Push For Improvement

Let's say so far you are eating this stuff up and you can see the potential to achieve more than you could ever imagine in your music careers (small businesses). If you have stayed with me so far, you are probably aware of your weaknesses more than ever. This is where the cliche comes in: .."Not Enough Time In The Day..." I mean if you really thought about it you could probably think of twenty marketing campaigns to promote yourself and your music right now. The truth of the matter is you lack the resources and time to execute all that will ever help you, so the idea to continue to push for improvement might be overwhelming, frustrating, or even disappointing.

Another challenge in business is: time is always of the essence. Opportunities are seasonal, but what happens when you under estimate an opportunity for busy work. Since all busy work looks the same to any observer. What are you doing to ensure that you don't waste opportunity by carelessly doing work that becomes meaningless in the long run?

What to do?...What to do?

This is the time you have to put your CEO hat on (the role of CEO is to think strategically), and to avoid thinking linearly. Old way of thinking maybe: play every gig, spend hours practicing to get better, send out press kits, look for a music agent, look for a music manager, compose my next song, record my next album, write on my music blog, promote my album by gigging...etc Although these are effective, what if you failed to achieve your long term goals because you were focused on the wrong things? 

Push For Improvement

Although many things will help your music only a few of those things will propel you most of the way to your vision. Okay, as you know its easy to say you are a stickler for improvement. It's more difficult for you to identify your key indicators that will propel you toward your dreams faster than you ever thought possible. Key performance indicators are like vital signs of your business (music career). Key performance indicators are quantifiable measurements (you can put a number to them) that reflect the critical success factors of an organization.

So now you must see your music career beyond the one thing you are doing today (i.e. gigging, composing, networking etc...). Think of your music career as your business and consider these business questions:

What does your company need to demonstrate authentic growth?
what is your definition of success?
more sales?
larger sales?
creating a buzz around your music?
better employee (band mate) retention?
What is it you want to achieve with your music? Publishing? Millions of CDs sold? Playing the largest venues in the nation? produce music? form a record label?

Think for a minute and figure this stuff out. No one can ever help you to succeed if you haven't taken the time to define success. Maybe that is the challenge you are having: you become tunnel vision on one thing or another instead of seeing your business holistically. So, take sometime to study different angles of the industry, don't be lazy! Lets assume you figured out key success factors for your organization, what do you need to measure? or what are the indicators of these factors?

Lets Take Just One Example:

To grow a business; the bottom line needs to increase while expenses decrease. To have more revenue from year to year the company needs to have more sales, or increase the life cycle of existing customers or make larger sales, or ....well you get the point. What measurement indicates growth in your business and how do you measure it? What rate of growth is realistic each year?  So, identify key indicators for the business, work on improvement; measurable improvement.


Thoughts On Leadership

Time To Start
Own It
Be Visible
Push For Improvement
Grab Opportunities
Persevere