Transcripts
1. Intro : Have you ever wanted
to start your own or business or owned
an art gallery? You already have
in art business, or do you own a gallery? Now, this class is
for all of you. I will tell you everything
I've learned from talking to numerous artists and
having my own gallery. This includes revenue streams that you may not be using now. Hello, my name is Tom do
gala and I'm super excited to teach this class on the do's and don'ts of the art field. I will give you tips and
secrets as to what I've learned from owning
my own gallery and talking to numerous artists. I also teach you some
revenue streams you can do before you even
start your business. To start with, we will
cover initial revenue, funding, loans and grants, location, gallery
layout, social media, building a following,
selling the POS system, acquiring artist
and hand crafters. The benefits of starting
your own company, of course, is to get paid
for what you love to do. By the end of this class, you will know how to get started
in your own art business or maybe some ideas that can make your current
business better. So let's have some
fun and learn while we do coin, let's dive right in.
2. Intial Revenue: Hello and welcome to
your first class. We're going to talk about is our funding campaigns online. Okay, so we got GoFundMe and
Kickstarter to the top ones. We're gonna get pages
on both of those. I'm going to tell exactly
what we're trying to do. If you're going to
open a gallery, you're going to want to
put that in there and exactly the amounts you want
and which you need it for. Okay. So if it's for the lease, if you want to go
for the first month to lease, $3 thousand, and you put that in there, then you're going to have the incentives for
the people also, other than just supporting you. You can give them in return, t-shirts, prints of your work. You can offer free classes also for when the
gallery is open. If you're not doing a gallery and you're just going
to be an artist. And like I said,
you can do prints, you can do anything like that. Postcards just to get them a
little something in return. Okay, Now the second part of this is we're going
to be teaching, which you want to do is get
into any nursing homes, schools, libraries, and rec
centers to teach classes. The rec centers is going
to be the number one, most important one for you. Reason I say this is you don't
have to pay a lease there. You just rent the space. That's usually around here. It's usually like
twenty-five dollars an hour. Which you do is you
get enough students obviously to cover that
and make a profit. This way you build up some clientele before
you even open a gallery. If you just want to be an artist and have the revenue there, then that's fine too. Then that's just ways to do it. Libraries are good. A lot of the libraries
will let you teach there. Also any art galleries, local art galleries
can get into. And then the schools, if you can do the schools, there's after-school
programs where the kids stay after school. A lot of times they will be
hiring for art teachers. You just come in for
like an hour and teach a class and they can
pay you to do that. Okay, so those are some
of the good ways to get the initial revenue going
and getting the word out. Okay, now the next part of this, what we're going to do
is we're going to list your strengths and
also your mediums. So we're going to get
a piece of paper, split it down the middle. We're going to have
our strengths on the left side that
will be drawing, painting, sketching,
landscapes, portraits. Those are some of the
examples for your left side. On the right side, you're
going to have your mediums. That would be watercolors, oils, acrylic, graphite, pencil,
pastels, to name a few. There's two different
sections on the left strengths on
the right mediums. Now from there,
you're going to take the top two on each side. And that's what we're
going to start with further classes you're
going to teach. And then as you go along, you can add in the other
ones beneath those. And that would
just be so you can build up some more
confidence with those. And in the meantime, just try to practice those
and get better at them. So a quick summary
of everything, get your funding
pages started online. That's gonna be
with Kickstarter, and that's also going
to be with GoFundMe. Okay, now on those, you can put incentives for
people to donate for you. And that can be anything
from t-shirts to somebody, your prints of your work. You can offer fee free
classes for that. Anything like that, just
to give them a reason other than just
giving you money for nothing I obviously
for your calls, but they get something in
return right out of the gate. In other words, those are
two really good ways to get, get some revenue
before you even start. Now the next point
was for teaching. We're going to get into the
facilities close to us, the rec centers, the number
one place to get into. You don't have to
pay for a lease. It's just a small rent fee. If you rent for an hour, usually around here,
it's like 25 hours. And then you get as many
students as possible for that. Schools is another good one if you can get in teaching
at the school. So a lot of the
after-school programs will offer that our teachers
can come in and teach. So that's a good way also to get into the schools and
then the parents. So if you're opening a gallery, then that will put
the word out there. Okay. Also, don't forget about the nursing homes and
facilities like that, libraries, anywhere
you can teach. The third that we went over was, we're gonna do the workbook. We're going to split
into two sections. On the left side,
you're going to write the strengths of your teaching. And that's going to be drawing, sketching, painting,
whatever your strengths are. On the left side,
on the right side, you're going to
write your mediums, your strongest mediums,
and list them. And what we're gonna do is we're going to
concentrate on the top two out of these categories for getting everything rolling. Okay, and then we'll work on the other ones as we go along. And that's basically it
for the first lesson. Let's get into the next
one. See you there.
