Would you like to increase your art sales during the holiday season while reducing stress? In this post, I am going to share with you, the holiday art business planner part 1 September that I have developed over the years.

Holiday Art Business Planner Part 1 September

 

September’s Check Off List

September is the month that you want to get everything organized for your holiday sale. If you do not have everything organized by the end of September through early October, you will find that you will be playing catch-up during the holidays. You might lose potential sales or even worse have a bad customer experience. Both can be avoided if you are organized and have a plan.

 

Inventory Art Supplies

Take an inventory of your art supplies. Decide what you will need to get you through the holiday season. Order everything that you will need this month to get you through the holidays.

If you do not have your art supplies ordered this month, you will have a chance of running out during the last few weeks of the holiday season. At that point, you will have to take time out of your day and purchase supplies. This will take away from something else that needs to get done at that point. There is also a chance of the item being out of stock. Remember it is the holiday season so the art supply companies are just as busy as you are.

Keep a log of what you have ordered. You want an accurate list. You can do this on your computer or a notepad. At the end of the holidays take an inventory of your supplies again. This will be valuable information for next year. You will then be able to have an accurate list of what you will need. All you will have to do is increase the supplies by the percentage of growth of your business.

When you receive your supply order, check to see if there are any out of stock items that need to be reordered. If everything is there, take your receipts and take care of the paperwork. Do not put that off until the end of the year.

 

Photography by Dave Nevue

Inventory your Art for Sale

Now is the time to know exactly what you have to sell. Take an inventory. If you need to take photos for online marketing, do that now. Make a folder on your computer named “artwork for sale” when an item sells move the photo to a folder named “artwork sold”. I include the year in the name of the folders for reference for the next year.

Once you have an inventory of your artwork and images you are ready to set up a marketing plan that you will be doing soon.

Decide when your last piece of art can be created. Be realistic. It is better to advertise that you can take more orders rather than tell a customer their order will not be finished for the holiday. Keep in mind that you will be spending more time marketing, packaging, talking to customers, answering emails, and shipping. All of this extra work will cut time out of your studio time.

 

Inventory Shipping Materials

You will need to take an inventory of your shipping supplies just like your art supplies. Get this in the house and ready to go. You can not ship an item if your run out of shipping materials. Give this extra thought.

 

Set up a Marketing Plan Schedule

Now is the time to take out a calendar and design a marketing strategy. Your goal is to sell all of your on-hand artwork. You can worry about creating more art next year.

You will need to decide on how you are going to market your artwork. You will want to decide a start date and an end date for your marketing campaign.

Having a marketing plan will help you sell more of your artwork. Take the time and research holiday marketing plans. Take good notes so you will have a marketing strategy for next year. Do not rely on your memory.

 

September Plan Summary

This is a good start for September. This can go until the first week of October. Keep in mind that every business is unique. You might need to adjust some of the outlines I have given you. September is the month to get organized and ready for the holiday sales. The more organizing you do now, the easier your days will be in the next couple of months.

By keeping good notes, you will be able to have a more successful holiday season next year. There are so many tools that make taking notes easy. Some people like the old-fashioned way with pen and paper, others like the new technology. You need to find what is best for you and your business. The only important factor is using your plan, taking good notes and assessing it.

 

 

Conclusion:

The more you can get done now, the less stress you will have in the next few months. This can be a very profitable time of the year for you.

 

You might also be interested in:

• Selling Art Like a Pro Best Strategies
• Digital Content Marketing – What Artists Need to Know
• 4 Reasons Art Blogs Generate Thousands of Views a Month
• Keyword Research Strategies for Artists Selling Art Online

Have you sold art over the holidays before? What were some of your struggles? I would love to hear from you in the comment section below.

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