Click and survive
Bay Area entrepreneurs use e-mail pleas to stay afloat.

By Laura Paskell-Brown

SURVIVING AS A professional artist or an independent publisher has never been easy, but right now it's even harder than usual. Faced with broke customers, rising costs, and the dreadful California economy, small creative entrepreneurs are sometimes forced to get extra-ingenious in order to survive. Businesses blessed with a loyal fan base of customers – who would be saddened rather than merely inconvenienced if they closed their doors – have certain advantages. As two East Bay enterprises, indie feminist mag Bitch and cool design firm Yumfactory, recently demonstrated, they can turn to their e-mail lists for a grassroots fundraising drive.

Artistically challenged

Yumfactory is a one-person design company founded by Attaboy in 1998. The creator of cute-scary creatures (think Hello Kitty but with teeth), Attaboy makes toys, stickers, and comic books, as well as doing freelance design work for clients including the band Kiss, toy companies Milton Bradley and Mattel, Tower Records, and the East Bay Express, as well as the Bay Guardian. With a new toy and a possible computer game in the pipeline, business was looking up for Yumfactory. But when a series of checks failed to come in, Attaboy found himself with an acute cash-flow problem. Unable to pay his rent, he was served with a three-day eviction notice Oct. 6 and so, out of sheer desperation, he sent out an e-mail to 15 people titled "eviction sale."

The message explained Attaboy's precarious finances, but the artist insists he wasn't begging. "I just told people that I was in a situation and that if they wanted to order stuff, then now was the time," he says. The response was much greater than he had dared to hope for, and within two days Yumfactory had received more than $1,000 worth of orders. A customer in Hawaii even offered to give him the money, but he says he refuses to take donations.

Bitch of a problem

Lisa Jervis, founder and publisher of Bitch, says she's well used to fundraising drives. The quarterly feminist publication is a registered nonprofit and as such is entitled to tax-deductible donations. Even with these donations, Jervis has constantly struggled to keep the mag on newsstands. Surviving on a shoestring has become a way of life. So when 2003 sales fell far below expectations, and it seemed like nothing was left to cut back, Bitch decided to launch an online subscription drive.

The staff fired off an e-mail to roughly 700 people, asking them to spread the word, buy a magazine, and – most important – to subscribe. Once again, the method seemed to be a success and has already secured 2,000 of the 3,000 subscriptions they need to keep going.

Method for success?

If these stories tell us anything, it's that the power of clicking the Forward button is stronger than ever. While the initial recipients could easily have deleted these messages, they chose to pass them on instead.

Jarvis marvels at the extent to which the Bitch e-mail traveled. "It really did go far and wide," she says. But despite the happy outcome in both Bitch's and Yumfactory's cases, Jervis and Attaboy admit the tactic is not a long-term solution.

"I think you can only play that card once," Attaboy says with a laugh when asked if he'd consider doing it again. Jervis agrees, arguing that if they were to repeat their plea then people would probably "tune out."

Meanwhile, other options do exist for those who are willing to search for them. Times are undoubtedly hard (the California Arts Council just cut its entire 2003-04 grants program, and many foundations are tightening their belts), but funding is out there, for artists and nonprofit organizations alike.

The Foundation Center (312 Sutter, Suite 606, S.F. 415-397-0902, www.fdncenter.org) exists to provide grant seekers with the necessary information and tools to succeed. It also runs workshops designed to help nonprofit organizations with budgeting and financial planning, legal advice, and marketing. Etta Jenkins, communications manager at the center, says it receives so many questions from artists that it now has an annual Funding for the Arts Month.

For small publications there is also the option of a loan from the Independent Publishers Association (2729 Mission, No. 201, S.F. 415-643-4401, www.indypress.org), something that Bitch has benefited from in the past. Other IPA services (available for a membership fee) include a newsstand distribution service, an advertising network, and technical assistance.

Grants and fundraising aside, some sound financial planning would go a long way to solving the more extreme crises experienced by Attaboy, who openly admits that any spare cash he has immediately goes into developing his next project.

And there's something you can do too. Part of the Bitch e-mail campaign was to flag the issue of "buying direct." The staff pointed out that while only $1.98 of the cover price reached them from a magazine stand sale, a subscription ensures that they receive the full $3.75 and that they get it straight away. The story is similar for Attaboy, who receives only the royalties on sales that are not directly made from his own store.

Whether consumers respond to this call or not, it's unlikely Bitch will ever be totally financially secure. "Things are always pretty dire," Jervis says. "But the holidays are always a good time for us, so we won't be folding just yet."

Attaboy is also surprisingly upbeat about the future, saying he's not bothered if he never gets rich. "I get to spend my days doing what I love," he says. "And as long as I have enough money to buy a bagel on Saturday and take my girlfriend to the movies, then I'm a happy man."