Providing a work space within your home that inspires you to be your best every day can be one of the most important business investments you ever make. Tien Wee is a design consultant who helps people do just that.

"I am inspired by people and life filled with magic, creation, beauty and love"

Tien Wee launched Lucky Monkey Home, Feng Shui Design and Living in 2005. Tien says, “LMH is the direct result of a harmonious blend of intelligent Green and Sustainable Interior Design and Feng Shui – the ancient Chinese Art of Placement.”

“I believe that chi, energy is in everything. From the little tea cup to the floor tile, I ensure that I am surrounded only by things I love and that empower me. It is my business, it is my life.”

In his professional life, Tien wants his clients to come home everyday to a space they are in love with. Tien is also committed to be what he wants the world to be – “a place where all beings experience freedom, love and loving their lives.”

With a solid background in design and the art of Feng Shui, Tien’s projects are diverse. They range from renovating and reselling investment properties, small space condos, craftsman homes, modernist homes, Whistler holiday getaways and a Yaletown commercial site.

Marketing has often been confused with selling. In fact, they are quite different, despite being related. Here's the distinction:

Marketing determines how the item gets to the particular outlet and how buyers are made aware of the item.

Selling is the process of convincing the buyer to make a purchase from the selection offered.

Any artist's work will sell best when its location is best matched to the needs of its prospective buyer. It stands to reason that as an artist you will want to think about the end result and choose the best setting for your work.

Marketing includes the advertising, public relations, price points, business networks and locations. Sales take place when all of the above has been successfully addressed. This brings the right customer through the right door.

How do you do that? One way is to take a close look at the outlet. Who are its customers? Where do they live? What kind of income and educational background do they possess? Are they in specific age group? Which gender makes the purchase?

A good established gallery will do a lot for you, but if you are in a cooperative artist run center or a new gallery or an overworked gallery you will need to jump in yourself and make sure that all of the marketing elements are in place. The artist cannot sit back and wait or hope that the important items will be done to the artist's satisfaction.

Too often, necessary steps are omitted, and the artist realizes too late that more promotion should have been done. Then they feel burned and disappointed when the audience is small and the media didn't come around.  In a perfect world, everything would be in place. In the real world, we must take responsibility to create our own success.

Alice Parmelee Rich is a Canadian artist, art marketing consultant and business owner. She has given numerous Marketing Art Seminars in BC and the Yukon and combines her gallery background with her publishing and marketing experience. To contact Alice, please visit her web site www.Alice-Rich.com or email: alicerich [at] telus.net