Artist business inventory records secure value for both Patron and Artist
Provenance is established by recording information about the Artist, the artwork, the edition, the printer, the gallery and the patron when an artwork is given or sold to a patron. Documenting this information provides a record of the works you produce and who you distributed them to. These records enable your patrons to establish the authenticity of their purchase when they buy from you.
It is a good idea to provide some documentation to the purchaser of you art work that attests to the authenticity of their purchase. A proper Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is useful for this purpose. The Artist's records of COA issue confirm the validity of the COA certificate your Patron needs to prove that their artwork is genuine if they resell it to another collector or gallery.
Provenance maintained through artist business inventory records increase the value of your work by protecting purchasers from buying counterfeit work, or having the authenticity of their purchases questioned by prospective buyers. They also protect you by protecting against counterfeit copies of your work being produced and sold by someone else. Counterfeiting hurts you two ways: you don’t get paid and the market value of your work is diluted (or even destroyed).
You protect your patrons and your prices by establishing and maintaining excellent provenance records about your art inventory when you use the Artist-Patron Register system.
Understand what is working: sales productivity
Another important reason to track who buys what from you (and where, for how much, when etc.) is that you have relationships with Galleries and Patrons you need to keep track of. Your Patron list is one of the most valuable assets any Artist has, because people who buy from you are more inclined to collect your work. Like many businesses the first sale to a new customer (customer acquisition) is 4 or 5 times more difficult than repeat purchases. For Artists, the situation is even more acute, because collections become more valuable to the collector when they have multiple pieces by the same artist. If you want to make a living making art, you need to understand thsse business facts...and keep track of your Patrons.
With literally hundreds of internet galleries online, you may also be dealing with a large number of distribution outlets for your work. Keeping track of your sales by gallery is critical to knowing where you should be investing your scarce marketing time. When you record your sales in the Artist-Patron Register, it keeps track of all of the unit sales, serial numbers and prices for every transaction across as many galleries, patrons and artwork editions as you want to deal with. And all of this information is securely stored in your own segregated account, accessible from anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse.
Keeping track of exhibitions and loans: consignments
Another key thing to keep track of is your exhibits at Galleries and Art Shows. Most shows will not allow you to exhibit a piece more than once, so you need to keep track of what has been shown where to avoid re-submitting work and losing opportunties to be judged or exhibit.
The Artist-Patron Register automates the record-keeping of gallery and show exhibition consignments so you never risk re-submitting to the same show. You can lend artworks out to patrons or galleries and produce lists of works on concignment at the push of a button. It even tracks the start and end dates so you can tell if it is time to ask for a piece back. This is the power of being on top of your recordes...it translates into efficient management of your art business so you can create and sell more.
Get / Keep Organized
