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Art + Audience
Ep. 15: Avoid This Costly Mistake: Insights from Mable Tan’s Art Business Journey
00:21:54
Today, Stacie is joined by Mable Tan, a surface designer from Melbourne, Australia, who transitioned from photography to art licensing. Mable candidly shares her journey through major career pivots, the impact of closing her successful Etsy shop, and...
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- [00:00]
Stacey Bloomfield
Hey friend.
- [00:01]
Unknown
Are you ready to pitch your artwork for art licensing? Then I have the thing for you. Presenting my brand new art licensing pitch Playbook. This free email course gives you everything you need to start pitching your artwork for licensing while leveraging your already awesome work into the next level of profitability and possibility. I'm going to teach you the five biggest mistakes that keep artists from crafting irresistible pitch emails, reaching out to their dream partners, pitching their work with confidence, gaining experience with collaborations, and building an art business that they love to run. So if you're ready to kickstart your art licensing business, visit artlicensingplaybook.com and I will send you my free 5 day email mini course. I can't wait for you to try it out.
- [00:49]
Mabel Tan
Bye. No one prepares you for tax. I knew that this was coming at my back, my head. But this was during the time when there was lockdown. I had to go to the one closest down the street and that was probably a red flag and just pick an accountant and say, look, this is my situation. I explained my whole thing to him and he said, yep, yep, I got this. When it came to tax, I got slugged with this huge, huge bill because he didn't take me seriously, he didn't take my business seriously, he didn't take what I told him seriously, and I felt like totally betrayed.
- [01:28]
Stacey Bloomfield
Wouldn't it be nice if your art.
- [01:30]
Unknown
Business loved you back? Hi, I'm Stacey Bloomfield. After years of trial and error and late night doodling, I went from being a coffee shop manager to running a vibrant seven figure art business that I love. And now I'm on a mission to help more artists create an art business that they love too. So I invite you to find a cozy spot, pull out your favorite sketchbook, and listen in. It's never too late to chase your creative dreams. Welcome to the Art plus Audience podcast. Hello.
- [02:00]
Stacey Bloomfield
Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Art plus Audience podcast where I'm trying to help artists all over the world learn how to run an art business that they love and one that loves them back. I'm excited because today I am here with a special guest, Mabel Tan. Hi, Mabel, how are you?
- [02:19]
Mabel Tan
I really well, Stacy.
- [02:21]
Stacey Bloomfield
Well, Mabel, thank you for agreeing to come on and chat because one of the big cornerstones of Art plus Audience is not just helping artists learn how to build businesses, but how to maybe avoid some of those big mistakes that so many people have made in their careers that have come before you, or even how to realize that, like, you're going to make Your own oopsie mistakes as you're growing a business. And that's okay, no matter how painful they may be in the moment. Right, Mabel?
- [02:54]
Mabel Tan
Absolutely. I think it all happens for a reason. I like to always think on the positive side of it. It's there to make us stronger.
- [03:02]
Stacey Bloomfield
Absolutely. Of course, in hindsight, we're always thinking. I think. I wish someone had told me about that sooner. But I think if you don't experience something on your own, you just. You don't even know what questions to ask first. Actually, I should back up, Mabel. Tell everybody a little bit about, like, who you are and what you do.
- [03:20]
Mabel Tan
So I live in Melbourne, Australia. So if anyone's from Australia listening to this.
- [03:25]
Stacey Bloomfield
Hello.
- [03:26]
Mabel Tan
And I actually moved from Malaysia to Australia maybe close to 20 years ago. So I am a Malaysian Chinese. So for people who don't know, I was actually a writer and I became a photographer, and now I am a surface designer. And it was born out of necessity because I was traveling a lot with my husband and we went to a lot of places. And he said, why don't you take photos of this and sell those prints on Etsy? Those moments I looked at him thinking, like, are you crazy? Like, no one would buy my prints. But I did that anyway. And I saw my prints on Etsy for, I think, a good five, six years. And I actually made, you know, a good income through that. And then we had our baby boy and we decided, like, okay, let's just stop this and spend some time with my son. And I did bit of a mistake and closed my Etsy shop for about eight months. Now, eight months is a long time on any platform, whether it's an Etsy shop or social media. So what happens is the algorithm, which I never known this word before until later, algorithm, just stops sending traffic to the Etsy shop. And since then, like, the Etsy sales when I reopened, it was terrible. It tanked. It was, you know, nothing close to what I used to make on a regular basis. So I had to quickly pivot and find a different way of making money. And I always loved fabric. I always love going to a stationery shop holding, like, gift wrapping paper. I love fabric even though I couldn't sew. And, yeah, I just went down that rabbit hole and decided to teach myself surface design. And that's basically how I started my journey as a surface designer.
