Moo Cards and the Business of Art
I desperately need to make some new business cards for both my Etsy shop and for my website, Colorado Art Studio. The problem is that I am doing a complete overhaul of my website and don’t have a logo or “look” that I want to advertise to the world yet. Enter Moo Cards stage left! I ordered some a few weeks ago and I just received them last week. I can’t tell you how much I like these mini calling cards (they’re about 1/2 the size of regular business cards-1″ x 2.7″). They’re a bit on the pricy side, 24.99 for 100; although that does include shipping from the U.K. They also come with this nifty solid storage container so that you can throw them into you purse, backpack or briefcase and they won’t get dirty, bent, etc.
The cool thing about these are that they’re constructed of heavy duty paper with a smooth satin finish. I thought they were made from some sort of plastic when I first got them because they’re so strong and durable, until I read the packaging. Moo Cards are made from recycled materials and are in fact themselves recyclable. The other really neat thing is that you upload your images from your Flickr account. You could feasibly print 100 different images on your order of 100 Moo Cards. I chose just 2 images, 1 of my fiber pieces and 1 of my ceramic vases. By the time these run out, I should have my new website up and running and also have new business cards freshly printed.
In other news, I registered my art business with the State of Colorado and the City of Denver. My business is now officially known as Colorado Art Studio, LLC! I haven’t made enough money in the past from my art to even make a blip on the radar; however, this year that is going to change. I have a lot of plans for the future and want to do this correctly. I want an official record of my income so that if my husband and I want to refinance or purchase a different house or maybe even a vacation home sometime, I will have an income on record. Who knows if social security will still be in existence when I need it; but at least by paying into the system I will perhaps someday be able to tap into it. These are but just a few reasons for my desire to start my business the right way.
How did I decide to organize my business as an LLC (Limited Liability Company), you might ask? I’ve been doing a lot of research and then last Saturday, after attending the “Building Creative Business Expo” in Denver and sitting in a workshop presented by Kevin Houchin I knew exactly what I needed to do. Mr. Houchin is an arts and entertainment attorney, so please visit his blog for a ton of great information regarding organizing a creative business, copyright, trade mark, public domain and other pertinant creative business information.
By the way, I am closing down my original Etsy store, DoodlesnKaboodles and am in the process of opening a new one, coloradoartstudio. Etsy doesn’t allow users to change their store name, so my only option is to close and then re-open. I am going to lose all my + feedback, all my favorites and the people who have ? me, but I’ll have to rebuild. I’ve also joined the newly formed Denver Etsy Street Team. We are going to have our first meeting March 18th. I’ll let you know how that goes later in the month.
I finally upgraded to Pro Account on Flickr
I have wanted to upgrade to a Pro Flickr account for some time now, yet I didn’t want to dip into the family funds. One obstacle is that I had pretty much drained my Paypal account over the holidays so I had to wait. Luckily a very nice woman purchased something from my Etsy store this past week, so I was able to upgrade to a pro account today. I spent the AM organizing some of my photos into sets and deleting old photos that were just taking up space.
Here’s what you get for $24.95/year:
- Unlimited uploads (10MB per photo)
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited photosets
- Permanent archiving of high-resolution original images
- The ability to replace a photo
- Ad-free browsing and sharing
Compare that to what you get with a Free Account:
- 100 MB monthly upload limit (5MB per photo)
- 3 photosets
- Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
- Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals saved in case you upgrade later)
I think it will be worth it in the long run and will offer people a way to see groupings of my work, from ACEOs to postcards to paintings and whatever else I create since I don’t stick to one medium. It felt really good to treat myself to something new today!
In other news, my good friend, Nikki from Wild on the Inside, alerted me to another cool Flickr tool the other day. Moo Cards are mini calling cards created from your Flickr photos. She ordered some for herself and is going to give us a full critique when they arrive.
Speaking of Nikki, she is one of my best friends in the whole world, but unfortunately lives far away from Denver. She married her sweet heart and now resides in the San Fransisco Bay area. She and I were flight attendants together for United Airlines and used to “buddy bid”, which means you work the same schedule as each other. It was a blast and we did manage to bring the best out in each other. One of the things we used to talk about on the jump seat was life after United and how we were going to quit and follow our bliss. We ended up doing it, but following our bliss is harder than I imagined.
She really is wild on the inside…a devoté of Burning Man and crazy funky coutour. She keeps trying to get me to commit to Burning Man, but I’m just not there yet. Why am I telling you all of this? She has just started blogging and opened a new Etsy Store.
