Jamie's Blog

More Artistic Than a 5th Grader

November 30, 2008

I am going to go out on a limb here, because I know that NO Copy Cat Artists read my blog - really I doubt they are, because they would know how I feel about copying.   My sweet, sweet gullible Copy Cat Artists would realize I have no tolerance for it. 

On the other hand, I realize some of these artists are familiar, wait VERY familiar with my products, my friends products and some sort of very well known Entrepreneurs in my industry.  I am guessing  they may just be looking at websites and not reading my blog.  If I am so lucky to have one of them accidentally find this blog - I would hope they would take my advice to heart and share this information, because I assume "bird of a feather flock together".   Also, when copying  these little nuggets might make your life easier.*  

*The rest of my regular readers, family (hi Mom!), looky loos, and friends may want to ignore this post.  Psssst....it's all in tongue and cheek, snarky and a bit sarcastic.   I am going to give the Copy Cats some much needed advice on copying.  So the rest can just go about your business, nothing to see her folks,  check back often I will be back to my regular "perky" blogs....

Dearest Copy Cat Artist,

Welcome to "Coping Artwork the Way it Was Intended to Be Copied"!

How are you all?  How have you been?  I see some of you have come out with some new work this Fall and wow - what work it is!  Some of you have taken inspiration a bit too far this time so I thought I would try and give you some tips on how to do it the right way.  Please take this to heart, I am oh so tired of having to repeat myself, but I feel it is my duty to help you and make you a better artist(if that is what you call yourself),  anyways here we go.

When Copying Do it Right!

If you are going to copy an artist, or a product design try be smart about it.  Really go with someone that is not all over the web or someone in the industry for over ten years and is sort of famous, has had tons of press and really well-known.  These artists use the web too, and  know you are looking at their work - heck how else could you copy the art so closely? 

Go for someone a little more on the outskirts, the fringe of our industry if you will.  Or an artist you saw at an Art & Craft show - copy her.  Better yet copy a 5th grader - that would be great, and if I am correct I am guessing you are smarter than the 5th Grader.  I am sure the 5th grader does not have copyrights or even much time on the web - so I would go with the  5th grader - no older though.  You get into junior high artists and they will kick your butt all over cyberspace, or destroy your reputation on My Space.

Own Your "Inspired" Piece of Work

If you must copy someone's work, do change a few things.  Artists are a very smart (and vocal bunch) they do talk, email, oh I don't blog maybe. Most are quite famous and even have their work on products for licensing - now those big companies do not mess around.  To quote Pulp Fiction, "I don't want to have to go all medieval on your ass."

So dearest please change the look of your princess, make her hair curly if the others is straight, give her a cow face, change it some how - use some of that "moxie" you have and own it.  Put the princess castle um in a meadow, instead of on a hill, change a boy turtle to a girl turtle so it has more of a different look - really you can get creative with this one.  Don't just flip flop the bird and the twig and think you own it - anyone can do that in Photoshop.  They will still know where you got the "inspiration" from, most will not be fooled.  You may even fool a few customers into believing it was your art first!  How great is that?

Change it Baby

When copying or imitating another's piece of art - use a different palette. I know this is a big word for you to handle - but let me help you out with simple terms.

Palette: The colors, or color combination used on a piece of work.  The palette may also have a theme (like all shades of blue) or be all over the map with the entire rainbow - doubtful as most are trained artists.  Usually a couple of colors will stand out as the dominating colors of the piece.  Make sure and do NOT use those colors....trust me!

If, for example the other piece of art uses yellows, blues and greens - change it around a bit.  Make your's pink ,monkey puke green and blood red.  Or go with turquoise, purple and silver.  I know this is difficult to do but do try - this way you really can "own" the art.  For example if the birthday plate you want to "imitate" has red,orange, yellow and blue - go with purple, turquoise, pink and maybe green - don't use the same colors silly! 

Better yet be original and go with the whole pink and brown thing - I hear that is huge!  By the way just so you know borrowing a "palette" or color combination from another is NOT copying, so you are okay there.

Someone Asked You to Do It

Oh, how I feel your pain, really I do!  I know this can be hard, since you so want to please the customer, the sales channel - I do too.  And, I can almost guess that sometimes you were asked to do this.  The reason I know this is I have been asked also - to copy you, and your friends, and my friends, and other artists.  However, I say no.  Copying  when a sales channel sends you a JPEG of another artists is wrong.   They don't know any better (or maybe they do) but you could just suggest something else and tell them that is illegal to copy the art.  How hard would that be?

Before I forget I do want to mention one thing, I don't want to alarm you but you may need to know about copyrights.  All artists have them, well the smart ones do.  I have even heard a few  have some fancy/schmancy attorneys too.  They can rally up together if they want to - even in this gosh awful crummy economy.  So be careful, some are not as nice as me  - practically showing you how to copy!

