Twenty-four Actions you can take to improve your business in 2005:
-
Take a vacation. Get away from your shop/business. (Take a
sketchpad if you’re obsessed like me!) -
Visit a studio(s) - metalsmith, goldsmith, silversmith, lapidary,
or jeweler, whose work you admire. -
Update or redesign your business card, printed materials
(brochures/advertisements), and website -
Teach a class, workshop, or give a demonstration on your
techniques. (You’ll find that you will learn more from teaching than
your students do) -
Subscribe to new trade journals and website forums. Write an
article about one of your projects for a journal or a forum.
PARTICIPATE in the forums! SUPPORT the forums like Orchid fer
instance! -
Update your resume, artists’s profile, and statement, your
complete publicity package. -
Invest in yourself, become a lifelong student. Take a business or
techniques workshop, continue your education even after you
"Cretire" (see number 4 above) -
Lead an effort to form a guild or join an existing guild.
-
Attend trade shows and exhibitions where work similar to yours
may be found. -
Start or update your mailing list, contact list, supplier list,
and website resources -
Investigate and purchase new machinery or tools that will ease
or increase your production. -
Send a press release to local publications, or post it on
websites. Get your name out there. -
Research a new show, apply, and submit your work to a jury.
Enter design competitions. -
Design a new product to utilize your scrap. “Found” money is the
best kind! -
Organize your patterns, “Crecipes”, dies, etc., so you can find
what you need when you need it. -
Clean up and organize your studio to make it easier to work as
well as impressing your clients. -
Review and update your business plan, and financial strategies -
allowing for changes in the past year. -
Read a personal development book. (Or two or three!)
-
Clean up your computer. Purge the old stuff. Learn new computer
skills. Anything from bookkeeping and inventory management to
Photoshop manipulation and CAD - whatever will help you be more
productive. -
Review your prices - INCREASE THEM! (You are worth a raise
aren’t you?) -
Join your local Art League or similar organizations.
-
Try to add a minimum of 3 new contacts/clients per week.
-
Sharpen tools such as shears, do maintenance & oiling on tools
& machinery, repaint items that need it. (This may include your
walls!) -
Begin building a reference library if you don’t already have
one. Books and videos are TOOLS!
Brian P. Marshall