Business Idea Center:
Art Auctions

Business Overview

Every home in North America features some sort of art as decoration. The market for art is enormous and continues to grow as our population expands. Starting an art auction and liquidation sales service is a great way to become your own boss. There are thousands of artists who have works that they cannot, or do not have the ability to sell. Why not sell it for them? You can advertise the art auctions and liquidation sales in local newspapers or online and start making money right away. Start by visiting art schools and associations so you can begin to market your services to artists who want to sell their works. Once you have a few hundred works of art committed, you can hold the first art auction or sale. You will need to rent a temporary location for your “one-day art sale,” and good locations include hotel ballrooms or banquet facilities. Room rental may not even cost any money providing you can convince the hotel manager potential food and drink concession sales will be sufficient for rent payment. The rest is straightforward; hold the first art auction or sale. You do not need to be an auctioneer to start and operate this type of business, just wear formal clothes for a professional appearance. Once you have perfected the business locally, you can duplicate the process and hold art auctions and sales across the country. requirements: Computer skills and equipment will be advantageous when you start to catalog the art for listing purposes. start-up costs: The only cost associated with starting an art auction service is time and an initial advertising budget. Once you have established the approximate value of the items to be sold, you will be able to set an advertising budget. I would suggest about 5 to 10 percent of the estimated total sale value of the items to be sold at the art auction or sale. Total start-up costs are $5,000 to $10,000. profit potential: You should be able to use a very basic formula for establishing a billing rate. Charge a 50 percent commission on all sales (no reserve pricing in effect), and allow half of the commissions to cover the total overheads associated with the sale. Providing each sale averages $10,000 in gross revenues, and one show per month is conducted, the business would net $30,000 per year.