Desperate situations call for desperate measures. And I'm in one of them. At the beginning of this year, I slowly began building an entrepreneurial art project. I hadn't painted in years, but I took it up again as a result of a heartbreak with a narcissistic person. Painting helped me heal and better navigate the process of overcoming this life and emotional crisis I was experiencing, which I'm still struggling with, although I'm feeling better. Months passed, and for the first time, I was able to fully focus on an entrepreneurial project and do things slowly, without rushing, researching, improving, etc. I managed to do the "easy" part, which took me the first 4 months: 1. Have a decent shop on Shopify with everything working properly. 2. Have a decent catalog of unique and original works, large and in physical format, and ensure a secure packaging and shipping system. In April, I started the difficult part, related to marketing: 1. Collaborate with companies: I drew inspiration from their products to paint works and thus generate interactivity and content. 2. Build an Instagram profile from scratch to do marketing, with my professional image and portfolio. Then, reality hits: the number of people painting, selling, and advertising their works is staggering. I suppose the same thing happens with other art sectors (like books...) and perhaps with everything in general. The amount of money invested to date is around €1,500, mainly for the cost of materials and the Shopify store for a year. Collaborating with companies was a relatively successful initiative, with 14 projects, but it didn't make me any money. Instagram marketing has been a disaster, as has email marketing. I haven't paid for ads because, first, I don't want to spend more and prefer to invest in materials (my budget is limited), and second, I prefer to get organic traffic. The marketing strategy was, without going into details, basic, and I have to admit I hate marketing and am basically bad at it, so I recognize I have a lot to learn and improve a lot, but that requires time, and more trial and error. Lessons learned? Essentially, if you're a nobody, if you're an unknown emerging artist, no one cares about you, so no one has any reason to buy anything. It doesn't matter if the work is "good," that it might be liked, because there are thousands of people ahead of you who are making works that are good and might be liked, but are more well-known or simply better than me. I haven't said it, but I paint abstract art. It's funny because, as I said, you can paint anything and no one cares, but it seems that if a famous or well-connected person does the same thing, they'll have no problem selling it for thousands of euros. Who the artist is matters a lot, apart from the work itself. Back to the present: I took a risk on this project and promised I would get results. Although I managed to lay the groundwork for the project and the collaborations went well, I haven't sold a single painting yet. I urgently need to sell something to prove the project can work and put financial returns on the table. Asking for help here may not be well-received, but I don't care. I need to buy time and recoup some of my investment so I can continue painting, reorganize, improve, and not disappoint the people who believed in me. This project is more complicated and time-consuming than I had thought, but I know it will work in the long term. But right now, I need a little oxygen. The price of the works is consistent with that of an emerging artist, that is, it's not expensive: the prices are between €200-€300 and basically cover the cost of materials (canvas, paints, and other materials), the time invested, the cost of packaging and shipping, and little else. There isn't much profit, but I don't mind, because what I need is to gain time and obtain financial results that allow me to defend the project and reinvest the profits. To give you some numbers: * With the sale of a €300 artwork, I can finance the cost of the Shopify store for a year. * With the sale of a €200 artwork, I can buy 6L of paints worth €100 (which will allow me to paint many future works) and two large canvases worth €100. I currently have no more paints or canvases to paint, and first, I have to sell the current ones because running out of living space in my house is also a problem. The bit about needing oxygen was literal, lol. You can find my web if you google >!starboyjavi!<. I just want to close my eyes and go to sleep, thinking about waking up and hoping a miracle has happened.