 Well hello and welcome to this week's video where today I'm talking about the pros and cons of running a face-to-face art workshop versus an online art course. So if you are thinking of delivering either of those two things or perhaps you have already tentatively studied, you've run the art workshop, or you're thinking about running an online course but you're not quite sure, then this video is going to give you some clarity on which one might be a better fit for you and you're growing art business. Now as an ex-art teacher I guess running workshops for me was a bit of a given and I started out in my tiny wooden art studio at the back of my little house in the UK and I could fit three or four people maximum in there and I taught acrylics, pastels drawing, that sort of thing but I also started my very first working from home business workshop and I'll never forget it, we did it over two days over a weekend and it was just fantastic and I realised in that moment that I really loved doing that so it was a great strategy for me at the time. I also went on then to discover the online world and I've launched and run lots of courses online so I really can't give you the pros and cons of the two sides of the coin if you like. So my aim for you for this video, like I said at the beginning, is for you to come out of it with a bit of a clear idea of which one is going to work for you because let's face it, they're both a lot of effort and energy. So really what you want to be doing is perhaps choosing one of them certainly to begin with and putting all your energy and focus in that and then really thinking about perhaps doing something else later on. Now usually we start out with face-to-face workshops first and then go online but let's take a look at why that might be exactly. And of course before that, if you are new here then I'm really warm welcome, I help artists to make a living from their art or creativity by building a strong stable profitable business doing what they love. So if that's something you're interested then you're in the right place because I share tips and tricks on all things art business related. Now where were we? We were just about to talk about the pros and cons of running a face-to-face art workshop versus an online art course. Let's go ahead and dive in. So first off I really like to think of it from the customer's point of view. So we're going to start with face-to-face workshops and let's look at a few pros and cons for the customer because what I find tends to happen is as an artist or creative you think to yourself I know I'm going to run a workshop. This is what I want the workshop to be about. And then frustration can set in when you don't get any bums on seat. And the reason why is it really all needs to be built around the customer. So let's imagine for the moment that you are a potential customer to your own possible workshop. What are the pros and cons for you? Well a workshop can be a fantastic experience. It could be at a beautiful location. It could be your location, lovely studio. They get to hang out with you, they get to learn with you. They get to do something with other people so there's some interaction. They get to meet other people. They get a day away from what they're already doing. That some of the downsides might be well maybe it's not local to them. Maybe the day that you've picked to run the workshop they're not available. And so there's this wonderful workshop but they can't attend because the date doesn't work for them. Very often if you've got the thing priced correctly then the price point is going to be higher for a face-to-face workshop. Then for example an online course so you've perhaps got that to play in the mix as well. But let's look at it for you. From your point of view what are the pros and cons of a face-to-face workshop? Well obviously you're going to get some interaction. You're going to get potentially feedback from people. You're going to watch and react as you teach and as you run your workshop. Are they loving it? Are they diving in? Do they want more? And do they understand your instructions? Is it clear? What else would they like? Could they have done with a lot less content? More content? You also get the opportunity to take photos and videos. You can build social posts and blogs and perhaps even get testimonial videos off the back of it as well. Downsides? Well if you don't have your own studio you might have to hire a venue. So there's a venue cost then you might have to drive to that. You might have to lug your materials. You might have to buy materials times 10 if you want to run it for 10 people. You've got to work out the numbers to make sure that it's profitable for you. But you know what? It can actually be a great experience and you can, if structured correctly, make a good deal of money for one day. Could end up being a day to prepare, a day to deliver and a day to recover. So there's a few things to bear in mind there. But that's really what you want to be thinking about when you want to think it's a workshop right for you. Now likely you're watching this and you're just thinking yes yes yes that's me or you're thinking oh yeah no maybe not. The other thing that you've got to think about with a face to face workshop of course is you're going to have limited space potentially unless you hire a really big hall. So you have to think about the numbers of people that can attend. Is it going to be like I had three to four to five people, ten people, ten to twelve people I find is a really nice size for a workshop. Is your space big enough to do that? Can you find a location that's big enough for that? And then can you do the marketing to get those ten to twelve people to the workshop? So there's a lot to be considered. So with that in mind let's take a look at the other option. What about the online course? So an online course by definition is something you've created that you've put online that your customer can access. So let's look at it from the customer's viewpoint first. Well likely they've got 24-7 access to it. So they can take your course at a time that suits them. The price point is likely going to be lower. Now this is not a set in stone. It depends on the type of course that you run. Some of them are very high end and could have a high ticket price on them. So you know this is all kind of relative to what you offer. But potentially it could be easier access for them. They'll have to buy their own materials. They'll have to find a space to do it. Will they actually do