Back to Business, Art Business That Is

The ugly secret of being successful in selling art is that you have to undertake all of the drudgery of any entrepreneur. To avert financial disaster, you have to manage risk, get organized, keep records, and know law, just like any working droog. But I just wanted to paint!

For those of you who don't know, my goal is to lay the groundwork for selling my art as a second career. My current job is in Information Technology, so when faced with the daunting task of tracking art and accounts, I immediately wonder how a computer can make this easy. Of course this is always a fallacy. If you wander off looking for computer packages to automate something you don't know how to do, you're going to spend a lot of money without much success. It's always best to understand the process the direct way, generally the manual way, before you venture to automate and "simplify". I've seen a million people fail by buying software and systems before they understand a process, but, hey, maybe I'll get lucky.

So I have been looking for niche software designed for the working artist. I came across Carol Cooper's site where she has a basic list of many different packages. I don't know much yet, but most of them seem to focus on maintaining a catalog of your work and a mailing list of clients. They also generally seem to have a means of tracking the current disposition of your work-- who has it and where it is. Some have invoicing features, but don't seem to have all the tax reporting features of an accounting program. In other words, you might still have need for a small business accounting package like Quickbooks or Peachtree. Maybe you could get by with a simpler personal accounting package like Quicken Home & Business, but the books I'm reading strongly recommend greater separation between your personal and business finances. The biggest worry I have is that there is no way to integrate the art management software with the accounting software, requiring that I double-enter all the contact and inventory information from the other program. Yech.

In addition to lacking sufficient accounting, the art management programs all deny that they cover the ins and outs of legal contracts. I keep reading the importance of eliminating any ambiguity in your business dealings over art with the appropriate contract agreements, even when you are dealing with friends. It protects them and it protects you from the kind of misunderstandings that make you stop being friendly. Many of the art management programs seem to have some interface allowing you to merge data with a contract form, but they are careful to say that you need appropriate legal guidance in preparing contracts and related documents. The most widely recommended book I've seen on the subject of Art Law is the one by Tad Crawford, and he also has a separate compilation of business and legal forms for artists. There is a more comprehensive list of books with legal advice for artists here, and an addition collection of sample forms in this book.

So, having blathered all that, I'd like to assure you that I have no expertise and am just communicating my thoughts while trying to wrap my head around the subject of selling art. Here are the art management software packages I have found so far. I'll try and add links to any reviews I find as I research further. Most of these seem to be primarily Windows products, with a couple having Mac versions or hosted web applications. I can't remember where I read it, but someone once commented that it was amazing how clunky and ugly these programs for artists are, and so far I can't disagree.

Art Affair
Art and Craft Business Organizer
Art Look
Artworks Pro
eArtist
Flick
Marketing Artist
Museografic for Art World
My Art Collection
Working Artist

Update (12/4): I have to say that reviews of all these packages are hard to find apart from a few vague mentions on the forum at wetcanvas.com. I hear that Marketing Artist, the online web application, is no longer creating accounts. I found two more packages listed over on the Art Biz Blog:
Artful Butler
Gyst