Analyzing My 2012 ROI

Linda Blondheim Painted Frames

Notes From the Loft Studio

Lots of artists make long lists of goals for the new year. I make short ones myself. I have learned to be very specific and focused about both my painting goals and my marketing and business goals. One of the ways I do this is by first analyzing where my ROI sorts out. ROI is short for return on investment. This is not just about money, but also investment of my time. 

This year I analyzed three main areas of investment for 2012. 

1. Teaching

2. Painted Furniture

3. Paintings

Those are the three main areas of income stream for 2012. 

In looking back over my tax info I discovered that my return was overwhelmingly the sale of paintings. No surprise, but I also discovered that my teaching only brought in 10.1% of my income. This tells me that I was correct in my move to limit teaching to two days a month for 2013. I invested far too much time in teaching to justify my ROI in 2012. 

The painted furniture was 5.7 % of my income, very encouraging. I only did the painted furniture from June-December of 2012. Summer is very dead as far as sales so the ROI really was from September- December. More than half of the income I made from teaching.

My paintings brought in 85.1% of my income, so this is gratifying. All the hard work I do in front of the easel each year is sustaining me and paying the bills. Yay!!

So, my study tells me that painting paintings and painting furniture will be the priority for 2013. My plan is that by 2015 those two income streams will make teaching unnecessary. By 2015, I hope to be doing only the mentorship for my teaching gig.  As much as I enjoy teaching, it does not justify the investment. The only thing I could do to change that would be to increase my teaching fees substantially. Since I don't want to teach for a living, and I love my students, I won't do that. I would rather teach 2 times a month and give my students a price break for this year and I will see about what to do after the analysis of 2013.

Y'see, it is not enough to have marketing and painting goals and meet them. You must be analytical about what you do as a business person. What really works is more important than your emotional feelings about being an artist.