3. Funding, Loans, Grants: So we're talking more
now about the funding. First video was about initial
streams that you can start. If you're opening a gallery, you will need some
money to do that. Of course, a substantial
amount of money. You can go to your
local banks and try to see if you can
get loans through them. If they're not going
to give you a loan. Your next source, maybe SBA, Small Business
Administration loan. Now, they usually want to see that you've been in
business for two years. So that's kind of a catch-22. Because if you're
starting a business, obviously you haven't
been in business for two years and that
can be an issue. So just go ahead and apply to everything and see
where you stand with that. You may have to get
another source. So another thing that
you can look into, if you do, do the
SBA loan course, you're going to have to show good credit on a business side, if you've been in
business, personal side, the background, they're
going to want to see all your tax returns
and anything like that, any kind of statements. If you have adequate collateral. And a lot of times if you can show adequate collateral, then, you know, you're
gonna be, of course, better off and they'll
probably give you a loan. So just go ahead and check
and see what they offer. See what they tell you you need and where are you qualify. Okay? Now the next thing
we're going to be talking about is you can ask family and friends, you know, tell them what
you're doing and you can either get loans from them or see if they want to
just contribute to it. Maybe even be a
partner with you. So those are other
options as well. Now I do not recommend using your house equity in your house. The problem with
doing that, It's yes, you can get money
that way and you can get a decent amount
of money that way. The problem is of course, that you have to pay it back. Now for some reason the
business is struggling, then obviously you're going
to have trouble paying that back and you're going
to lose all that money. So I do not recommend that
route of using home equity. The next option you
can do is to search for grants through
the government. Now there are some
options there. Look for local stuff first and then branch
out from there. You can also look up the top 25 grants for
growing your art business. And there are some on there, just see which ones you qualify
for, apply for anything. If you see that It's something
there may be a couple of qualifications you're not
showing or you don t have, just apply for everything
and see what they say. Sometimes they may get you in the door and then you can work on those other qualifications. Communication is the key
with all this stuff. Tell them what you have,
which trying to do. And they can usually guide
you in the right direction. And they may even suggest a different grant or something
that they know of all. So now I mentioned the
initial revenue streams. If all of this is not
panning out and none of these outlets are going
to help fund you. Then just start saving up with your initial revenue streams. Just start saving the money. And then see where
you go from there, see how much you can get. And you just have to kind
of see where it's going. If it looks like
you're not gonna be able to get the money, obviously you can't do it. But just check all the streams
that I've talked about. And then a lot of times
another thing will pop up. As you're searching
for one thing, something else will pop up. The initial phase of everything. You can also offer an after-school program
to get started. Now, if you don't
have a building, then you can usually
go to the schools. If not, if you have a building, that's the ideal situation, you can set that up for
an after-school program. And this is a great way
to keep the business rolling with just
a constant income. Get him with the schools. We have coordinators here, partners in education
coordinators, and you probably have
a similar one in your schools locally that
can connect you with all the parents and put
out the word and we put out fliers and whatever kind
of events through them. So that is a very helpful
once you have that rolling, that's just a constant
revenue stream. Alright? Once you are open, another way to keep
things rolling. Get the local businesses
if you're having any kind of events or say, any kind of promotions, if you're doing a, say a gallery opening, you can go to a
local grocery store and see if they'll sponsor that. Sometimes I'll give you like
a tray of food appetizers. You just have to
talk to everybody, tell them what you're doing and then see what they're
willing to do with local businesses is
a good way to get that. You can go also when
you're having art contest. Use the locals to see it. They want to sponsor it. You can go to framing shops, photography studios, art supply stores,
anything like that. You can even try
like a Chick-fil-A. A lot of times at Chick-fil-A
