Find Better Customers
The struggle to grow as an artist can be made or broken by the those who cheer you on. Sometimes the best cheerleaders are the ones who put their money where their mouth is.
“Finding the right kind of customers is paramount.”
In the words of Chase Jarvis, master photographer, “you cannot convert a $50 customer into a $5,000”.
I’ve found that it’s a hundred times more difficult to convince the “small budget clients” to pay you a professional fee, than it is to find clients who love your work and are not threatened by a fair price tag. The funny thing is, when you find clients who treat you like a professional and pay you a fair fee, it creates a positive feedback loop or an “Upward Spiral of B2C” (business to consumer).
“The Upward Spiral of B2C entails finding customers who value your hard work, which in turn improves your morale and allows you to make more and better things.”
An important assumption here is that you are already making professional work. Just because you make artwork, doesn’t mean it deserves a professional artist’s price-tag.
“The irony of the upward spiral B2C, is that in order to find better clients you must make better work.”
I believe far too many artists cater to the wrong types of clients and get stuck in downward B2C spiral, but this doesn’t mean you should assume it’s your customers fault when you’re not getting paid what you want for your art.
The solution to a rapid downward B2C spiral is to hold some tension between finding better clients and looking at your work with a critical eye for improvement.
As a practical exercise, assume that you are doing something wrong. It sounds masochistic, but the assumption that you’re doing something wrong actually can re-engage your left brain and reduce stagnation and discouragement. Continuing to try and find new ways of evaluating your work before you’ve finished leads to a vigorous challenge and a more satisfying end result.
Challenge yourself to grow and reject the clients who don’t show up to support it.
Alec