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MY WIFE RECENTLY GOT the chance to showcase her artistic talents at a cultural festival in Kansas City, Kansas. Lori’s craft is stained glass, and this was the first time she’d displayed her creations in public.
She began working with glass five years ago, shortly after she retired. We’ve discussed the possibility of turning her hobby into a business. She’s dreamed of selling her artwork so she could at least cover the cost of her craft.
Dreams and reality are often at odds. I know many artists who have natural business acumen. My wife only partially falls into that category, with business logistics mostly taking a backseat to her much stronger artistic talents.
The offer to participate in the festival was the push she needed. Over a couple of margaritas, I suggested she take the leap and create her own business. I know I’m biased, but her art is truly stunning, as you can see from the accompanying photos. How hard could it be to establish a presence in a crowded artistic field?
Silly me. I offered to help. We’d be a team in this endeavor.
We started by opening a business checking account. Before that first step, she always referred to me as her sugar daddy, funding her mildly expensive hobby. But at the bank where we opened the account, she introduced me as her business manager. While the cost to support her efforts was the same as before, at least I now had a title.
The weeks before the trip were hectic. Lori was excited as she worked to complete her portfolio and prepare items for traveling. Meanwhile, I contemplated the business aspects of the trip.
My wife shared her vision for how the artwork might be displayed. She envisioned ornate cases with LED lights, shadow boxes and perhaps a cabinet to hang her art. As her new business manager, I was caught off guard by her vision’s complexity and cost. I felt a wave of frugal anxiety fast approaching. I took a few deep breaths and offered a compromise.
Since I’m quite handy with tools, perhaps she’d consider a couple of handcrafted wooden boxes painted white. She leapt at the idea, and suggested the addition of mirrors to reflect natural light. And being that this was her first show, she recommended we use black painted PVC hanging racks, which could easily be created with love by her husband’s thrifty hands.
She designed a banner and business cards, commenting on how easy it was to have these quickly printed. We even created a novel email address. We were beginning to look like a bona fide business.
The week prior to the show, it dawned on me that we knew practically nothing about accepting payments. Lori admitted she was so busy that she hadn’t given much thought to how sales would be processed. With a shrug, she said I was the business manager, and she had every confidence I’d come up with a plan.
I frantically established a Square account, and created a rudimentary sales system. My first challenge was to categorize inventory. My original concept was to place items under a common heading, such as “glass.” I soon realized everything related to stained glass fell into that category.
To make matters more complicated, my artistic companion had creative names for each piece that didn’t always match its form and function. Luckily, the app included an option to use picture tags to represent items. I was able to create receipts that could be sent via email or text to the purchaser. Overall, while not my best piece of software work, it was sufficient to accomplish our goal.
While setting up for the show, the festival’s coordinator dropped off paperwork to record sales taxes collected. It never crossed my mind that Uncle Sam would be a guest at the festival. Unfortunately, I’d programmed the Square app to use our home as our business address, which meant that taxes collected would be according to Houston rates. The Kansas City rate was slightly higher, and I never did figure out how to change the automatic tax calculation on the fly. Rather, I simply told customers they were receiving a 1% price reduction on taxes as a perk for first-time buyers.
The show itself was exhilarating as well as exhausting. We gained insights into the life of a professional artist, and appreciation for how hard it is for creative individuals to make money. I’m not sure the experience convinced us to become fulltime entrepreneurs, although we would consider showcasing my wife’s talents again if the right opportunity arose closer to home.
Lori’s stained glass was well received, which validated her later-in-life artistic endeavor. In addition, we sold enough pieces to more than cover the cost of the trip.
We also realized that we’d created a business on a whim, jumping into the fray without a business plan or an evaluation of our combined strengths and weaknesses. I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like to run a business. Luckily, we aren’t financially dependent on the success of this particular venture. For us, it’s a bonus if the business generates extra spending money, and it allows me to share in my wife’s love for her craft.
Now, if we could only figure out how to design a website.
Jeffrey K. Actor, PhD, was a professor at a major medical school in Houston for more than 25 years, serving as an academic researcher with interests in how immune responses function to fight pathogenic diseases. Jeff’s retirement goals are to write short science fiction stories, volunteer in the community and spend time in his garden. Check out his earlier articles.
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Hi Jeff,
Sorry, catching up on reading some blogs and yours stuck out to me.
Some simple advice. Just help Lori by reminding her to concentrate on what brings her the most joy. If you don’t know what that is, find out.
If it’s creating art, then she should focus on being a creator, if it brings her joy to show off her pieces, then instagram or facebook might be great for showing off – I use both. I know that creations can take up space – trying to deal with that on my own – my hobby art is growing (hot glass – vases/bowls). and I’m shipping off a couple of pieces today – horray!
My next goal is to get an etsy account that I can link to instagram and drive people to the site if they want to purchase the piece that they want. Right now, it’s people contacting me directly after they see something that they just have to have. I’m definitely a hobby artist, more inspired by the creating unique art than by making a living at it. Just sell enough to help pay for studio time.
For me my joy comes by waking up in the middle of the night with an idea, visualizing the creation steps in the morning, planning out who I need to help create it and then enjoying the product out of the annhealer. I have the luxury of having a fiber artist by my side, so she helps me on complex pieces that require patterns/color combinations. Also have an arts center that I can use to be a creator. And I have a community of artists that help me create, everything from pulling cane to the end product. That community is very important and one of the reasons I enjoy what I do.
