Why giving yourself permission to create new work is actually a savvy business strategy.
I was having a chat with a fellow maker the other day and she asked me to share some tips on time management. After pressing her a little further, I discovered that the root of her issue wasn’t really time management at all, but rather a lack of motivation.
And this lack of motivation was pretty deeply tied to poor sales of her work.
I was able to spot this because it’s something that happens to me. If sales are slow, I tend to find it hard to work in the studio. (More specifically, if sales are slow for a particular collection, I find it very hard to make more work in that collection, even if I have half finished work on my bench.)
Now, there are people who would say that having your motivation to create tied up in whether or not your work is selling is the problem here. That you should be making art for arts sake. And on one hand, I see their point. If you’re only in this business to make money, it’s going to be hard to stay motivated over the long run.
But I know myself (and you) better than that. You started selling your work because you’re passionate about what you make.
But you’re also human. And it can be discouraging when the work you’ve poured your heart and soul into isn’t selling. (Especially so when your livelihood depends in whole or part on making sales of your work.)
So what should you do if your motivation is flagging and your work isn’t selling?
This is where conventional marketing and business experts will tell you to double down on marketing and focus on selling the work you’ve already made.
But I’m not going to tell you that. (At least, not exactly.)
Because I actually think that the best thing you can do when your current work isn’t selling and you’re feeling unmotivated is to make new work.
Yes, making new work can help you find the joy in making again. But it’s also a savvy business strategy, for three reasons:
One, the easiest way to sell more is to sell to your existing customers. And they already own your old work. Creating something new gives them something to buy. (Provided that you’re actively emailing them and letting them know you have new work. With their permission, of course.)
Two, creating something new gives you something new to market, which injects fresh energy into your marketing efforts. I find it’s always easer to share (whether that’s on social media or with my email list) if I’ve made something new.
And finally, creating something new gives you something different to attract new customers, who may not have resonated with your old work. As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Constantly trying to sell work that isn’t selling can feel like pounding your head against the wall. But making new work gives you fresh opportunities to reach out to customers and markets (not to mention the media) that may not have connected with your previous work.
Now, when I say new work, I don’t mean fly off to a completely different medium or process. (Not that you can’t do that, just be aware that a really abrupt change usually makes it difficult to sell to your existing audience.) Ideally, your new work should feel related to the work you’re already selling, just new and a little different.
You don’t even have to make work with the intention of selling it. Ceramic artist (and fellow Kent State MFA alum) Gina DeSantis shared a story on Instagram recently of making an installation of ceramic wind chimes simply because she couldn’t get it out of her head. She figured it wouldn’t sell, but gave herself permission to indulge this vision anyway. She ended up selling every single piece.
That’s the power of new work.
Now I know that it can be frustrating (or downright create a mental block) to have a lot of old, unsold work laying around. That’s why the second piece of this puzzle is to get the work out of your studio, ideally making money if you can.
Taking the old work and having a sample sale (or employing one of the other strategies for what to do with unsold work that I shared in this post) is a great way to create momentum and hopefully some cash flow.
But if some or all of that work doesn’t sell, it doesn’t mean you should keep forcing it. Give yourself permission to get in the studio and make something new. Because you never know what’s going to become your next best seller or breakthrough piece.
And the only way to find out is to make (and share) new work.