Take the case of the
artist, Ann. Her passion was painting. For a long time, she painted on the
weekends and sold her work at festivals and arts-and-crafts shows. Her work was
popular and she often sold out. But there was not enough free time to paint
more than a few paintings per month. 
Encouraged by her friends and
family (and by her employer's layoffs which conveniently eliminated her day
job), Ann decided to try to make a living doing what she loved most. She
expanded her studio and bought painting supplies. She also bought an iMac so
that should could produce professional-looking letters, run an accounting
program and post a web page. She planned out a year's worth of events where she
would sell her art and even wrote a business plan and picked a company name.
As she put more time
into her hobby, the results were terrific. Her work was well received and she
attended larger and larger art shows. Soon, she was able to start selling
limited edition prints of her most popular paintings. It wasn't long before
trendy art galleries wanted to display her paintings and sell them on
consignment.
Ann's paintings were
appreciating as they sold and galleries wanted more paintings to sell. But as
the months passed, Ann produced fewer and fewer paintings. It seemed that her
fame had overwhelmed her with paperwork and the details of managing her art.
Which gallery had which painting? If a print was sold in one city, how could
she notify all of the other art galleries in various cities that the price for
the unsold prints had appreciated? Where were all the names, addresses and
phone numbers for the galleries and for the framers? What paintings were out
being framed? Which of the many framers had she sent them to? How many orders
were yet to be filled? How long would it take to fill them? What could she
promise the galleries? How could something she loved be so hard to manage?
Ann just wanted to
paint, but she was spending 5 or 6 hours a day figuring out where things were
and when she would have them. She was constantly phoning people and updating
lists about what was going on as well as making numerous trips to the post
office with hand addressed postcards. No wonder she had no time to paint! A few
art galleries were even angry with her because she was slow to give them
information and seemed unorganized and hard to work with. Sales were falling
off now that she was not painting as much.
Ann didn't want to
give up painting and go back to a desk job, so she made a decision to get some
of her painting time back. She hired an assistant at minimum wage. The
assistant would cost her over $16,000.00 in the coming year but Ann figured it
would be worth it to be able to spend more time painting.
After six months Ann
eagerly checked to see how much more painting time she was getting. What she
found was disheartening. 
She discovered that her
assistant had implemented more complex paperwork that helped to know where
things were and when things would happen. While the new system kept better
track of pertinent information, it still took Ann a long time to find things
and it seemed like there was never a summary of all the piles of orders and
shipping receipts and gallery or framer names and addresses. It was still hard
to give accurate information to galleries and to keep track of sales of her
paintings. Essentially, she'd given up her own lists only to be mired by
someone else's lists.
Additionally, Ann
had to spend time training the assistant and checking some of her work. She
also added to her list of administrative activities payroll and employee
benefits administration.
She also found that
she had little time to ensure that some of the fundamental practices that kept
her business going were beginning to slip though the cracks. For example, with
new responsibilities pending, Ann hadn't even been able to try to notify
galleries of appreciating print prices.
Basically, Ann
discovered that she had gained little time. Her painting time had improved by 5
hours per week, but that wasn't even enough time to complete one more painting
per week.
Ann was about to
give up when she met a database designer who suggested that a database might
help her reclaim some of her painting time. He explained that a database could
hold information about paintings, prints, galleries, orders and framers and
make all that information work together. She would have neat little reports to
show where paintings or prints were and summaries of orders or framing jobs.
Her database could produce mailing labels for any group she chose or form
letters for galleries at the click of a button. She could e-mail information to
her galleries and framers. Her database might print business cards and
brochures to promote her paintings. She could even have a ready-to-print fax
form and phone and address lists to print for her pocket planner.
Ann took a chance on
the database idea. The cost of developing her system was close to $10,000.00,
but again, to regain painting time this would be a worthwhile investment. 
She let go her assistant, which
actually would save her $6000.00 in the first year in salary costs, not to
mention the time she was spending performing the classic responsibilities as an
employer. It wasn't long before she delightedly realized that she had to spend
only 1-2 hours a day at her computer to enter information and perform the tasks that she needed to do that day. Ann gained 20 hours per week
for painting time. Her painting production more than doubled and so did her
income. Even the galleries were impressed. She was fast and reliable with her
information and communicated with them frequently by letter, postcard, phone
and e-mail. When a print sold, the rest appreciated on the same day, increasing
her income from limited edition prints and the value of her paintings in
general.
Over the next 5
years, she spent a few hundred dollars more here and there for the designer to
update her system and add new features. Her database grew with her business,
and yet she was still saving money and easily maintaining control of her art
and her relationships with galleries and events.
The success of Ann's
database system hinged on a few key things. The cost was kept low by only using
the database for the things Ann needed to do. Ann's time was preserved by
automating her routine tasks with buttons and printing features. Her
credibility increased when she used a system that could make sense of the
relationship between galleries, paintings, prints and framers. She could enjoy
more painting time because her database helped her in so many ways.
The database that was
created for Ann illustrates the basis of the Blue Marble Enterprises
philosophy: "Your data. Your way." It means we will make a system that models
the real world you work with. We will keep expenses down wherever we can. We
will automate your routine tasks. You will own your software and pay only for
changes that you make to the program. Regardless of what you do, your work
doesn't need to be a chore. Consider a customized database that puts the
details of your business to work for you.
Blue Marble
Enterprises, Inc. Your data. Your way.
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