Words to ACT on:
Price Your Work with Confidence
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 Admit it - we all like a bargain - or at least, we like to think that we paid no more than we had to. We are also conditioned by all the advertising around us that we deserve the best. When we see and experience quality in an object we desire, price is usually no object. We negotiate with ourselves until we find a rationale that supports or prevents handing over money for what we desire.
Why should it be any different for people who love your art?
If you make art to make money, you need to ride out the turbulence - in your life, in your art making and in your art business. Your creativity in making and marketing art depend on it.
Your strategies for creating income must be immune to all kinds of fluctuations. A tough economy does not mean that it's time to put on your brakes - in fact steady acceleration is what propels you around the turns safely.
One way to smooth out cash flow is to have a resilient pricing strategy.
Pricing is a marketing strategy related to the value of your talent, medium, and subject matter as perceived by your audience. Pricing does not make or break the sale. You can create a viable income from any pricing approach, as long as it suits the people who want your work.
Under-pricing appeals to bargain hunters and new collectors who wrestle with low art budgets. High end collectors demand a smoother ride for the higher prices they are willing to pay.
Smooth Ride Shock Absorber #7: Price Your Work with Confidence
 Alexandria Levin has exhibited her oil paintings in galleries, museums and cultural centers across the country since 1981. Her paintings are in private collections from Boston to Japan, as well as in the state of New Mexico's Capitol Art Collection in Santa Fe. She has lectured on her art in the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia and Tokyo, and was awarded major state grants from the California Arts Council and Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council. Ms. Levin attended Massachusetts College of Art to study painting for two years and later returned to school at the San Francisco Art Institute where she received a BFA with honors in 1989. www.alexalev.com
Alexandria's book "Pricing Your Work with Confidence" is a detailed guide to understanding and calculating the actual cost of creating your artwork.
Based on a long art career, Alexandria has these 3 tips to help you price your work with confidence.
- Keep your prices stable. Resist the urge to lower your prices. Aside from creating less income from the same amount of work, you send the wrong signals. Collectors who have paid more for similar work may feel "buyers remorse", because they paid more than they had to.
- Have a range of price points. Have work available in high, medium and low prices. Vary the prices according to medium, degree of completion, finishing and size. If you do not have a range of ways for collectors to purchase your work, this is the time to experiment and expand. Include an annual donation to a fundraiser for a cause you believe in.
- Economize on overhead, without compromising on quality. Make careful purchases that stretch your budget as far as possible for high quality materials and tools at best prices. Make hunting for quality at great prices "a sport."
For part-time or emerging artists, making regular sales at reasonable prices will keep you in art materials or in business. As you keep the doors open, you build an audience and get the encouragement to keep on going. Once you've established a record of sales, you can gradually raise your prices, while you develop the quality and reach of your work.
Mid-career artists are best to improve the quality of their art and marketing to attract luxury buyers. While high income earners can afford to pay top dollar, there are many other factors they seek in the experience of collecting art. This top 1% of the population wants what they want at a fair price. Once a viewer is emotionally committed to owning your art, price is simply a detail.
Established artists are adding services to their art business to maintain their price levels until current inventory sells. A.C.T. 301 member Bruce Marion is one established earning artist who uses these tactics to earn high income:
- Create the best artwork I possibly can and continue to evolve as an artist and a business person.
- Be in the best shows and galleries that promote and sell me well.
- Have high class home shows of my new work for my collectors.
- Create excellent promotional materials....brochures, postcards, website and continue to build my name and artwork to be internationally recognized.
- Publish a book of my work.
- Create new licensing opportunities.
The result is to transform curious viewers into happy buyers and consistent collectors through building relationships with them over time. These collectors become "business friends" who market your work when they show others their collection or tell stories about personal contact with you.
Please remember to listen to each generous interview with your head and your heart. Then use your hands to create the new results you desire in your art business and the world.
Listen to the full interview: Click here
What can you add to this conversation? Please share your strategies with other artists on the Art Talk Blog.
Thanks, and have an artful day!
P.S. Thanks for your testimonials about how you use Artist Career Training to make a living in any economy.
Here is a representative comment from A.C.T. 301 graduate Betty Nance Smith on what she learned that has helped her improve her personal economy:
"I have a plan of action that does not involve a lot of money. I have been producing some of my best work ever and will be all ready when things get better. Who knows, I may even have enough to find my second gallery. I plan to learn to change my website more often and make more use of it.
I am very pleased with what I got out of the classes and I will have to learn on my own for awhile. Your fee sure is worth it and I gained a lot. Your personal touch is indeed the best product you offer. . . along with good ideas. Thank you for the personal help you have given me during this crazy year as I have never felt so disjointed in my life. I know that you stretched for me . . . "
Betty Smith www.bettynancesmith.com
PPS - in case you missed it, here's the article on top artist websites where ACT is mentioned
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You can listen to this email by clicking the link below:
Listen to the Tough Economy Series #7 "Shock Absorber #7: Price Your Work with Confidence" In
this seventh installment, Aletta de Wal, Director & Artist Advisor,
Artist Career Training lists 3 ways to have a resilient pricing strategy.
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