Change Your Point of View

Inspiration for joy your life

"Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one sees the stars."- Frederick Langbridge, A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts

If you’ve placed second in a writing contest, will you jump for joy and push for better results the next time or will you be discouraged and find an excuse not to join again?

In life, you are always filled with choices. You may opt to have a pessimist’s view and live a self-defeated life or you may decide to take the optimist’s route and take a challenging and fulfilling life.

So why nurture an optimist’s point of view? And why now?

Well, optimism has been linked to positive mood and good morale; to academic, athletic, military, occupational and political success; to popularity; to good health and even to long life and freedom from trauma.

On the other hand, the rates of depression and pessimism have never been higher. It affects middle-aged adults the same way it hits younger people. The mean age of onset has gone from 30 to 15. It is no longer a middle-aged housewife’s disorder but also a teen-ager’s disorder’ as well.

Price Your Artwork #2

Recapturing Operational Expenses
Try to build in some amount to recapture expenses for the initial creation of the artwork, and help cover other operational expenses (i.e. advertising, web site hosting, photography equipment, film). Coming up with this number will be a best guess that will evolve over time as you get a better handle of your expenses.

Profit Margin
This is what you'll ultimately make on each sale. Each person needs to decide for themselves what their price strategy should be. You may want to consider, for example, setting lower price points thus making more money by moving more of your product. The alternative is to price your work higher and make more per unit. It is somewhat of a fine line, as you do not want to instill in the mind of collectors that your work is not of great value. However you want to keep your prices high enough so that you reinforce the value of your work to the collector base.

Price Your Artwork #1

Attempting to put a price on your work is one of the hardest tasks there is. To do it properly, you have to remove your emotions about your creation and view it solely as a commercial product. You must then assess objectively how it compares with other similar art, consider why they should cost more than some and less than others along with what your clients can afford, and ultimately come up with a pricing structure.

Before you settle on a number, you need to understand all of the costs you will incur so that you ultimately profit from the sale. It's possible that some artists in the market have their own reproduction equipment, or have supplier agreements that allow them to sell work at a price that you not be able to.

Understanding your costs
This may be obvious, but you need to know the cost to create or reproduce your work. Don't underestimate your time for the time you spend doing this you are taking time away from other important processes. If you are doing the reproduction yourself, it's simply the cost of the materials and your time, which you should base on an humble per hourly rate, in order to create the artwork.

If you decide to subcontract the reproduction of your work; use the cost they are charging you to do this. It's important that you ensure that their quality is up to your standard as it will be a reflection of your work. While you should price around to get the best deal, cost is not always the most important factor as the partnering company should to be responsive to your needs.

Also, don't forget about shipping costs, sales tax, and credit card processing fees. If you do not understand the cost structure around these fees in your transactions, your total margin will be significantly cut.