Follow the 80/20 Rule to Succeed in the Art Business The 80/20 Rule is an old mathematical formula created by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. At the time, Pareto stated this rule was based on the principal that 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth. In later years this rule has been used in many different ways and you have probably heard a few of them too, such as: 20% of the salespeople produce 80% of a company’s sales. Or 20% of the employees produce 80% of the companies’ profits. Another is that 20% of the population pays 80% of the countries’ income taxes! My rule is that artists should be spending 20% of their time creating art and 80% of their time marketing and administering to their art business in order to be a successful artist. Today, for most artists it is the other way around. Unfortunately most artists will spend 80% of their time creating art and only 20% of their time administering, marketing and promoting their art. How can any artist expect to be successful if no one knows about or is exposed to their art? It is a dilemma that all artists must face, in that they are doing what they love, which is producing art. Rather than being in the business of selling art. Andy Warhol was a prolific and successful American artist. He was also a master marketer, promoter and art business person. We can all learn and follow his art business operating philosophy. There are two Andy Warhol quotes that puts the whole Art vs. Business dilemma into perspective; “Business art is the step that comes after Art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist” and his other quote is “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art”. Now, I think we should take these quotes seriously, as it was recently documented that in 2009 a Warhol painting of his, the “Eight Elvises” sold for 100 Million! Warhol knew what he was doing as an artist, a marketer and as a businessperson! As an artist are you spending a majority of your time marketing and promoting your art work? Have you identified who your target market is and analyzed how to reach them successfully? Do you have a website that displays and showcases your art correctly? Do you have a Blog or online newsletter that helps to drive traffic to your website? Are you taking advantage of and using Social Media to make contacts, promote your art and help to build your brand? Do you have an ongoing email marketing campaign that exposes your work to the decision makers in your target audience? Are you using PR sites to promote your events, shows and sales? Have you availed yourself of promoting your work
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