Credit Cards 101

Is it possible to be the crazy print lady as opposed to the crazy cat lady?  After all I only have two cats but almost 100 prints to spend my Friday night with.

With Art Denver less than a week out show inventory has been much on my mind of late.  When stocking inventory for a show the line I always struggle with is the balance between having enough inventory that people willing to buy things have things to buy within their price range but not stocking so much that I end up holding inventory for months.

Larry Berman has a great article on the subject <article here> but the question is still how much is correct?  With new shows its extremely difficult to determine (via the uber geeky Drake formula) how much inventory to buy and so one ends up usually overstocking.

Drake Formula...

Needed inventory = <number of people attending show> x <percentage of people that stop at your booth> x <percentage of people that buy something> x <some factor to take into account the demographic of attendees>

Art Denver, however, is a whole different kettle of fish.  On one hand its brand new, which usually draws a smaller crowd but on the other is put on by the same people that do Cherry Creek, which draws a huge, higher-end crowd.  And they're charging for admittance which will either kill attendance or draw a crowd intending to buy.  One of my best shows three years running charges for attendance.  So yes, I've probably overstocked, again.  On the other hand I heard them advertising the show on the radio last week. 

Like most artists I tend to have cash flow problems right before a show.  Art shows are what banks consider a high risk activity.  There's no true predictor of sales because a myriad of emotional factors have to be taken into account.  These can include, oh, the phase of the moon, the weather, the most recent Pinterest fad, and what everyone else at the show is selling.  So, yeah, a bad risk.  Banks want a schedule of repayment, which I can't provide until after the show.  If loans are out and you're not independently wealthy that leaves credit cards.  Its basically a loan, with interest, but not made beforehand, and its not for the faint of heart.

Here's a couple tips from experience to financing your inventory this way.

1) Have several cards.  One with (probably) a higher interest rate, a nice cash back policy or airline miles (my favorite - hello Kyoto) or some nice perk and one with a high limit and a bearable interest rate.

2)  Charge your inventory on the card with perks and then before the first month's balance is due transfer it to the card with the higher limit.  If you can time it right you can hit one of the "0% interest for X months" promotions.  Yes, there's a fee, but the fee is usually equal to the first month's interest on the perky-but-higher-interest card.  And then pay it off using sales.

We all have bad shows and slow sales months though which leads me to point 3)

3) If sales at the show are sub-par and you're now sitting on inventory (and debt) use the high-limit, low-interest card to auto-pay some service fees you're already incurring.  This allows you to then pay a lower out-of-pocket amount against the balance (because you already have the funds allocated to pay the service fees) while keeping your card provider happy.

Example > I have website hosting fees and monthly gallery fees.  Together those fees add up to half of the minimum payment required on my high-limit card.  If sales are bad for a particular month, since I've already allocated for my fees, I can put less out of pocket against the remaining required minimum.

The one tricky piece of this balancing act is that its not sustainable over multiple shows unless you're reusing your inventory.  

visit Samantha Byrnes' gallery online...