Becoming a Musicpreneur: What to Think About When Starting Your Business

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It’s More Than a Business Name

I’m sure by now you’ve Googled “How to start a business.”

Overwhelmed yet?

There is a lot to consider when you’re taking music career from a hobby to a business, but let’s take some of the overwhelm out of it for now.

Here are some basic things you’ll need to start to think about as you make your transition.

Think Like a Business

In any life transition, whether it be in your career, family, friendships, or otherwise, the first step its to shift your mindset.

Last week’s post detailed three mindset shifts to get in the musicpreneur mindset. Shifting your mindset, finding a productivity system that works for you, and planning out your day are key in the transition from musician to musicpreneur.

I also have a downloadable PDF with three additional mindset shifts to help you get into the right mindset.

The most important part of your transition is to think like a business. You want to:

Make decisions carefully and avoid gut decisions
Take personal out of the equation
Align with your why and keep coming back to it

Okay, yes, gut decisions are made in business every day and you can still make a decision if that’s what your gut is telling you. Just make sure you’ve analyzed other options as well.

There might be tasks that you personally don’t like to do, but unless you have a bandmate willing to take on that responsibility or you want to outsource it to someone else, you’re going to have to do it to be successful.

Make Plans

Business and marketing plans, that is.

No, you don’t have to create 40+ page business plan or a 20+ page marketing plan like I had to in business school. You probably won’t be taking it to the bank to get a large loan, or show it to investors (unless you’re here to become an entrepreneur and build out a business, then you’ll need one).

A business plan is a blueprint, a guide that will help you stick to your goals, understand the audience you’re reaching, and keep your band organized should issues arise.

Create a basic business plan for your use that outline the following:

Executive Summary - It might sound odd, but this is the last section you’ll write. This summary highlights the points in the next several sections, so until you go through those and analyze them, you really won’t have much of a summary will you?
Opportunity - What is the problem you’re solving for your customer, and how are you going to solve it? Really consider your customer’s needs and wants here, rather than your side (cost, delivery method). Describe what you’re selling and how those products and services will fit the customer’s needs.
Market analysis - This is your audience, your ideal customer avatar. What are their needs? Where are they? How are you going to reach them? How are you going to deliver your product to them?
Execution - This is the outline of your marketing plan, your sales plan, and any other logistics. What type of technology do you use? What’s your business model? What key metrics are you going to use to measure your success?
Company and management - who are you? Who are the members of your company or your band? Include information like the date you were founded, background and experience, if you’re registered with the state and where you do business.
Financials - How much do you need to launch your business? If you’ve been doing this for a while, what are your expenses and income?

You’ll also want to create a basic marketing plan to help guide how you’re reaching your audience and bringing in income.

Yes, you did market analysis in the business plan, but a marketing plan is much more in-depth than your analysis. This is where you’ll define:

Your mission - Why are you implementing this marketing plan? Does it align with your overall mission or vision?
Ideal customer avatar - Who do you want to attract? Who is your ideal customer?
Budget - What expenses do you anticipate you will incur?
Content and strategy - What type of content, how much, how will you measure it, what channels will you use, what paid advertising will you utilize?
KPI’s (key performance indicators) or metrics - How will you measure the results of your mission?
Competition - What are your competitors doing?

Even if you’re not starting a business with a product or services from the get-go, I would highly suggest sketching out a business and marketing plan to keep yourself accountable and aligned with your vision.

Money Money Money

Yes, our favorite topic.

Except this section is all about budgets, banking, and the like. Sorry to disappoint, but it’s important to think about when you’re becoming a business.

Do you have a budget in place?

The last thing you want to do is spend more than you make, and a budget will help with that.

Where do you put your money?

Are you funneling band money through your personal bank account, or do you have a cash envelope sitting around?

Are your royalties funneling through someone’s PayPal account into their bank account, and you’re operating on the honor system?

Are you taking in cash from gigs and splitting it right then and there without saving any for other costs (recording, equipment, web hosting, etc.)?

While I’m not a lawyer or a financial planner, I would highly suggest separating business / band and personal money, especially if you’ve registered your business with the government. As your business and career grow, you’ll want a separate fund to pay expenses and receive income. It will make it easier at tax time, and you won’t be having to keep track of just how much money is actually yours.

Get Legal

*Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and cannot provide legal advice. These are just helpful tips to consider when starting up your business, and I would highly suggest consulting a lawyer.

This might be where you’ll see most of your expenses in starting your business, but if you ignore the legal aspects it could be even more expensive.

You’ll want to sign contracts with your band, producer, web designer, social media manager…pretty much anyone you hire, whether you pay them or not.

You’ll want to copyright your work and perhaps even trademark your logo or name.

You’ll want to register your business and choose a business organization type (more about business organizations here)

You’ll want to make sure you have the appropriate privacy policies, disclosures (especially if you have affiliate income!), and terms & conditions for your website.

I get it, hiring a lawyer for all of this right out the gate can be expensive. While there are definitely parts of your new business you want to have a lawyer review and advise, there are templates out there for contracts and website disclosures. The Contract Shop* has contacts, disclosures, and even business plan templates for all kinds of creative business needs. I purchased my privacy policy template from them, and have my eye on a few other templates as I work to set up different parts of my business. You can visit them at www.thecontractshop.com*.

Looking for More Business Know-How?

I’m putting together an eCourse to help take the overwhelm out of becoming a musicpreneur, with mindset techniques, business for the artist, marketing and social media, and more. Join the wait list and be the first in line to gain access!