Preparing for each year comes with a lot of planning, preparation and here are a few tips to help get focused.

Planning and preparation is different for everyone and it is up to you on what works best. Is it a journal, a notepad, digital recorder, smartphone or a computer that is always sitting by you? Do you always go back to the computer, journal or phone? If not, start this in the new year.

Your best ideas, business possibilities and creativity comes when you’re not ready or least expect it so here’s what to do:

Tips for New Year Creativity and Business Planning:

1. Always have something available to write with. How many songs or business ideas have you lost already? This year, create a system of capturing your creativity anywhere at any time. Choose a journal, notepad, computer, voice recorder, smartphone, etc. Pick it and stick with it.

2. Prioritize your ideas by long term, short term and today. If you want to do a collaboration with a friend that may be a long term project. If you have to create your publishing company, that could be a today or short term project. There are many ‘little today tasks’ that if left to themselves can suck up all your time without you knowing it. The important tasks are the ones that are going to give you results. Then there are the small/today tasks that MUST get done. Think about what your working on, step back, get perspective and continue to prioritize. As a music professional this is an ongoing planning principle – the sooner you get good at it the better you’ll be.

3. Educate yourself always. If you are setting goals but have no knowledge, experience or direction, it’s possible you could be setting yourself up for failure before you even start. Here’s an example. I did custom training with a client recently and his goal was to finish three songs, print up a thousand cds and take them to radio stations, clubs and network. Ultimately his true goal is to write great music, create a fanbase and create a successful part-time or full-time music business. While his plan sounded great, it would have wasted time and money. How will he get his fans, his website complete, what does the artwork look like, is he targeting the right radio audience? Through our conversation we found many holes in his plan and I was able to educate him in the final development of his business before the expense of creating the product and marketing so he could have permanent fans that don’t miss the great music he was putting out.

What am I saying here? Get 2-3 professional opinions before spending time and money. You’ll never regret it.

4. Prioritize by importance. So now you’ll have organized a long term, short term and list for today and you’ll have sought professional counsel to help with the process. Now you can prioritize by what tasks in each category will get you the best results toward your overall goals. Remember, taking guesses gets you know where. Taking educated steps gets results.

5. Take Action. Plans don’t mean anything unless you take daily action. If you want a career in music, you must be working your plan daily. No one cares about your music business more than you. No one is going to motivate you, hound you or inspire you but yourself. If you are not a self motivator, you might be in the wrong business or you just need more education on how you can be self motivated :).

This year, plan your goals with the end result in mind and work yourself backwards. Focus on the bigger picture, consolidate your tasks to projects that are going to bring you where you want to go this year. Ignore the rest. You can’t do everything so stop trying! With this planning process eventually you’ll be able to do everything but you cant do everything in one go – make sense?

The only way to fail is to give up. There is no reward for discouragement or frustration. Only when you push through and never give up can you succeed.

With these simple steps, it’s not a matter of if your dreams and goals will come to pass, it’s only a matter of when…
If you need help planning for the new year, please take a moment and signup for a free consultation. Let us know how we can help you.