Go full time with your art by planning prices + sales goals

PRICE WITH THE END IN MIND

We all have trouble reaching our sales goals in the beginning of our art careers. We blame it on a small following, on the quality of the art itself — but have you ever considered that it’s because we’re approaching our goals the wrong way?

Every goal needs a clear, measureable path to be accomplished. Making money to go full time with your art is no exception. In this article we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of how to plan your prices around your goals in order to ACTUALLY reach them.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO EARN?

What’s your end game? For example, it could be that you want to earn a big enough side income with your art to send your child to a better day care center. Or it could be that you want to replace your 9-5 job with a full time artist income. Or maybe you want to pay your student loans off faster (same, honestly). Know this end game goal fully before you move on.

So, how much does that cost?

Say that day care down the street is $700 per month for your child and the cost never fluctuates. You could map out your art prices backward from this number — sell 7 paintings at $100 each in a month’s time. Of course you’d have to sell this quantity at this price every month for steady income, but that’ll define a clear path for your goal. Tweak your price and quantity as you wish, as long as the earnings come out to $700 each month.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE COST?

Replacing your 9-5 job with an art career is not as easily measurable in a monetary sense. But it’s doable. And we’re gonna do it right now.

How much do you make in your 9-5 currently? Let’s say you make $1,800 per month. Clearly you’ll need to make at least that much to scrape by like you’re scraping now.

But there’s a catch: Running a business to go full time with your art comes with its own expenses. You’ll have to earn enough to cover these added expenses on top of your typical 9-5 income. We’re trying to at least break even here, right?

DON’T FORGET EXPENSES

There are two types of expenses: fixed and variable.

Fixed expenses are things you pay that never really change or go away. Things like rent, subscriptions, and monthly services fall into this category. Even when your calendar is empty and no one is buying your artwork or waiting on a commission, you still have to pay these things.

Let’s say you’ll have to pay for a website domain to attract customers and manage transactions for $120 per year ($10 per month).

You also rent a studio outside of your home for $400 a month.

You set aside $100 each month for print and online advertisements to promote your business.

This all adds to $510 each month to your monetary goal you need to reach to achieve your end game and go full time with your art.

Variable expenses are costs that you usually have, but that fluctuate heavily depending on the circumstances. Things like materials, art supplies, travel costs and vendor expenses fall into this category. These are harder to prepare for in a scheme of monetary earnings, but you can factor in an average cost.

If you sell 10 paintings, and had to purchase 10 canvases at $35 each, your expense for this monthly variable would be $350. This naturally is covered by your earnings, since you’ll be making direct profit following each of these purchases by selling the finished piece. As the expense goes up, so do the earnings. It’s a safe variable cost.

But what about something like travel cost and vendor fees? Just because you fly to California and pay $80 for a booth at a festival doesn’t guarantee that you’ll recoup those costs and make profit at the fest. There is no guaranteed return on that investment. And these costs can fluctuate wildly based on your choices. So instead, think about the average amount of money you WANT to (not currently do) spend on traveling or other variables and factor this in as a guestimate.

Let’s say I want to do one show per month and cap my costs at $80 to travel to and reserve my spot at each event.

ADD THE MONEY UP

Combining the cost of replacing a full time 9-5 income, covering fixed and variable expenses, it would cost you $2,740 per month to go full time with your art.

With this amount, you’ll reach your end game of replacing your job and you’ll have the same wiggle room in your budget as you did at your 9-5. If you want more spending money than you had before, add that cost in too.

Let’s say I do, so I’m going to give myself an extra $260 for spending money to give myself a nice clean number: $3,000. This is the official money goal that needs to be met to go full time and be comfortable.

PRICE TO REACH YOUR GOAL

Now that you know what number you need to hit, divvy up your sales goals accordingly.

You could sell 3 paintings priced at $1,000 each. Or you could sell 1,000 paintings at $3 each. However you want to balance quantity and price, make sure at the end of each month you are hitting that $3,000 amount. Split it up with multiple products or services, such as commissions and painting sales, depending on your business.

Breaking down your goals into smaller, more tangible goals helps you visualize what you actually need to do — step by step — to get where you want to be.

It makes your path clear, wipes away the overwhelm, and it focuses your mind on more simple tasks.

Of course after this, you’ll go into the question, “What does it take to create and sell each individual piece?” And then repeat that same process however many times to reach your sales goal. That’s a deeply individual choice, though, so I’ll trust you to handle that question on your own. However, if you want case-by-case pricing help, I wrote a post on pricing your artwork here.

START NOW

I challenge you to take out a pad of paper and get out your calculator right now.

Go through this process on your own and see what it would really take to go full time with your art in your life as you’re living it currently. Below is a link to a free worksheet I created just for you that maps out your income and price goals for you.

What are you waiting for? Your dream career is out there 🙂