Musical Whittling
By Steve Scott
April 2011
Your Career
Planning and carving out Your Career
I just used the word “career.” If you want to launch your career for real then what follows are some points to help get you there:
First and foremost, let’s go over your plan. Your Business Plan or your Strategic Plan.
You don’t have a written plan? Be truthful. Have you created a plan? Have you actually sat down and charted out on paper what you want to do? And who helped you draft this plan? Did you consult with a music industry professional to give you some insight and guidance?
This is basic stuff. With something as important as your career, you must make a plan, a plan of action. Your mom may be acting as your manager when you first start out, but your mom (or roommate) is not who you need to be your planning committee. They are a support system, but you’re looking to reach a higher level for your career.
Now is a good time to repeat what you have probably heard many times. If you are an artist music maker who expects to earn a living from your music, you are automatically a “hyphenate.” You are an Artist–Businessperson.
Toy Soldier from Cork, Ireland promo shot
The day of the “starving artist” is no longer viable as you become an “artist-businessperson” with a clear strategy to become successful. And any successful business must have a strategic plan, an action plan that sets out what you are, where you are going and how you plan to get there.
Basically, the methodology is simple and comprised of 3 steps: First, describe your current situation. See where you are today, what assets you have, what are your strengths, and, (even if just for yourself) what are your weaknesses and limitations. Second, define your goals and objectives. Third, draw the map to get there. Set out the detailed path or your proposal for accomplishing those goals.
Of course, the more detailed the plan, the better and clearer will be the thought that went into it. A music industry professional or consultant would help you fill out the details to structure a more effective strategy, help describe the state of the industry, its trends and how you might fit into the big picture. (Tip: Find a niche, make it yours to fill.)
A big part of your strategy will deal with marketing: What directions can you take, what are you selling, how do you maximize the various opportunities, have you analyzed the competition, have you realistically projected sales (monetizing opportunities) and created a forecast???
Your business and career plan will likely lead off with a Mission Statement setting out the fundamental purpose of you and your company; it will define your approach to commerce, that is, what is your product, to whom are you selling and what sets you apart: It should be concise (one page) that sets out the bottom-line “this is us and what we do.” This mission statement will be the introduction to your business plan. (The advantage of this statement is that others of your team such as potential employees and managers will clearly see your vision and understand the direction the organization is heading.)
As the head of your enterprise you should have a couple of paragraphs about yourself, a sort of bio that lets us see what sets you apart from the rest. Have you or will you establish a “brand,” that is, create a unique persona? What will distinguish you and differentiate you from others? Will your talent, knowledge and skills be enough to drive you to the top? (If not, how will you strengthen and improve any weaknesses?) Do you exhibit a successful attitude that conveys a positive, persistent and dependable you? Do you have integrity and honest ethics? Does your performance match or support the brand and image you wish to show to the world?
The most difficult part for many in formulating the Strategic Business Plan is dealing with financing. What is your budget, given what the plan has indicated you want to accomplish? Be realistic. What part of this can you self-finance? Do you have other family members and business friends you can approach? Are there other means of getting funding such as artist grants from foundations? Can you attract sponsors? Can you raise money through a “crowd funding” internet platform? Are there other private investor sources that you can access? Can you rely on a program of fan pre-sales to underwrite your recording costs? Importantly, do you know or have you identified all the sources of income that are available?
I know I have given you a lot to digest. I just hope you realize how important this subject is and how much benefit you will derive from making the effort. A strong business plan will tilt you toward success. Are you serious?
Along with this analytic business narrative approach, a coach or mentor may suggest you also incorporate a psychological approach by creating a “vision board” to accompany your business plan. This may be a large or small poster size collage of photos or clips from magazines of what you “envision” for your plan of action so that you consciously make your daily routine part of a “visual” as well as an “actual” plan. Literally, keep the positive images in front of you to imprint your mind and program you toward success.
Now the good news: Cosmo is planning a one-day workshop to help you create your artist-businessperson’s “Strategic Career Business Plan.” We plan to limit attendance to only 10 people per workshop, since this will be hands on and intensive, but designed for the layperson who is not a professional planner. If you want to be among the first attendees, email us at info@cosmocoalition.org for more details. And, stay tuned for details as we plan to cover more subjects to improve your career skills in later workshops.
Till next time, keep whittling…
Steve Scott
President, CosmoCoalition.org
Example of a Vision Board to focus on your plan
