Artist Career Development

How To Book Gigs & Tour Profitably 4 Proven Strategies to Book Better Gigs Exciting News I wanted to share! I am very excited to share some exciting news that began this summer and is about to come to fruition this month. In June, I was contacted by Dave Kusek, Creator of the New Artist Model, an online training platform for independent artists. He was also the founder of Berklee Online, Co-Author of the book, Future of Music, and one of the people who brought you MIDI, yes that MIDI. He was interested in some of my material, especially my online booking course. They wanted someone to teach that ever-challenging subject, How to Book Gigs. C'est moi! I…

Getting help in the office must include a discussion on what to pay. What to pay an assistant is a sticky subject, but the following information may help you land on the right amount for your budget and their time. Hire your assistant part-time, perhaps for 6-8 hours a week to get started. This allows them to start working on short projects and for you to get to know each other. You can increase the hours as needed but, keep it under 20 hours per week for starters. Hire your assistant as a contract worker that can be counted as an expense on your tax return rather than an employee.…

Getting help in the office includes an interview process. Here are 3 things you must do when interviewing a prospective assistant. Pull out your list of tasks and job description before you conduct any interview to create your list of talking point or questions. First: Plan on having 2 phone interviews before having an in-person interview. If you are working with a virtual assistant (someone who is not in your area and who will not be working from your office), then skip the in-person interview and add a 3rd phone interview. Having 3 interviews helps build a relationship before you commit to working with anyone. Why a phone interview? Because,…

This week let’s tackle Getting Help in The Office Where to Find Help. As a result of last week’s Biz booster, I hope you have your list of tasks to delegate and have written your job description. Now let’s explore some possible resources and places to find your potential assistant. For those of you living in or near a university town, there are a number of options involving internships. The departments that I would check into are: MBA programs in business that have a focus on marketing. Arts management programs Business Departments Journalism Departments Theater Departments Music Business, but not the music departments There is an organization called Music &…

Getting help in the office is something with which many artists struggle. Here is a four-part series to cover four aspects of this topic. This one can get sticky. The debate rages on whether or not it’s a good idea to hire friends or family. There are many famous music families who have made it work for them, but I’ll leave this one to your better judgment. This week I want to talk about first understanding your needs and how to best use help to advance your business. Next week, I’ll talk about how and where to find help. First: Make a list of everything you do in your business.…

As the artist, you must remain in control of your career development.  That means becoming a partner with any team member helping with your career. As the savvy artist that you are, you know handing over your career to someone who, may not be as invested, is not prudent. If you are not their only client, then their attention is naturally divided. When they have many other clients, then you may get lost on the roster if the phone is not burning up with calls for you. Your life, your livelihood and your career are at stake. You must direct your team members. Remain in control of your career development…

Who or what are you waiting for? Are you waiting to start your career? I've run into this often. Artists waiting for something else to be in place before they can really get serious. There's always something else that might need to happen, could happen or should happen before you can really get started, isn't there? What is it in your life? What do you need to be perfect before you get moving? What are you waiting for? Here are just a few things that I've run into that might get in your way before you do what is necessary to move your career along? Technology- you don't have this…

 Do you celebrate your accomplishments? Christmas is here, New Years one week away. It is time to celebrate your accomplishments. I believe in review and assessment and also reality checks to make sure you are not glossing over things that need tweaking. But, don't you deserve some high fives and kudos now and again? This is a great time to give yourself a hand and celebrate your hard work over the last twelve months. With all the revels happening all around you, don't you think it's time you raised a glass to yourself? Why not reach right over and pat yourself on the back in acknowledgement of what you accomplished…

Hiring an assistant to help move your career may be the next best thing to do even before getting an agent. I feel that this addition to your team, even if you are a solo performer, may be the perfect solution to allowing you to concentrate on the most essential things you can do to grow your touring career-like book gigs. Once again, using our template to drill down and look at what results we are after when considering adding this expense to the business, ask yourself the following questions and make a list: What income producing activities should I be doing? What non-income producing activities can someone else do?…