My Business Plan

I have written over 600 songs and a bunch of poems. Never counted the poems, definitely hundreds. People tell me they like my music and poetry. I think i have all the raw materials for a cottage industry

• Music CDs
• Poetry CDs
• Downloads of songs and Poems
• Music DVDs, mixed with some interview and poetry
• DVDs of Music Videos (my songs are very visual, would lend themselves well to this)
• Written folios of song lyrics and poetry
• Frameable Poems and Lyrics, done in calligraphy, with illustrations, printed on high quality paper, or maybe just available for download. I had in mind some zen style, Paul Reps type brush and ink work

My idea used to be if i could sell 10,000 CDs a year, based on 5,000 sales of whatever my new title was, plus 1,000 each of older titles, that's a good living.

So why isn't it happening?
I'm actually a pretty good businessman and marketer, and for whatever reason, after years of saying i should, i should, the truth is, i don't, i don't, and i don't want to, because my creative efforts go into writing and composing, and i can't do both. The times i have, i stop playing and writing. Fuck that.

So, Business partner wanted. Someone to:

• Do the marketing. Spend hours on the computer contacting every fan and other music website in the world saying, check this guy out.
• Do booking and promotion
• Someone who is good at setting up the accounts with all the sales websites like imeem and CD baby
• Do the CD and DVD covers, and handle the production of the printed materials and the artwork, because i am useless at the computer graphic work.
• Ideally, this person had recording equipment, and was good with it. This is flexible, i am very good and efficient in a studio, so money takes care of that
• provide cash up front for recording and putting out the stuff

My ideal person

• 1 Honest, goes without saying
• 2 Competent. I have heard stories of well meaning people trying to help, but didn't know what they were doing, and no happy ending.
• 3 Wise, patient, caring person. Someone with heart.
• 4 Someone who can accept that i want a music career to be an important part of my life, not take over my whole life. I'm in it for the long haul. That means i pace myself, proceeding at a comfortable clip. Translation=10 shows/month, 10 months/year, travelling arranged in a healthy way, not a bunch of one night stands. I want to, for instance, go to Seattle for a month, sublet a room, and do a bunch of shows in the area. I need hours each day to do my meditation, qigong, yoga, prepare healthy food, etc.
• 5 Excellent computer skills, including graphics and layout, and dealing with emails and websites
• 6 People skills, lots of patience and tact. A lot of people in the music biz are full of themselves. You can not take offense. Actually, at times person might need people skills to deal with me.
• 7 Meticulous, diligent, responsible, especially with the accounting and keeping track of the email.
• 8 I am their only client. Maybe one other. Not spread too thin

For some reason, i had the thought of someone who had lived in a zen center and was looking for means of right livelihood to support their spiritual practice.
Basically, i am looking for a cross between King Solomon and Steve Jobs. Maybe the solution is not one person, maybe it's a team. I like teams.

The deal:50-50.

I am a very cautious, conservative person in some ways. I would want months getting to know anyone i am going to get seriously involved with in a business way, because once we start working together, i am not looking to change horses in midstream.

Potential issues down the road;

• If i got really successful, at some point a professional booking agent, with contacts already in place all across the country, would make sense. Ditto for distribution. Some financial adjustments have to be made. Maybe we split the booker's percentage.
• What if we decide to part ways. This could happen for a variety of amicable reasons, as well as other reasons. What percentage of my sales are you entitled to, and for how long, after we split?

I really have to tell the truth here. I still believe, %100, that i have the potential to go all the way. Maybe it's ego, maybe it's pipe dream, but i could see my music reaching a lot of people, maybe even selling 20 million units.
I'm not holding my breath, i'm not expecting it, but i really do believe it could happen. It's not that i want to get rich and live in a mansion; i do want to be comfortable financially, screw the mansion. It would be nice to have some money to use for helping others and good causes.

So, there it is, my business plan. I make the music, you do the business, we split the proceeds.