- [05:17]
Stacey Bloomfield
And you make gorgeous art. You and I have so much in common about those beginning stages, because you and I both were Etsy sellers, big sellers. You and I both kind of stepped away a little bit whenever the sales slowed down. Like, if you're not feeding the beast, something like that, like, it all just kind of fell apart. And around the same year that you were pivoting, that's when I was pivoting in my business, trying to figure out, like, what the way to make my business more like, stable and sustainable without adding a lot of overhead. And I'd already started art licensing at that point. But that's about the time you started really considering art licensing, right, Mabel?
- [05:54]
Mabel Tan
Yeah, absolutely. So I didn't even know, like, I dabbled with online, like Redbubble and what else? Society 6. I was already on Society 6 at that time, and I was doing the dropshipping model through Society 6. So I would upload my art on Society 6 and then put the listing on Etsy and then I would send the product to the customer through Society 6. So I was doing a little bit of that. And I knew what was out licensing a little bit because at the same time I was with another company called Danny designs, who's now Society 6 have bought over and they license with Target. And I that's how I got my things into Target and Nordstrom and a couple of the like, American market, which I wouldn't have been able to do it myself. But that was my first taste of art licensing. And I was like, really hooked. Like, how do I get into more retail markets? So that was, that was quite a fun thing to do for me. And I was like, let's learn more. And I just kept learning and buying courses of the courses. Just learn about it.
- [07:00]
Stacey Bloomfield
Well, that's where I know that we met because you took leverage your art and then you became an affiliate. And I have loved watching you grow your business, but it hasn't always been easy because it's like, you'll get one win and then there'll be a series of, like, new things that you have to deal with that you're not expecting. And I will say I don't typically stand still in my business and I don't think many people do either because there's a lot of pivoting whenever you are selling online or pitching your work and just trying to keep up with all the changes in the industry. It can feel like a lot. But if you love what you're doing, I think it's still rewarding and I still love licensing. But that brings me to the big oops, oops that you experience. So do you want to tee it up for me, Mabel?
- [07:44]
Mabel Tan
So this was a huge lesson for me. And I guess, you know, I always had the huge ambition to grow. Like, I wanted to know, like, how am I going to get into a big store like Target? That was my main aim. And when finally the day came for me to actually collaborate with the company, like, and have my products out into the whole of Australia, a whole line from sheets to canvas, prints to water bottles, it was such a dream come true. But no one prepares you for tax. I knew that this was coming at my back, my head. But this was during the time when there was lockdowns. And it's not that I could walk into several accounting firms and say, you know, this is my situation, and stuff like that. I had to go to the one closest down the street, and that was probably a red flag, and just pick an accountant and say, look, this is my situation. I explained my whole thing to him, and he said, yep, yep, I got this. When it came to tax, I got sluck with this huge, huge bill because he didn't take me seriously. He didn't take my business seriously. He didn't take what I told him seriously. And I felt, like, totally betrayed because, like, I knew this was coming. That's why I went to an accountant, because I used to do all my accounting by myself. I went. I did my bookkeeping by myself. And this time I thought, oh, well, I think it's time to hire an accountant. And this accountant did such a bad job that I'm going to disclose the figure because I think it's important to be really transparent about this. So my tax bill that year was $80,000.
- [09:25]
Stacey Bloomfield
Oh, Mabel, that breaks my heart. And you did what so many artists are afraid to do. You were like, well, I'm going to try to handle this the right way. So I'm going to hire someone because I had a big year, and I want to make sure that I am prepared. And then you work with someone. Sounds like they didn't take the time to even really look at your business. They must have just done the bare minimum work required to be hit with that kind of unexpected tax bill. Just like, I got, like, the sad goosebumps, like, the. Oh, my gosh, what did you do?
- [09:58]
Mabel Tan
Well, I cried. I cried for a long time. Took. I took some time to grieve. You know, it took me a while to actually get over the sadness. I told myself, if I can make this money, I can make this money again. And I was determined to somehow find a way to get that there. And the first thing I did was fire that accountant. And the next Thing I did was to really, at that time we were out of lockdown. Me, my husband, we could go out and like, look at other accountants. And I read the Google reviews very, very closely and just interview a couple of people. And that's when I found my current accountant. He deals with my bookkeeping. And it's a smallish firm, but they're really sweet. They actually do, like, care about my business. So I've been with them for two years now, and I'm very happy with them because they took the time to sit down and just structure my business and explain to me very carefully why they do what they do. So I think that the moral of the story is, I think, you know, at some point when you know that your business is growing, is really important to take the time and you are now a business owner. You're no longer just an artist. You have to take your business seriously and find someone who just who takes your business as seriously as you do.
