How much should you plan on spending to market your craft?
This is an extremely difficult question, because every business is different. Plus, because of the highly artistic businesses of many of our readers, the rules of thumb for most businesses don’t necessarily apply.
There’s a short answer and a long answer.
The short answer is a rule of thumb. Organizations use a number as high as thirty percent of the amount they expect to earn if they’re in the developmental years of the operation. This number can be reduced to ten percent once they have a full workload. For our audience, this may translate to thirty percent of income spent on any activities to gain new “clients” (bookings, gigs, sales, etc.) until you’re primarily earning your living from your craft. At that point drop the number to about ten percent to make sure people remember you’re around. You never know when suddenly a well-paying gig may come to an end. (more…)