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#8 Evaluating Your Year and Making New Goals

On the Left Brain Artist podcast, I will bring you weekly interviews with artists who are actively creating art and actively selling their art. Of course, I’ve chosen these artists because of the quality of their artwork. But I’ve also chosen them because they have experience showing their work in galleries, stores, festivals, and they have stories to share that can help other artists who want to sell their work. Each week I will bring you an interview with one of these artists. Later in the week, I’ll take one thing we discussed that I think it’s important to expand upon – one thing that they’ve done to increase their business. They’ve had success doing this one thing, and I want to share that success with you.

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When I spoke with artist Nicole Galluccio, she talked about how she ends each year. She sits down and makes a list of everything she did that year, then she thinks about what she’d like to accomplish in the coming year. Here are my thoughts on how and why you should do this:

Include these items in the summary of your year:

  1. Total sales and to whom
  2. Sales by what source
  3. Total classes taught and number of students
  4. Other sources of income
  5. All your exhibitions
  6. Any installations or public art
  7. Articles you were in/articles you wrote
  8. Any interviews
  9. Residencies
  10. Grants
  11. Artist organizations joined

You also need to list what didn’t work. Then you need to analyze your administrative tasks, and see if you can streamline them or hire someone to do them for you. 

For your goal-making, think of something related to your business that you’ve always wanted to do and that will challenge you.

Don’t neglect this important aspect of your business. Your business will grow, and it will always stay exciting for you if you try new things.