When you decided to become a professional artist, maybe you didn’t realise how much extra stuff artists need to do.

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Making your art, sure, that’s obvious, but there’s so much more like marketing, selling, archiving, shipping, networking, pr, and on and on. That doesn’t even include business planning, accounting and cash flow.

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Uhhhhhhh yeah. It’s a LOT.

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And if you’ve got kids or other obligations in your personal life, trying to get it all done can lead to burn out as well as not creating the success you want.

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You cannot do it all. I’m just putting it out there again because this is important.

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Instead, let’s look at simplifying and creating systems. For every person, this is going to look different so I’m going to speak in generalities around this.

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Yes, you want to have an account on each of the major social media platforms, absolutely. Just don’t try to post everywhere. Pick one, maybe two, that you already love being on and build you audience there.

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Super important: if you pick two, make sure they aren’t both owned by Facebook.

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Create a library of posts, you probably already have enough, and cycle through them, tweaking them enough so that you don’t end up on a merry go around of sameness.

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Go live at least once a week and make it fun! Celebrate the work you’re doing, do dramatic reveals, whatever works for you and your personality.

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Next is the newsletter. If you don’t have one, get one set up. You want to get your audience to sign up for this as quickly as possible. The people who invite you into their inbox are more likely to buy from you.

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If you have a website, and you should!, a few days after you send out your newsletter, you can post it there. You re-use content and keep the SEO gods happy at the same time.

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Schedule your packing and shipping to once a week and let your buyers know you ship out every Thursday or whatever.

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And finally, create your art every day you normally work. Choose the time when you have the most energy and put it on your calendar. Make it non negotiable. Remember that without your art, you have no art business!

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Sure there are a lot of other things you can do, and those may be more right for you. Maybe you want to focus on PR instead of social media. Go for it! Maybe you want to get into galleries, again drop or reduce something else so you can focus.

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The idea is not to run yourself ragged trying to do it all. And the minute your cash flow is flowy enough, hire a virtual assistant even for 5 hours a month to take some of the pressure off. You’d be amazed at how little they cost compared to the results they get.

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Need some help simplifying so you can focus on what you do best? I offer coaching by the hour through Creative Catalyst Coaching