Building an Online Business: What I Know

On Friday, I gave my end-of-term presentation to an audience of art students as a requirement for the independent study I managed to wrangle out of Mr. Dean Sir which was based around my online store.

And I survived! :D

Mostly. :/ Apparently, I’m like a one of those prop planes you have to wind up before the propeller will work steadily enough to let you not crash. So there were a few hitches in my wind up, but I got going after a while.

Anyway, some of the things I talked about, I thought I’d discuss a little here. Some of you have asked me about how you can do this too, and others might just like to know what goes on behind the scenes. So here we go :)

Product

First, you need something to sell.

I started with artist trading cards of original acrylic paintings and the photo paper prints of the same. When that worked well, and I figured out how to paint faster in digital, I added more types of product.

For prints, you need a printer. Some people have a local printer they can go to, but all of mine were more expensive than the shop I found online: iPrintFromHome. I ordered a few prints, learned more about what they can do, and have expanded and experimented with their products since then. Aside from one instance when they refused to print an image for me — I did the original GRL Cockwalk painting on my computer, but had to do it in acrylic because they refused to print a cum shot. Go figure. I mean, it was in black and white and totally tasteful ;) — they’ve been fantastic to work with, even when I messed up an order and had to call them to correct it.

Store

Next, you need a place to sell your product.

There are a TON of providers and tools that will let you set up a store. Looking through all of them can be extremely exhausting as you learn a whole new language — some of it in actual code. Depending on how much you know (or want to learn) about websites and secure servers and credit card processors, you might want to go hardcore and do it all yourself. If, however, you’re like me, you’d rather have someone else do all the heavy lifting while you just look pretty ;)

I found Big Cartel on a recommendation from another artist and was absolutely thrilled to discover they allow a FREE website to sell artwork — specifically sell artwork — with only a few limitations. Since I wasn’t sure how this endeavor would work out, I started there, with the basic store and spent absolutely nothing to get set up.

Credit Card Processing

To sell online, you need a credit card processor connected to your store.

The obvious one is PayPal, but a lesser known one is Stripe. Both companies charge you 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction — something your customers won’t see, but you will. (The more transactions you have in a month, the lower those rates go, but that’s for really high-volume sellers.) I had a terrible incident with PayPal withholding money I’d earned, forcing me to only withdrawal a specific amount each month instead of everything. Stripe, though, transfers the money from each individual transaction directly into your bank account automatically. I have not had any problems with Stripe.

Pricing Product

Art is subjective. One person would pay thousands for something another wouldn’t pay pennies to own. So how do you price your own artwork?

You guess. Seriously, that’s it. You look at what others of approximate talent to you in the same medium price their artwork at, and you guess.

Looking around the internet, I found that artist trading cards or Art Card Editions or Originals (ACEO) were going for anywhere from $8-14. A lot of the paintings seemed to be in the $10-12 range. So that’s where I priced mine.

Now, if you went to my printer and looked at their pricing, you now know that each ACEO costs me a whopping $0.25. Heck of a mark-up, huh? Well, let’s break it down.

Printing: $0.25
Credit Card Processing: $0.59
Packaging & Shipping: $2.38 (USA)
TOTAL: $3.22

I make $6.78 for each ACEO print sold. I don’t see that as profit, but as what my talent is worth.

Now, some people will time themselves to see how long a project takes — or several projects and get an average time — and then determine an hourly wage. I can paint an ACEO in about 3 hours, including setup and clean-up. So I’m making $2.26 an hour? Good thing I don’t need to live off of that! But if I priced a print — not the original piece, but a copy — based on time, no one would buy it…because it costs more than anyone else’s ACEO print.

For an original, yep, up goes the price for talent and the fact there will only ever be one of them. And, still, the price has to be competitive.

Customers

Some of the business of dealing with customers is done by your website and credit card processor. But you’ll still have to respond to questions/complaints and fulfill orders. Except… Where do you get customers?

Aside from marketing artwork to my blog followers, your guess is as good as mine. There’s social media like Twitter and Facebook, some of which will have groups or forums where you can talk about your artwork and interact with other artists. Asking other artists how they find new customers is always a possibility.

But it all usually comes back to word-of-mouth. Someone buys from you, they show the people they know, and tell them where they got it.

Keeping those customers requires occasionally making contact with them, so I’ve set up a mailing list with MailChimp (which is free) of all my customers so I can let them know about sales or other opportunities — and always to thank them for their business.

Finances

Eventually, you’ll need to keep track of your new business.

If you’re working as a Sole Proprietor, you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking both income and expenses and complying with all the tax requirements for your state as well as federal requirements. Some people choose to incorporate or create some other type of business entity — that has a whole other set of tax requirements, and I don’t know anything about that. Investigate each type to see what works best for you.

I use regular old banking software to keep track of my bank account and credit card activity, but I also use a spreadsheet — because I like columns and charts — and a couple databases for customer information* and inventory tracking. You honestly need to be able to see what your business is doing in an instant at all times, and you especially need to make sure everything is accurate. Should the IRS ever audit your little business, having these records in perfect order is absolutely vital. (Seriously, be afraid and don’t screw this part up.)

Resources

Printer: iPrintFromHome
Website: Big Cartel
Credit Card Processor: Stripe
Email Marketing: MailChimp
Banking Software: iBank (for Mac)
Spreadsheet Software: Numbers (for Mac)
Database Software: FileMaker

Feel free to leave comments, but if you’d like to ask questions privately, please use this form. (Give me a few days to get back to you because this is finals week at school for me. Thanks!)

* This isn’t anything nefarious! I don’t care who my customers actually are, but I do need to know what they bought, when, and how much it cost them and me to meet their needs. I also use it to keep track of commission notes, problems, and shipping costs. I am fiercely protective of my own privacy online; I will be fiercely protective of yours too.