Planning is winning, every successful business or person succeeded with a plan. It’s been said that “failure to plan is planning to fail.”
Success in life and business is never accidental or a matter of chance. It is achieved and sustained with the tool of a well thought-out and written down plan.
Checkout this insightful study on goal-setting sponsored by the Ford Foundation, it revealed that:
• 23% of the population has no idea of what they want from life and as a result they don’t have much.
• 67% of the population has a general idea of what they want, but they don’t have any plans for how to get it.
• Only 10% of the population has specific, well-defined goals, but even then, 7 out of 10 of those people reach their goals only half the time
• The top 3%, however, achieved their goals 89% of the time!
What makes the dramatic difference between the top 3% and the others? Well it is simple enough; the top 3% have a well thought-out, written down goals!
Applying this fact to the Nigeria music industry reflects the reality and the true nature of the state of things in the business. I have had numerous encounters with artists, musicians, producers and other entities (and nonentities), those with real talent and the not-so-gifted ones (musically), the ones with angelic voices and the ones whose vocal ‘prowess’ has the capacity to haunt and scare dead bodies out of their graves, all claiming a career in the music industry.
On enquiry, to know if they have a written down music business/career plan, vision and mission, most will pause, and go into a state of mental shock, wondering what in the name of God you are talking about, as if it is a taboo in the music/entertainment business to have a written out business plan.
After recovering from their initial shock, all I hear 8 out of 10 times is the mumbo-jumbo rant of how they are going to conquer the music industry, how they are going to sell millions of CDs (even in an era of global decline and shift from physical CD sales to digital), how they will become the next big thing, and the ranting dream goes on endlessly.
While there is nothing wrong with dreaming, in fact, the whole journey itself always begins with a dream. You first envisioned yourself singing on that stage with the spotlight focused on you and the audience shouting for an encore, you dreamed recording that killer single that becomes number one on the charts, you saw yourself becoming a superstar music celebrity.
Someone has said that it is ‘ok’, to build castles in the air as long as you are willing and committed to construct a foundation underneath your castle. That foundation is your plan, your road-map to bringing to reality your dreams.
So what is a plan? Why is a plan necessary for success in the music business?
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a plan is a “method or arrangement: a set of actions for achieving something in the future, especially a set of actions that has been considered carefully and in detail.” It further define plan as “a map or drawing that shows the essential details of a thing, place or an arrangement showing the shape, size and position etc.”
It is risky to start a business, launch a career or make a living in the music business without having a carefully thought-out plan. The plan, as a map, will help you to understand the music industry, know its strengths, weaknesses and its course of direction. Having this knowledge will reveal to you the best place to position yourself within the industry, help you to plan and set realistic goals, develop strategies and chart the smartest path to the achievement of your goals.
Success in an emerging industry like the Nigeria music industry without recognizable structures and frameworks designed to protect its stakeholders and practitioners calls for a well thought-out, written down music business plan. A good music business plan is your map to the fulfilment of your goals, whether you are a musician, artiste, band, producer, record label, artist manager or some other business, a plan has the power to turn unclear notions into operational strategies, ideas into actions and dreams into reality.
A good music business plan will help to instil into you the idea and concept that you are a business entity, developing products/services (music) for sale, competing in the marketplace (marketing and marketing research), servicing the needs of your clients/consumers (customer service/relationship management) .
At this point, I need to give an advance warning to music industry people altogether that, if the government delivers well on the promise of the US200 million subventions to the entertainment industry, the funds are going to be accessible only through the banks, and you are going to need a good music business plan to access this fund. I guess this is a good incentive for you to develop your music business plan.
Having a good music business plan will help you to attract investors and secure loans. Launching a successful music career requires adequate financing and management, between recording, mixing, promotion, advertising, marketing, acquiring equipment, PR, music video and other commitments, it can be demanding and financially challenging. Investors can provide you with the much needed financing for your music business project with the hope and expectation of a return on their investment. What will determine whether an investor will invest in your music business project or not, is the provision of a well-thought out business plan from you. It’s the same document that banks will require from you when you seek for loans. A business plan will greatly increase your chances of securing a loan, because it reflects professional responsibility to the lending institution.
Writing a music business plan will help to channel your resources, focus your energy, prioritise, identify problems and obstacles, reveal hidden opportunities, eliminate guess work out of budgeting, highlight strengths and weaknesses, coordinate your marketing effort and create room for creative thinking.
A good music business plan will have some major components like:
• A summary page
• Description of your business
• Marketing plan
• Operations statement
• Project timeline
• Financial projections.
I will discuss more on these components in the sequel to this article.
So watch out.
Find Your Voice, Be Yourself
Toyin Adeniji
Principal Consultant, Music Business Network.
www.musicbusinessweekly.blogspot.com
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