it if you're not there demonstrating and they're actually practising it? So those can be some downsides. The other downsides it's not an experience for them. So they really have to want to learn what you offer. They haven't got that nice day out. They're mixing a meeting and looking at what other people are doing. They haven't got direct access to you unless that's something you offer as well as the course. But that's a topic for a whole other video. So an online course can be really great for them because they really can just do it in their own time. They can just watch a lesson at the weekend, do the exercise you set, go back in, do another lesson. So it's going to suit certain people. But what's the real benefit for them of course is they can be anywhere in the world and buy your course. That's wonderful, right? They don't have to be in your location. So it's not location dependent. For me I think that is probably one of the biggest benefits for the customer. Maybe they follow you, but they're the other side of the globe to where you live and they'll never be able to get to your studio and attend a workshop. But they'd love to work with you. They love what you offer. So they can do that on the online course. Let's look at the pros and cons though for you as the course deliverer. Online courses are really massive right now. They've been really massive for quite a while. But obviously when COVID hit everybody was doing everything online and more and more and more people offered courses. Over time I really believe that the good, solid courses will stay there and will always be there. Maybe some of the others will drop and fall away. Because of course the idea of building a course is wonderful but it actually takes quite a lot of time, energy and effort, thought and actually some tech to put together a really good quality course. Which is what you want to make a course for your audience, isn't it? So one of the first benefits is really going to be this global situation. You can of course offer this course to anybody around the world. You have as many places to sell as possible so you have an unlimited earning potential. You could, it depends on what type of course you run. You could have a very low cost and look to market it out to large numbers. Or you could have a more medium or high price point course that you perhaps just launch once a year. This is going to depend on again what you're offering which we're going to talking about in another video so look out for that. For me one of the biggest advantages is that you do all the work once but you could resell it forever. So although it might take you a good three months to plan out and put together your online course you've got that and you can keep selling it on and on and on. You can of course add to it or upgrade it or make a few changes. Now some of the downsides for online courses of course is the tech. You've got to do the planning. You've got to create the course. You've got to record it, edit all the modules and they've got to be in a course platform. You've got to choose a course platform. You've got to learn some new things and that's where a lot of people just go oh no, I'm out. I don't want to do it. And really you know it is possible to learn and I'm going to talk about a platform that we use that we absolutely love and I'm going to talk about that in upcoming videos. So I've got a great solution for you. It's a kind of all in one platform. It will host your course. Any type of online course that you want to offer. Membership site even anything and it does all the other bits as well. So we'll come to that in another video. But the tech can quite often put people off. So just know that you can learn it and of course like anything the first time you do it it'll be a bit uncomfortable. But once you've done it once you're like maybe I'll just do another course. Now I know how to do it. And the last thing that can be a little bit tricky of course is that's great. You've made the course. You've taken all this time but you have got to market it. And of course you have to market the physical workshop as well. But this can be a little bit easier if it's in your location. It's quite easy even to make a few phone calls talk to a few local places put some flyers around it before you know it. It's filling up. The next course is floating out there that nobody knows about. So you really do have to do a brilliant job of your marketing. So to conclude there are of course pros and cons for both things. If you're thinking from the customer points of view the best way to find out is to ask your customers especially if you're already dabbling and you've run the odd workshop ask them and just say hey do you love coming to the studio or would you prefer to access a course online? You might be surprised by the answer they give you they might say no no no no we definitely want to come to your studio or they might say well we love but we kind of like to learn in our own time so one of the things you can do is gain feedback from your existing customers. If you haven't got any existing customers and you're just at the planning stage then you can really decide which one feels more comfortable for you. Do you want to have that face to face connection and then perhaps once you've done that think about doing the course. That's what I recommend I recommend that you actually start off with workshops if you are able and that's going to depend on a venue. Do you have a venue? Is that a venue easy for you to do? How are you face to face with people? Are you a little bit nervous not so confident? Would you prefer to just make videos and do it that way? Or do you actually love that interaction with an audience? If you don't know, you need to run a workshop and find out. Once you have run a few you might think to yourself well there's a limited, very limited earning potential. I like the idea of a course let's move forward with that. I'm hoping this video has given you a little bit of clarity on where you might be in terms of teaching maybe you've watching and you said I've run a lot of workshops I'm ready for that course but the next video is definitely going to be for you. Or in fact the next two or three videos are definitely going to be for you but my aim for today was that you just got some clarity around those two things so it's super, super important that you think about the customer as well as yourself. I hope that's the takeaway that you get from today's video thank you so much for watching and I'll see you on the next one