or somewhere like that will surprise you. They will do events with you. Okay. So it's all about
communicating and seeing who's out there and willing to do it with you and help you. Alright, quick
summary of section to apply for all your
loans with the banks. Then if that doesn't work out, Chuck with the SBA,
apply with them, get in contact with
them, see what you need, tell him what you have, and get set up for that. Check with family and friends to see if they can help you out. And there are several
options with that. You can ask for a loan or you can just possibly have them
as a partner with you. Check and research
for all your grants. Check the locals first
and then the government. Anything out there,
just search under grants for starting a business or starting an art business. After opening, make
sure you're in contact with all the
local businesses. This is a good way
for sponsorships and you can work
together with them. Get in with all
the local schools. Okay, this is a big one here. And just go ahead and if you can have the after-school
program with the kids, this is a really good revenue
stream to keep you rolling. Advertise everywhere. You social media. The Internet is a big
deal right now as far as getting the word out, probably the best
way to do that. Also word of mouth locally, just be in good with your
neighbors if you're in a plaza, just communicate with everybody, help, help each other out. That's the way to
grow your business. Okay, that's it for section two. We're gonna go on to section
three. See you over there.
4. Location, Gallery Layout: Class Number three,
location, location, location, and the
gallery layout. We hear about location
all the time. That's the famous saying, the location,
location, location. But it is so true. Especially for a gallery, which you want to
do ideally is being an outdoor shopping
mall or in a mall. And the reason I say
this is because there's already traffic coming to those foot traffic
yard yap, people. In both of those scenarios. You don't have to worry about
drawing people in as much. The other thing is if you do decide to go in
and outdoor mall, It's gonna be a little
more expensive obviously. Or if you even go in and
nice shopping center, it's going to be
more expensive than just somewhere off location, even a small plaza or
something like that. You'll have to weigh
the cost of how much it is to be in
those prime spots. Or if you're going to pay a
little less to be in a spot where it's gonna be
harder to draw people in if you can afford it. Obviously, you got to go with
the mall or the prime spot. If not, there's ways
to get people in. It's just a little
more difficult. If you are on a street
where I'm similar to that, I'm off the street. But we have a sign out front. There's a big sign for the
shopping plaza and there's a display on there that scrolls through every business
that's in here as well, as well as being listed
on the sign itself. The other advantage
to being in a mall or a busy shopping center is
that people are going to see your store as
they're going about their business and
they're going to come in out of curiosity. Now, a lot of times
people would just come in to see what you have
and they'll be like, Well, I didn't even
know you were here. I never even seen the place. And then when they come in,
they're pleasantly surprised. They'll see everything
have to offer. Make sure you have the gallery
with just regular art. And then also handcrafted gifts, just little knick-knacks. I tried to keep things that
are off the beaten path as far as they can't find them in like Walmart or
any store like that. None of the big box stores. The way you do that as
you get the locals that have made jewelry and
things like that, just any kind of
handcrafted gift. It could be cards, greeting cards, you know, there's all kinds
of ideas for that. I'll touch on that later. But every time someone
comes in your store, that is a potential sale and you have to think
of it that way too. So that's one
downside to being in a shopping center that's
not very busy or not very popular or back
off the beaten path. So try to avoid those scenarios. Exceptions to being near a mall or a busy
shopping center. Or if you can get a location
near either a school, a rec center, or a library, especially if you're doing
any kind of a kids program. This is ideal course. You're going to have a lot of traffic from the parents and the kids in all three
of those locations. So if you're offering
an after-school program, This is perfect. The kids and the parents will be able to see your location. And then you can have signage just telling you what
things you offer. And then you can also put
flyers in those locations two, and then they'll see
that you're right there, right next to them, and that's
very convenient for them. The next thing I'd like to talk about is the gallery layout. You're going to want
