R/P/S continued...Post 2

Thanks for the comments on my last little Rock Paper Scissors post. For want of another name, I'm calling this project-in-progress R/P/S...

Ed, you are such a source of encouragement. I really appreciate you.

Hah! Dan, you are so not a fourth flavor artist. Wow, I really need to redo that flavor thing. There's so many more flavors I forgot.

Anyway, I'm looking into a small business program at UNF here and hope to get in on it. First, I have to get on this long list of people who want help, then I gotta hope I'm selected as worthy of help, etc, etc...

This is a weird idea. And seems destined for failure. For now, I am forgoing the laborious process of structure and practicality of the business side of this venture. I cannot get it going yet in that department, but I won't let this stop me from exploring the actual mission of this project. Read the rest as if we have a structure and order in place. We have members and a viable work system in place. In other words, Use Your Imagination!

We are a business. This project will exist to benefit its members and spread some art to dark corners, but we have to have something to sell. And we have to have people to buy it.

Thing is, will it really be lucrative and is that really the point? We need income, but we need benefits, at least I do...and we need a way to ensure retirement isn't as penniless as it will likely be. Not really to imply anyone will retire anymore.

But can it make money? Money enough for its members to use it as a source of real income?

I think it can. If other normal boring ad agencies can make money and have the overhead of a company office space, and allll that implies, surely we can make some money while we are scattered across the country, tucked away in our own little homes.

My first foray into this idea included having a little storefront to get walk-in clients. People who were curious about what an artist could do for them. Not just make the pretty pictures, but if they could provide a real tangible service to people and business. Also, a storefront to actually sell art. And products using art. Show what we could do. I noticed down the way a number of small galleries had opened and closed rather rapidly. Selling only a little and paying rent for the space got them nowhere. They relied on their poor artist/members to pay the rent. That's the problem with those artist-run co-ops. They can't/don't know how to get money from anywhere, charge dues to the artist to be in the co-op, and when the co-op makes no money, the artists have to bow out. Feeding off of themselves was not the way to go. Obviously there was a lack of interest in art and even a well-intentioned and well-run space was not going to be a money-maker unless there was a real element of necessity. And outreach. You have to make people aware of you and show them why they need and want you. If we can provide a necessary service, we may just survive. Not having an overhead should only make that easier. I won't discount the idea of having such a place eventually, but for now...it's the Interwebs for us!

I propose a really tight website. One that is so well-designed and so sleek-looking we can't be seen as anything but fun, professional, dependable and affordable. It has to be filled with wonderful images and very easily navigated. It has to scream creativity and approachability. I want buying our services to be as easy as buying a leopard-print tubetop off of Wal-Mart.com...without the guilt of furthering slave wages and conditions of millions just to look like a hooker, of course.

Here's the thing. Content. Who will be involved? Who will design it, build it and populate it with images? Where will they come from?

Our members, natch. But will this be vampiring as the above co-op did? Maybe for now. Maybe we gotta just to get the thing going. But maybe not. Maybe we can build this thing with some outside $$. Put together an attractive selling package and sell the crap out of ad space. Approach internet businesses that will actually have a stake in what we do. Other artists, supply companies, the kinds of business we personally visit and rely on to make our stuff. Who do our prospective clients need to see on the site? They need to see things that make them more confident in us and things they will actually click on to make advertising worthwhile...porn comes to mind, but it's a temptation I'll try to resist for now.

But advertising space is ugly and frankly annoying. Can we make ads that are not ads? I don't see why not. Seems like that could be our first real project. Make our advertisers look like partners and friends and be more likely to get clicked on than a dancing hoochiemama or a lady surprised she's been filmed looking at her computer.

Project the First: Find Partners (and make them want to advertise because it will really be fun and good for them).

Am I getting too far ahead of myself? Oh, yeah, but until we have the real company, I need something to keep me going and encouraged enough to want to create this idea out of thin air.

Comments and Suggestions Appreciated. Post 3 will be here before you know it. Happy Fourth to all!
G