artists can be suckers! I was THIS CLOSE to being one myself the other night

As you know, I'm an artist and I also teach artists. I'm currently putting together the curriculum for my next "Business Plans for Artists" seminar which I'll be teaching in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Just for giggles I joined in on one of those Artists' TeleSummit things which was a preview to hype registration for an online 6 week class for How to Write an Artist's Business Plan.

They were charging something like $287 for the online class. 878 people were online listening to the proprietor of TeleSummit and the instructor of the class. They had only 64 openings for the online class available and they were urging people to sign up fast! I was getting distracted trying to do up the math in my head...so I ended up jotting it down...then using the calculator....64 x 287 = $18,368

I was not impressed. Especially when someone asked about the financial section and the response was, "you can always outsource that." WHAT?! I'm not sure how you could possibly do that. And if you need to outsource that portion of you business plan...well then how, or better yet why do you think you should be in "business"?

The hosts of this feelgood Right Brain Business Plan were all about making a craft out of your plan's presentation; little boxes decorated that you could put the elements of your business plan in. Calderesque mobiles made out of paper plates with your business plan cut and pasted to it. Look I'm nearly 40 years old. I don't need to be making elementary school art-taught by the lunch mother - projects to get myself through creating a business plan. The hosts of the call reassured us that once you had made your "craft-project" business plan, if you really needed to put together something for a bank or investor, then it would all fall into place later....hummmm....

Now I'll be the first to admit, math and financials are NOT my strong point (that's why God made Microsoft Excel) . AND I'll admit, the idea of making a craft is a decent starting off point to get the juices flowing if you are that stuck. AND I'll also admit they did a great job marketing this thing - Excellent marketing.

But for goodness sake the financials and the market research!... this is the very definition of business. And I don't appreciate being made to feel like a kid who takes the short bus to school because I'm an artist. Maybe some artists like (on some psychological level) paying those vultures out there that coddle them and act as a co-dependent, reaffirming that they are not like "normal people". Maybe if I ended up paying the 287 bucks and took the online class I'd feel differently. But somehow, I think I'd just end up feeling like a sucker.