It’s that time – the year is winding to a close and we should start thinking about what we want for our business in the new year.
For me, the first thing I think of is “How much money do I want to make this next year?” And of course, it’s always a number higher than what I made the current year.
Last year Drew and I were blessed with a significant increase in income, due to a few changes we made in our daily habits of action and in our habits of THINKING. We were guided by a wonderful business coach who helped us.
Everything is first created in our mind, before it is created into reality. I always knew this, because I read a lot of books on success, but it wasn’t until I made “thinking” and “prosperity” a daily practice that I saw huge results.
So, before you make a plan as to what you will DO in the new year, first DECIDE what you WANT. And then make it a daily practice to focus on it.
(In my book, ART, MONEY & SUCCESS, I have an entire chapter dedicated to financial goal setting. The book makes for a great gift for any artist, including yourself! Pick up a copy on Amazon, here.)
I’m going to share one simple prosperity habit that you can implement, starting today, that will help you to increase your income in 2018.
But be aware, for this to work, you have to be diligent and committed to following these instructions exactly as I lay them out.
Prosperity Goal Setting:
- On the 1st day of each month, DECIDE how much money, specifically, you INTEND to make in sales that month. (This gives you CLARITY on what you want.)
- With that intention set, COMMIT to consistently working towards meeting that goal.
- DILIGENTLY carry out the daily habit described below.
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DECIDE ON YOUR INCOME GOAL on the first of each month:
What is your sales goal for December? DECIDE what that will be, then write it down on a piece of paper.
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Each morning, look at that goal that you wrote down, to remind yourself of what you have committed to.
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Leave your written goal on your bedside table and look at it even before getting out of bed, and allow yourself to feel great about the goal and imagine how it will feel to reach it.
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Next, before you begin your day and before you go online or social media, while your mind is still fresh and unfettered from other people’s news, sit quietly with a pen and paper.
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Ask yourself “what are three actions I can take today that will help me earn $xxxx this month?“
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Then be quiet and listen for answers and write them down on paper as they come to you. Write it all down, even those that you consider crazy, silly or impossible. All answers are valid.
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Do not use an electronic device to write your ideas. You must use pen and paper for it to work – this is because writing with your hand is an extension of your heart, and that’s where a lot of your answers come from.
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You actually have all the answers inside you – but we lose a lot of that when we are younger and taught that we don’t know anything. Now that we are older, we have to learn to trust ourselves again. I can go deeper into this, another time. But for now, practice trusting your inner knowing. This exercise will get you in the habit of better accessing your natural born wisdom.
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Some of the action ideas that may pop into your head could be: call this person, email someone you met a long time ago, offer your services to a particular business, charge a higher price on something that you are about to quote on, begin a campaign, etc.
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Now that you have a few actions written down on paper, plan your day around taking the action.
.The reason this works so well is this: when we get clarity on WHAT we want (the $ amount) then we can ask the right questions. When we ask the right questions, the best answers will come. With answers come action, and with action comes results!
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Commit to implementing this practice for the next three months. If you don’t reach your goal exactly, but you make progress, it counts! Keep doing that which works.
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Do you write your financial goals down regularly? And if so, have you seen results from it? Please, share in the comments!
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18 Responses
Thanks Maria for telling us that the answers are inside of us. I believe that! I also think you’re right to emphasize that we write it down with a pen, it IS more powerful and impacting. Thank you for this article!
Thanks Gary, I appreciate your feedback and you taking the time to leave a comment for me! 🙂
Aloha Maria,
Thank you for being so amazing! I have decided to start licensing my art and I’ve just ordered your book to help me on my path to success! I also want to say that you look fabulous in this photo, like a teenager! I will be calling you for a consultation in the future as well. Thanks again! 🤙🏽😊
Suzy,
Thank you, and I hope you love the book! I look forward to hearing from you when you are ready to do a session with me. Also, thanks for the compliment on the photo – I had a really good photographer! 🙂
Hello! Great perspective. I don’t look on my bedside table so I may just paint it on the ceiling. 🤓 I’m half way through your book now. Thank you!
Putting it on the ceiling works! Jack Canfield, author of many books, said that many years ago when he was just learning how to create his own prosperity, he turned a $1.00 bill into a $100,000 bill and taped it to his ceiling and looked at it each morning when he woke. At the time, he was earning less than $40k/year. By the end of the year, he nearly hit the $100K mark.
Of course, Maria is correct, although many artists don’t want to talk about the money. Yet if cash flow isn’t part of the business, the business will soon be history. Maria’s method of daily focus on money goals opens up our minds on how to get there. Kay and I will add this to our daily routine with great expectations. Thanks, Maria! Your the Best!