Timing Is Everything

If you are still not convinced my "helpful hints on copying" will help you, do take one thing to heart - release your products a long time after mine.  Don't come out with your piece right after mine - like two weeks later, come on now!  Wait a few months,  so that it is not so obvious to the customer.  This may throw some people off the scent....you can then claim you were soooo busy over the Holiday Rush (uh....maybe don't use that one this year though - stinks of a really bold faced lie)  that you could not release it.  And, if anyone asks you where you got the idea - come up with some detailed story about how it came to you months ago, years ago, in high school maybe - ooh, I know use a child!  Psst....go with that 5th grader again....say they suggestedyou paint or design a product for them!  Yes a 5th Grader!  

Most importantly claim you NEVER, EVER look at your competition - you are way too busy!  And if anyone throws some thing about SEO or Google Analytics at you and claim they know you were on their site  - deny, deny, deny!  If you deny it long enough maybe you will even start to believe yourself.

Play Nice and Be Careful Out There

Lastly, don't trash talk  your competitors.  Do not "claim" on your site that you do this, or that or how you use special art items that we don't.  You do not know the size of my brush, the paint I use, the people I purchase raw materials  from, or who produces my products, or who I have hired.  It really is not necessary to bring down the competition - okay?  Play nice  - I just gave you tons of tips on how to copy me!  Once again - even fifth graders know the whole, "If you do not have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!"

I hope this helps you in your surfing the web for ideas - really I do!  Have a wonderful holiday season and we will be waiting for your next new design to come out.  Oh - cause Artists use the Internet too (did I mention that already?), they are probably on your site right now.

Sincerely Good luck with your creations and your copying....err "inspirations", trust me you are going to need it.

It's the Economy Stupid!*

November 18, 2008.

I hate to all rogue on everyone but let's get it straight - times are tough.  The retail sector is predicting this to be our worst Holiday Season in 30 years....that is a long time and it scares the bejeezes out of me.  The whole year has seen slower than usual, and then it became  abundantly obvious in late September that people were not spending.  In fact even the beginning of the year with rising gas prices we watched our shipping costs soar, and not in the right direction.  We also noticed our raw materials prices increase - not one , not two, but all of our materials increased. 

We really hunkered down and really made a conscious decision to watch the bottom line (we as in me myself and my company).  The year was okay, not one of our best but we were watching sales very close - let me re-phrase that, I was watching our sales very close.  This year you need to get creative, and do it fast.  A sale?  A promotion? An exclusive?  Do something....

Who Do You Get Your Advice From?

I come in contact with many different business owners, especially women entrepreneurs, artists and mothers that own their own business.  I have been following peeps on Twitter, I have subscribed to newsletters, joined groups - I know some female business owners.  And to state again, I have been a tad obsessed with economy so I read anything I could this year about running a business.  I know that in theory we should all think positive and it will all be okay, however I tend to go with the, "The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem."  And, ladies and gentlemen this economy has a problem!   

The interesting thing to me though is quite a bit of advice out there tends to come from newbies, or people that are all together not in the retail sector.  No matter how many times I read on a chat forum, an email thread or an advice column that it is all good - it is not.   I also know that we need to be positive and we need to all think the best, but gosh darn it how can we really succeed in this day and age without admitting and acknowledging times are tough?  When times are tough (and they are) you need to be resourceful and smart and frugal.

I do think some business will survive and some even flourish in a down economy - but face it most don't.  If you have not already cut back, found other revenue streams or started pinching pennies, you may want to start now.  Here are few things I will not be doing in the near future:

Advertising

I am sorry to those people in this industry, you may want to advert your eyes right now.....but if you are a small business owner I would not recommend this now.  First of all you have no idea if it is worth it, or if the numbers that the publication guarantees are real.  Advertising can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.  Magazines are going out of business every week due to the number of readers declining steadily.  They need advertisers and if you are a new company do not do it.  Print is dead, everyone is on line - unless you have a huge unlimited amount of cash that you would like to throw away, I would not suggest it.

Placing an ad on a blog or a website or a newsletter may be a more affordable option for you.  However, check the readers first, or better yet check the click rate.  A newsletter with 5000 readers is different than 5000 customers.  Blogs, newsletters and websites pop up every day - which ones have people with money or just people with eyeballs?  I belong to many groups and read posts, boards etc.  everyone claims to have tons of readers....few can prove it.  If you are rolling your eyes and saying I don't know, just make sure and ask for proof of readers and of past advertisers.  Find out from them what the success rate of the champaign was. 

Local advertising in a newspaper might be a cheap route to go, or even a radio ad.  I still say both are risky.  Well established companies advertise - not small companies.  And an advertisement once won't do any good - it is repetition, so again how much money do you want to spend on a campaign?

Get a Publicist

Okay yes this is a good way to go to get your brand out there and I admit we have used them in the past.   However, you do not need to hire one.  I have read that some work on a case by case basis - if they get you press then you pay.  This sounds great to me, however you still have to pay for something you could do yourself.  And, if times are slow then do something productive.  Why not write a bunch of pitches now, or look at stories in the paper and twists them........pssst anything about the economy (good or bad, or how to help yourself or your customers could be golden) is a great way to get a journalist to listen to you.   

