starting art gallery business

There’s scarcely anything which is more gratifying way of making money in this world than by opening an art gallery, sitting in a hall filled with spectacular artifacts, having people to walk in who pay homage to the artists and in turn pay you. What can be sweeter than being surrounded by original pieces of art and sell them to people who understand their real values? So, if you had been considering to start an art gallery of your own, here’s a precept for you to follow.

Firstly, you will have to possess a vision and all that you choose to adorn your store with must reflect that vision. Treat each of the artworks and their artists with passion so that your art gallery itself becomes a massive splendor of artistic creations. That’s what your intent should be. Your selection of artworks and paintings must be cohesive, consistent and coherent in nature so that you can effortlessly establish an identity for yourself as well as your gallery and in turn you will be able to enhance your clients’ view of what an art gallery is all about.

If you are really serious and contemplating how to infuse life into your aspirations, make sure you are particular, directive, consistent and classy in your choice of art, the lack of which would assure that you will not last long in this art gallery business.

Select your niche very carefully

In order to accomplish your goals as a business owner, you would have to specialize in a particular area; slice out a niche and call it yours. You would have to be an expert at your field; a person to whom others can look to for all kinds of authoritative information and objective opinions. It’s important to suggest here that since you won’t be able to know something about every aspect of art, you shouldn’t even try it. What you may do instead is try to know everything about a particular areas and success is bound to come your way.

Some different types of art are

  • Calligraphy Art
  • Ceramics
  • Religious arts
  • Artistic design
  • Drawing graffiti
  • Graphic and illuminated manuscript
  • Illustration art
  • Painting and photography
  • stained glass art
  • Wood carving
  • Screen printing

You have to be a specialist of art yourself so that your customers can get a feeling that you believe in what you do.

Be Original & Unique

When it comes to building your business identity, it must be remembered that you should not aim to imitate any other art gallery, regardless of how much you admire it. It will make you appear as if you are willing to reach the heights of some other entity and in turn would increase the brand value of that particular business. You have to step out of the preconceived notions and cling on to them no matter how much of time it would take.

Even if you have selected a controversial or challenging subject matter, you cannot be timid of your objectives or leave them halfway. You will have to defend your chosen niche under all circumstances as it is critical to establishing your business successfully. It is a common sense that people would buy artworks when they are convinced about why they should buy it, what are its significance and more importantly, why they should buy it from you in place of any other art gallery down the road. So effective learning and substantial justification is a must for you as an art gallery owner.

Build Loyal Network

Your objective of running the art gallery is to possess a strong customer base and a loyal network of repeat purchasers. No matter what have you chosen as your niche, this customer base always comprises of a handful of knowledgeable people who are committed towards building a classic collection of art works and paintings over a long passage of time. The longer they collect, the more mature they become and this maturity is reflected in the sophistication of their taste. This makes them respectful of the art galleries from which they collect artifacts. Look at the history of any great art gallery owners and you will find out that about a handful of clients has played an instrumental role in building its reputation and you would definitely want to build that customer base right from the start.

Location Selection For Your Offline Gallery

The best location for your new art gallery business can be those places at close vicinity of other upscale businesses that have good hold over their audience. For instance, if your business is near a top class salon or spa or a five star restaurant, you would be able to draw the consumers of such businesses. High traffic locations need very little advertising when the demographics of such people match the profile of your store profile.

Destination locations are also gaining in popularity and it will sustain owing to the accessibility to online marketing tools that can get a chosen piece of an item right at the doorstep. In such cases, you will not have to pay attention to the location of where your store is and as a result, many business owners are not just renters but property owners as well. Needless to say, you will be able to make a huge savings on startup costs when you are not required to pay the rent.

Sell Art Online – Build Your Own Online Store

It is very simple process to setup an online store in various e-commerce site like Amazon and eBay. Create an account over there and build your online store in very less amount of time. You will need a photographer to take photos of your arts, you need to upload art photos on your store with short description about the product.

For selling art online, you should have your business registered. Get your business registered and apply for PAN number for opening of current account in bank. All online transaction from e-commerce website will happen from your current account.

Promoting Your Business: A Piece of Art For All

The first thing you must keep in mind to become successful in your artistic venture, is to be focused and consistent about how you present yourself to your customers. You will have to get yourself known in the community for manifesting and selling a specific type of art within an affordable price range by reputable artists who possess similar objectives, aspirations, accomplishments and dedication.

To put in simple words, success wouldn’t come overnight and you will have to put in serious efforts for building reputation. You would have to prove your mettle in shows after shows and manifest the fact that you are committed in your mission intellectually, financially as well as in terms of talents.

Use Social Media Promotion

Create your art business page on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Promote your page online to get more likes and followers. Social media is very effective way to reach your target audience in very short time. Invest some advertising fund and promote your business page. Paid promotion of your business profile on social media platform is very effective and it works like a charm.

Offline Promotion

Your objective would be to welcome people and one of the most effective ways of promoting your art business is to speak about your artifacts in a language that’s understandable to all. A major section of our society doesn’t know anything more than the basics, let alone an in-depth knowledge. So keep it simple as much as you can since you would get ample time to be complicated later. Regardless of how impressive it may appear to flaunt your knowledge with high-sounding jargons, though people would be gratified at your erudition, your actions would actually scare them away.

Nobody would be interested in splurging their hard-earned money in something that they are not able to comprehend and therefore you should avoid such scenarios that would shrink your targeted audience at all any costs. Your promotional ventures would be directed towards broadening your scope and so play to them at all times till they come themselves and purchase something from your art gallery.

Build Artists Network

If you are interested in the work of a few artists, you will have to approach them, and once you start doing business with a few, others would obviously follow. You will establish a good bond with all of them and it is your responsibility to not only sell their artworks but also help in advancing their careers.

This is how you will be working with artists; as a professional family. You are not required to bid online for work, but you are entrusted with that artist’s creation at his or her prices and when you choose to sell it, you will have to pay them their agreed upon percentage which is normally 50 percent. The contract both of you share would detail how the payment would work and you would have to discuss the pricing and negotiate with each of the artists you choose to work with. Some may allow you to discount a bit while others may not and you should discuss about these things right at the beginning.

Profit Sharing

Your profit is that portion of the remaining 50 percent that you are able to save after paying the utility bills, rent, staff and any other expenses. Make sure you choose your artistic perspective and coalesce of artists very thoughtfully and wisely, as you will need many so percent shares in order to run your art gallery and help it thrive.

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