Want to build a thriving art practice and sell your art?

Here’s how…

Have you ever wanted to make a living selling your art but struggle with building the business side of things?

If so, you aren’t alone.

I started my first ever business in 2010 when I was on maternity leave (because, you know, having a small baby to look after wasn’t enough hard work…!).

It was a small wedding stationery business and I remember how over the moon I was to secure my first customer…

I also remember how deflated I felt when I worked out my £/hour “wage” after I’d delivered on that order.

It was a cottage-industry at best: it wasn’t very sustainable, and it CERTAINLY wasn’t scalable!

Fast forward 10+ years and I’ve tried a number of businesses on for size – in the healthcare industry (didn’t float my boat), in the crafts industry (loved that but wanted something more scalable) and now finally I’ve settled into my groove where I belonged the entire time: in the art and design industry.

Most importantly, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience along the way that I’ve been able to put into building my own creative enterprise, which I now feel called to share with others.

The problem with growing a creative business and making a living from selling your art is that you have to wear so many different hats that take your time and attention away from the one thing you’re most skilled at: creating your art!

Makes sense, right? Sometimes you’ll find yourself sitting at your desk at 4:30pm and you’ve not even picked up a paintbrush yet (or whatever your tool of choice is). It’s frustrating and it’s annoying, but it’s all too common.

To get consistent sales without losing all your time to the “administrivia” that’s

needed to keep a creative enterprise ticking over, you need to:

To have art to sell, patterns to license and a coherent body of work that’s recognisably yours, clearly you have to create a lot of pieces, but so often everything else gets in the way of doing so. This is why it’s so important to have a consistent plan of action to make sure this most important aspect of what you do gets done!

You could have the most beautiful artwork in the world, the most eclectic mix of designs, or the most coherent portfolio, but if you’re not sharing it with an audience of people who love your work and are ready to buy from you, then it’s going to be hard to make many sales! And if you don’t pitch that portfolio to companies who are actively looking for new artists to feature, then you’ll struggle to secure licensing deals!

Now obviously, all this is easier said than done, right?

You can’t normally just “create a collection and sell it” without a ton of work, effort and struggle.

Called To Create

That’s why I’ve created the Art & S.O.U.L programme which is designed to help artists, illustrators and surface pattern designers like you to build a thriving business selling their own art and licensing their work to companies by growing an engaged audience, developing a strong mindset and spending more time doing what they’re called to do: create.

In this unique programme, I’ll show you how to create a system for your workflow that makes it easy to create every day, identify the 5% of tasks that ONLY you should be doing (while you outsource the rest), and get your artwork in front of the eyes that matter to build a network of companies and customers who LOVE your work and can’t wait for your next product or design.

First, we’ll start by working through some common mindset blocks that affect all creatives. I’ll show you how to banish that “starving artist” mindset once and for all, and build a strong, confident belief in your abilities to make it as an artist, no matter what’s going on around you. You’ll learn how to build an easy-to-stick-to-daily creation discipline and never be stuck for what to draw again.

Then, we’ll look at all the different ways you can make money from your artwork – from direct selling to licensing, and all the ways in between. You’ll never again feel stuck for where to go next when selling your art.

Selling With Art & S.O.U.L

Systematise

Next, we’ll work on putting systems in place to strip out all the unnecessary tasks that YOU as the creative really don’t need to be doing, which will free you up to spend more time doing what only you can do - create your beautiful, soulful art that the world NEEDS to see.

Organise

Then, we’ll get hyper-organised. No matter if you’re a full-time stay-at-home parent or have a full-time job and can only create in the “pockets” of time stolen here and there, I’ll show you how to maximise these “time pockets” with a well-executed plan of action.

Unleash

Now comes the fun part - unleashing your creativity and scaling your business. We’ll work together to scale your sales and take YOU out of the process as much as possible so you end up with a well-oiled sales machine that works while you sleep.

Leverage

Finally, we’ll pull all of this together to create leverage - no more trading time for money. Instead, we’ll work on building passive income that pays you time and again for the one piece of work, the one collection, the one creation. All this takes time and effort, of course, but if you put in the work and follow the process, you will go from only selling a few bits and pieces here and there, to selling like a pro, pitching your work with confidence, without the chaos or the overwhelm.

And that's not all...

In addition to all of this, you’ll get 6 weeks of 1:1 coaching and accountability with me to help you integrate and implement all you’ve learned, social media templates and prompts to take the stress out of figuring out what to post, a free training on how to create mock-ups of your artwork, and a portfolio review, which you can make use of anytime within a year of signing up, so there’s no need to feel rushed. You will also get access to my exclusive Etsy sellers training to help you set up your Etsy shop and generate your first sales quickly. There is also a free printable habit tracker to keep on top of all your top priority activities for building your thriving art practice, designed exclusively for use with this programme.

If you’d like, let’s hop on a quick phone call together to see if selling your Art with S.O.U.L is right for you.

Just book a time to chat that works for you:

Book A Call

During that call, we’ll look at how your business could thrive by focusing on the 5% of activities that are key to revenue growth and what your best next steps would be if you decide to pursue this strategy.

Spots are limited, and there’s zero obligation to work with me, but if we do end up being a fit, I’ll invite you to become a private client of mine and we can work together to build the thriving creative business you dream of owning.

I look forward to speaking with you!

ALL my best wishes

Mhairi (Vari) 💝

what it's like working with mhairi

"If I were on step 0 before the course, I feel like I'm now on step 10! I managed to secure some commissions, so I've literally gone from having no work to focus on other than my own, to client work...I remember before I started the programme I was completely lost within myself...Meeting Mhairi and joining her programme gave me back my sense of purpose and drive to get going again and do what I do best."

- Holly lloyd-williams

Working with Mhairi I have learned so much from opening my own shop online, seeing my own designs that I have created on sale for the first time that's exciting. Mhairi helped me to see the behind-the-scenes content what you need to do to promote yourself and sell yourself to your audience and how your designs can be different from others help them stand out, how to create templates to SEO searches, etc lots and lots Mhairi offers in this fabulous course. Mhairi is very friendly and patient so it never felt like I was taking a course.