As a self-employed musician, looking at your bank account isn’t the only indicator of how well your career is doing. It’s important to see yourself as a complete business. I learned about the importance of reflecting on your business each week from Dan Kennedy, in his book,
No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs (affiliate link). Thank you in advance for all your support should you decide to purchase through my affiliate link.Transparency is important to me, so I’ve decided to be as candid with you as I possibly can about my business, without compromising the privacy of any client, vendor, partner, sponsor, or organization that I have a relationship with. I invite you to give me your feedback below so that I can learn more about how to serve people better. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.
NOTE: I apologize to you because I didn’t write an article for week 4 of 2012. I went through a lot in the past two weeks and I elaborate on this below.
What I Know This Week That I Didn’t Know About:
My Business
- Sales – Closing more sales (securing gigs) is the key to growing my business. Sales don’t come to me; I have to chase them. They begin with an opportunity and escalate when I make a face-to-face appointment with a decision maker. It’s important that I begin to set sales goals for myself each month.
- Systems – Frustration & stress at work for me come from systems issues. I took a fresh look at several systems I have in place, made some edits, and recommitted to executing each system.
- Calendar – The programmer finally got my Google Calendar to sync with Infusionsoft (affiliate link). This will be a major time saver for me. In addition, I made sure the systems that I need to execute were in my calendar for the rest of the year.
- Money – My new budgeting habit for 2012 is to review the previous months budget and do a new budget for the upcoming month on the last day of the current month. I began the day stressed about money and was excited for how well I was doing financially after doing the budget. February is the shortest month of the year, however, it’s going to be a great month financially.
My Industry as a Whole
Gimme Gimme – As my career continues to grow, more and more people contact me for various reasons. Lately, I have noticed more and more people contacting me with “Please LIKE my Facebook page” or “Please check out my music” or “How did you get involved with XYZ?”
The two worst offenders were:
- An up-and-coming asked for me for honest feedback on her music. I listened to two songs and said they were good, but didn’t grab my attention. Her response was “Well I guess I can’t please everybody!” This bothered me because I didn’t even get a “Thank you” for taking the time to listen to her music. In addition, I felt that if she really wanted to improve, she would have asked me to elaborate.
- A second up-and-coming artist asked me if I could review her bands music. I listened to her bands music, and didn’t like it at all. I then asked for what kind of review she wanted and she said, “A 2-3 sentence testimonial would be great.” This was funny because she didn’t even think to ask what I thought of her music
What I found ironic in all of this is that no one who contacted me asked how they could be of help to me…interesting.
My Competition
Giving Up a Gig – A fellow drummer that I know lost some gigs that he has had consistently for over 15 years. A producer that has worked with the both of us said that he was considering cutting some of the work he was going to give me and give it to my friend. I encouraged him to so with my full support. My friend needs the work so much more than I do.
My Clients as a Group:
You’re About to Get Fired – I am a big believer in firing clients. Regardless of how much money they bring in, some people (and organizations) just need to go. It doesn’t mean that they are bad people or did anything wrong; they are just no longer a fit for one reason or another. A few clients made that list this week and I am making plans to end our relationship diplomatically.
My Top 10 Clients:
- Starting Over – As I mentioned in a previous article, I have rekindled a relationship with a former top client. We parted ways because I fired them years ago. There were some things that needed to change with them and with me if we were to ever work together again. I am approaching them differently and they are approaching me differently now. In addition, communication between us is much clearer.
- Everyone Needs Encouragement – I regularly call my clients to check in and say how grateful I am to have them in my life. I recently called a client and left a message on her machine. I told her how grateful I was to work with her and how much she inspires me. She thanked me for the words of encouragement and said she was more productive on her music project this week.
I invite you to give me your feedback below and be sure to check out the book,
No BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs (affiliate link).
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Fantastic article and thank you for sharing the many facets of what's going on in your interesting life. I love your style and above all, I am happy to know you and am proud of your honesty and integrity.
Love,
Me
Thank you so much! I am working hard to be honest with myself first, then others. Developing integrity is a process I struggle with, so your words really mean a lot to me.
Great Info! I found it so interesting reading "Gimme, Gimme" Sometimes the way to most help someone is to be honest with them. If they are not ready for it than you really can't feel bad for doing the right thing. Also I think that book is right up my ally! Thanks for the info Mike!
Thank you Brendan! You'll really like that book.
Hey Mike, very well crafted and put together post! You don't cut around any edges to show the reality that many, especially in the music industry, don't want to face. You are the complete product: professionalism and talent. Utilizing time is often overlooked. We can get boggled down with keeping track of things and sometimes have to use good old technology to help us be more efficient and use brain power for other more important tasks. Also, I agree completely with, what seems to be the controversial or discussed part of this post, the firing issue. A lot of mediums of expression require collaboration such as music and film. If you're bringing down the spirits, progress, and overall content/final product those individuals are not worth any penny they give- even if it's a million dollars. I rather make less money and in the end develop meaningful lasting friendships and business relationships than the latter. I think I'm going to have to check out that book if it's made such an impact on your life and read the previous blog posts!
You rock!
Jen,
Thank you so much! I totally agree with you in regards to people bring don't down the spirits, progress, etc.
I've learned the hard way that the quicker I end those relationships, the better it is for everyone.
As I've said before, I know your'e quite busy so I appreciate you taking the time to read this and give me your honest feedback.
You're quite welcome, I do want read the other ones…you're exactly on the same page as me with this!
You rock, Mike Veny. I'm proud to know you, and I appreciate your efficiency as a musician and businessperson.
Thank you Devyn! I am proud to know you as well.
What I love most is that you're stirring up the pot. You aren't just doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. WELL DONE!
Thank you Stephanie! That means a lot coming from you.
Nice to see what has been going on in your world, Mike! Here is what resonated with me the most: people don't have decent etiquette when requesting a favor. This is a huge problem in our society today. No doubt, social media has made it VERY easy to connect with many people around the world, famous or not. However, people are missing out on HOW to properly connect and develop a relationship.
Hello my friend!
Thank you for your feedback. I think you have an excellent point. We have all the tools to connect with anyone we want to, yet, relationships are still relationships.