I have weeks where my email is dormant and I have to check my phone is still turned on. It is quiet. There are no enquiries. There are no sales. There are no workshop or mural bookings coming up. Yet, the bills keep rolling in. What do you do? Hustle hard!
I'm going to take you through a few strategies I use to get the sales and business rolling in again.
Support your current clients (Newsletter)
Every month I send out a newsletter. It is an update on all the different aspects of my business: new artworks, workshops, recent murals, upcoming projects and my very popular 'Moderately helpful life advice' section. Every single time I send this email out to my 550 subscribers, I get *something*. An online sale, a workshop booking (and deposit payment), a mural enquiry. Always, something. So my suggestion is to support the people you know already love your work. If you would like to join this mailing list, scroll to the base of this page and sign up.
Have a sale Better yet, have a sale and send a newsletter to offer your supporters a higher discount code, or first chance to shop online before you announce the sale to the public. Announce the sale everywhere: on all your social media, on your website, in person to everyone you talk to, in facebook groups, on your newsletter, podcast... wherever you can. Get people hyped up, have the sale and push images of your art (or whatever you are selling) out. You might not sell art. Maybe you discount your branding packages, or discount your online workshops. Find something that you can offer a special on (but don't devalue your work too much!). When you post on socials about your sale, pump up your posts. Schedule 3 posts a day. Post every time you make a sale so people feel an urgency to buy. Post photos of you packing sold orders. Post. Post. Post.
Post in a Facebook Group
Now, this is not me telling you to be all 'salesy'. Ick. No one likes that. But you could ask a genuine business question in a business group and pop some photos of your work there to grab attention. Or post on your local neighbourhood group and let them know you're a local business and see if anyone is keen to work together. Or put a photo of an artwork you are in the middle of onto an Artists Page and ask if anyone has any advice. Or think about your target market. If you love painting murals in kids rooms, then maybe post your latest mural in a 'Parents Group' on facebook. Think about where your target market might be.
I was asked to design a shirt for our Sunshine Coast community by the local paper. I thought about it for a while and decided to ask the community what they would like to see on a shirt representing our suburb. I put a couple of photos of my projects on the post to grab attention (and show my style), one of which was a mural I had painted in the centre of town (showing that I was legit). I genuinely wanted to know what the community wanted on the shirt, but I also ended up picking up a mural project 5 minutes from my home and some workshops at a community centre in town. Yay!
Then once you pick up a job or two, the a deposit.
Post a new artwork If you sell your artworks and prints through an online gallery such as Art Lovers Australia or BlueThumb, post a new artwork for sale. There is a section on these websites called 'Recently listed' and your artwork will pop up here. There are buyers who shop from this page. Get your art in front of their eyes. When I have a collection of artworks to list, I still only list a few a day so that my work is constantly on the 'Recently Listed' page.
Ask for support
If all else fails, ask for work. Let your followers and your subscribers know that you want work/sales. Let them know what work you would like: corporate mural projects, an art show in a major city, a load of limited edition print sales. Just ask. It's amazing how wonderfully supportive your people can be. Ask them to ask their network if anyone needs your artwork on their walls. Be clear what you are after.
As much as this might sound like a bit of 'whoo whoo magic' - sometimes the universe doesn't even know what to send your way until YOU know what you want. Figure out what work you would like, what sales you would like, what income you want, and sometimes the universe brings it right to you!
What other tactics do you have to bring in cash?