to have a certain flow to the gallery. When the customer comes in, you'll want them to feel free to move throughout
the entire space. I remove doors that were
on a couple of the rooms. And then I also added
some French doors. The French doors
are always open, but they give a little style
to the gallery itself. We've put in some
Ottomans also for style. And then I also got some little lanterns to put around the floor for decorating. You will also need to figure
out how to hang the art. There are several
ways you can do this. Most of the galleries will
use tracking systems. There's numerous types
of tracking systems. What I decided to use is what they're called
is floating shelves. Basically, you cannot
tell that it's a shelf but it's
like a little ledge, maybe four inches wide. And I can just sit
the artwork on that. I don't have to put holes in
the wall, mount everything. I can just easily remove
them and put them out. I also installed a stereo system with ceiling mounted speakers. It's pretty easy to do. You just run the wires
to the speakers. It's two connections
for each speaker, two wires, and then just
connect them to the stereo. You can look online to
see how to do that. I have a security background, so it was pretty
easy for me to do, but anybody can do it. That'll save you some money
from having it installed. And also when you buy one, you don't have to buy
the most expensive one. Because something
to fit your needs. For the back area where
teaching takes place. It was already set up for us. The area was actually
sectioned off. There's cubicles
with a half wall. So this was set up and what's
good for during COVID, as everyone had their own space. As you can see. The front is where
the stereo sits. There's a little desk there or a little shelf that runs all
the way across the wall. This is where the art teachers
for the adults will stand. And then on this
side, other side, that's sectioned
off as well with half walls and cubes and
they can see the instructor. So this was already
set up for us, which worked out
good for storage. Then we have the offices down the right side
of the building. And those are all locked
door so we can put any extra art work or anything, any stock materials in there. A quick summary for
less than three. So you want to be in
a prime location. If you cannot be in
a prime location, such as a mall or an outdoor shopping area that
has a lot of foot traffic. Your next best bet is going
to be near either a school, a rec center, or a library. Remember, location is key. For the gallery layout. Make sure you have a
nice flow to the area. Make sure that people
can feel free to move around without
being constraint. My gallery has room to room access without
opening any doors. Are removed several
doors and then added some French doors
which are always open. Also, I use a POS system. It's a small handheld system. This keeps the flow
going as I don't have a big register
taking up space or an area where there's
a clutter of people install or have someone install a nice surround
sound stereo system. You should be able
to do it yourself. But if not, just
have someone do it, you can get everything
yourself as far as materials go stereo
system with the speakers. This will be a little
cheaper as opposed to going through them
to buy the supplies. Also, you'll need to come up
with a way to hang the art. There are several
ways to do this. Most common systems
or tracking systems. I chose to go with a floating
shelf or invisible shelf. This is a small shelf. It's like a little ledge
that's about four inches, sticks out about four
inches from the wall. It was easy to install. And the good thing
is I don't have to keep putting holes in the wall. Every time I have to mount
something or adjust something, it's easy to take the artwork
on and off of the shelves, as you can see behind
me right here, these are floating shelves. And that's it for class II. Let's move on to class
number four. See you soon.
5. Social Media, Building a Following: Welcome to class for social media and
building a following. So good business accounts on TikTok, Facebook,
and Instagram. These are three of the
top ones right now. And really good for
promoting your business. Now you can put on
stuff for free. That's what I normally do is
I'll just put on rails or post on all of these sites. And then you can
also pay for ads. But those of course,
is going to cost you money once in a while just depending on how
much money you have, you can invest in that. But I just put up any events
or future events classes. What we have going
on in the studio. If we're doing the art
camp or a summer camp, art club, anything like that? Okay. Now when you post on Instagram, make sure you just click. There's an option there
where you can have it automatically go to Facebook at the same time when you post. So that's really good
you do to get to knocked out at once.