- [11:23]
Stacey Bloomfield
Absolutely, Mabel. I couldn't agree more. I'll self disclose a little something about my business and accountants and how important this is because for so many years I had a great accountant and he was local, and he even came to my studio and helped me understand things. And I felt so safe and good with him, and it was great. And then he took a job working elsewhere. And so I was in between like an accountant that I really knew to finding a firm for my growing business that understood art, because art businesses and selling online and all these things. Like, not every accountant understands how to handle like these kind of online transactions and the taxes that come with that. There was a whole year where I hired someone on contract to help with our books. And every time I would look at my profit and loss statement, I'd be like, hey, where's there? It says there's like several hundred thousand dollars in this account that I don't own. Where is this? Where is this? Like, oh, no, no, no. That's a holding account for like wholesale orders. And once people pay and close the net 30, then that goes away. And so I kept checking it, and finally it was like the day before Christmas. And I finally was like, I think there's something wrong here. And I went through every transaction my company had every single transaction on my own. And I spent Christmas doing that. And I discovered we did not have a $200,000 imaginary surplus in a bank account that I didn't even know about. No, duh. This accountant was mistaken. And of course I did not work with that accountant after that because they were Just like, my bad, my bad. And I'm like, my bad. I've been paying you every single month. And, you know, I very rarely talk like ill of anyone. I've had a negative experience, and I. And I don't even necessarily blame this person because, you know, they were doing me a solid. I needed a new accountant, but I hadn't shopped around. I was in a rush. I hadn't found someone who I think was a really good fit. And I was just trying to plug a hole. I was so busy. I was like, yay, someone has stopped the bleeding. Who can help me with this? You have to find the right fit for the type of business you have, and you have to have a really good working relationship if someone's going to be helping you manage your money.
- [13:32]
Mabel Tan
There are so many types of accountants out there and not, like, exactly what you said. Not everyone understand what an archer's business is. Not anyone will know, like, how to handle, like, foreign transaction ads, because, like, we, as art licensing artists, we license with companies from all around the world, not just, you know, where we're from. And so you need to have an accountant that could actually know how to, you know, manage that fund for you and know what to do. The moral of the story is I learned it the hard way. I wish someone could talk to me about that. I think it's something that I have always been afraid of, to be honest. Like, I think as artists, that is not one of my strongest suit, at least doing my own accounts and bookkeeping and stuff like that. But at the same time, I think it's worth learning a little so you have the basic and understanding about it. Just like you knowing a little bit of legality when it comes to contracts. So all those really tough things are really important to learn.
- [14:33]
Stacey Bloomfield
And I think that my experience is the avoidance is so real with creatives because it is not a comfortable area. We don't feel confident there. And frankly, like, we're told, get QuickBooks, get fresh books, get something like that and plug it in. But, like, what else do you do? Like, we're not accountants and we're not trained. And what I'm even finding is rules change online faster than even my accountants know what to do with. Especially, like, now. I know you teach online and you help people, but that opens up a whole other can of worms, which I should probably have an accountant come on the podcast sometime and put our minds at ease a little bit. So what do you think? If someone today is, like, sitting here and they're hearing the story. And they're like, I've been avoiding my bookkeeping. Now hearing this, I don't know what to do. What advice are you going to give to someone who might be listening and like, needing some guidance so that they don't make the same mistake as you? Aside from vetting, what would you tell them so that they can feel like a little bit more brave?
- [15:32]
Mabel Tan
Anyone's listening into this. And if you've been avoiding the whole accounting thing for a while, my advice is best to pull the bandaid a lot sooner than later and just, you know, talk to a few accountants, good accountants. They won't charge you a lot for just having a consultation with them. And if you take your business seriously, I think it's really worth spending some time talking to a bookkeeper or accountant, especially if it's something that is something you don't enjoy at all. That is one of the things I was most readily to pan off to someone. I will admit this verse, because it is not my strong suit. My strong suit is in marketing and art licensing and drawing my account. You could just do this yourself. I'm like, no, I would rather spend the time doing what I'm good at than, you know, something that I struggle with all the time. So interviewing an accountant is important. Them having a good look in your business and understanding what you do is important.
- [16:36]
Stacey Bloomfield
And you know what I would advise again, we are not accountants or CPAs, so we're giving our own experience. It's for educational purposes, but we're obviously not your accountants or bookkeepers. So take this with a grain of salt. But I actually think the best time to start working with someone is whenever you are just starting to make money, whenever it's small. Because by the time I had to bring in, like, the bookkeeper I'm with now, which they're great. I mean, my business is so complex now, after 15 years of being built up and having different income streams, that just to get someone up to speed with what I'm doing is like, it's a beast. So starting whenever you are smaller, whenever your overhead is lower, at the very least, track your expenses and your income. You're not going to pay for a program. A spreadsheet will do just fine. I just use spreadsheets for the first several years. So start sooner than later. And when your business is smaller, it doesn't cost as much because it typically is like a time thing. Is that what your experience has been too, Mabel? They charge for their time?
