Singing Career – Part II
Understand that your singing is your business.
Once you have decided what you want and have gotten clear about who you are and what you are selling, you need to get your singing career organized.
If you intend to make singing your business you must wrap your brain around the business of music then set up a foundation for your ongoing business. Remember, this is business, your business, and you must treat it as one if you want to succeed. So many artists have difficulty moving forward because they lack the motivation and even the skills to handle the business side of their careers.
Although we now have wonderful technology with social bookmarking and networking, etc. you have to work at it. Until you can afford to hire someone to handle the marketing and promotion for you, it’s up to you. I believe a singing career begins and ends with ALL the people you meet along the way, fans, family, internet acquaintances and music industry professionals included. It is imperative that you keep track of all of them.
Two things you will need from the beginning are business cards and a contacts database or spread sheet. In order to set up your business cards you will need to establish your contact information. Get a phone number and an email address that are not likely to change for at least two to three years. All you need is a cell phone and a free Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account. If you do not have your own internet domain or web site for your singing, you can set up a Myspace or Facebook page or other social network page. Once you have solidified your contact information, print out some business cards. However you decide to create your cards, make sure to do it and ALWAYS have some with you.
As you pass out business cards you should also be collecting them. Any singing or networking event that you attend is an opportunity to connect with people. Take the contact information you gather and organize it into a “database”. For all intents and purposes I am using the term “database”.
Basically, you want to have all of your information for your singing career organized in one place in your computer. I input name, phone numbers, email addresses and URLs. Then I add where each person works, what they do, where I met them, if I was singing when I met them, if I was referred and by whom, the date, and any other notes pertinent to our conversation for follow up. One thing that helps me is to take notes on the back of their business card that they give me so I can refer to it later when I am inputting their information. Don’t forget to add all your online friends into the same database. Everyone will have something to do with your singing career at some point or another.
