My Art Gallery Business (or Why I Have Joined the 30 Day Hub Challenge)

Today I have decided to join the Hubpages 30 Day Challenge to write one Hub per day for 30 Days. This is hub #1 in the challenge, and I am going to tell you why I have decided to make this decision.

I am the owner of a unique local art gallery in Cleveland, Ohio called Lake Erie Artists Gallery. I originally started writing articles online to help market my gallery, but soon learned that I could make money also. I am always looking for income streams that will support the bottom line income of my art gallery business, and in a tough economy like we have now in 2009, that has become even more important.

An art gallery business is in essence a retail store. Retail business was challenging before the downturn in the economy last year but afterwards many retail businesses have not survived. Since an art gallery business is not selling items that feed, clothe or shelter people, buying what I sell is not the very first thing on people's minds when they are worried about their jobs.

My art gallery business supports local artists in Cleveland, thus feeding the local economy in a different manner than you might expect. Not only that, but I buy the majority of my other services and supplies from local vendors, including packaging, art gallery display fixtures, printing, shipping, website services, and more.

Besides the dollars and cents, I also believe that art feeds the soul of everyone who views it, whether thy buy it or not, and that people need art as much as they need to eat, or almost as much. Therefore, I feel that it is both my pleasure and my duty to make sure that my art gallery business survives in this tough economy while I see other businesses fail around me.

Hubpages is one of the independent income streams that I have created to help support the art gallery for when sales do not. Right now, these income streams are still in their infancy, yet they are slowly growing. Each click of an Adsense link or purchase of a book from Amazon, drops a few more dollars and cents into the checking account for the art gallery business and makes it more stable.

I am currently making an average of $.50 to 1.00 per day on average from Adsense alone just on Hubpages. By adding another 30 hubs between now and September 15, 2009, I hope to increase that exponentially.

An art gallery business requires a business strategy just like any other business. This year, we moved our store from downtown Cleveland Tower City Center to Shaker Square on the easternmost side of Cleveland on the border of Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights.

In addition, Lake Erie Artists Gallery is offering workshops and classes, custom framing, and unique gifts by local artists in a time when people are looking to support their local economy, and spend their money on gifts that are unique and special, meaningful. We are also offering layaway, and short classes to keep the individual prices down and offer alternatives to customers who are watching their own checkbook closely.

My husband and I are in the same boat, glad that we can still pay most of our bills, and watching others lose jobs around us. Even though the economy seems to be recovering slowly now, there are still companies that are dealing with the backlash from last fall's downturn, and closing or cutting back.

An art gallery business is affected just like other retail stores by customer preferences and buying trends.  One of the advantages of a very small business like mine is that I can change my mind and quickly make changes in my business strategy.  Of course, the disadvantage is that I am only one person, so I am limited in what I can do.  But it allows me the opportunity to study customer trends, and make educated guesses as how to respond.

Any business can do this.  If you listen carefully to what customers are telling you, and you respond thoughtfully to what they are asking for, you can meet their unique needs.  Because I interact with the customers myself, I can listen to what they have to say.  I believe strongly that customers will still want to shop for gifts in unique local shops if they are convenient to them, but will shop more and more online for regular stuff including appliances, clothing, school supplies, etc.

That is why I am investing so much of my own time online with blogs, websites, and sites like Hubpages.

One of my greatest goals for Lake Erie Artists Gallery is to be accessible to any person, no matter their education or income.  Although that means that I often need to educate customers, it also means that customers can find something in our art gallery that is in their budget.  Even our greeting cards are works of art that can be framed.

I blog every few days about the day to day happenings at Lake Erie Artists Gallery, and I have included the feed to the blog below. 

If you have any questions about the art gallery business or Lake Erie Artists Gallery, feel free to ask them in the comments section below.