Getting Help In The Office

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. This is important to know so you can determine what you should not be doing or what are the most likely jobs to delegate.

Second: Take a piece of paper and make 2 columns.

    Look at the list you’ve just made and put all of the non-income producing jobs in column 2 and all of the income producing jobs in column 1. Now we all know that everything you do will eventually influence your income, but for clarity, let’s separate those things that immediately impact your livelihood and should not be delegated to someone new on your team.

Here are some examples of Income Producing jobs:

a. Speaking directly to bookers and negotiating your gigs
b. Hiring side musicians
c. Making publishing or recording deals
d. Hiring promotions or publicity companies

Here are some examples of Non-Income producing jobs:

Non-Income producing, but very important jobs are:

a. Sending contracts and promo materials to gigs and media
b. Creating promo materials
c. Updating websites
d. Sending tour itineraries to trade magazines
e. Calling media outlets to set up interviews
f. Researching new gig opportunities
g. Cold calling to get details of potential gigs but not negotiating the deal
h. Managing your mailing list
i. Writing press materials
j. Ordering merchandise or supplies

I think you get the idea.

Now take all the non-income producing jobs and create a job description from those items. You may have others that are specific to your needs, so add those to the description.

When you first have someone coming to work for you, these non-income producing jobs are a great way to get to know each other and accomplish a great deal. It lets you concentrate on the important jobs of booking your gigs and managing your career.

Next week: Getting help in your office Part Two, Where to Find Help.

Are you ready to have some help running your career? Have you identified all the tasks you would like someone to help you with?

Leave me a comment below  

I can’t wait to hear about your success.

Thanks to Carol Ehrlich for this week’s graphic image. Check out her work at v360.com

And thanks to the band Curfew, for providing the Biz Booster Theme Music, “Future Dance”

And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars, online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com