Credit Cards - Make It Easy for People to Buy Art

People buy impulsively. Make it easy for people to buy art from you. Get a Credit Card system.

How much cash do you walk around with? Probably not much. Here, in the United States, in 2011, many of us have debit and credit card and that's how we pay for gas, lunch and even parking meters. We don't walk around with a checkbook.

If you're serious about selling, don't make it hard on your clients.

At AvantGarb, we create custom mascots. It took me a long time to get a credit card system. I thought I was too small to need one. Fortunately, I work with pushy people in advertising, PR & marketing who speak their mind with force and clarity. 

Once, many years ago, one of those pushy people asked what kind of business I was running - if I didn't take credit cards. I took offense for a day. The next day I made bunches of calls - to my bank, to other artist friends, and I got something set-up with Cambridge Payment System. I have a wonderful consultant there, Lois Jennings, who checks in with me pretty often.

I'm a happy mascot maker, because with a credit card system, it's easy for clients to pay AvantGarb.

...and when AvantGarb gets paid, everybody gets paid.

Of course, love makes the world go round, but on time payments are pretty nice too. 

Art & Shipping

Remember. 

To have an arty biz, you have to be arty. 

....and remain arty.

....and keep up with the times.

To grow an arty biz you have to finish and ship on time.

the arty, biz babe

I'm Just Like Every Other Boss

Aw geez - arrogant me.

I thought I was going to be a different kind of boss...don't we all?

I was going to be the one who understood the needs of the people who worked for me. I was going to be the one who really "gets" artistic priorities. I was going to be everybody's idea of the Perfect Boss - understanding, sympathetic, and the Queen of Flex Time.

Who do I think I am? Why would I be the exception? why did I think I was so special?

I turns out, I am like all small biz bosses. I want to get the product beautifully finished and shipped - in AvantGarb's case, that product is really cute, fuzzy mascots.

I have wonderful, talented, well-educated, experienced, smart, funny, good-looking people working for me. Some have dreams of designing for significant plays & films. Maybe they will.

Right now, however, they work for AvantGarb and there are schedules that have to be met.

I love talking about what's new in theater, film and the arts. My employees keep me up to date. My empoyees make my life richer and I love them for it.

....but, AvantGarb creates mascots and ships them out on time. We are not an art organization. Anything that gets in the way of production & shipping is a problem. 

Any extracurricular outings, like theater design meetings during the day, are a problem. As a small biz owner, I have enough problems. Unless its a really big problem, I don't want to know it.

All bosses/small biz owners are the same. We're growing and nuturing our businesses. We have enough worries; getting the job done and making payroll.

Some people have been with AvantGarb for many years. Other for just a few weeks. 

I like a team. I don't like a bunch of individuals who don't have AvantGarb's best interest at heart.

I used to think I was exceptional, creative, insightful & nice. But really, I'm just like every other small biz boss.

Payroll

In art school, its hard to get basic business information. Here's an easy little tidbit to save on time consuming calculator time

Get a payroll service.

When you start hiring people with some regularity to work in your arty biz, it's time to get a payroll service. At AvantGarb we use Prime Pay.

A payroll service: 

• makes out the checks - real or virtual - 
• pays all the taxes, social security and whatever else gets deducted---ok they don't pay the taxes, they just swoop the money out of your account and send it to wherever it needs to go.
• sends all of the end of the year W-2s
• understands all of the quarterly reports that have to be done
• keeps you sane
• ...and it doesn't cost much

I love my payroll service. You'll love yours too!

Pete Seeger - A True Blue American

I saw Pete Seeger when I was in junior high at Carnegie Hall. In my mind he is the leading peacenik, the great folksinger, the ardent bring-us-all-together balladeer.

Now I'm watching Pete Seeger's 90th birthday special on PBS. I've been listening to the guy since forever. His voice is a bit wobbly, but his spirit is strong. He looks the same as ever. The long, lanky body, the flowered, peacenik shirt, the humble cap. He still plucks the the banjo, singing with chin jutting out, with pure exuberance, making the whole audience his chorus & back-up singers.

I remember riding a bus past the big NY public library - the one with the lions. Pete Seeger got onto the bus to take it where ever he was going - same peacenik, flowered shirt, same humble cap.

Listen to my 90 year old hero sing Amazing Grace.

Biz, blessings & a martini

AvantGarb has been a growing, productive business for a really long time.

I started AvantGarb in my Berkeley, California garage when my youngest daughter was about 3 months old.

Month after month I have made money, and those dollars have increased through the years.

AvantGarb is a real, ongoing operation.

Even though we have been making money, and I've been paying my mortgage, buying shoes, clothing my children, getting my hair done and my eyebrows tamed, I still think, it could be over tomorrow.

This is crazy thinking.

When I am sitting with a curved needle, stitching yellow muppet fleece to green muppet fleece, I have taken to counting my blessing.

Here are some of them:

• I have a really grand family. They keep me involved and interested in their lives. My husband is funny, handsome and sexy. My daughters are gorgeous and glorious.
  
• I  love my biz - making fuzzy critters that add a great dollop of fun to the landscape.
• I've traveled everywhere--okay, not everywhere, but a lot of places - Kenya, India, China, Mexico, Mexico, Mexico, Taiwan, Egypt, and oh yeah, Europe. I feel fluent in the world. I like to be places where I can't speak the language.
• ... however, I can speak Spanish, stutter through French and be polite in Swahili
• Every Monday I look forward to the week ahead.
• Every Friday I come home to a really good martini.
  
• I love going to church on Sundays, singing hymns w/ the congregation, listening to the sermon and being blessed for the coming week with the benediction.
• I love reading the New York Times and napping on couch on Sunday afternoons.
• I have gotten bit of fame for doing what I do.
• ...and friends. My galpals are coming to AvantGarb's new studio tomorrow morning for bagels and babble. 

I am truly blessed. I have imagined my life, and it became real.

I suspect the story of other small biz people is similar.

The Auditor

The State of Indiana decided to send an auditor to AvantGarb. Having an auditor---and our auditor, by the way was a delight, as a person---is really a creative buzz killer.

The auditor was at our studio for 2 full days. I probably lost 4 days of work. The day before she came I scurried around, collecting lots of pages and files full of numbers. For the 2 days she auditing us, the feng shui of my mind was ruined. Then she returned 2 days later to tell me the results of her audit.

I was never able to get into the the swirl of creation. I make the heads for the mascots here in MascotLand. When I'm in the thick of creation, its like I'm on my own planet. There are the materials, the worktable and me. Sometimes I feel like God in the Garden of Eden---oh gosh, is that an arrogant image.

The thing about being in business, is that you are in business and have to deal with the beauracracy of the larger, mainstream world. What I consider the minutia of business, others consider the nuts and bolts of business.

All in all, I'll pick difficult clients over an audit.