As you’re reading all this, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you felt a bit overwhelmed. And we didn’t even get to the hands-on part (part 3).
Alternatively, you might think that all of this sounds “do-able” and you can’t wait to get started. Both these attitudes have built-in dangers and fatal flaws.
[emember_protected for=3-4-5]
I naturally tend to be the do-it-yourself kind of a guy and this has been my undoing many, many times. I took the time to learn just about every aspect of the music – and online marketing – business, only to wind up doing everything by myself and… drowning in work to the point of nothing getting done fast enough – or well enough.
People whose finances are a bit on the short side are particularly vulnerable to the one-man-band syndrome. You cut corners by doing everything yourself – and it bites you in the ass in the end.
So, the simple solution is: DON’T.
No man is an island. The most important thing you can do, when preparing to build your music business, is to pick a TEAM of people you can work with. Even if it’s just one person to start with. And if you’re clever, you’ll structure everything in such a way that it’s going to be possible to replace anyone at any time. Other team members may be much more special and difficult to replace. That’s fine too.
Trying to build a successful music business without a team is like sailing a ship without a crew.
So how to you even start? How to you locate and motivate people to help you along your way?
Depending on your personality and experience, this can either be tremendously difficult or really easy. If you’re a natural leader, you’re already surrounded by people who just want to help you with whatever you want. If you’re a bit more of a recluse – you’ll need to go out there and TALK to people.
The first place to look at is your family. Is there anyone in your family who is good at any of the things discussed in this course? Are they willing to learn (by reading a copy of your book, the specific section you want them to learn)? Are they easy to get along with? Will they take YOUR DIRECTION?
Make a list, and write down the things you believe they could be really good at. Don’t ask them yet. Just build the whole concept in your head first.
Now, what about your friends? Same questions. What about your YOUNGER friends? Why “younger?” Well, it often happens that younger people look up to us and want to be part of our gang. It’s just our nature. Many artists dismiss their younger admirers as just hangers-on. That’s a big mistake. They’re a potential work force whose limitless talents you can harness!
The vast majority – if not all – of your friends-and-family relationships should be based on 100% good will. Nobody gets paid. Not even you. We’re all just working together towards a common goal, trying to blow this thing up.
When money begins to trickle in, they get rewarded in “other” ways initially. And proportionally to their overall input, in any case. Better to reward them with things like posters, special VIP passes, album credits, mentions, etc. They’ll appreciate that greatly. Once there’s more money coming in, SOME of your team members will need to be paid. First a wee little bit, then more as your incomes grow.
Some of your team members will be more than happy to work for free, in exchange for a “guaranteed future position.” You just need to be sure that they know you’re the kind of person who doesn’t just promise and never delivers. Your character is one of the most important assets you bring into your business venture!
And with that in mind, never promise anything other than a really fun ride – and an invaluable education. And when you do promise something, make sure you’re determined to deliver – if things go to plan.
Your agreements with your team need only to be verbal, but that doesn’t mean they’re not binding. They’re as binding as your integrity. And your integrity is your biggest asset in life, no matter what your career path might be, make no mistake about that!
You need to be able to plan your entire operation in advance. That’s why I recommended at the beginning of this course that you read it all at least twice. First time to get a broad idea and let everything settle in your head – and second time, once you’re ready to create an actionable business plan.
So what kind of people will you need? What functions should they perform? How many paid experts will you need to hire and how much work can be done within your friendly team itself? Write down the structure of your ideal organization. The see who will do what and who is still unknown. We’ll look at this more closely below.
Remember that you will almost certainly be tempted to do as much as possible by yourself – and you must do your best to resist that temptation. So, how do you plan?
As I said, by painting an idealized picture of your FUNCTIONING business. Here are the most important functions a successful music business should have:
- Great, well-written, well-performed, well-produced and market-ready music. Someone in your organization is tasked with that – YOU, presumably. But remember that in order to achieve this you MAY not be enough. You MAY need to hire or otherwise cajole outside experts to lend you a hand with that. And all that will be part of your plan.
