Cost and Values; Weighing on my mind.

Costs and value, weighing on my mind.

I recently did a show down in AZ.  It was pretty amazing but the biggest surprise was that I made money.  It wasn’t a lot but it put me in the black.  The biggest question I came away with was, What was the value of doing the show?  I have several mentors that are great for different kinds of advice so I went to my business mentor and asked her about it.  She advised me to look at my long term goals and then ask myself; “What will this show do for me in terms of reaching those goals?”

It could gain me quite a bit.  All artists discuss exposure, but exposure doesn’t pay the bills so you need to weigh the cost of the exposure.  Since this show put me in the black and also helps gain me exposure in an area I am trying to gain a foothold in, it was a good value for my investment of time and energy.

When you are looking at a business investment whether it be time, effort, cost or inventory; you need to look at your long-term goals and decide what you are going to gain in the long run.  Never be afraid to say, this isn’t going to give me what I am looking for and I need to invest myself elsewhere.  Everything you do, takes effort.  That effort can cost you in the long run as far as stress on your system as well as equipment and effort.

I used to play DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) and I learned a lot about a word we don’t discuss much; constitution.  Webster defined it as: The physical health and condition of a person or animal.  He also says a bunch of things about documents and governments but it is the physical health that I want to look at.  Every bit of stress can effect your constitution and interfere with your endurance to finish projects you need to complete for your art business.  Driving distances, setting up a show, doing paper work, creating inventory, teaching classes…. All of these things cost you and will wear down your constitution.

In DnD, we rolled dice and monitored our characters constitution.  In real life, it is something we tend to ignore until we are sick.  No body is asking you to roll your dice and you don’t watch your numbers to see if you are overtiring yourself.  Is your endeavor worth the cost of your constitution and a good investment of your resources.

Who knew that a table game that I played with adult nerds would teach me so much about being in business for myself.  In the end, here I am trying to wrestle my dragons and keep them from eating my horse.  Good luck!