So please encourage Lori to chase whatever brings her joy – it’s important.
cheers.
Matt, Sage advice indeed! It is a joy to watch her when she is in her ceative mode, and I will keep your comments in mind as we move forward.
Thanks for this nice read and the beautiful art photos, Jeff. When my husband and I formed an S-corp business partnership back in 2008, my friends and ex-work colleagues would tell me “I could NEVER work with my spouse!” seeming to predict imminent doom to our marriage. Now, it’s fun to learn about how many of my friends are teaming up with spouses on creative endeavors in retirement, often with one spouse acting as the logistics person.
My earliest role as logistics person for my writer-husband (who was great at delegating, like your wife, it seems) was setting up a WordPress website for him. In the years since, I’ve done many websites for solopreneurs like him who needed help telling their “story” online. And yes, photos are often a big stumbling block for them (both creatively and financially).
Here’s my two cents on a website, if you haven’t started on that yet. As others have commented, Etsy is a good idea in terms of a proven marketplace platform with great search and sales software. It’s also a super-crowded marketplace these days, where “bestsellers” grab all the eyeballs and discoverability for your wife’s work would be a miracle. If you decide to go the route of buying your own domain and creating your own website, I would suggest using Wix.com, an all-in-one domain/website-builder/marketplace platform made for solopreneurs who don’t want to deal with all the plugins and maintenance of self-managed WordPress. Wix gives you choices of “artist’s portfolios” with sales ability (thanks to the Square payment system you have), and it’s quite easy for the artist to upload new work and make changes.
Maybe as an unexpected retirement project, Jeff, you could set up both an Etsy shop and a bespoke Wix site under your wife-the-artist’s full name (it’s always good to own your name). While it’s not free, setting up and running these little portfolio shops can be fun and creative and will use your logistics mind, too. If the site is under your wife’s name, just make sure to use the term “stained glass” liberally throughout the text for Google SEO purposes. /end of two cents/
Laura, I appreciate your “two cents”. Thank you. We will look into Wix, and maybe even try a two prong approach as you suggested. Great idea!
Best of luck, Jeff, to both you and Lori. Her work is beautiful. Just yesterday, my grandson and I were reminiscing about our visit to the Chihuly Glass Museum in Seattle. I enjoyed reading today’s comments and I bet Lori will be happy when you relate how much interest and good advice your article generated. 😊
Linda, thanks! My wife is also a Chihuly fan. We hope to travel to the Seattle Museum on a future excursion.
Jeff,
Lori’s art IS stunning. It’s quite beautiful.
And … while I love the HD website … when it comes to her Art I don’t think I am biased about it.
Her Art is wonderful!
Thank you!
The previous owner (who had the house built) of our current house liked to work with stained glass, and left some of her artwork behind. One particular favorite is in the form of an interior storm window, so it’s always visible from the front of the house. I think it adds a very personal and unique touch of class to the place, and will always be on display as long as we live here. It looks like your wife has a good eye for this stuff, hopefully she’ll get much joy in pursuing her passion! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. Whenever we pass houses with stained glass art, I always try to imagine the history behind the piece. They do lend a unique touch to the home.
The art looks lovely. You should be able to establish a website at WordPress with minimal effort, but the Etsy suggestion is likely a good one.
The regulations for a business probably vary by state. I believe in mine you just need to register your business name (Doing Business As), and get a separate tax id from the IRS. Of course, there’s always the cash option…
Yes, it looks simple enough to establish a website. The hard part for us is the photography, but it is an issue we should be able to resolve. I will have to keep the HD readers updated if/when the site goes live (with Jonathan’s permission, of course). And…. now I better understand the saying “cash is king”!
In one of your comments you mentioned that sales of the art at least covered the expenses of the festival. Arithmetically this might be correct, but the IRS might have a different view. Lots of people make things and sell them. However, in order to deduct the expenses you have to have a “real” business. To the IRS, this generally means that your business reports a profit on your tax return for two years out of each five that it is in operation. Among the expenses that you must deduct in this calculation are Self-Employment taxes. And of course, you need a business license from your local government. Additionally, you need to keep books, buy insurance, including general and product liability insurance to protect your personal assets. If you use your vehicle in the business, your auto insurance carrier will want more $$ as well.
If you cannot meet the 2 in 5 year requirement, you have a hobby not a business, and all the revenue is income. Nothing wrong with having a hobby lots of people do.
If you continue to want to go the business route, I suggest you visit the SCORE website at SBA.gov and get some help to come up with a real business plan. In business like many other activities, many are called, but few are chosen.
Thank you for the business info and insights. Ours is certainly a hobby at this point, and (at least for this year) we will report the income in the appropriate way.
It might be a little easier than that, Jeff. Businesses can have startup costs, they don’t all make it, and you have 5 years to meet the 2 in 5 year requirement :-). Lots of people have businesses like this, as you might imagine. The fact that you have sales immediately makes you a business, as you are required to report these sales as business income, minus the related expenses of your business. You even have a business checking account (not that it’s necessary to be in business!) I hope you can both have fun with it though :-).
This is why many people like your wife join platforms like Etsy. The fees may seem high, until you try to do all the operational work yourself….then you say yes, this is a reasonable deal.
Very nice art indeed.
Thanks!