It's Time To Stop and Look Back

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I returned to the real world today after spending the holiday sick with a very bad cold. Thanks to all of you who were so kind to remind me that I did not need to feel guilty for missing a blog post (or two). I do feel a lot better, I just wish my voice didn't sound so awful. I am trying all sorts of home remedies to get ready for tomorrow's Artists Helping Artists radio podcast. Hmmm.

You are probably wondering what the title of this blog post means. "It's time to stop and look back" refers to looking back at you art business is 2016 and really understanding what you accomplished. The first thing you should do is total your sales. Then you should total your expenses because you want to be able to deduct your expenses from your income to reduce your tax liability. But the real analysis comes from other things. How many paintings did you paint? What subject matter was the most successful? Did you take any workshops to further your art art skills? Did you teach? If so, which workshops were the highest attended? What did you enjoy doing the most in 2016? What did you enjoy the least?

Once you have a really good understanding of what happened in 2016 then you can properly put together a plan for 2017. Identify what you can change to make you happier. Get organized. (I do think that disorganization kills creativity.) Decide to try something new to push you out of your comfort zone. Examine you marketing and determine what worked and and what didn't, You should also be ready to set some goals for 2017.

Enjoy this process because it should be fun. The insight and plan will really be helpful. And it will make a huge difference for how 2017 will be!