Are you a new year’s resolution type? I definitely am.
I find this time of year to be so refreshing, especially since I started my own business. Since taking Daphne Rae Creative full time, the efforts towards personal goals have more or less folded into business goals. Since my art and “brand” is sort of my life, it makes sense to merge them. Last January, I was putting goals in place for my first full year in business, and in July, I took a hard look at them and recalibrated based on what was working, and what wasn’t. This year, I’m SO excited to begin work on my 2025 goals. The slate has been wiped clean, and I can get rid of all the stuff I didn’t enjoy from last year and start anew.
Many of you may know I started my career out of school in sales, which was probably the most goal-oriented job you can have. The funny thing is, I hated how targeted it was. The forecasting of what deals would close, sending emails, setting meetings, just hoping to get signatures on contracts before the end of the month. It was a never-ending cycle. While I excelled on paper, my soul was eroding and I had to leave that world. That’s why I’m so surprised at the enthusiasm I now have for goal setting. I've come to understand that I do still have a passion for telling stories and selling products; I just needed to be selling something different: my art.
While you may not see other artists talking about their numbers too often, I love to do it. I’m proud of what I’ve built, I’m okay to share where I fell short, and I want to be transparent about this life with all of you. So if you love numbers, let's dive right into my 2024 art business recap.
One insight really stood out: my revenue didn’t follow the pattern I expected! 📊
While it’s normal for businesses to experience ups and downs throughout the year, I was surprised to find that June, not November or December, was my best month in 2024. Why? June was packed with events, more than any other month, which clearly had a huge impact on sales. That said, I still expected December to knock it out of the park, and honestly, it fell short. The holiday markets I chose for December were successful numbers-wise had they occurred in a different season, but fell way below the previous December. Which was frustrating, as my art and business acumen has improved immensely in the past year.
This discovery has inspired me to rethink my strategy for 2025. By focusing more on opportunities outside of traditional busy seasons, I can create even more meaningful connections and keep things flowing year-round. This 2024 art business recap of mine truly highlighted the importance of adapting to unexpected trends and planning accordingly.
As you can see, prints are far and away the biggest part of my business. That said, I’m mostly excited about my growth in commissions and original paintings.
I fell short at 10 commissions this year, just shy of my goal of 12. I’m excited to grow in this area, as they, along with original paintings, have the ability to make a sizable impact. For instance, selling one 8x10 original painting is roughly like selling 12 8x10 prints. This means I only have to find 1 customer instead of 12.
One trend completely took me by surprise: I sold 6 original paintings this year! This wasn’t something I initially planned for, but it has quickly become a highlight of my journey. Seeing my unique pieces find homes has been such a delight, and it’s inspired me to focus more on original artwork in 2025.
This year, I went all in on markets and maxed out what my mind and body could physically do. These included weekly recurring makers markets, art festivals, farmers markets, corporate events, popups at breweries, and a weeklong residency for just my work. Said residency was my best-performing opportunity of the year, with art festivals and makers markets being the next best things.
I’m finally ready to say goodbye to breweries and farmers markets. It became evident to me that people aren’t looking to buy original paintings when doing their weekly shopping for local tomatoes. And while I know women (9/10 of my customers) do drink beer and go to breweries, my work is feminine and delicate and doesn’t totally align with the brewery aesthetic. The environment your work is sold in really does make a difference. I’m excited to say no to these in 2025! Though I will miss the pretzel bites and beer cheese.
One of the biggest takeaways from my my 2024 art business recap is just how important in-person markets have been for my business. In fact, 83% of my revenue came from physically showing up at these events! Meeting customers face-to-face and sharing my art directly has been an incredible way to grow organically and connect on a personal level.
However, there’s room for improvement. While I’m ok with markets bringing me the vast majority of my income, the market fees take up a large portion of my overall expenses. The median cost for me to attend a market in 2024 was $150/day. Not to mention the investment in market setup materials, gas, parking, inventory, food, and time.
So, the logical solution to that isn’t necessarily to stop doing markets (heck, I can’t afford not to do them right now!), but rather to make the markets more worth my while. That might be 1) doing more research on the venue… does it align with my target customer 2) introducing larger print sizes 3) prioritizing fine art festivals where I’m more likely to sell original work… the list goes on, but I’m really excited to tackle these new challenges!
I LOVE gabbing, so being on the Art Coaching Club Podcast was a highlight of the year. You can listen to the episode here!
I deviated a bit from my typical work this year to take a Surface Pattern Design course online at RISD. I learned SO much about designing collections of patterns that could someday make their way onto fabric, wallpaper, and more. What was actually super insightful was that I realized I don’t (at this time) want to be a surface pattern designer. So much of life is learning what you don’t want to do, and while I do love making patterns, I found the industry to be very focused on trends, which is something I hate. So I decided I want my artwork to feel evergreen, authentic, and not dictated by what is commercially viable.
At the beginning of 2024, I set out to make money by way of 3 verticals: e-commerce, markets, and commissions. I actually missed my markets and e-commerce revenue goals, but I over-performed in revenue from commissions (I ended up selling higher priced commissions, despite not hitting my total goal # of commissions, which paid off). I hit 101% of my sales goals overall for the year, so all is good. This coming year, I'm flipping the script entirely and reorienting my goals differently.
And that’s a wrap!
There’s a lot of exciting things coming in the New Year, including the possibility of me teaching gouache workshops! If that’s something that interests you, feel free to get in touch. I'd love to hear your ideas, what you'd be looking to learn, and your ideal location.
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