How should I think about my art business like a restaurant?

As an artist or photographer, you’re essentially a chef—you should be focused on making incredible dishes (your art) so everyone lines up around the corner to get them. But the problem is you can’t just be the chef. You have to be the receptionist, maitre d’, waiter, sommelier, bartender, busboy, and do the dishes. If you’re doing all those jobs, your restaurant can never serve more than a diner or two a night because it’s too much work. Something has to give if your restaurant—your art business—is going to grow. You need to start taking some of these additional jobs off your plate so you can focus on what matters: creating the art and doing the marketing that only you can do. That’s why finding tools, services, and systems to handle the other jobs is so critical.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick · Art Business Webinar · 2026-05-27