How To Build An Art Business - Some Basics (Patreon)

Hello my lovelies! I know I've been sharing a lot of content with you this month with the advent calendar, but since we’re coming into a new year and I know lots of you would like to build (or are currently building) your own art business, I thought it would be a good time to chat about some art business basics and how I’ve structured my art business.

Not everyone wants to make their art into a job, and that’s totally fine! I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to monetise their creative skills, this is just for those of you who do want to turn that art dream job into a reality.

So at a super basic level, to make an income from your art you’ll need:

an audience or client

something they want to buy

a way to receive their payment

and a way to deliver the product or service they’ve bought.

There are quite a few different ways you could go about each of these steps and you should find something that works for you, but you also don’t need to stick with something forever - you can experiment and change what platforms/services you use for your business as you go (which I certainly have done).

So, I set out to earn a full-time income with my art within a couple of years from getting started, and split that plan into three stages:

Stage 1: Build An Audience

This was all about growing an audience on my platform of choice (which for me was Instagram) by providing free value to people with my illustrations and some educational content. I prioritised one platform to maximise my growth on there but also put a little bit of energy into starting the ball rolling on some other platforms that I enjoyed and could provide extra value to my Instagram audience (like with YouTube videos and my blog).

Stage 2: Monetise My Audience By Providing Value (Side Income)

After I grew my audience for about 6-9 months I started thinking more seriously about selling to my audience, so I started creating products and services that they would want. I sold portrait commissions and started this Patreon so that I could provide more value to people who were interested in what I had to share. The goal was to make a side income and set the foundations for income streams that could grow over time.

Stage 3: Continue Monetising My Audience (Full-Time Income)

The next stage was making the income streams I set up in Stage 2 large enough for me to survive on so that I could illustrate full-time. This meant adding more value and services that people were willing to pay for, or reaching more people who could access what I’ve already made.

The good thing about building an audience on social media platforms is that if you continue to maintain them and consistently provide value on them, then they should continue to grow and snowball over time.

It’s only the past 2-3 months that I’ve reached Stage 3 where I’ve been able to live full-time on my art income, which is a little earlier than I expected thanks to some fast growth on YouTube and Instagram.

As well as breaking down my growth into stages, I broke down my business strategy into the simplest of sales funnels, and each step has lots of ways I could go about it. The steps are:

Building An Audience

Offering Them A Product Or Service That They Want Or Need

Setting Up A Way To Receive Payment

Delivering The Product Or Service To Your Audience

Building An Audience

Like I said before, I focussed on building an audience on social media by providing them value. I also wanted to post to Instagram for lots of my own reasons (like improving my art skills, community etc), but knew that if I wanted to be serious one day about having a business then creating an audience that knows, likes and trusts me would be important.

I’m actually a very private person so I didn’t want my face to be in photos and videos too much, but also knew that showing people a little bit of who I am might be helpful. I shared my journey and offered videos and blog posts about what I had learned for free. I built my audience in a way that I was comfortable with but that also built trust.

Offering Them A Product Or Service That They Want Or Need

This is a big one! To earn money online you need to find out what your audience wants or needs, and find a way to provide them with a product or service. This could be as simple as drawing commissions for customers looking for a gift for a loved one, or as complex as creating a course on a specific art topic. This is where you can really get creative about what works for you and there are options for everyone! I don’t love talking on the phone, so I probably wouldn’t offer one-on-one video coaching, but that might be totally up your alley!

I recommend doing market research if you can to find out what your audience really wants. Run a poll on Instagram stories or get a few community members to test out the product you’re working on, and it’ll give you the best chance of success.

So here is a list of ideas of products and services you could sell of your art to get you started, or to help spin up your own ideas:

Custom commissions

Selling on print-on-demand websites (Redbubble, Society6 etc)

Running a Patreon

Greeting cards

Teaching in person or online

Phone wallpapers

Art licensing

Physical prints

Customisable templates (for things like party invitations, name cards etc)

Building a YouTube channel

Affiliate marketing

There are lots more ways you can monetise your art, so have a brainstorming session to find something that excites you that you think your audience would also like (and feel free to ask them about your ideas as well!).

Setting Up A Way To Receive Payment

Finances are important so don’t ignore setting yourself up properly. The legal requirements for having a business differ from country to country, so have a quick google or ask a professional for some advice about how to set yourself up with a business name, a business number (if you need it), and how to pay taxes.

It’s not very exciting but it does need to be done properly so it’s worth spending the time getting on top of it. In Australia I registered my business name under an ABN (Australia Business Number) and I need to pay tax on all of my art income at the end of the financial year. I also have a business bank account to help keep the accounting clear when it comes to business and personal finances.

(Disclaimer: This isn’t official business or financial advice, so please do your own research!)

Once you’re set up on the business side of things, you can choose a service for receiving payment from customers. If you’re selling products in an online store like Etsy or Gumroad, then they’ll process payments and taxes for you (but you’ll have to give them a percentage of your sales), or if you’re accepting payment directly you can set up a PayPal account. If you’re selling in person at markets then consider whether you’re cash only or want to get something like a Square Card Reader to accept card payments.

Delivering The Product Or Service To Your Audience

If you’re selling physical products online then you’ll need to consider postage to your customer, which includes the cost of shipping, materials, what postal service to use, and how to make sure the product is packaged safely. If you’re selling digital products then you don’t need to worry about that, you just need to send your customer the product they ordered digitally, or get a service like Etsy or Gumroad to deliver it automatically on purchase.

I’ve never sold physical products personally because I move around a lot so having stock is awkward, and I don’t really want to spend my energy dealing with postage at the moment. I prefer digital delivery because unless it’s something like a commission that I have to draw for each customer, all of my other products are delivered instantly and don’t require any actions from me (which gives me more time to work on other things!).

^ This graph shows the monthly income for my art business since I began last May (which includes an Etsy shop I already had), and I don't want you to compare any of your own growth with mine, I just want to share as a tool for other creatives. You can see it took quite a long time to build up some foundations, then in June this year I had a bigger invoice come in, and then since October I've been earning more steadily.

So to wrap up, here’s a quick rundown of my income streams (keep in mind I’ve built these up over 18 months):Etsy - I sell phone wallpapers, printable bookmarks, commissions (sometimes), step-by-step guides, and Instagram highlight covers.Patreon - that’s you guys! Depending on the tier, I create phone wallpapers, bookmarks, updates, articles, step-by-step guides, digital prints, and tutorial videos.YouTube - I’m monetised on YouTube now! My partner and I make videos most weeks.Gumroad - I have a few things on Gumroad on a pay-what-you-want model so that everyone can access the resources (which is providing free value to my audience) or if they like they can pay for it which a few people do.Affiliate Marketing - I earn a small commission when someone makes a purchase with one of my affiliate links.Picture Book Work - I get paid in advance for the illustrations I create for picture books.Art Licensing - This is quite a recent one, sometimes people contact me wanting a licence to use my illustrations commercially.

And that’s it so far! I hope you found this article helpful if you’re working towards making an income from your own art, and feel free to leave any questions in the comments!❤