How should I think about my art business in terms of long-term structure and planning?

Think of your art business like running marathons throughout the year. You’re a marathon runner, and the major holidays are your race days. Just as you wouldn’t show up to a marathon without training, you can’t succeed at holiday sales without preparation. The business has a predictable rhythm: there are major events on the calendar (holidays), you need to train for them (pre-marketing activities), you run the race (execute the sale), then you recover and prepare for the next one. This creates a forcing function that keeps you focused on the right activities. When you commit to running a sale on Mother’s Day, it’s like putting down a deposit for a race—it forces you to do the training runs (marketing prep) beforehand. This structure prevents you from working on the wrong things or getting lost in busywork that doesn’t move your business forward.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-03-04