post. I think that has the request a demo link. Is that right, Pat?

Nick Friend: Yeah, okay, so it's in there. That would be on Facebook or YouTube. If you're on Instagram, there's a link in the bio, request a demo. You can always just go to our website, artstorefronts.com. There's always a big button in the upper right-hand corner that says request a demo. Get your, get your demo request, and it takes like 20 seconds. One of our team members will reach out to you, learn more about you, what your goals are, make sure you're a good fit, and they can show you everything that we do in like a, in a one-on-one screen share. Go over all the pricing options, all that different stuff, and see if we can help you. Otherwise...

Patrick Shanahan: In addition, tomorrow, again, we are running, Patrick and I, a Zoom session for non-Art Storefronts members, non-customers, okay? For us to talk about your strategy, what you're up to, what your biggest struggle is, you know, the one thing that you think is holding you back. We're doing that tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00 a.m. Central, 12:00 p.m. Eastern. So make sure you're on our email list and you like us on Facebook because that's where we're going to be doing that session. So yeah, then you can get on the Zoom call, and you can talk to us directly. We basically, like with Zoom, it has this raise a hand feature where you click this button, and it lines everybody up, and then we unmute everybody one by one. We just go through the list, and we get to chat with you directly about what it is. So I just encourage all of you guys to come. Like, don't hold back. Come. People are staying on for hours at a time. Some people don't even ask us a question. They just, they just listen. It's like group therapy, you know, combined with, like, group education. Like, the knowledge of these things that, that is to be gained is just phenomenal. And that's why I think people are staying for an hour or two hours at a time. A lot of people we see come back for two or three sessions, so there's clearly a lot of them, a lot you can learn from your peers.

Nick Friend: You know what else I love about these sessions, Pat, is that the quality of the people that are coming on these things, right? It's like, if you come to one of those sessions, I already know that you're pretty much 99% a good fit for Art Storefronts. I already know because I knew you're serious. You're at least committed. You're not, you're not sending me 25 images that you've taken that you haven't shown anyone else and begging me to look at it. Like, who does that, right?

Patrick Shanahan: That's right. Sign that you care about your own future in your own...

Nick Friend: Yeah.

Patrick Shanahan: How can you ask us to care?

Nick Friend: Exactly. We want the people who care. We want that subset of the art industry, the photographers and artists who actually care and want to do something, right? Whether they only want to make five or ten grand a year as a side business, or they want to be full-time and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, you know, we want people, we want that subset of people who are going to care and understand that in order to build something that actually is of value, you're going to have to put some work into it.

Patrick Shanahan: That's it.

Nick Friend: Yeah. Is that the truth of what some hope? And some hope, it's so simple. Yeah. You know, the easiest answer sometimes is the right answer. It's so simple.

Patrick Shanahan: It is. There's no get-rich-quick. There's no fish. I'm going to jump into your boat. Like any business in any industry, you just have to do the same things that everybody else has to do. Surprise, surprise, Pat, right?

Nick Friend: Yeah, surprise, surprise. It's going to take you just as long as it does in every other industry to build a business. Surprise, surprise, you're not selling a million-dollar business in a box in three months.

Patrick Shanahan: I can't believe it. I was going to...

Nick Friend: Yeah, sorry to let you down. Sorry to let you down, right? This is actually just reality. The sooner you get started on working on reality, the sooner you're going to find the success that is in it for you, right?

Patrick Shanahan: Yep.

Nick Friend: All right, we leave it there. You, I, you got to do the Instagram save it serious thing.

Patrick Shanahan: No problem. All right, guys, so we will see you tomorrow again, 9:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00 a.m. Central, 12:00 Eastern. Get on our email list, we'll send you the Zoom link, okay? And then, yeah, request a demo, get it in if you want to get in before the end of the month. You know, we're running a big sale right now, so it's a great time. All right, guys, we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.

Nick Friend: Thanks.