Keep expenses low, keep your money.

To last a long time in the Art business as with any small business you must always keep your expenses low. The trap for many Artists after having some success is they start buying lots of expensive stuff, now I agree that we all like nice stuff, but the question is are they necessary things that will increase your sales and profits or are they unnecessary expenses that will cost you more and not add to your bottom line.

When things are going well and sales are flowing in and you are making money there is the temptation to spend money and get nice things you have never had before. Most times these are unnecessary things but the story we tell ourselves is that we have earned it and we deserve it.

This is how most people get into debt and accumulate stuff that will not benefit their Art business at all but it just makes them feel good for a little time.

You must remember the struggle days and continue to live like you are struggling until you get enough money saved to survive 12 months in a downturn.

Avoid the temptation to spend and save like a rich person and live like you are still struggling.

The key to the accumulation of money is simple but hard to do.

The rich person saves all they earn after expenses.

The poor person spends all they earn and saves whats left?

Saving is slow and boring, temptation to spend is strong and the desires to have it are powerful, it takes self discipline to postpone gratification until after you have 12 months of savings put away.

Once you have done that then you can buy the nice things, but you probably won’t, by then you would rather keep the money.

The mentality to live like you are still struggling and save like you are rich will give you a long term sustainable Art business and you will not only have success but you know that your business is strong and you can ride out any downturn, because you have kept your expenses low and you still have your money.