Here are a few little things I've learned in the arts and crafts biz:
1) Store owners are just customers with stores.
(courtesy of my friend Tim Christianson-Kirby http://www.muddybirdpottery.com/ Click Tim's page to see him and a sample of his work.)
It's taken me a long time to learn this, but it was a huge "aha!" moment for me.
When I first started out selling my work, I thought store owners--especially retailers of fine contemporary American craft--were embued with special qualities, such as unusual powers of perception and judgment about my work. I thought they had finely-honed skills in marketing and selling craft.
Nope.
They're just like any other customer who buys your work, except, as Tim pointed out, they also happen to have a store.
Remember all those warm, wonderful, wacky and wacko retail customers?
Store owners--the same!
Some of them are former artists, some are shadow artists. (Julia Cameron uses the phrase to describe a person who secretly longs to be an artist, and who yearns to be around artists and support artists. Sometimes, however, they are JEALOUS of artists and can be very passive/agressive in their dealings with artists.)
Some are savvy businesspeople, some think a store is a cool hobby, some use it to support their major shopping habit.
Some are kind, some are mean, some are happy, some are sad, some are focused and hardworking and can-do and some are ....not.
A friend who owns a top-awarded gallery would add, "Some have PMS. It happens...."
If you run across a store owner who is happy, successful and competent and they love, love, love your work, wonderful things can happen. Though even then, "wonderful things happen" is not guaranteed.
But if you run across one who is crabby, and not very competent, and they think your work stinks, remember that God has not sent them to earth as a messenger to say anything special about your work so you'll give up and go back to your job as an accountant.
And remember that even the nice, happy ones have the occasional bad day. Or week. Or year.
So just try another store.
2. Rich people are just people with money.
Corollary: Famous people, ditto.
See #1.
I don't know a LOT of rich people. I've known a few. They all just behaved like ordinary people with a heckuva lotta money.
Some were nice. Some weren't. Some were extremely generous. Some were extremely concerned they were going to lose their money. (One rich person became sort of obsessed with the notion that I had her two-for-$1.50 Rubbermaid containers. She demanded it back (I didn't have it) and complained to all my friends that I would not return it. She hounded me for months. It got kinda weird....)
Some have good taste in clothing, home furnishings and books. Others don't. Some see their wealth as a sign of good fortune. Others see it as a sign of God's favor, or of superior moral worth. Some see their wealth as tool to help causes and people they believe in. Others see it as a tool to have fun, fun, fun. Some are fun to be with because you get to play with their toys. Others would never dream of sharing their toys, except with other rich people.
So remember that rich people might like your work, and they might like it enough to buy it, and they might support you as an artist enough to try to find other people to buy your work.
But they might just be stupid people with bad taste, too.
Getting your work in front of "rich people" or "famous people" is not going to automatically save your business.
3. Groups are NOT just a bunch of people.
People of groups do not act the way they would act if they were by themselves. People act very differently in groups. If you think PEOPLE are confusing, try GROUPS. Whoa!
You can read a little about the Milgram experiment here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
I used to think I hated groups. I don't. I LOVE groups--at first. I love getting together with a bunch of people who profess to have common goals and interests. I also love it when lots of people laugh at my jokes.
But something always happens in groups. At some point, the group becomes its own entity. It develops a culture, a way of doing things. People begin to settle into specific roles that are hard to break out of. Actions--and reactions--become predictable.
All groups eventually become a giant family, with all the pluses and minuses.
And, at some point, an individual will be pressured to do something "for the good of the group" that is NOT good for the individual.
Then you have a decision to make.
Do you take a deep breath, and set aside your own personal goals and desires, and maybe even your ethics, and do what's best for everyone else?
Or do you leave a community that you've grown dependent on, maybe even very fond of?
A friend once counseled me: For me to function best, a group I look to for support has to give ME that support, in order for the energy I spend suppporting the group to be worthwhile. Okay, let me put that more simply: You have to get back as much as you put in. Or it doesn't work. And that there often comes a time when what you give to a group can be far outweighed by what you get back.
At that point, it gets very, very hard. There may be some people who are totally selfless individuals who thrive on living for others, but I'm not one of them.
But only YOU can decide what you think you're giving and what you feel you're getting. And only YOU can decide when you feel the balance has tipped.
Go--or stay.
I've always left.
