If getting your art practice more organized is one of your goals, you should know there’s a free suite of software tools that can help you with much of this!
Google provides several productivity tools that are easy to use, free for you to use, work on pretty much any modern device, and are secure. It’s nice being able to access and manage all of my administrative info from my phone on the go.
Here are the Google tools that I use and how I use them, along with links to get more info for each tool.
I use their Gmail product for email. I have a separate gmail account for my art practice. You can learn more about Gmail at https://www.google.com/gmail/about/.
I use their Google Sheets spreadsheet product (1) for tracking all data for each of my paintings, including a photo of each painting, and (2) for tracking possible pricing structures based on linear inch, square inch, based on different amounts/inch. This is a great tool for tracking anything that needs to be tracked in your practice: paintings, sales, contacts, shows, etc. You can learn more about Google Sheets at https://www.google.com/sheets/about/.
I use Google Docs for text editing. My main use case is a document where I write down ideas for future art projects. These ideas pop into my head at random places and times, so having access to this from my phone is critical to my capturing all of these ideas when they appear. You can learn more about Google Docs at https://www.google.com/docs/about/.
I use Google Keep for little “sticky notes” to myself: instagram hashtags that I frequently use, art questions to ask, art quotes, a list of artists I like to follow, basically little things like that that are better suited for a sticky note than a fully dedicated document. You can learn more about Google Keep here: https://www.google.com/keep/.
Their Google Drive product acts as a cloud-based hard drive for all your Google documents, spreadsheets, photos, etc. I use Google Drive for organizing all of my Google files, but I mainly use it for storing all of my art-related photos in separate folders; I have separate folders for photos of my artwork, photos of art that inspires me, reference photos, and photos of my artwork in other people’s homes. It’s basically your Google cloud hard drive. They make it easy to track how much space you’ve used and where that space is being used. I was using Dropbox for this purpose until last week when I realized that Google does all of this better than Dropbox, so I made the switch and am happy with that decision. You can learn more about Google Drive at https://www.google.com/drive/.
They do also have a Google Photos product, but that’s geared more towards managing personal photos in albums than it is for running an art practice. I need more detailed organization for all of the photos I’m managing, and I find that Google Drive gives me more of that control than Google Photos does. (Google Photos is great for your personal photos though!)
Each of these tools runs within the context of a free Google account that you set up. I've set up multiple Google accounts: one for my personal life, another for my day job, and another for my art practice. Each of these accounts is separate from the other, and each has its own disk space quota. Because these accounts and software tools are free, it’s possible to open multiple accounts if that helps you keep things organized better.
Each Google account comes with 15 GB of space for free, which is a fair amount. Be aware that this space is shared across ALL of your Google products, including your Gmail account, so any photo and video attachments will eat up that space too. They do make it easy to purchase more space of varying amounts, although this is optional. My family uses Google for everything, so we purchased more disk space for the entire family. They allow you to share this space with up to 5 other Google accounts (I believe).
Also, you don’t have to use all of these products in your art practice, you can use any or all of them that make sense to you, and mix and match them with your other favorite productivity tools!
Also, in addition to the free suite of Google's productivity tools, I use Shopify for running this website. Shopify combines a state-of-the-art e-commerce platform -- including tight integrations with all the major third parties you want to work with -- with a powerful content management system. When I originally took the time to compare Shopify, SquareSpace, Wix, and WooCommerce, I found that Shopify was the only option built for e-commerce first, which makes it easier for me to run my business. They walked me through every step of the process with a "what to do next" checklist. I'm able to do everything I need with just their basic plan. I really could not be happier with my decision to choose Shopify to run my e-commerce site. You can learn more about Shopify at https://www.shopify.com/.
(For the record, I'm not affiliated with Google or Shopify and do not receive any kind of referral from them, these are my honest thoughts here.)