addendum

I had an email asking why a biz plan is important. for creatives, the words "business plan" is as much a heart-stopper as my mother's Chicken Divine (which is not divine & involves a lot of mayo). If you have the luxury of time (or more forethought than I), try making a biz plan before you quit your day job. the benefits are immeasurable. I avoided a business plan like the plague, thinking "I'm just going to make my art and sell it places, so I don't need a plan...plans are for companies and corporations. you need a plan. Without one, you won't be able to forecast, purchase materials, have art ready for shows, know when & where the shows are, etc. As I mentioned, Right Brain Business Plan is my new religion. (seriously - no affiliation). It is actually fun to do her plan - using art/collage to focus on who my perfect customer is, where he/she shops, what he/she does in their free time, vacations...etc. That one exercise helped me decide who I pictured as my perfect customer, and the rest fell into place - where to market my wares, when the best time of year would be to do that, what price points the market would bear, and on. buy this book. even if - and especially if - you have no idea what you want to do as an artist-as-a-career. If you get bored reading this blog and walk away, the single most important thing i can say is buy this book. again - i have no affiliation. and guess what? as I worked through her book, i realized that i really didn't want to market to the people i thought i did - that the time & money I'd need to invest just weren't worth the payoff, and the people i'd need to hang with were not my cup of tea. so i was able to refocus before i'd blundered.