Alright. Okay. And then also in that regard, while we're on those websites, are those site for Facebook? Really all of them. You
want to become friends and connect with people
as much as possible. On all of them. You can follow people on Instagram just like
their post on Facebook. They're all three
are pretty similar, just as far as liking, post and sharing and
things like that. So just use all three of those
to promote your business. Also made sure when
you are posting that you use hashtags
on everything. What I do is I'll put
on the business name, address, any kind
of business info, website, emails,
just everything, as much information
as you can give people when they see that posts, they don't have to
search for you. They'll say, Oh wow, they're right down the street from me. They can see the address and if they're familiar
with the area, they can go right to you. Also get on next door and Yelp. These are two sites
that are really good for the locals to see. Once again, you can
pay for ads on those, which you can also
put some stuff. It's somewhat limited, but you can put some stuff on there. The biggest thing
really is to have your name on there
and the address. All that is free to put on. Okay. And then people sometimes
will just search for you and then it'll pop up
on those two sites, Yelp and next door. So there's a really good, another thing is look for local websites that
can promote you. We have one here, Harvard
Cultural Alliance. And it's for artists and
also for art galleries. You do have to pay a
fee to become a member. I think it's well worth it. It's not a whole lot of money. But I think it's well
worth it because what they will do
is we send them a flyer and they promote our events
right to their website. And this is for all
the county to see. And then there's a lot of
artists that are also on there. So it's a good way
just to connect with the art community and to
get your name out there. And I'm sure everybody probably has something
similar to that, a local one. So just look for a local
website like that. Another thing you
can do is we have a logbook in the front when you come into the store and it's an email entry logbook,
that's what I call it. Basically, when
someone comes in, I just talked to them about future classes we
have coming up. You can also have fliers
posted in that area. I just tell them we're sending out a
newsletter every week and just telling you what the upcoming events are gonna be in future events as well. And I tried to do that once a week just to keep
everybody in the loop. And this is really
good way because you can build up an email
following like that. Just tell them that's
the only thing you're going to
use the email for. You know, you're
not connected to any other advertising or anything where it's going
to take the emails. There will just be a
direct e-mail from you. And we'd get a lot of
people signing in for that. Another great way to connect. Okay, The other thing I
want to talk about is going to these local shows, farmers markets, Schools,
anything like that. This is also for promoting your business and
building a following. A lot of the schools
will have coordinators and they can help you get
the word out to the parents. The farmers markets
and the shows. Of course, you'll
have a tent set up. I did one where I was, it was me and one of the artist, and he had his
artwork on display. And then I had information
about the gallery on display. And that worked out really well. And people same thing, I had to log book there. People could sign up, they could take flyers. And that's another really
good way to get the word out. The last thing I
want to talk about is just your local neighbors. And when I say neighbors, I mean, like if you're
in a business Plaza, just any of your
local businesses that are next to you and
I'm surrounding you, just become friends
with everybody. And also you can, some of them will let
you put your cards in their store and then you can have their card in your store. Just depends on how much of that kind of thing you wanna do. If you want to have
that kind of stuff in front of your store or not. So that's another
good way to do it. A quick summary for
class number four. So get on social media. Top three sites probably right
now, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok post stories
like things, share things. Just be very active
on those sites. Connect with people, become
friends with people. You can start on Facebook with your base of friends
you already have, and then just get them to like your business and take them
to your business page. These will all be business
accounts, by the way. And then just go from there. You can also get on
next door and Yelp. Just at least get your name
out there, the address. People will search for you and they can find you that way. Basically, what
you want to do is post anything you're
doing in the store, just promoted and post
it on all those sites. Okay. We also talked about
the local website. So check to see if you have a local or county website that promotes artists
and art galleries. And that's a really good way. There's usually a
small fee for that, but it's well-worth that you can get the word out and just post all of your events on there and that goes out
to a lot of people. Okay, another good way to get your following going is have a email entry logbook in the front of your store
and get people to sign it. And every time someone
comes in and just try to see if they'll
sign into your book, reassure them that it's not for anything else
other than getting information about the
gallery classes and artist. Okay. It's not going to go out to
any other advertisers are businesses to get spam on. Alright. Go to local events. This is a really key one here. This gets the word out as well. People will see you set up
and they will ask questions, I'll come up and they'll
share their interests. And that's when you have
a chance to give them information to bring with you
flyers and business cards. It's a really great
way to get out into the community and started
meeting people for that. Become friends with
your neighbors, also, your immediate
neighbors in the businesses. And just talk to them about
ways you can promote. Sometimes maybe they'll
have an event and say, Hey, if you want to show some
of your artwork there, you guys are welcome to
come over and do that. And then just help
each other out. That's the bottom line. And that's a good way to build a following and promote
your business as well. Okay, that's it for class
for, Let's move on. See you in class. Bye.
