What if I don't sell anything during the holiday season—is that a failure?

No, everyone wins during this season regardless of sales results. If you don’t sell as much as you hoped, you’ve gained incredibly valuable market feedback about the state of your business and whether your art is scalable in its current form. This truth from the market, while it may hurt, is gold—it’s how you actually make progress as an entrepreneur. It tells you whether you need to adjust your marketing approach, consider pivoting your subject matter while using your same talent, or make other strategic changes. Too many artists sit in ‘fantasy land’ contemplating what they might do without ever getting real market validation. By putting yourself out there during the peak buying season, you get definitive answers to your questions and can move forward with real data rather than speculation. That information and experience is invaluable for building your business going forward.

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Asked by artists worried about failure · Answered by Nick and Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-11-13