Thanks Steve! I agree, many don’t want to talk about the money. And that’s okay, if their income comes from another source. But if you want it to be from your art, you have to give money consideration! 🙂
Thank you Maria! Our goal for this year will be marketing my husband’s art! We have no idea how to do it but your book is a step in the right direction.
Thanks, Emily. I am sure my book is going to help you quite a bit! Stay in touch and keep me posted on the progress.
Hi Maria,
I came across your book, “Art, Money, Success” this summer and it has proved nothing short of transformational! Backstory (long I know): I’ve been dabbling in art all my life but was raised with a ‘poor is better’ mentality. So I would make a little pocket change with first one artform and then another…rarely even enough to cover the cost of materials, all while cleaning houses and driving shuttles to get by….always just getting by. After battling loneliness following a family tragedy, I went back to school and got a job teaching literacy, another lifelong passion. I started painting murals on the side and during the summer break and seemed to have found my niche. My following grew, but ever so slowly. Last year our district made sweeping changes that essentially eliminated positions like mine and replaced them with lower paid and very scripted literacy teaching positions. I was offered one of these positions. Now I had to make a decision. Would I accept that lying down or would I take a chance with the murals. Then I came across your book. In it I found out WHY I wasn’t making much of a profit, WHY I had a hard time finding the right clients, and WHY people constantly tried to get me to lower my price. I found out HOW to write a contract so clients couldn’t argue the terms, HOW to explain my pricing and stick to it, and HOW to set goals that reached higher than I’d dared to hope before. I learned to BELIEVE that there was a place for my art even though so many artists are more skilled than I, BELIEVE that I could handle the business aspect as well as produce art, and BELIEVE that it could be more than a sideline…..NOT JUST HOPE so. So after talking it over with my husband/lifelong friend, we made the decision to just cut the cord and go for it! I began putting into practice what I was learning and within a week of starting to read your book, I landed a week-long project priced at almost as much as I would make in a month teaching. In the next month, I avoided a legal disaster when a client wanted to make a major time-consuming design change, without any additional charge of course. When it came time to give my principal an answer, I had no difficulty telling her that I would not be returning to teach this year. Just since August, I have already made more than I would in a year teaching literacy, and the projects keep pouring in. So Maria, I want to thank you from my deepest heart. God has used you to move me in a direction I’m convinced He meant for me to go all along. My parting gift to the school was a mural on the bank of lockers just outside the library. My dream is to start an illustrator’s club there where artistically inclined but struggling readers may begin to believe in the possibility of an art career as well. I plan to introduce them to books like yours.
What a great, inspiring story! Thanks for encouraging me by sharing it!
Jan Dale– so inspiring your story! I believe we are in co-creation. So once you got clear and bit of confidence you attracted to you what you expected and worked towards.
Congrats!
Hi Maria,
I did two things that helped to grow my art business in 2017. I have been working with a book called “Happy Money in Your Pocket” that expresses ideas similar to those in your blog. I also purchased your licensing agreement doc to help me negotiate a project with a honey company and produced three new woodcut prints that are selling well. The product line is launching soon. Oh, and three, I read your book and really understood that the gallery model is not sustainable for me as a sole support. Thank you for your insight and encouragement. I’m now developing a line of textiles based on my woodcut botanical prints and plan to market them on my site and through wholesaling. I’m going to be diligent about the prosperity practice you described. I appreciate you very much!
Andrea
Thank you for another wonderful article, Maria!
I think your ideas around clarity of purpose and consistency of action are right on the money (no pun intended). It is absolutely true that you must first be clear with yourself about your financial goals. Only then can the other steps follow, such as appropriately pricing your artwork to support those financial goals.
Cheers,
Morgan Bricca
Morgan Mural Studios
https://www.morganmurals.com
I’m reading and re-reading sections of your book as I progress in my art career. Thank you for making such a practical guide for artists who want to have a successful business and legit lifetime career in art.
I have known for 1.5 years the exact amount of monthly income i woulk like from my print on demand website and i obsessed over it daily for 1.5 years. All sorts of ideas came up which i pursued but none of them were right. In August this year i got a dog walking job on the side for extra money as i need it at the moment. Mid October 2017 Bethany, I dog walk for asked me to do a commission for her, which went ahead and she gave a link to my website to a friend of hers who is a weslthy businessman in art, and in early December he emailed me with a deal which will hopefully enable me to reach my monetary goal. I am still focusing on it until it happens
Some great advice! When working each day I ask myself a similar question: “what is the number one thing I can do today that is going to ‘move the needle’ the most”. It helps me concentrate on tasks that will significantly improve things instead of just busy tasks that can somehow consume whole days.
P.S. Love your blog, I’ve been reading along for a while now.