What are realistic expectations for how long it takes to build a successful art business?

It takes three to five years to build anything of substantial value as an artist or photographer in today’s market. You should expect to sell nothing or very little in your first few years. This period will be painful, hard, frustrating, deflating, and exhausting. However, this is the normal path that everyone must go through. All successful creators—from massive influencers to niche content creators—grinded for years before anything substantial started happening in their businesses. They spent thousands of hours working on both their craft and their marketing. The opportunity today is greater than ever, but you must be willing to put in the grinding work on marketing (the second train) to get there. When you set these expectations correctly from the start, you give yourself the freedom and time to actually build the business, and you’ll keep going when others quit.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-07-19