- Someone who knows how to research your market and then how to help you develop your image and otherwise “position you” for success within that market. Again, it MIGHT be “you”, but chances are that you’d rather have an outsider do this for you. Can Joe next door be trained to do with (perhaps with the help of this course?) Or will you need to outsource to a paid expert? Again, this will need to be a part of your business plan.
- Someone who will develop all your artwork for you. Same considerations as above.
- Someone who will help you build your site, set up your membership systems, autoresponder and payment processor, register on all the relevant networks and integrate and test everything.
- Someone who will help you develop all the relevant income streams, and integrate them within your site, and occasionally beyond as well.
- Outside support teams who will be happy to promote you and hand out your flyers, etc.
- Someone who will manage the finances of the whole operation, deal with your team and be the administrator.
As you go through this whole course, you’ll see there are many more functions you need to allocate – some permanent, some one-off.
So, once you see just how big this whole thing can be, you then start cutting corners a little bit. Each of your team members – starting with you, first and foremost – will have to have multiple jobs they’ll be happy and willing to perform. And perform WELL.
And there will be some tasks you may just as well resign yourself to having to pay for right from the start.
Once you’ve put all those considerations on paper, price it up. That’s your preliminary expense budget. Initially, disregard entirely any “income budgets”. They always tend to be lower than hoped-for, so forget them for the moment. And remember that cost budgets always tend to over-run.
At this point, you need to trim everything as much as possible, talk to all the people you’ve targeted and confirm their roles and any possible payments.
Now sit down and make a TIMELINE. Things will have to happen sequentially, not all at once. Month one will have some activities and some costs, as well month 2 and 3 after that, and they may be quite different.
Re-check your budget once you have new data. And now ask yourself: “can I raise this amount of money over the set period of time, in time to meet each deadline?”
If you can’t – modify your plan. Extend your timelines if you have to. If you can – you’re almost ready to roll.
But first, there’s another question: “can I raise DOUBLE the amount I’ve just budgeted?”
If you can’t – again, re-do your timelines. If you can, do it. Cost budgets overrun in even the best-run organizations, so it’s a really good idea to have “reserves” set aside.
Now, you also have your incomes to consider. At one point your business will start bringing some returns. The only thing is that I advise you to treat its first year of running AS IF there were no incomes in sight. To be sure, there WILL be, but budgeting for sales when you’re just starting out is setting yourself up for a disappointment.
It’s better to project incomes in year 2 and a break-even/profit in year 3. I know, I know. It sounds depressing. And it will probably not happen like that. In fact, if you follow this course to the letter, your incomes and maybe even your break-even may happen in year 1 already. Some really focused and consistent people make this sort of thing work in just months! BUT – be ultra conservative in your income planning, that’s all I’m saying. It’s better to be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.
So, if you have a really good business plan, based on solid premises, you will not only have a TOOL which will help you run your entire operation, but which you MAY be able to use when seeking support from a third-party investor.
Perhaps a wealthy uncle, or your cousin or the kindly neighbor next door? Many people are only too happy to help if they can see that you’re treating your business seriously and have created a plan which is conservative, doable – and potentially profitable. Better still, crowd-funding like Kickstarter or similar.
Personally, I prefer not to involve investors any more. I used to, and the results have been mixed. Mainly because I relied on them more than I should have. Also, because they put pressures on me before I was ready. It took a lot of failure for me to realize that SELF-reliance is much better than anything else. But, you may be different. Kickstarter has worked for many artists, so why not you!
Your entire success is predicated on how well you plan those first steps. If you plan well, you will almost certainly succeed. If you’re fast on your feet and able to adapt your best-laid-plans to new realities, you’ll also do well.
By the time you do a second read-through of this course, you should be able to create a powerful plan which will help you take off in a really big way. At the end of book 3, I will help you map just such a plan out.
[/emember_protected]
 |
 |
 |
| Book 2 – Chapter 18 Local Market |
Course Overview | Book 3 – Chapter 1 Building Your Business |
Book 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14b, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, Overview
