Set Goals – Giclée Printing & Framing of New England

the plan – reprinted post by nancy bryant

The place to begin if one wants to sell his or her art work is with a plan. Although a business plan is essential for a successful business, I believe the starting point is the “10 year” plan. By writing a 10 year plan for ones self, one begins to define goals and through that process has an understanding of what must be done to achieve those goals. If one begins a venture, business or otherwise without a plan, it is like taking a cross country trip without a road map (or gps). Even if one has a general idea of the outcome, the way to reach it is without substance.

To begin the plan start at year 10: Where do you want to be in ten years? What do you want to achieve in ten years? This is your goal. Whether it be wealth, fame, or just a comfortable living, you need to define it to yourself and to the universe.

The next step is to begin to plan how to reach that goal. If, for example, you would like to be selling enough art work to have income to travel as well as live on, what do you need to achieve that? A large savings account? Regular sales of your work? What is the dollar figure? What is the amount you will need? When you begin to set down figures you begin to see what kind of effort must be made in order to reach that goal. Must you sell 20 pieces of art each year at $5,000? Can you produce and sell 20 pieces of art a year? Will a gallery take 50%? Will you need to produce 40 pieces of art? When you begin to analyze the figures, you begin to see how much effort you will need to make to realize your goal. For some this is enough for them to give up on art as a full time career and concentrate on something else. For others it will be the motivation to focus and perfect their skills and move forward.

If, after the initial analysis, you still want to pursue this goal, you need to develop the ten year plan. By working backwards, from year ten, to year nine, to year seven, to year five, to year three, to year two, to next year, to nine months from now, to six months, to three months, to two months, to one month, to three weeks, to two weeks, to one week, to tomorrow. By doing this you will set out definite steps you must take to achieve your goal.

A good site for defining your goals is http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html This site outlines the development of life goals.

Remember this is a work in progress, you will find yourself adjusting and fine tuning your ten year plan as time passes. The ten year plan will also give you a great starting point for your business plan. I will discuss the business plan in the next post.