WEEK 10: EVALUATING YOUR PROGRESS
This is it! The final week of our series that focusses on outlining the many, many things you need to consider and learn about when you start your own art business. This series isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is extensive. You can start it from the beginning by CLICKING HERE.
If you’re all caught up, congratulations! You’ve waded through some seriously challenging topics. In the final week, we’ll focus on evaluating your progress. Regularly assessing the performance of your business helps you identify strengths and areas for improvement. It can save you time and money to review your efforts and make small adjustments as you go along becoming the art business tycoon you’ve dreamed of.
Let’s explore ways to measure your success and make informed decisions about what to tweak.
- Set Clear Metrics
- Sales: Track your sales and revenue. Are you meeting your financial goals? Revisit your Business Plan once a quarter to see if anything has changed. You can make adjustments to that plan as you go – it’s not etched in stone!
- Online Presence: Monitor your website traffic, social media followers, and engagement. You may be able to pick out patterns in these metrics.
- Use Analytics Tools
- Google Analytics: Use Google Analytics to track website traffic and user behaviour. Identify which pages are most popular and where your traffic is coming from.
- Social Media Insights: Use insights and analytics tools on Instagram and Facebook to track engagement and reach.
- Gather Customer Feedback
- Surveys: Send out surveys to your customers. Ask for feedback on your work, website, and customer service.
- Reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews on your website and social media. Use this feedback to improve your business.
- Review Your Marketing Efforts
- Campaign Performance: Analyze the performance of your marketing campaigns. Which strategies are driving the most traffic and sales?
- Content Performance: Identify which types of content are most engaging and resonating with your audience.
- Adjust Your Strategy
- Identify Weaknesses: Identify areas where you’re falling short, taking care to not let it be personal. Your metrics are not a measure of you as a person, they’re a measure of what your audience responds to at this moment in time. Is your website traffic low? Are your social media posts not getting much engagement?
- Make Changes: Adjust your strategy based on your analysis. Experiment with new marketing techniques, improve your website, or try different content types.
- Celebrate Your Successes
- Milestones: Celebrate milestones and achievements. Did you reach a sales goal or gain a significant number of followers? Take time to acknowledge your progress.
- Reflect: Reflect on what you’ve accomplished and use this as motivation to keep going.
Evaluating your progress is about understanding what’s working and what’s not. By setting clear targets, using analytics tools, and gathering customer feedback, you’ll be able to make informed decisions and continuously improve your art business.
Congratulations on completing the ‘Concept to Launch’ series! You’ve come a long way, and your art business is ready to become what you make of it. Continue to evaluate your progress, adapt to changes, and stay inspired. Stay with us while we take a much closer look at many of the topics and strategies we touched on in the last 10 weeks!
In the meantime, if you’re feeling a little disconnected from your art practice, give our Colour My Numbers tool a try. It’s free to download here.