6. Selling, POS System, Customer Service: Class number five, we will talk about selling and the
point of sale system. For in-store, you're
going to want to have items priced from low to high, meaning you'll want to
have some affordable items and then you'll
also want to have some nicer, higher-end items. Now some examples of this. I sell jewelry. I also sell light up bottles, wire trees, purses, yoga mats, just things like that. Greeting cards. You can really put anything
in the store you want. It's your store and
that's kinda what I did. But I like to have
fresh ideas and unique things that they
won't find in other stores, like big bucks stores, okay, make sure the pricing is
available for them to see. A lot of times if you don t
have pricing on something, they're just going to think
it's too expensive and they won't even bother
asking you about it. So I found that putting the
pricing on helps a lot. Then you can add that
open discussion. Okay? I use local artist here. Even with the crafters, there's some really talented
people in this area, and I'm sure you'll find
the same in your area. The locals are just amazing and it's good to
promote local art. And it's good for the economy. And the locals really appreciate you trying to
help them out as well. When something is selling, tried to get similar
items into the store. Okay. We're close to the ocean. So sea turtles and also
just any kind of turtles, they seem to be a big item
here that people like to buy. So I have one small shelf
with wholesale items. I can get the same
one if they sell. Otherwise, if it's something
that a handcraft or did, or artists, did, you have to just try to
get something similar? On the same note if
something is not selling, try to get it off the
shelf once you figure that out and get something on there that you
think will do better. This will be a trial and
error process as you go. So you just have to see what the people in
your area like. Okay. Now, as far as that goes, also with the artists, we have contracts
with the artist and what we do is we normally go two to
three months with them. I can extend the contracts
at the end of that. This is good for
rotating the work. They can either bring in
new work and put it in, exchange it out for
their other stuff. Or if an artist is not
selling very well, or you feel like something
else make a little better, then you can just sign a
contract with the new person and then just have them
take their stuff. Okay, so the idea here is to
keep it fresh all the time. Whether it's an
existing artists that you stay with or if you have new artists coming in
and just get a wide variety. I tried to be a unique store with a lot of different
styles of art, lot of different colors. So just try to do that to be a unique store and stand out. If you are doing online sales, make sure you cover yourself. We're talking about insurance. Make sure you have enough
insurance when shipping items. Also, make sure you get payment
before you ship anything. Make sure they pay you. There's a lot of scams
of course, going on, but people will try to
get something and then never send you the
money or only send you half the money
to have you send it. Just cover yourself,
document everything. If you can get e-mails or texts with the agreement and how much they're supposed
to pay and all that. Just make sure you
cover yourself. Make sure when you
package the material, if you're shipping it, that you make sure that it's
not going to get damaged. You can use bubble
wrap, bubble pack, a lot of cardboard,
anything like that. You can put foam in there. And then just get a reliable
shipper, FedEx or UPS. Get him good with them. A lot of times they'll they'll be able
to package it for you, of course, but I would
try to do it myself just so I know exactly
how it's packaged. And finally, we'll talk about the point-of-sale
system that we use to very small
hand-held unit. This is very convenient
because it's not a giant register that you have to put somewhere and
take away from your gallery? I didn't really see that
there was an area in the gallery where it
would be out of the way. So I wanted to keep the flow
to the gallery and putting a big register in where
people are going to clutter and kind of block areas. I didn't have enough
room here to do that. So the handheld one
works out really good. You could do everything
on their course. It's linked to a computer. So your inventory and everything's right in
the system itself. And make sure you're
keeping accurate records, have all the inventory. You can 0 out items also. Once an artist is removed, you can 0 them out. And then you can also see the quantities as you go
along in the system as well. So it's really good system. I've been really happy with it. There's different
ones out of there. So just try to research it. They're usually
pretty inexpensive. Of course you can
go to the register route if you want to. You know, a lot of places
will do that as well. But the newer trend
seems to be going for the more compact handheld ones. A quick summary for class five. So make sure when
