Training helps turn starving artists into successful business owners

One of the hardest things for artists can be figuring out how to do their creative work and earn a living. A Buchanan artist with 30 years experience is now teaching her peers the business side of art--how to take an idea and turn it into something that can pay the bills.

Sheryl Kosovski’s new business Artful Works, launched in January, helps creative entrepreneurs, artists, designers and craftspeople make money by teaching them how to get organized, develop a marketing strategy and stay motivated.

"The biggest challenge for business people, but particularly for artists," Kosovski says, "is understanding that what you do is worth being paid for and being paid well."

Her experience ranges from typical beginning business mistakes when she started out in 1980 to managing a $1 million company for Maya Romanoff, a leading manufacturer of innovative wall covering and surfacing materials, including a line of tie-dyed fabrics and wallpapers. There she learned that the way you envision your company correlates 100 percent to how successful you are. Along the way she found what she really loves doing is teaching creative people how to run a business.

Although intended to help artists make a living, the classes are proving useful for a wide range of creative entrepreneurs, Kosvoski says.

She offers classes, workshops, one-one-one coaching and group coaching. Classes and workshops frequently are offered and various artistic venues throughout the regions such as The Box Factory in downtown St. Joseph and Fire Arts in South Bend.

Some of the teaching events are: "Who Says You Can't Make a Living Doing What You Love?" "What Would You Do If You Could Not Fail?" and "The Visual Business Plan," which shows how to develop a business plan, creatively, in  four weeks. Her next class, "The Business of Art," begins March 3 at the Box Factory for the Arts and runs for 12 weeks.

"A lot of programs for entrepreneurs start out with a feasibility study to see if the business makes sense," Kosovski says. "I think success is built from what you want to do, what you are willing to do, and what you love to do. That's what it takes to make a success. We start with where your heart is, what you really, really want to do. And it works."

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Sheryl Kosovski, Artful Works