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What are the main pain points that creative artists (entrepreneurs), painters, illustrators, graphic designers etc. deal with in making their business a success? What problems do they face continually.
Hello! Thank you for your query regarding the pain points of creative artists in building and maintaining successful businesses. The short answer is that entrepreneurs in the creative arts space face a myriad of challenges, but main pain points fall into three key categories: lack of business training, the challenges of rapidly advancing technology, and lack of resources. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
To compile this report for you, I pursued several research paths. First, I located and reviewed reports and analysis of the entrepreneurial artist market conducted by experts and thought leaders, such as the National Endowment for the Arts. Next, I conducted a news search to find articles and analysis prepared by reputable business and trade media, such as Forbes magazine and Business News Daily. Finally, I searched for first-hand accounts, blog posts and quotes from entrepreneurial artists regarding their main pain points and ongoing challenges in running a successful business. I then synthesized the results of this research and determined that the main problems facing artist entrepreneurs fall into three overarching categories, as detailed below.
MAIN PAIN POINTS
LACK OF RESOURCES
*Time
As noted by Forbes, for a artist entrepreneur, time is "one of the business’s most limited and precious assets". As with entrepreneurs of all ilk, artists must handle multiple tasks -ranging from customer service to accounting to marketing - in order to make their businesses successful. Artist entrepreneurs, however, have the unique challenge of needing time to be creative in order to generate products to sell.
Indeed, when Business News Daily asked artist entrepreneurs about the biggest challenge they faced, a third of those surveyed pointed to finding time to create. Said one artist: "Reserving uninterrupted creative time is the cornerstone of growth and success for my business... Unfortunately, this practice can get lost in the hectic times of making, marketing and customer service."
*Financial
Artist entrepreneurs are facing the same challenging economic times as all business owners but, in the arts community, those challenges are exacerbated by several factors, including extreme competition, the expectation by cultural institutions that artists will work for free or little compensation, and inadequate financial grants to help fund their works. A majority of full-time artists earn less than $39,280 per year, yet most carry heavy debt and, even with the Affordable Care Act, struggle to meet the cost of health insurance premiums.
*Support
Artist entrepreneurs often work alone, not asking for help when they need it and not having a support network of peers to turn to for advice and assistance. As noted by the Art Career Project: "Make no mistake, no matter how well you have planned out your business construction, things will go wrong and unexpected obstacles will crop up. But if you have a stable of contacts that have fought through these obstacles before, you will have a much easier time of overcoming these obstacles."
LACK OF BUSINESS TRAINING
One of the biggest pain points for artist entrepreneurs is a lack of business training. Both informal surveys and formal studies highlight that creative artists are frequently unprepared for the demands of running a business. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, 75% of art school graduates said they need business skills but only 25% said they had received any business training in school. This lack of business training creates a trickle-down effect for artist entrepreneurs, ranging from not properly identifying their market when they launch their business, to struggling with fundamental business responsibilities, such as pricing, accounting , handling contracts , and - one of the most-mentioned pain points among artist entrepreneurs: marketing.
Marketing is both mentioned repeatedly as a top challenge among artist entrepreneurs, and often highlighted by business thought leaders as a critical component of an artistic business. Without proper marketing initiatives, demand is uncertain, leading to what one artist calls the "feast-or-famine cycle" of cash flow. The Art Career Project describes the importance of marketing in simple terms: "As an artist going into business for yourself, your biggest asset isn’t necessarily your art work; it is your name recognition... In theory, you could be a terrible artist, but if people will recognize your name, you will still find business."
Particular marketing-based pain points mentioned in interviews with artist entrepreneurs:
- Accessing potential clients
- "Promoting yourself while continuing to produce art"
- "Getting my art out in the public by finding venues to show and display it"
ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY
While technology is benefiting artist entrepreneurs in several ways, including simplifying the creation process, facilitating collaboration with other artists, and opening new doors to financing (via crowd-funding platforms); it has also become a pain point for many. Among the challenges technological advancements are creating:
- The time and training needed to master new platforms and applications as they emerge.
- The need for the highest broadband speeds available
- Access by those who would counterfeit creations or otherwise infringe on copyrights
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, the main pain points and ongoing challenges for artist entrepreneurs fall into three key areas: a lack of business training, the challenges of rapidly advancing technology, and a lack of resources.
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