You can do it yourself, if you write well and are able to pitch a story about yourself or your company.  And if you don't write well - practice, re-write it and get some advice and then learn to write well.  Best press we ever got was from me doing my own publicity.   And now it is so much easier where you can get what editors and journalists are looking for sent to your email account not weekly but three times a day.  I mentioned this before - go to the HARO site (stands for Help A Reporter Out) and sign up - but pitch well.....or else.

One thing to think of before you go out there and reach for that publicity and kill yourself to get that press.  I may have heard from a very successful business owner and she said (and I quote),"All publicity does is feed the ego of the business owner - it does not change the business, sales change a business."

Hire a Life Coach of Sales Coach or Entrepreneur Coach

I have never done this, so I am just going with my gut now......really you are going to hire someone when sales are down?  This may be a good way to use your money, however maybe a better idea is to look at your product line and see what is selling and what is not.  Now is the time to expand on that line that sells and drop the one that does not.  You do not have the luxury of carrying an inventory on dead items - trust me I sure don't and neither do you.  If something is selling like crazy - make more of those.  And do not forget to send out an email to your existing customers to brag about how well they are selling.

Send Out Mailers to Your Prospects

Hmmmm......well with postal prices soaring I would say um NO.   Printing costs, graphic design costs, mailing and getting a list together to see who your prospects are.  How do you know if this campaign was a success?  You don't.  You have no way of knowing if the people you tried to reach even looked at the mailer, postcard, catalog whatever you sent.  I have done this - it is not worth it.  The success rate is around 3% - that is not enough to keep your company afloat

Why not use a newsletter program and send out an email to prospects?  This can cost pennies and can look very professional and it won't get picked up by SPAM filters like Evite or other emails that have too many addresses (again I know what I am talking about).  It looks professional, they have templates you can use or you can create your own.  You can even send it to possible prospects.

Helping Each Other Out

Lastly I would like to say in a down economy it is good to look around see who you can help, and who can help you.  Reaching out to others and realizing that your are not alone and others can relate is key.  Don't just lock up your business and walk away, don't stay on that island - get out there and join groups, find support and reach out.  There is nothing that makes me feel better than helping others....I bet if you reached out you would feel the same.  So....anyone have any other suggestions for me?

*The quote, "It's the economy stupid" is from the 1992 presidential election that Bill Clinton used against the senior George Bush.

Our First Ever Studio Sale

November 8, 2008.

Spring Cleaning in November.  What you gonna do when sales are slow and everyone is obsessed with the Economy?   Hmmm....get rid of all that crap, er I mean all those extra samples in your warehouse.  Some how I am hearing the old "Who you gonna call.....Ghost Busters." in my head as I write this.

Where there is a Will there is a Way

Now that the election is over I find that I can focus again.  However, I had this vision that once we had a new president elect that the orders would come pouring in on November 5th - just like the good old days.  We can do about 30% of our business during the holidays, and by holidays we mean Septbember through December.  If memory serves me right we had a little glitch if you will the end of September....and it has lasted, oh has it lasted.

Times Are Tough - Get Creative

Last year I thought a Studio Sale was a great idea, we had lots of extra products laying around.  However - we never got around to it, we were super-duper busy and it just never happened.  Now that we have this little window of free time I figured what can it hurt?  I am assuming I am not the only one that is slower than usual - and now is the time to get creative, now it the time to see what you can do.  Now is the time to make sure you do not go away and that your customers remember you when they are looking for products.

November is starting out slow (did I say that already?), we usually get busy in October and very busy in November.  Being our products are personalized and mostly ordered on line, with a few week turn around time - people order early.  This year?  Not so much.  I am not that worried - we are going to be fine (at least that is what I tell myself).  But we do have seconds, Mistakes (yes we make those too) or Trade Show samples in our warehouse that we want to get rid of:

• Thanksgiving Plates
• Christmas Picture Frames
• Holiday Coasters, Wine Coasters & Martini Coasters
• Gift Cards
• Birthday Frames
• Prints
• Birthday Plates
• Name Tiles
• Door Hangers
• Just Because Plaques
• Name Plaques
• Ornaments
• Computers, waste baskets , lamps, desks EVERYTHING MUST GO!

Kidding on that last one - just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.  Anyhoo - since this is the first time we are doing this here it is.  All orders placed on November 15th via phone or email will get 40% off your order one day only.  These are orders placed through Jamie's Painting & Design direct.   Our entire line of products are on line.  Or, if you live in the area you can mozy on down, see what we have in stock or browse through our handy dandy JPD Style Guide to pick out some gifts.  The sale is all day - all 24 hours, the Studio will only be open for three hours though (10:00 am. to 1:00 p.m.).   

The only way to get the discount is by coming in, calling or emailing.You can call 650 372-0233, You could fax 650 240-1719 or you can email us at ordersjpd@sbcglobal.net .