Do I really have to do the work of bringing in my own customers?

Yes, absolutely. No matter what business you’re in, you are responsible for bringing in your own customers. Just because you create something doesn’t mean customers will automatically bang on your door. This applies to every industry—a book author still has to market their book even with a publisher; a jewelry maker has to market their jewelry. There’s no business-in-a-box, no turnkey solution where customers just appear. You must do the work to grow your own business. The good news is you’ll have almost no competition because 99.9 percent of artists don’t want to do the work. If you’re willing to build a direct business and put in consistent effort, you’ll be one of the rare few who succeeds.

---

Asked by an artist questioning the need to market · Answered by Nick Friend and Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-18