About 8 years ago I purchased an inventory program for my Mac. It has been indispensable. The particular app that I bought is no longer available, so I hesitated to bring it up as the best tool I’ve got for my business, but there are other apps out there that can do the same basic things. Mine is called Bento, but Filemaker is another one that would work. It does require some time to get it set up but the work and frustration it can save over the long haul is well worth the time and investment in getting it started. The inventory program I work with allows me to record all the basic information for each painting..including (my favorite part) a photo of it. I can add categories for customers, for competitions entered, gallery inventory and more. It has the capability to create secondary lists (smart lists) for any specific details (examples…paintings that have sold, or only landscapes,or only paintings showing at Gallery xyz….I can isolate and pull up an entire “show” for planning and all the information is there in a nice concise form.
Inventory gets added as soon as it is completed and all it’s details are filled in size, cost, title,and image along with the date of completion, before I have had a chance to forget it. If a painting sells all I have to do is put in a check mark and the app automatically moves it to the “sold” lists. The best part is having an image of the painting right there available. I have an awful lot of “yellow roses”, “yellow roses with a white vase”. etc…and it’s pretty hard to remember 2 years down the road just which painting was which! It is a life saver!
barbaraschilling.com
Bruce Newman says
Thanks for sharing, Barbara. I use an application that I feel does all of this as well–GYST. I’ve had it for about 4-5 years and it does everything I need and is still available.