- [17:37]
Mabel Tan
Yeah, basically, very much so. And so you don't Pay as much as you have to as a bigger company. One of my biggest advice to anyone is to keep your transactions separate from your personal transaction. So if you can just open a separate account and use only business transactions with that card, that would make your bookkeeping a whole lot easier.
- [18:00]
Stacey Bloomfield
Oh my gosh. I 100% agree. I try to keep even at this point now separate income streams in separate accounts so that I don't mix it up. So my transactions for each thing are coming out of the same place that the money that gets deposited in comes into. And it makes it very simple to then download those, you know, statements at the end of each month and know exactly where I'm spending money and where I have opportunity to cut costs. I do think though that for creatives, the financial part we're so anxious about like breaking into the industry and the making the money and to get in that first licensing deal. But if you do yourself a favor and keep control of this from the beginning, it's like a non negotiable in your business. It's not something that you can put off. When I was doing my own accounting early on, I would set a date with myself and I would do it like the first week of each month and I would force myself to sit down and go through and categorize and put things into my spreadsheet. And you know, there's probably months where I didn't do it perfectly. I definitely had to catch up a few times. But if you make it a non negotiable, then you're going to have that first step towards actually treating your business like a business. Whether you're making $500 or $5,000. Right?
- [19:17]
Mabel Tan
Yeah, I think it's a total mindset thing as well. Like if you lay the foundations properly at the very start and you tell yourself that you're taking yourself seriously as an artist and a business person, I think that just attracts a lot of opportunities for you to become a business. So I think it's really important to have that foundation down path. Right. As a Capricorn, I think foundations is always very important for me. Structure, system, foundation. If when I have that set up right, I feel like I can take on the world.
- [19:51]
Stacey Bloomfield
Girl, fellow Capricorn here, all that is to say is you're right. A solid foundation and having like it all set up seamlessly makes it a lot easier for me to slide in and out of like tasks into task switch, which I think is really challenging for so many people. Since we're on the topic, any other juicy bits of advice that you would give our aspiring creative entrepreneurs who might be listening.
- [20:12]
Mabel Tan
I think it's important to actually have a schedule of some sort. If you can actually just schedule like 10 minutes of art making, is that if that's all you can do for the moment, put that in your calendar. Because when, if it's important enough to schedule something in, you will do it. But if you're just telling yourself, you know, I think today I might have some time to make art, I'll make art today. If you don't like put that into your schedule, you're just not going to take yourself seriously.
- [20:43]
Stacey Bloomfield
I agree. I really try to teach people, especially the ones who have full time jobs, how to, you know, create margin in their life to make progress towards their goals. Goals. And the key to doing that obviously is, you know, everyone has different life situations and schedules, but we have to make the most of what we have available. So if you take little baby steps towards like setting yourself up for success, if you set this the time aside to go get it done, you'll get it done so much faster. If you sit down and it's just like you've not even thought about it. People have that blank canvas effect where then they waste their time and then they're like, man. And then they get sad. Right?
- [21:20]
Mabel Tan
Yeah.
- [21:21]
Stacey Bloomfield
Mabel, where can everyone follow you? Like maybe where's your YouTube channel? If they want to go support you online, where can they find you?
- [21:27]
Mabel Tan
Yeah, so my Instagram is probably one of the best places to find me is Mabel tan designs. My YouTube channel is the same handle, mabel10designs. And yeah, all my TikTok is exactly the same. And you can just follow me on Instagram. I will love that.
- [21:45]
Stacey Bloomfield
People, please do go give Mabel a follow. She is a delight. And you know, with that, thank you for being a guest here and sharing your wisdom and just your openness. It's going to help a lot of creatives I know to face their fears. And I bet we'll be getting emails from people who are like, I listen to Mabel and I got my books taken care of. So Mabel, I'm excited. And everybody be sure to tune into our next episode of the Art plus audience podcast. And if you feel so inclined, you could leave us a review. If you like this episode. Thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you later. Bye.
- [22:18]
Unknown
Thanks so much for tuning in. Hey, could you do me a favor? Could you subscribe to this podcast and then share it with one of your best art friends? I'd really appreciate it and then head on over to Instagram and follow me at the leverageyourart account, and you can keep up with all of our future episodes. Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to have you here listening and learning.
- [22:40]
Mabel Tan
Bye.