Business Idea Center:
Mobile Art Gallery

Business Overview

Art is big business, and starting a mobile art gallery can put you on the road to riches. Take a traditional art gallery; place wheels on it and you have this business opportunity in a nutshell. Maybe it is not that simple, but pretty close. In this enterprise you will want to work with perhaps a hundred artists or more. This is a volume-based operation. Once you have selected the artists, begin to establish locations where the artworks will be featured. Good locations include doctor office waiting rooms, office lobbies, restaurants, hospitals and all other high-traffic gathering places. The art can be displayed in these locations with a small card on each piece, which reads, “this art is for sale, for further information call (your business name and a toll-free 1-800 number).” When a potential customer calls to inquire about a particular piece of art for sale, you simply sell the art over the phone and arrange delivery to the purchaser. If a piece sells for $100 then you would give the artist $50, the host location $10 and keep $40 for yourself. As you can see, on a volume basis there is enormous potential for profit. Imagine if you had 100 locations selling just two pieces of art per month at an average sale price of $150—you would stand to make more than $10,000 every month. requirements: Operating a mobile art gallery business requires excellent cold calling, presentation, organization and negotiation skills. You will also need reliable transportation and a computer system to track and maintain customer files and inventory lists. start-up costs: The investment to set this business enterprise in motion is minimal: $8,000 to $10,000 will be sufficient to purchase any required equipment and leave enough working capital to operate on for a few months while the business is being established. profit potential: Charging a flat commission of 40 percent for you, and generating gross sales of $250,000 per year will generate business revenues of $100,000. Once again, I stress that you must secure as many art installation locations or “silent salespeople” as you possibly can.