Hello & happy (almost) new year! 

I wanted to share some final advice and tips for artists before we officially launch into 2024. Whether you made great progress this past year or didn’t reach the goals you hoped you would, there are several things you can do to set yourself up for big moves in your art career over the next 12 months and beyond.

Here are 10 tips for artists I recommend:

1. Write goals/ create a vision board. Be specific about what you want to happen in your art career. Then, map out a timeline for making them happen. What can you realistically accomplish in the first three or six months of 2024 vs. what will you focus on as year-long pursuits?

2. Update your artist resume with all of your incredible achievements from 2023!

3. Audit your social profiles. Check that you still have the most relevant links in your link in bio (try and narrow down to as few options as possible). Add keywords and calls to action in your bios and delete or update your highlights section on IG.

4. Speaking of social media, definitely set automated time limits for usage of all of these platforms if you haven’t already! Let’s leave doomscrolling in 2023.

5. Check the subscriptions related to your business. Are all of them still necessary or can you cancel any to streamline your expenses? If you find certain ones have increased, are there similar services at better prices you could switch to?

6. Refresh your website! I just finished teaching a class on this topic and there was a lot of great questions and feedback - you can access the recording here.

Make sure your portfolio section is up to date and you have at least one email list call to action readily available (but several is even better!).

7. Create a reading list. It doesn’t have to be all art business either. I’m personally looking forward to diving into a few art history books I received recently or bought myself as well as fiction related to the art world.

Not much of a bookworm? Try out a new podcast. A follower recommended Clean Break to me recently and I enjoyed the several episodes I’ve listened to so far.

8. Run your numbers. You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule in business. When you look into it, you may find that 80% of your sales are a specific size/style of artwork, 80% of traffic to your website is from one source or 80% of your networking happens at art fairs. Instead of spinning your wheels trying to make the other 20% work, lean into what has already proven successful.

9. Plan for networking. Whether it’s galleries, art advisors, curators, other industry professionals, collectors, or fellow artists - start thinking about how you can grow your community in 2024.

That said, remember the golden rule if you’re doing any cold outreach or working to build new relationships - when you focus more attention on what you can offer over what you receive you’ll be surprised at how many new collaborations unfold and doors will open for you!

I shared a quote recently that speaks to this: you can achieve anything in life if you help enough people achieve what they want in theirs.

Want to connect with more collectors? Check out my free guide here. 

10. Take a moment to reflect on the past year. Give yourself grace for the setbacks and losses and celebrate the wins!

Consider journaling so that you can look back six months, a year, or even several years from now at where you were and see how far you’ve come. 

Cheers to the year ahead! I’m wishing lots of creativity and success (in whatever form that means to you) for all of us. 

Warmest regards,
Alicia