Maintaining profits and sales in this economy

Here's something interesting-
I actually added an entire new size of works to my portfolio in the past few months, here's why:

In the past my work was pretty much on the large to really really large sizes, I started doing some smaller works just so I could add a lower price line to my offerings. I did this at the request and under advice from three different gallery owners and managers. My concern was that I obviously have to charge some serious scratch for my big stuff. So I thought it may be a good idea to offer prints (giclee) to my offerings to offer a lower price point of entry for my work. All these folks told me considering that I am fairly prolific that at this stage in my career they felt adding prints may devalue my originals. They suggested I offer smaller works, so this is exactly what I have done.

Yesterday I did my first show with the smaller works. I was blown away by the interest and sales of these smaller works. I price by the square inch and by doing this I was able to get some pricing below $250 on the smaller stuff. I also did them as mini-series so folks can buy one and add as they collect other originals in the same series or just get one and still have it be a finished piece in and of it's self. In this economy and feel this will increase my sales and bottom line across my works platform. This creates a patron relationship and opens possible future purchases.

I actually spend about the same time, perhaps even slightly less per inch on the smaller stuff; this really could be great on every level.

By the way, I have decided never to do prints!