This is another post reaching back to the one I did a while ago discussing how to get some order out of the chaos which is your art business right now. I’ve already written how to address the recurring things you do, but as the name of this one suggests, I’m now going to discuss dealing with those things that are helpful for your business, but why you shouldn’t be the one doing them.

If I refer back to my main list (The Chaos List), I can see that there are tasks which certainly benefit my business, but which don’t make sense for me to do. It’s either because it’s not my area of expertise or I don’t know how or don’t have the equipment to do them at all. Some of these are what I consider “luxury outsourcing” meaning that I still do them some of the time, but when I have the opportunities, I give those tasks to others. Some of them I consider “no-brainers” meaning it seems obvious to me that someone else would be much better suited to doing them even though they benefit my business.

The No-Brainers

Let me start with the latter group first. Here’s a short list of tasks, chores, etc., that is obvious to me that someone else should do them:

• Print business cards and other marketing materials
• Create my big banners
• Produce my big wooden hanging signage
• Develop a marketing strategy and content calendar

I know there are some people who still print their own business cards. How do I know that? Because I can still buy blank business card paper in office supply stores. If there is one takeaway from this post I can impart, it’s that it’s time to step up your game and get your cards properly printed. Heck, I get all mine done through VistaPrint, and they kick-ass at it! They often run specials when you can 500 of them, with full-color fronts, starting at just $9.99. That’s an epic deal any day of the week!

I get my big vinyl banners done either locally to support local businesses or through banners.com. I firmly believe in supporting local businesses, farmers, artists, and other professionals, but I also have a limited budget just like you. I basically will accept up to a 15% “supporting local” fee, meaning I’m typically willing to pay a local up to 15% more for a comparable version of what I’m looking for. The businesses must be a “mom and pop”, not a small-town franchise, which is those are businesses that look like perhaps one or two exist and are local, but are in fact franchises or a corporation that has managed to keep a small-town feel to their brand.

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The big wooden sign is being done by a fellow vendor, I don’t typically compare prices at all when going this route. I find that things usually balance out when doing this anyways; especially given how much I save when buying produce from the local farmers!

That last one might trip up a lot of people because I’m sure it sounds like stuff we should be doing ourselves. Here’s why you shouldn’t though. There’s a really, really good chance that you don’t know much about strategic marketing or what content works best when applying it to your business. What you know, or should have a pretty good idea about is your business, inside and out. (Do I need to write about getting that clarity? Let me know in the comments!) There are professionals out there who will ask you all kinds of clever questions about that part you know and combine the answers with their superpowers to develop that marketing strategy and the accompanying content calendar. You can then create the necessary assets, following that calendar, and apply that strategy yourself. I think having another professional create the assets and post them falls into the other category, which is…

Luxury Outsourcing

These are things which would feel great to have other people do. Sometimes full-time, other times just when it really makes the most sense. Note that these are not things that you might hire employees to do, such as make your products or sell them at events–that’s not outsourcing.

• Bookkeeping for your art business
• Legal stuff related to your business
• Designing your business cards and other marketing materials
• Designing your entire business brand
• Generating content and posting it following your content calendar (on social media, for example)
• Hosting a launch or anniversary event/party for your business

Bookkeeping is one of those things I do well enough to keep doing it myself, it also doesn’t stress me out like it does some of my fellow artists. If it does, perhaps it’s something that you can outsource. There are accountants out there who specialize in dealing with just our kinds of businesses! Another option is to outsource at year-end tax time instead of full-time; just know that you need to be on top of things throughout the year to avoid an awful lot of pain compressed to that short amount of time. You won’t save any headaches if you’re sloppy throughout the year and expect someone else to work a miracle with your books at the year’s end!

The legal stuff is a touchy one because the internet is littered with bad legal advice from unqualified people. Artists have some extra considerations that many other small businesses and solopreneurs don’t. Namely, intellectual property concerns. I’ll write about my experiences, my triumphs, and my process/schedule another time, but sufficed to say, it won’t constitute legal advice–nothing in this blog really is that. For certain legal tasks, I handle them myself, like assigning copyrights to clients, or filing new copyright registrations. However, tasks such as submitting cease-and-desist letters or filing suit for IP infringements are left entirely to my lawyer.

Designing of graphic assets and branding is something I do myself, but honestly, I know a lot of artists who should absolutely not do this themselves. We are suckered into the notion that because we’re artists we make excellent graphic designers as well. Frankly, those are two skill sets with only some overlap. Same goes for branding only more so. Most artists don’t have a clue about good branding practices, nor should we.

Hosting parties and events is not typically something artists know how to do. Even if you do on a small, basic scale, I highly recommend letting a professional do these. Who needs the all that mental bandwidth taken away from what we do best.

That leads me to explain why you should outsource the kinds of things I wrote about in this post. We’re artists, that’s what we do, and if we’re hoping to make a living at it, we’re good at creating artwork. I’d go so far as to say we’re good at creating good artwork that sells otherwise it’s not an art business, it’s an art hobby. By outsourcing these tasks, and others you think of that I didn’t, you keep your mental bandwidth available for what you do best, which allows you to do it better, more often, and at a higher level.

Lesson: Damn it, Jim, you’re an artist, not a doctor!