selling in store the prices are available
for customers to see. Price from low to high, have things that are affordable. And also things that people, maybe they want to spend
a little more money can buy for jewelry, especially you can
use to local artists. That's a great way
to promote them. I have all local people in here and they have
a lot of talent. It's amazing. The,
even the handcraft are the things that
they come up with. Just very unique style of gifts. If you're doing online
orders and selling online, make sure you cover
yourself with insurance. Make sure everything
is shipped out, has insurance on it. Make sure you package it very good that nothing
can be damaged. Use bubble wrap,
anything that will fill. It can get special items. You can have UPS do it also if you just
want to have them, take it there and then
have them package it. I would recommend
doing it yourself so you know exactly how
it was packaged. Okay. And make sure you get payment before you shipped anything out. This is a very big item because otherwise
they could get it. They can say it's damaged, they can never pay you. There are issues
with that going on. So just basically cover yourself every time
you have to ship. Keep all accurate records
of everything that you do. For the point of sale system. You can opt to use a
little handheld register. These are very convenient
and easy to use. It doesn't take up a big amount
of space in the gallery. And you can keep everything in their records with
the inventory. How much is selling? What you've sold, transactions. It's a really good machine, has everything you
need right in there. It's also linked to a computer. So if you'd rather do
it all on the computer, you can and just do your sales through
the handheld machine. You can also print
out a receipt right there with them machine,
little machine. That's it for lesson five. Hope you enjoyed it. Let's
go on to lesson six.
7. Acquiring Artist and Crafters: Hello and welcome to class six, acquiring artist
and hand crafters. The best way to do this is
to go to local art shows. You can meet the artists and hand crafters and see why they're passionate
about their work. Also, you can get a firsthand
experience with what they actually do and
how it looks in person. You can also post on social media through Facebook or Instagram to get the artist. But what you don't want
to do after that is have them come in and see
their work in person. A lot of times a picture
will not convey what they really can do in person. And the colors and
everything may be a little different or distorted
in pictures. This applies to the
hand-crafted artists as well. There is a lot of
local talent here, and I'm sure it's the
same in your area. Very unique styles, very unique differences
in what they do. And what I do here is just try to get
a variety of everything. We have anything from
light up bottles, two, that are painted to jewelry on the high
end and lower end. I also have gift
cards, greeting cards. I have tote bags, I have purses. So it's just a wide
variety of things. You can have a gallery, but you can also have a
gift shop as part of that. This helps crude create
a good revenue stream. Now you're going to want to make sure you have a contract with the artist and make sure
everything in there is clear. You should have a lawyer go over the contract just to make sure you're not
missing anything. Make sure you have the
commission percentages in there. If you're not accepting returns, make sure that that's
in the contract. The length of the contract, just everything like that. Just cover all the bases. And like I said, make sure
lawyer goes over that. You also want to figure out how you want to
run the gallery. Where do you want it
to be a co-op style? Whether you want to just go on straight commission
or if you want the artists to rent space
or wall space or an area, I recommend having
them rent space. That way you have a
reoccurring revenue stream, whether the artist
selling or not. With the co-op style. It's okay. I would only recommend that if your gallery is really
busy throughout the day, that way you'll
have somebody that can kinda cover for
you at certain times. Otherwise, if you're
going to run the business yourself and you will
have to be there 247. With the co-op style. At least you can have some more flexibility on what you do. Make sure also that
you're promoting your artist in store
and on social media. We have a bulletin board
here with our events, classes and anything that's
coming up with the gallery. If you're going to
have an art contests, put it on the bulletin board. Also use social media
for everything. Any event classes,
the same thing. Just put it on both things on a bulletin board and then
also on social media. That way if people come
in and they haven't visited your website
or senior Facebook, at least they can see on the board which
has got going on. Then also have your log book
to where they can sign in their emails to get on the
future lists for classes. Also hold art contest
