Playing Music Without Knowing A Note:

An Analogy on Building a Business

You know what makes me mad? People who sit around and complain about how they hate their job, or how lucky I am to be self employed। Thumb Suckers! Do something about it. Here’s some ideas for you. Let’s start with something that is probably as far away from your mind as as it was mine until I thought about it, and reasoned out a way it of doing it.

Here goes. How would you like to be a musician? You get to travel to exotic places! Thousands of screaming fans greet you everywhere you go! Your band is great, and you have a few hit songs. Everyone loves your band, and you play to packed houses. Young people throw themselves at your feet worshiping the very ground you walk on.

What? You can't sing? OK, hire a singer then. You play the lead guitar. And you still play to packed houses, each and every night.

Oh, you can't play a musical instrument either? OK so you hire those who can. And now you can concentrate on the music. "Writing the songs that make the whole world sing," so to speak. Other bands want rights to reproduce you words.

What? You can't write music either? Don't know a half note from a whole note? Can't hum a tune on a kazoo? What can you do? You're good at promotion huh? Great, then you set up the distribution and marketing of all the records that are produced. You then stand in the sidelines and watch the magic take place. The thrill of opening night. The fan mail and the revenue generated from the tours you produce.

Does this sound like a business to you? Can’t promote? Hire a promotion team. You drive the teams with your enthusiasm and your ideas. This is business. A group of people getting together to make and produce beautiful arrangements, so great - that millions of people will lay down cash just to get a small piece of it.
No huh? Why?

Could it be that you want the glory and the accolades that self employment can give you, but you are trying to be a one-person band?

You think you have to be the lead guitar – trying to stir up the market, the lead singer, promoting the services at each performance, the drummer, making sure that the rhythm is maintained, and the promotion agent, constantly marketing to maintain future gigs.

Now who does your promotion while you're on stage?

We all start out this way. It seems so simple. It all starts with a dream of "I just want to sing" that can quickly turn into a nightmare of endless nights, late openings, constant missing the mark, and in the end, getting out of rhythm with what we originally dreamt of. Eventually you end up as the backup singer for another band. In other words, you give up your dream and settle for employment. And you whine.

You cannot be a one-man band in today's market and you can’t wait for the other guy to feed you. If this is your goal and ambition, get out now. Stop. Find another job, working for a company that will let you do exactly what you love to do. Produce the results for them, but don't go into self-employment until you accept the fact that you need a support team. I tell you this, having 25+ years of experience of being self-employed, in which 15 of those years were spent trying to be the Arlo Guthrie of the entrepreneurial world. The first 10 were spent trying to find my voice.

At best, your support team can be small. You do the work, which is what you get paid to do best. Marketing will be done in the background while you are working. Accounting and collections will also be done in the background. Uncle Sam wants to be paid, as do all your creditors. Now in the beginning, contract these services out (outsourcing), as you need them.

You do not want to handle payroll yet. Remember, you are doing the contracts, and bookkeeping is the last thing you want to do late at night.

As to the marketing, hire a marketing and promotion services. Let us market the heck out of your business, through every search engine, and promotional spot that was available.

So far, your business is up and running and you are following your dream. With one big exception! You are now paying yourself what you are worth, instead of someone else paying you what they can get by with, and making money off your efforts.
Get the picture? How well you take this advice, depends on how much you think your time is worth. You are writing the music to this one. When you gewt rich, have someone teach you how to play the guitar.

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Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)

Too close to the forest . . . .

I always like visiting new websites. As a writer and marketer, I look to see if it sells me in the first 15 seconds. If it does not, I ask myself if it can be improved and what would it take. I ask if it is a sales site or simply a brochure site? What did it start out to be?

I periodically ask someone else to visit my website at http://www.write4me.biz/ and have him or her to get critical with it. Like many self employed, I can’t because I am too close to the words it says. It becomes a personal issue. I can justify every decision I, or my editing staff made when we wrote the original copy, and I want to fight all suggestions for change. .

Perhaps you are in the same boat – your website is neat, but it’s not driving traffic to your door. That is really the test. You stand behind everything you say on it, but for some reason people are not buying. Maybe you don’t know what it will take to make your site work, but you would like to find out. Perhaps you are using the wrong seed and attracting the wrong birds. (Previous Posting)

In light of today’s requirements for internet sales, I find that 90% of all website over 9 months old need a good re-write. Things change; market directions are modified with every newspaper headline. If you have a staff of people who can do that objectionably, get them on it or spend some after hours time doing it yourself.

If you don’t have a staff, consider outsourcing. Many of our clients use us as their outsourced marketing department. The results will surprise you and it will drive up the value of your internet presence. In addition - if you want a completly brand new website, I have the people who can develop it for you.

From business & marketing plans to web development - the resources are availalble with us. Our rates are reasonable, our initial consultation is free and we are fair. We actually look for good copy to work with – rather then looking to tear down a perfectly good site just to sell services. We will discuss every point with you so that you are “in the loop” at each change.
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Copyright 2008 - Gary A. ClarkGary Clark is a Freelance Commercial Writer and Web Content writer who for 25 years has been both a Consultant and instructor of Small Business Entrepreneurship. He can be reached by e-mail at GAClark@Write4me.net, or by phone at 719-536-0505- Mon thru Fri / 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST)