The $100 Startup - My Thoughts

100startup.com

I just finished reading Chris Guillebeau's The $100 Startup. Full of real examples and even one related to us musicians (Music Teachers' Helper), I'm inspired and motivated to keep working on my own microbusiness.

Thanks to this book, I've realized a lot of my inaction is due to fear and perfectionism. One of my project interests at the moment is creating products to sell online, but what do I sell as a musician? I'm exploring this by looking at various options, but I want them to all relate to who I am and what I'm doing at any given time. This book has inspired me to jump in, and I'm writing my first ebook and giving myself only 7 days to do it.

At this transitional point in my life, I have the freedom and ability to just go for it. Like I said in my post last week, resources like this book and Lea Woodward have come into my life at just the right time for me to start working positive changes into my life and my business.

The $100 Startup also helped me realize that if I say I'm running a business, then I have to focus my actions based on making money. Focusing my time on 50 percent creation and 50 percent connecting is a relevant formula to take as a musician and begin tweaking your business. Whether you want to bring in more students, begin utilizing a secondary skill to draw more business or you want to introduce an array of products on your site, focusing your time is essential and can be tricky especially if practicing your instrument doesn't do a lot for income generation at the moment.

I highly recommend this book. It's an easy read. You can either read through it, or you can work through the book chapter by chapter. The accompanying website, 100startup.com, is a great free resource with downloadable PDFs to help you launch a product, a business, or you need marketing help. Everything is broken down into plain English and easily actionable steps.

The beauty of microbusiness is that it's often just one person. You can accomplish much by getting rid of the organizational red tape, and working for yourself. It's a powerful motivator. If you're looking for something to inspire and move you forward, read this book.

Making a path

I'm in yet another transitional period in my life personally and professionally. I'm working on a great project that I'm very excited about. I'm not in a position at the time to hold a day job due to personal transition with my husband's job, so I'm using the time to my advantage to not only help him locate a job but to flesh out ideas and work on them as much as possible to bring them to fruition.

First off, if you haven't read my manifesto, please do so. This will give you the framework needed for this and subsequent posts.

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Recently, two great resources came into my life. The first has been Lea Woodward's eCourse, Pathfinding for Idea Pioneers which she is generously offering for free on her site and which I previously mentioned here. Incidentally, she's also running a competition this week for her Pioneers Collective site which would give me greater access to resources and as Lea calls it, "on tap business advice" for the DIY person like myself.

The second resource has been Chris Guillebeau's latest book, The $100 Startup. I discovered the book the day it was released and I was lucky enough to be the first person to check it out of my local library. I'm only into Chapter 2, but it complements Lea's course well and has reinforced my evolving ideas about my project. Ultimately, these two resources have been well timed for my personal and professional transition.

So what is this idea I keep talking about? It isn't ready for release yet, but clarinetist Marion Harrington and I have partnered up and we're working on a new business geared towards musicians like us. This is the idea that we are fleshing out as work through Lea's eCourse together, and we both started it at the same time. Via weekly Skype sessions, we're sharing the work we've done on each task and we're taking the best points from our independent responses.

What Lea's course has done for me personally has been amazing. It's focused the foundational, groundwork process in a way that I don't feel overwhelmed. I can work on the task and feel accomplished and one step closer to launching this project. Since I began this course 3 weeks ago, Marion and I have made headway on our idea that may have otherwise taken months.

Lea has figured out so well how to make her services personal and valuable to potential customers and clients. Right now, I'm realizing how we have to be spot on with how any idea will ultimately impact people regardless of your goal. If your goal is to generate income, then this becomes more important as you'll need to tap into your customer base. As musicians, I think we sometimes lose sight of this. It's so easy to work on the things we want to do that I think we forget that we must actually work and connect with people in such a way that they want to pay you for your work. Figuring this out for yourself is very, very important and will go a long way towards building long term value across the music industry.

This is the start of my path. It aligns well with my manifesto, and I'm walking the walk now that I've so publicly talked the talk. I'm beginning to find the freedom I've always dreamed of. I'm only starting, but I'm excited what the future holds.

How many hats do you wear?

photo moolanomy.com

Ask a classical musician what they do for a living and be prepared for a less than straight forward answer. We do a lot. Most of us perform, teach, compose, write and do many other things that all fall under the freelance title. The challenge of succinctly describing to laypersons what I do is ever present, and most time I simply reply that I play the flute.

I have many income streams that I'm in the process of developing. Currently, I teach, perform and write. I'm also working on capitalizing on my day job experience to create new work. My goal as a musician is to be portable and flexible; however, like any small business, income streams take time to develop into money making ventures. The key is to not give up.

What unique skill sets and interests do you have? Does being a musician completely define you or do have a broader scope of experience that you can draw on? I worked a full time day job outside of music for nearly three years. I treat that work experience as my business management education since my job consisted of accounting, human resources and operations components. Aside from that, my other day jobs have been primarily clerical in nature so I draw on my organizational and administrative skills there to handle day to day stuff and not get overwhelmed. Although I'm now beginning school to obtain my physical therapy degree, these skills will serve me well.

Don't be afraid of the additional experience a day job can give you. If you feel you need more business experience, try to find a administrative position. The hours may not be as flexible, but you're gaining experience, honing your skills and earning a paycheck in the process.

Another question to ask yourself as you begin to develop income streams is how many can you handle? For instance, if you're interested in self-producing concerts, the amount of work involved in handling all the details from securing a space, negotiating fees, hiring additional musicians and promoting the event to get an audience is a huge undertaking. I didn't even mention the hours of practice needed to prepare a program!

Instead of thinking about each separate hat you have to wear under the auspice of generating income via performance, think about the project in its entirety then break down the steps into manageable bits from there. You'll otherwise risk burnout and becoming overwhelmed with all the little bits of work that need to be done.

Become a self-sufficient musician means that you have to develop business skills. Choose income streams that reflect your interests and match your values. You'll be more likely to stick with it especially when the monetary payoff isn't immediate.

We're artists, but we're also forced into the tricky world of business in order to cobble together a living for ourselves. My next set of posts will attempt to give you some perspective on how to overcome these challenges and keep moving ahead even when it seems that you're stalled.

Small audiences, small venues

Performing for a small yet supportive audience

Upside: I had a successful performance this past Saturday at Moonstone.

Downside: I had 6 people show up. My online audience that tuned in via Ustream was larger than my in person crowd.

Some might be devastated by this, and this detail consumed me for most of Sunday as I tried to take the day off. I've chosen to put things in perspective though and I'm regrouping. I'm not sure what my next performance project will be. I'm interested in self-producing because I want to maintain creative control of what I'm doing. And I still feel that smaller, more intimate venues make my music more accessible; however, I cannot afford to finance my own concerts. I want to play to generate income. 

Was my program too niche? It was still a flute and piano recital and although I undertook huge promotional efforts online and via social media, did I only just appeal to a small group of people? I have some ideas brewing. I wouldn't be moving forward and asking these questions if I hadn't undertaken this project.

There are no regrets. Just brutal honesty that in spite of our best efforts to get people to show up, we're not going to get the numbers we'd expected. If people come out for live music, they want it in an intimate, accessible setting. As a performer, I'm sharing in the experience with my audience. I don't want it any other way.

Can a show at a small venue be self-sustaining with income generating potential? It's a question I'm pondering now so that subsequent shows that I play or any future concert I help someone else produce will have favorable results.

On to the next one.