You want to start your own airbrush shop? Good luck, as it is a difficult thing to support yourself through your art (as I’m sure you are already aware). I am just very lucky that my husband has a fairly decent job so that I can make it through the slow times in my business. With the economy the way it is, people have less “disposable” income to spend on things like art. *sigh*

DIVERSIFY
The best thing I’ve done business-wise is to NOT limit myself to one area of art. Besides bike art, I do murals, t-shirts, custom bike/pet/car/house portraits, canvas works, graphic art for websites, airbrushed decals, painted furniture and other items. I also maintain a cafepress shop that prints items with my artwork and photos. That way, if the bike biz is slow, I can work on building up my stock of t-shirts or decals, or add to my product line in cafepress. I’ll be adding an ebay store this year, so that I can get fresh t-shirts and other small art pieces out to the art lovers who don’t have a ton of money.

PROMOTION
Another thing is to promote, promote, promote your business. Plan on spending at least 30% of your time doing this. Having a good website, with a blog, is a good start, and making sure you add your website link to artist listings online will help. Business cards…I leave them on the table in every restaurant I visit, and send them to friends and relatives everywhere to hand them out to their friends and relatives. I wear my art on t-shirts or painted jeans and ride my custom artwork! Offer to hang some art in the local restaurants, do a free local workshop on how to paint (many folks will find after taking your class that painting their bike themselves is too big of a job to handle and they become potential customers, or they will tell others about you). Take out ads in your local weekly “shopper” paper.

There’s a good book called “Getting Business to Come to You” that I read years ago which had some great promotional ideas. It has been revised since I read it, and it’s a good place to get some wonderful inexpensive promotional ideas.

THE SHOP
As far as a physical shop, be sure to follow all the local laws regarding disposal and storage of hazardous materials (thinner, paint, etc). Check with your insurance company about their requirements for storage of haz materials, too. Some require storage in a separate building. Also, if you are a woman working in a shop alone, never leave the door unlocked. I’m MUCH more concious of personal safety issues since some *sshole held a knife to my neck and robbed me in my gallery in Florida. It changed my life forever. Now, I only let customers come to my studio when my husband or other friends are here. I’m a “by appointment only” studio, which helps me stay focused on my art when I am in the middle of a project. You’ll never get anything done if folks just come by to hang around and see what you’re working on!

THE MALL
Now, if you’re opening up a t-shirt shop in a mall, you are going to have to learn to work while people are talking to you! It’s the nature of the beast. If you like peace and quiet while you work, having a kiosk at a mall is NOT the way to go! In fact, can you pump out enough t-shirts and license plates, or even generate enough business, to justify having a spot in a mall? You should start small, get the feel of the inner workings of running a business before diving into a huge commitment which you may not be able to afford.

INSURANCE
An additional consideration, if you are painting motorcycle tins, is that you have other folks’ property on your premises that could be stolen. How will your insurance handle that? If you run your business from your home, be sure to check with your home owner’s insurance - most will NOT cover any damages related to, or caused by, your home-based business without an additional rider.

HAVE A BUSINESS MIND
Many creative people can handle the art end of the business, but aren’t so good at the business end of it. If you research everything before you crank up the compressor, you will avoid legal problems and possible fines later. There are many things to consider when starting a business: local and state licensing, tax laws, time management, bookkeeping, safety, zoning, and if you hire help, labor laws.

HELP! 
Where can you find someone to help you wade through everything you need to know to start a business? You probably already know one or two people who run their own business - offer to buy them a dinner and have a meeting about things to consider when running a business. Go to the meeting prepared with questions and a notebook to jot things down, or you will forget all the great info they will no doubt have shared with you.You can also contact your local SBA (Small Business Administration). They have a huge library of reference materials, funding for small businesses (though the process takes a long time, it gives you time to prepare to open your business properly), and folks who can direct you to other resources.

REALITY CHECK
Still want to hang out your own shingle? Then I wish you the best of success! Doing creative work to earn a living is a wonderful thing, as long as you can answer “yes” to the following questions:

1. Can I financially handle slow periods when there are no customers, and the bills are still coming in? 
2. Do I know how to handle the BUSINESS end of the business - taxes, insurance, bookkeeping, and so on, or can I afford to pay someone else to handle it?
3. Do I know what my break-even point is, and have a future date set to close the shop if I am NOT meeting my break-even point?
4. Do I know the local laws and am I prepared to pay fines or get my shop closed if I do NOT follow zoning and safety regulations?
5. Do I have 80 - 90 hours a week to run my business? Running your own business is NOT a 40 hour a week job, especially in the beginning stages - you will be tired, and you will be crabby some days, and you will still have to put on a smile to greet your customers and be nice to your family - can you handle it?
6. Do I know that the area I live in can support an airbrush artist? If not in my area, do I know enough about the internet to create a presence and sell online?
7. Can you follow through on commitments? Can you get the work that you’ve accepted done on time? Do you know when to turn DOWN a job (and yes, there are times you’ll need to do so)?

And those questions are just the tip of the iceberg…you’ve got to KNOW so much more that you ever thought you’d need to know in order to start a business. I don’t have a college degree; I learned everything by researching, asking questions, and using my resources. And yes, I made some mistakes along the way, but life experience has educated me in a way that college never could.

If you’ve answered yes to the questions, and know in your heart that you CAN succeed, then get started on that research, and come up with a good name for your business, and expose the world to YOUR ART.

I wish you peaceful journeys,
Eclectic Dawn

2 Comments to “Going Pro?”

1. Chris Moran — February 14, 2008 @ 10:15 am
   

   I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

   Chris Moran

2. Dawn Schmidt Ventimiglia — February 14, 2008 @ 11:31 am
   

   Chris, thanks for commenting and adding the feed. I’m still finding my “voice”, but enjoying the journey immensely! So far, the blog is very airbrush biz and learning-to-airbrush oriented, with a bit of my personal experience thrown in. Now I’m off to check out more of YOUR blog! :)

Write a comment