Artist Myth #1: The Non Profit

I have to admit, in the early days of my artistic career, I chased so many “golden,” poorly-communicated collaborations that I nearly ran myself ragged. And, I would be lying if I told you that they no longer interest me. As an artist, I tend to be susceptible to signing up for things when they appeal to me on an emotional level. Now though, instead of walking blindly into them and hoping everything works out through a wing and prayer, I usually sleep on the idea, give myself some time and then, if I feel it will benefit me and is in line with my mission, I will be very clear up front about how much I expect to get paid, when I expect to be paid, and what the work will entail.

Through the years I’ve made the wait time more official by having an imaginary personal assistant on my side, (I’ll blog more about that in the coming months). It’s easier for me to tell someone, “I need to run it past my business partner and get back with you,” then it is for me to say, “Uh let me think about your proposition.”

Artist Myth #1: Money gets in the way. It’s better not to talk about it.

Introduction

To treat your career as a business, you’ll need to gain some distance on your work. It helps if you can begin to think of the fruit of your creative endeavors, not as artwork, but as a product. The easiest way to do this is to create an Artist Menu. Creating an Artist Menu will help you begin to view and organize your art from a marketing perspective.

The Artist Menu

Now that you’ve come up with prices for your services, paintings, shows, or merchandise it’s time to do something with them. I suggest you create an Artist Menu. Like a restaurant menu, the Artist Menu is a descriptive list of everything you offer including prices. Just like a patron at a restaurant likes to have information about possible items (which includes prices), this information can be invaluable for any number of reasons.

First, having this information can help you make income projections for the year and develop a budget. For instance, if my T-shirts sell for $25 each and I know that I sell roughly four t-shirts per show, I can calculate how many t-shirts I may sell by the end of the month or year based on how many shows I will be performing.

Secondly, it’s good to have an Artist Menu on hand when you meet with a potential venue. I not only bring one into every meeting, but I leave one behind for the person I’m meeting with. The menu adds a nice professional touch and helps you appear prepared and organized which can give you the upper hand when you’re competing with other artists. Venues like to work with professionals.

During my last meeting with an art center, having my menu on hand helped me sell three additional products which probably might not have happened had I not had the menu. By the time I left our meeting, the venue booked three shows, one workshop and decided to take the menu to a school and pitch an additional workshop for me.

Third, the artist menu puts all your information in one place, which is good to have when developing your website. Whether you build your site yourself or have someone else do it for you, you’ll want to have all the information in one place for easy reference.

And lastly, once you set a price, it will give you an idea of who will want to pay the set price, thus helping you define your ideal buyer.

Artist Myth #1: Money gets in the way. It’s better not to talk about it.

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."

Artist Myth #1: The Non Profit

The money talk wouldn’t be complete without a small entry on the non-profit. It’s true; if you’re not making any money with your art, semantically speaking, you are a “non-profit” making artist. In fact, most of your artist friends who are probably in the same boat with you, are probably, semantically speaking, “non-profit” makings artists. My mother, who is not an artist at all would be considered a “non-profit” making artist under this stipulation as well.

In fact, if you and all of your artist friends got together with my mother and decided to form an artist’s support network, you would be considered an informal nonprofit organization. You could even advertise the organization as such.

But, if you wanted to receive tax deductible donations, be granted tax-exempt status from the IRS or apply for all those art grants that exist for 501I(3) nonprofits, then you’d be out of luck.

Two points to consider:

One - Most artists think that just because they aren’t making a profit that it’s reason enough to become an official “non-profit.” You’ve probably considered it yourself? You should know that by the time you finished filling out all the required paperwork, you’d be ready to cry. From articles of incorporation to the governing board of directors to the regular meetings you’ll be required to organize and attend, you’re life as an artist has just ended. For what little grant money you’d likely receive from your hard earned status, it barely makes sense to even consider the process.

Two – You’re on crack if you think non-profits are poverty driven rather than profit driven. Last I heard the CEO of Goodwill industries had a salary cap at $1,000,000 – that’s a lot of digits behind the first one. I’ve also worked for the rare, well-run non-profit where I was paid better than I ever was in a for-profit company. A million dollar non-profit can still be considered a non-profit if, after it pays all it’s bills, it doesn’t keep any of the money earned.

So, what does it all mean? Don’t be fooled as an artist, into giving your good hard earned work every time you hear the violins start playing. Instead get out your own violin and learn how to negotiate your terms.

Myth #1: Money gets in the way. It’s better not to talk about it.

Our conversation went something like this, “So, I just started this new line of petwear with matching furniture and of course I thought of you and your art prints. I mean, I wouldn’t think of anyone designing these things except you! You could make tons of money and of course your style is totally perfect and the fact that you’re a Leo and we’re friends makes us a perfect match as far as working with one another and I could pay for your flight out here and of course you could do the work here at my house and I would feed you and you could stay here because my kitties love you…..”  

She never took a breath and I never had time to get a word in. I wrote an estimate for what it would cost for me to paint the whimsical images of cats and dogs on her new line of pet furniture, e-mailed it, flew to the west cost, and did the work (all on my friend’s good faith).  Three years later, I was still staring at an I-O-U. 



We talked minimally about the “business stuff,” but there was no formal agreement about specifics, especially what we might do if she failed to pay me or return my phone calls or any of the typical business things that comprise a business transaction. Neither of us overlooked it. It was just that we felt too awkward to acknowledge the reality. We were just artists participating in the cliché of myth number one. 


If you think it feels too weird to talk about money now, it’ll feel even weirder to talk about it later. When I finally got a hold of my friend, our conversation was extremely uncomfortable. If you’re doing business and the weirdness comes knocking, it’s most likely Mr. Clarity just saying, “Hey, did you forget about me?”  Clarity, not emotions, is key when it comes to the business of art.