Entrepreneurship in Music Industry Guide

Entrepreneurship
in the Music Industry
© 2007 musicbizclasses.com

Why be an Entrepreneur?
Being your own boss lets you…
• Define the terms of your expertise and your
enterprise
• Determine the limits of your success
• Take advantage of new opportunities,
quickly and nimbly
• Command the attention of potential clients and
industry influencers
• Demand equal play in strategic partnerships
• Meet the top dogs and do business with the most
dynamic players

Know Thyself, Know Thy Audience
To be a successful Entrepreneur, you must:

• Understand what makes you different, better,
more valuable

• Understand which audiences will be most
attracted by your music product or service

• Become an expert on trends
- Constantly scan for new lifestyle brands, products and
services
- Be a Futurist- imagine what consumers will want and
need in the next 2, 5, 10 years- Then help them get it.


Develop a Strong Brand
• You, Inc. is THE brand you are selling, no
matter who you work for

• Delight Your Audience
– Provide experiences, not just products
– Be an Innovator

• Be Consistent:
– Mission Statement
– Branding

Remember, You are Always Selling
• Create your own Buzz/ Sell Yourself
– Create an active presence online—websites;
e-commerce; social network sites; Blogs; Videos
(YouTube); Merchandise; Licensing.

• Develop an authentic, powerful story about
your brand/ work that you tell to everyone
– The elevator pitch

• Don’t wait for someone to discover you.
Put yourself in the right place to meet people

Build and Care for Your Network
• Make a business card- carry it with you at all
times
• Create a promotional plan and work it with
focus and determination
• Go to industry conferences and local music
events; offer workshops and lectures to
schools and organizations; volunteer; help
other artists, producers and music execs.
Organize music festivals, concerts or events.
• Create a client/customer database; find good
reasons to contact them on a regular basis-
stay “top of mind”

The Entrepreneurial Spirit
• You are not just doing a job, you are building
a business system

• Do you have the right temperament?
– Employees “Security is more important than money”

– Self-Employed “I want to do it my way. Total control
is more important than money”

– Entrepreneur “I want to surround myself with the
smartest team, so I can succeed. Work smart,
not hard.”


The Entrepreneurial Skillset
• Self-Awareness & Business Skills
– Possess Emotional/Psychological Courage to
overcome fear & resistance
– Develop Business & Technical Expertise

• A strong desire to focus on Leadership skills
• Manage cash flow
• Manage people
• Manage time


The Entrepreneurial Skillset
Before you start, take a personal
Inventory. Check in with yourself about
your:
• Goals
• Personal style
• Resilience
• Independence
• Risk Tolerance
• Reasons for wanting to own a business
• Appetite for the realities of business- accounting,
taxes, contracts, selling

Are you prepared…to fail?
• A Large number of businesses fail in the first
5 years

• A business usually fails BEFORE it is launched

• A word about failure it happens!
– Losers quit when they fail,
Winners fail until they succeed
– Failing faster helps you succeed faster

Laying the Foundations
So, how do you succeed?
• The #1 job of an entrepreneur is to design
the business BEFORE there is a business
Business Planning is crucial for success.

• Step I- Gather Information
– Study other entrepreneurs and business systems
– Learn from your mentor(s)
– A successful business is NOT a product;
A successful businesses is a system

The Business System
• Every business, no matter what size,
is a combination of functions

• To succeed you need to manage each function
regularly and with well developed skills

• The baseline functions your business needs are:
– Product/Offering/Service/Experience
– Marketing/Communications
– Legal
– Back-end Systems/Administration/People Management
– Cash flow

The Business System

• How many of these functions are you
skilled in, today?

• What else do you need to learn?

• Who do you need to hire?


Learning the vital functions
• You cannot be an expert in all the functions
– Product/Offering/Service Concept development
– Legal Contracts, IP, Attorneys
– Communications Marketing , PR, Sales
– Systems Operations, distribution, manufacturing
– Cash flow Accounting, Budgeting, Forecasting

• Pick one or two functions, study and learn
what it will take to become the best at these
functions.

Learning the vital functions
• Plan to build out the rest of your team with others
who are the best at their functions. (Hire Your
Weaknesses)
– Marketing Managers
– Attorneys
– Publicists
– Human Resource experts
– Accountants

• BUT, always be sure you understand what the
other functions are doing. Keep learning…

Prepare for the Business Plan
• Define the Mission of your company
– The most successful businesses do one of two
things:
• Solve a problem
• Fill a need
– Your mission should be centered on who you
are serving and what you will provide them to
improve their lives.
• Envision a continual learning process as part
of your mission- build a feedback loop into
every step of your business-building process.

Prepare for the Business Plan
• Define the Goals of your company
– Goals should be SMART-
• Specific/Smart
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic/Relevant
• Timely/Time Specific
– Goals should address each of the functions in
your business system
– Goals should be short- and long-term 90 Day
plan, 1 year plan, 5 year plan
– Goals, Planning & Research= Your Business Plan

Write the Business Plan
• What is a Business Plan?
– A roadmap for growth
– a tool for raising funds
– an internal outline of the mission and goals
of the business

• Business Plans can be 5 pages or 500 hundred pages

• Write the plan you need for your audience-
internal, business partners, venture investors


The 7-Question Business Plan
• Who are you? Strength and Depth of Management
team

• What do you plan to sell? Product, Service,
Experience you are offering

• What makes your approach unique?
Differentiated vs. other offerings already in the market?
WHY will people want yours?

• Who are your customers? Demographics,
Psychographics, Geographics, Behavior/Usage, Unmet
needs?

The 7-Question Business Plan
• What is your potential market?
How many people will want your service or product when
you launch? How many more will want it in 2 yrs, 5 yrs,
10 yrs?

• How will you make money? What is your
business model? When will you be profitable? How stable
is your cash flow?

• Who or What could kill your business?
Who are your competitors? What technologies could
disrupt your business? How will you deal with them?

Operational Set-Up
Complete administrative/operational tasks:
• Choose a business entity–
Sole Proprietorship; LLC, Inc.

• Create a business name/brand identity

• Put legal protections in place- Copyrights,
Trademarks, Liability Insurance, Partnership
agreements, etc.

• Get required professional/business licenses

Now what?

You are up and running, now
SELL, SELL, SELL


Entrepreneurship in Music Industry Guide

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Entrepreneurship in Music Industry Guide

Similar to Entrepreneurship in Music Industry Guide (20)

More from MUC110

More from MUC110 (6)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Entrepreneurship in Music Industry Guide