I recently received a suggestion for a blog post from the cryptically named “GL”:
I’d love to see a post about strategies you utilize for anticipated “slow” or “off” seasons.
For many of you, the deep winter is the off season. Because my gallery is located in Scottsdale, and because Arizona is so blazing hot during the summer, our art season is exactly the opposite of a lot of other art markets who do most of their business during the summer. Our traffic declines dramatically during the summer, and, as a result, so do our sales.
Our summer slow-down is long too. People often ask me when our “off” season is, and I reply that it begins when the temperatures climb above 105° fahrenheit and ends when the temperature drops back below 105°. This usually corresponds with dates in mid May and mid October. This means that we have five long months without much activity in the gallery.
[In 2019 we opened a second gallery in Pinetop, AZ, which is busy during the summer and slow during the winter. This helps us keep busy year-round, but each of the galleries still has its own off season.]
There are a number of implications of a slow season. First, we really have to make hay while the sun shines during our busy season. We have to make enough sales to cover our overhead and save up a reserve to carry us through the slow summer months.
Second, it means our Scottsdale gallery staff has a lot of time on their hands during the summer. During the season we have a constant flurry of activity. We have days where we will have hundreds of people through the gallery, each one of them requiring attention and follow-up. During the summer we have days where we may only have one or two people through the gallery. The difference in activity can be somewhat shocking.
Many of you also experience slower times in your business as the art market in your local area enters a slower time of year. Allow me to share some of the activities we engage in during the slow times – activities that you might find helpful as you are planning for your slow times.
- We follow up with customers. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. As I mentioned before, during our busy season the volume of traffic can be overwhelming. We do our best to follow up with every customer right after we interact with them, but our off season is a great time to follow up with the ones who didn’t respond, or who told us they weren’t quite ready to buy. I’ve mentioned before that I feel that most artists and gallerists aren’t following up enough with their customers. Off season can be a great time to improve your follow up. Don’t feel awkward if it’s been a while since you last reached out to a customer – dash off an email or pick up the phone. Even though it’s already hot here, June usually ends up being a very good month because of all of the sales we close using follow-up techniques.
- We plan for the season. We use the off season to schedule shows, review portfolios, and schedule our gallery display for the upcoming season. As an artist you can use off season time to prepare for shows and art festivals you might be participating in. We use the summer to build up our inventory by having artists ship us work. You can build up your inventory by focusing your off season on production.
- We take a vacation. Let’s face it, to be successful in this business, you have to work very, very hard. I take advantage of the off season to spend time with my family and to see the world. This last summer we spent time in the mountains at a cabin, and Carrie and I got away together to Georgia and South Carolina. Xanadu director Elaine went to Europe. I find that down time recharges my batteries and gets me excited to get back to work when the time comes.
- We focus on internet sales. Fortunately, the internet has no off season, and over the last several years we’ve seen an ever-increasing growth in our internet sales. During the off season we put even more emphasis on our efforts to generate online activity and sales. Our Catalogue has helped us increase sales activity year-round, including during our off-season.
- We tackle big projects. The summer is also a time for us to get to those projects that we keep putting off during the busy season. The abundance of uninterrupted time available during the summer is a great time to update inventory records, organize storage, catch up on bookkeeping, and a host of other unappetizing but necessary tasks.
I think perhaps the greatest challenge of the off season is that it’s very tempting to let momentum slip away. I try to work just as hard during the summer as I do the rest of the year. Those long, slow months can either be a liability or an asset. I work very hard to make them pay off.
What Do You Do To Take Advantage of Your Off Season?
What activities have you found to be most useful during your off season? How do you prepare for your busy season during your slow time? How do you keep your slow time from slowing down your business growth? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments below.
I’m just happy to hear that there are artists and art dealers who can differentiate the two seasons. If you experience an off-season, that must mean you also experience a busy season. That’s great in today’s environment.
In my off season (Jan-April) I paint and write and in a normal year take a vacation to somewhere exotic or inspiring. Last year I didn’t get further than KC and STL and Chicago. Basically to see museums in the brief window when they were open. I also take time to organize my artwork and my studio and the inside of my brain. And of course I continue to promote my work on social media.1-phil-strang.pixels.com.
I’m in my slow season right now. I’ve been looking forward to it. I have a show scheduled for November and am way behind in production. My show not only involves studio time but setting up photo shoots, so I’m hitting it big time write now. I also plan on revamping my website, working on my business taxes, writing and scheduling blogs, and editing my husband’s manuscript for his second book. I really like your suggestion of reaching out to past clients and fence sitters during this time. And I’m also researching grants and other galleries.
Off season for me is Jan – March. I paint through the year but this time is used to gather a fresh approach to the new calendar year, revamp my website and keep in touch with subscribers through newsletters and social media. Writing and marketing uses a different part my the brain and takes a unique energy than painting so I block in specific days or times for these tasks so I can do them thoroughly and enjoy that aspect of this life, otherwise by brain hurts 🙃
The off season for me is a time write studio goals for the year, think about new themes I might explore, and clean the studio. I like talking with another artist friend and sharing those goals. We check in every month and see how things are going. Do we need to shift our goals a little? Maybe have notecards made of a favorite painting? New business cards? Enter a contest? I also try new colors and tools. I go through old paintings that did not sell and destroy work that is not good. A clean studio seems to inspire new work and clear thinking for me. It is also a time to take an online class, upgrade technology and order books to inspire and improve. It is a great time for a vacation and renewal.
thank you for your generosity in sharing this.
This year is unique for me in that I am self-imposed quota to make 30 pieces of art work this year, both hanging and sculpture, I got 9 done so far. Gotta make a new website. My last website became unspported by the program I bought. Then start hunting galleries for representation. My shop gallery is open most days and traffic is slow. Part of the reason for the push for represantation. Should be a challenging and interesting year for me and my art. Enjoy life my friends, Jim
Jason, you are making me wish I had an off season. I’m not sure I do. I am represented by a couple of galleries that have a strong summer season but no real winter season, and another gallery that has a winter-spring season but slow summer-fall season. That was part of my planning to get gallery sales income spread throughout the year. Since I paint mostly smaller works that tend to move quickly, it seems that I am busy painting and re-supplying the galleries pretty much year-round. In the summer I paint en plein air at events and competitions. My off season should be fall, but then I’m preparing for the holiday sales and shows and mounting a once-a year studio open house event. I realize how lucky I am to have work that moves through the galleries and many opportunities to paint, but an off season would be a nice benefit. I am thinking that I there’s no “off season,” maybe I can identify periods a couple weeks long through the year that are opportunities to catch up on marketing and client-sed activities.
I’m working hard to search new avenues,during my slow season.Jan- March.Such as indoor events.The goal is try not to have a slow season.Good luck with that huh😁🤣👍
Since the end of 2023, I have had steady sales in our coop gallery. Other artists want to know my “secret” to success. I have posted new work, paintings in progress, news when I sell, and respond to other artists all the time on Facebook.
Interesting that half the sales have been online. So important to keep yourself out there (and I have had a couple of scam artists). For collectors who don’t use FB, I reach out with news of shows, etc. by taking the time to send a personal note. I can’t emphasize too much how reaching out to previous buyers can be. Thank you, Jason!