As a small business owner who specializes in selling eclectic handmade art and products in New Orleans, I have had the opportunity to work with many talented artists in a city known for its unique art offerings.
About a year ago, I came across an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. The project had potential for sales seeing as the work would be exclusively offered at my shop, and was also tied to the larger social responsibility of preserving an art form unique to New Orleans' famed Mardi Gras celebration.
If you've ever been to New Orleans during Carnival season perhaps you've noticed the handmade flowers and giant winged creatures that adorn the parade floats that roll by. What you probably don't know is who created them, and that these magnificent works had never been made available for public collection before.
I began to learn from a few artists who have worked behind Mardi Gras for years that they feared that the art was fading from the traditional celebration which was becoming increasingly focused on consumption and commercialization. How could I bring support to these artists, educate the public about the issue at hand and bring success to my business all at the same time?
I've worked with artists many times before so I am familiar that their nature can often make them more difficult to assemble than others. It wasn't easy, but with my encouragement, the group of artists agreed to band together to make their float art available for public collection for the first time as the Carnival Collective, starting with an installation in my store.
A few months down the line, I had worked with them to form community partnerships with area nonprofits, created New Orleans first indoor garden exhibition, had visitors to New Orleans come to my shop solely to take photographs in the "selfie garden," formed by the flowers that hang from the wall and ceilings, and developed a deeper awareness of the art and artists themselves in the community. Sales have been great as a result and will only improve as Mardi Gras nears creating extra income for the artists outside of Carnival and a unique offering at my business.
Just like any partnership in business, working with artists entails tremendous opportunities and challenges due to different management styles, personal habits, and skill sets. We often hear that you're either a creative or a business minded person. It is true that many artists prefer to focus on the art itself, but with a little push they are able look at the business side of things and monetize their talent. Being a full time professional artist is often largely entrepreneurial and requires considerable drive, so partnerships between the artist and the business minded can be more serendipitous than one might imagine.
As a small business owner, your creativity plays a large role in the success of your business, whether you are developing new products or building a new marketing plan. Lucky for me, New Orleans ranks first on a list of top U.S. cities for creatives (study by SmartAsset).
Teaming up with artists not only allows you to grow your business, but it allows you to become an integral part of the community and culture. This might seem insignificant, but culture is the collective manifestation of human intellectual achievement, and the cultural fabric of New Orleans is woven together by creativity. Once I was able to harness the creativity of the artists by getting them on the same page business wise, our goals for our project became clearer and their ideas started flowing. Suddenly we had so many opportunities we almost couldn't find the time for them all. We knew something exciting was happening and that we were gaining momentum.
I realized that small business owners and artists complement each other in a special way. Through my work with the Carnival Collective, I am more involved in charitable partnerships, reaching a wider audience, and ultimately creating positive word-of-mouth and PR for my business.
Small businesses, particularly those related to the arts, should not dismiss the contagious drive and passion of artists. Working together with creatives will ultimately be beneficial to the profitability of your business, and being able to contribute to the sustainability of the community and culture wherever you are is a benefit that will leave more than a mark in your financial reports. An opportunity to support an important cause in a beautiful way while adding value to your business doesn't come around often.
This blogger graduated from Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses program. Goldman Sachs is a partner of the What Is Working: Small Businesses section.