Do you have artistic skills? Are you a creative person? Do you love doing things with your hands? Do you have passion for arts? Then below are the top ten creative small business ideas for artists. During your days in school, your teachers most probably taught you how to hone your artistic skills. But chances are that they didn’t teach you something even more important; how to make money with your skills. And when they did, they only hammered on one option. Only one: “the gallery system.”
However, there are many more ways beyond running an art gallery; with which you can make money with your passion for arts. So expanding your business beyond an art gallery is a sure way to boost your income. If you are an artist, you can find other lucrative areas that can work side by side with your art career. Don’t let other people discourage you by telling you that you can’t make a decent income off of your artistic skills.
If you look in the right places and plan well for your future, you can make a lot of money. Without wasting your time, the following are small business ideas that you should consider exploring, in order to make more money from your artistic skills.
Top 10 Creative Small Business ideas for Artists
1. Tattoo artist
The craze for tattoos is spreading fast, and this explains the huge demand for tattoos. The best tattoo artists are trained visual artists or illustrators. So, you can make a lot of money designing tattoos for popular tattooists or selling tattoo designs. You have the option of starting your own tattooing business, or selling tattoo designs, or becoming a tattooist for cool cash.
2. Graphic artist
The demand for graphic artists is now on the increase due to the increasing awareness that infographics and other visual elements are very effective in online marketing and advertising. You can make money by designing website banners, graphic ads, ebook covers, etc. Offline, you can help clients design magazines, books, newspapers, websites, etc. A good starting point is to connect with clients on freelance outsourcing sites such as Elance or Odesk.
3. Website design
If you have some knowledge of HTML and CSS programming, you can add that to your artistic skills to produce stellar website designs. Many individuals and businesses looking to establish an online presence require the services of professional website designers. So, you will have a huge market to serve.
4. Art supply store
Look around your neighborhood or area, if there are no art stores or only one or two, consider opening your own. You can sell craft supplies and build a thriving business from that. When decorating their homes, many people prefer artworks to photographs. These are your customers.
5. Art gallery
This is one of the most common ways by which artists make money. If you have been searching for an art gallery to work in, consider opening your own. This could be a successful business, especially if combined with a craft or gift shop directed at tourists and other people who love works of art.
6. Mural painting
Professional artists like Michael Gaudet make a lot of money by painting huge murals, which are artworks in their own right. You too can make money by painting murals for homes and businesses.
7. Designing and selling T-shirts
For your information, the T-shirt business is a multi-billion dollar industry. All the designs you see on people’s T-shirts were the ideas of creative artists like you. If you are a good designer or illustrator, and you are laden with great design ideas related to pop culture, then you can make a lot of money by either designing T-shirts and selling them yourself or working with a T-shirt producing company.
8. Custom airbrushing
Many gallery artists do airbrushing. If you are very good at it, you can make a lot of money. There is big business in custom airbrushing of cars, motorcycles, etc. Even if you don’t have the required skills, why not learn from a fellow artist and break into the business? It rocks!
9. Video games designer
In recent years, video games have become extremely popular. In case you didn’t know, creative artists like you designed the graphics you see in video games. Since the video game industry is a multi-billion dollar one, you can make a lot of money if you know how to tap into the market.
10. Tutoring
If you have been working as an artist for some years, then you are qualified to teach art. You can help aspiring artists to hone skills and become better artists. Organize training course for artists and come up with an outline of skills to be taught. You can even attract more students by offering the course online.
More ideas
Aside the aforementioned other business ideas you can start include interior design, sign making, framing, ceramics studio, selling art prints, art licensing, and art consulting.