Spreadsheets are a powerful and creative tool. If you are not comfortable using spreadsheets, it’s time to get over that.
Video:
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Podcast:
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Video Transcript:
Hi. Craig Lambie here, the Chief IT Guru at the Auspicious Arts Incubator bringing you another Hot Tip because it’s Tuesday. This week’s theme is Spreadsheets for Artists. Watch out, that right brain of yours is jumping up and down saying oh no, I’m not going there but please calm down for a moment and take this in because it is so important to be accurate with your numbers. Not a strong suit for artists. This is why you can use a tool like Excel to make it work or Spreadsheets.
You want to do this because you’re going to be budgeting. You’re going to do grant applications and most importantly understand the cost of things in order to price your work or your services well. Of course your accountant will love you if you use a spreadsheet instead of an exercise book or a shoebox for your finances. Remember the exercise book from the last accounting Hot Tip.
The reason to use a spreadsheet is you can change a variable and because it auto sums columns and rows of numbers as per your setup it will automatically change all the other numbers in the totals and that’s why it’s so powerful. Here’s a real quick example of how you could use it.
You’re a street artist. You get a commission to paint a wall, a mural on a wall. You need to know how many cans of paint am I going to use and how much of my time do I need to invest to create that. What you might do is create a spreadsheet. First line item that you’re going to itemized is cans of paint and the number of cans. Say if you use two colors black and white and then the average cost of a can of paint. Then your next line item is your time and then the amount of hours you’re likely to spend and the cost of your time which might be say $50.
Then you can adjust those things. You can say what if I did it in 8 hours instead of 10 hours. It’s going to change the cost of doing this. What if I use three colors instead of two colors? It’s going to change the cost a little bit. Once you understand that you can actually see the numbers changing and that is so powerful for understanding and when you’re negotiating your price with your client. It’s really powerful to be able to have that information in your back pocket.
That is this week’s Hot Tip. If you’re going to use a spreadsheet that next time you’re doing a price for a commission please like this video. If you know somebody that needs to get their head the numbers and needs some encouragement please share this video with them so that they can be encouraged to have the confidence to go and learn how to use this spreadsheet.
I’d like you to write in the comments the last time that you had to work the numbers out and how you did it and how you’re going to do it next time. Write it in the comments. I’d love to have a conversation about it and I might be able to help you with a formula or a simple spreadsheet that I can shoot you over if it’s going to help you get where you need to go because here at the Auspicious Arts Incubator we want you to more than just survive as an artist we want you to thrive. In order to thrive you need to subscribe so I can see you next time and we’ll see you then.