Author: courtney

Do your customers respect your worth as an artist? How should you price your work as an artist? Can you survive as a full time artist? A plumber came to my house to fix a problem, it took him less than half an hour. His minimum charge was $60.00 or his five hour daily rate was US$200. Unskilled construction workers […]

Learn from the experiences of others. A partnership can be a leaky ship. Over the 50 years I have been existing as a fulltime artist and entrepreneur, I was privileged to enter several business partnerships and was forced to enter one. The experiences were mostly painful and unsuccessful, but it would be remiss of me not to mention the one […]

The Challenges of Mother Nature Living in Paradise is a great asset but it also has its challenges. The weather, the sunlight, and outdoor advantages are a blessing but mother nature can inflict some serious blows, emotionally, financially, and physically. The Caribbean is prone to hurricanes annually. The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1 and ends on November 30 […]

National & International Exposure Don’t be a big fish in a small pond, seek as much exposure as possible, locally, nationally and internationally. There are several ways this can be achieved. Build your local, national, and international reputation. Start locally by acquainting yourself with the art programs of your local area and country. Many countries organize local exhibitions and competitions. […]

Taking the plunge If you are an Artist wishing to survive without having to take a 9 to 5 or part-time job, you must be prepared to suffer some hardships and sacrifices, but I can assure you the rewards are more than worth it. It is extremely difficult for an artist to survive selling just pure art, whether you are […]

A lesson in cheating. This story indirectly involved the Beer House, some of my customers worked in the hotel industry, they would frequent after work and sample the variety of beers; one such customer was a lover of Lowenbrau, a high quality German beer. He worked as a waiter at one of the leading hotel restaurants. Two close friends were […]

The Cheaters-Too smart for her own good. In the fifty years as an Entrepreneur and Gallery owner, the police were involved in the business three times, the last time was an epic episode. This incident occurred later in the operation of the gallery, but as I had promised I would get the cheaters out of the way, We hired a […]

The Cheaters No 3 I must admit that I have employed about 45 different employees during my business life; as luck or careful selection would have it ; my experience of cheaters over the 50-year span was very limited. This incident occurred during the 20the year of my business experience, but I will address it prematurely to get the experiences […]

The Divorce From the Beer House. The greatest challenge with managing the Beer House was the daily shopping, hardly a day went by without having to purchase supplies, especially fresh salad supplies which I insisted on managing personally, since I ate my meals at the restaurant. New Manager With the expansion of the Art and craft outlets; time became a […]

The Nightmares Of A Retail Businessman Small businessmen are faced with many challenges, overhead costs must be kept to a minimum and must be able to trust your employees; unfortunately this is one of the hardest goal to achieve in business, I have heard horrendous stories from businessmen; I have seen it, experience it and have been the victim of […]