Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by spectacular preparation.”

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

OK, that last quote is a bit harsh, but you get the idea of what my first “IndieBiz” blog post is going to be about (what’s “Indiebiz” you ask? A little background info for ya). When I talk to musicians, most of them are inevitably looking to “get signed” to a record deal. I won’t get into all of the reasons why I believe this isn’t necessarily a good career move, because that’s a topic for an entire blog post, but I do understand that mentality, to a certain extent. So artists usually want a record deal for 2 main reasons:

1) Money to pay for their album and promotion

2) Having a team of people working to promote their career

Fair enough, I get it. But what does a record company do with their money and their team of people? They put together a plan! If not, they’d just be throwing money all over the place and people wouldn’t know what they’re doing or why they’re doing it, they’d miss important deadlines, miss opportunities etc. It would be total chaos.

So it amazes me that musicians constantly give up that third component when you get a record deal. Why not put a plan together for your career and for the promotion of your album right now? Taking the time to write a plan will save you immeasurable time and money. And if you don’t have the kind of money that a record label has, and if you don’t have an entire team of people working to promote your career, that’s even more of a reason to have a plan! You’re going to have to be that much smarter about how you promote yourself independently with a small budget and a small team. Having a plan in place allows you to be efficient, so you won’t waste time figuring out what to do next, what you’ve already done, what deadlines are coming up etc. You’ll know exactly where you’re at, what’s been done, and what still needs to be done, which will save you loads of time and valuable brainpower. Essentially, having a plan will allow you to focus on doing things to advance your career so you’re not always thinking about what you need to do!

Now, you might be saying to yourself “Dave, I don’t need to write a plan, it’s all in my head, I know what I’m doing”. Well, that may be true. You might know everything that you need to do, but there are going to be hundreds, (if not thousands!) of things for you to remember while promoting your music, and there is no human being on the planet that could possibly remember everything that needs to be done, and just as importantly, when it needs to be done. Here are some revealing statistics I found in Peter Spellman’s book “INDIE POWER” to emphasize just how important it is to write things down and to have a plan:

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“A study on goal setting sponsored by the Ford Foundation found that:

• 23% of the population has no idea 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 the 10 of those people reach their goals only half the time;

• The top 3%, however, achieved their goals 89% of the time!

What accounts for the dramatic difference between that top 3% and the others? Are you ready? The top 3% wrote down their goals. Goals have been described as “dreams with a deadline”. Written, specific goals provide direction and focus to our activities. They become a road map to follow, and the mind tends to follow what’s in front of it.”

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Pretty amazing isn’t it? So if you take the proactive step of writing a plan, whether it’s for your CD release or for your career (I recommend doing both), make sure it’s a plan that will inspire you, one that is achievable (i.e. you don’t expect to sell 100,000 CDs on a $200 marketing budget), and most importantly, make sure it’s flexible. Plans are not meant to be written in stone! There will no doubt be situations that come up that may change your plans, so obviously don’t refuse any opportunities that can advance your career simply because they’re not in your original plans. There’s a happy medium somewhere between not planning at all and letting everything in your career happen “organically”, and planning everything so rigidly you leave no room for spontaneity. Finding the right balance is the key.

And I realize that most musicians fall into the category of letting things happen “organically” in their career, which hey, if it’s really working for you and you feel you’re exactly where you want to be in your career, then great. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with figuring out exactly what you want to achieve, whether it’s in terms of CD sales, live shows, licensing etc., and putting a plan together of how to achieve it. If you went on tour across North America, chances are you’re going to use a map to make sure you’re able to get to each city on time, right? Same principle applies with putting together a plan for your album promotion or for your career, as it will provide you with a roadmap of where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.

For those musicians who’d like to give planning a try, here’s a free sample template of a CD Release Plan I developed for a resource guide I co-wrote with Peter Spellman (Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music) called “Your Successful CD Release”: Marketing Plan Outline.pdf

I hope it’s helpful to you, and if you have any questions about the template or about planning in general, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Cheers!

Dave Cool
Founder, Stand Alone Records
“Encouraging Artists NOT to Sign Record Deals!”
www.standalonerecords.com

Free Artist Resources:
www.standalonerecords.com/resources.cfm

Director/Producer:
“What is INDIE? A Look into the World of Independent Musicians”:
www.standalonerecords.com/whatisindie.cfm