with winners getting a one month exhibit
in your gallery. Maybe give them a whole wall with their artwork if they win. This is a great way also to promote artists, local artist, and then to get more interest in your
store with them coming in. When you have a contests, artists are going to take note, they're going to want to
see your gallery and then you're going to want to try
to get into your gallery. So this is a great
way to do that, to get the interest
out there and get the word out there among
the local community. Another thing I'll
mention is for the higher-end art work, you have a couple of options. You can put the artwork in
your gallery, and that's fine. You will have to watch your
insurance costs and how much your coverage is
for your insurance. One way if you want to avoid high insurance
premiums and cost, is to put your higher-end work online and sell it
through your website. They can see pictures
of it on there. You can price it on there. That way you don't
have to cover it with insurance in the gallery. In other words, the
artists would hold the paintings or
whatever the artwork is themselves at their house and you would not have it
physically in the gallery. Okay, so that's another way if you're starting
to get high on the insurance coverage or you want to avoid
that altogether, that you can actually
sell the work. You will need to
decide also if you want to get a liquor
license or not. This could be worth it if you're doing a lot of events for adults, There's different types. You can get on some on
the lower end of it, you can get just somewhere. It's bring your own. Whether it's wine or beer, I would just recommend being
careful with this as far as, you know, when you
do the events, just it's another whole
nother responsibility. If you have people
drinking at your business? For me personally,
I did not do that. I do not have a
liquor license here, but there are galleries, a lot of galleries that will do that just so they can have their wine and
design type classes. So it's a good thing to have. Just look into it, see what your local
jurisdictions are going to tell you as far as what you
need and what you can get. It's just another option, makes sure you're
promoting all your events. And this is also, these type of events
are becoming more popular also with the wind
and design type thing. So probably a good route. Make sure you look
into it and then just decide for yourself whether
you want to do that. Okay, so a quick
summary of class 6. First off, you'll need
to get the artist. And the best way
to do that is by going to the shows,
the art shows. You can also do it
on social media. Make sure you're getting unique art and
handcrafted gifts. And just check everything
out in person if you can, before you commit to anything. Make sure you're promoting
your artists online and in the store with some
kind of a bulletin board. And make sure that your
contract is very clear. Have a lawyer go
over the contract with the artist
and hand crafters. Be very specific about
details on this. Have the commission's prices
or percentages in there, and anything else that
you want to cover, how long the contracts for. If you're not going
to take returns, just anything that's
similar to that. Also makes sure and figure out how you want
to run the gallery. Is it gonna be a
co-opt style gallery? Is it gonna be
straight commission or renting space or a wall? I recommend renting
at least a small fee for them to put their
work in your gallery. Hold art contest on a
monthly basis if you can. This is a great way to
get the local artists and interested and for them to
come in and see what you have. A lot of times
they're going to want to be part of everything. And this is a great way to
get the interest going. If you're putting high-end
work in your store, make sure your insurance
is covering it. One way to avoid high
insurance costs is to sell everything or at least the high-end
product on the web. You can do this by
showing on the website, on your website pictures of everything and the
pricing that's involved. So this is a good way. Just let the artists keep the work at their house
and you do not have to cover insurance wise when its cells and of course
they'll bring it in and then you'll
make the transaction. And also if you're
shipping it out, then you'll have to go
through that process.
8. Conclusion : Hello again, and
thank you all so much for going on
this journey with me. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you found
something here that you can use and learn from. The one takeaway I would
like for you all to have is that anyone can do this. Anyone can have an art
business or an art gallery. It may seem like a long
process in the beginning, but keep chipping away at
it and it will happen. Stay current with your
work and your ideas, and always put
yourself out there on social media and the
local communities. Please follow me on Skillshare. And thank you again for
being there with me. See you soon. Bye.
Tom Dowgiallo, Gallery Owner, Entrepreneur
