5 Tips Your Day Job Can Teach You About Your Music Career

There aren't many people out there who can make it as a full time musician and still be making enough money to pay the bills. Chances are, you have yourself a regular '9 to 5' to keep food on the table and a roof over your head (unless, of course, you're still living in your mom's basement). But hey, maybe that day job isn't a bad idea. Here are some tips you can learn from it to help with your music career!

1.Treating Customers Right: 
Whether you are working at a mall or you are on Wall Street, the business will depend on customers. It’s the same with music: you have to learn how to connect with your fans. Most organizations have guidebooks or protocol on how to treat customers. They might be boring but trying reading those guides and finding ways to apply them to your music

2.Learn How to Sell: 
At the end of the day, the success of your music career will depend on sales. Whether it is direct music/merchandise sales (and chances are this is where most of your revenue will come from), licensing, indirect sales, or “selling” your band to someone else through booking, sponsorship, etc., it’s good to have real world experience with negotiation, pricing, and closing a sale.

3.Communication Skills: 
Skills like phone and email etiquette are important if you are running your own business. It’s good to have an understanding of others’ working hours, how to follow up, preferred methods of communication, etc. Remember, spell check is your friend. In addition, never underestimate the power of networking. Those connections can be lifelines later in your career. Learning how to network is a key for any working musician.

4.Discipline: 
Many artists I work with struggle with self-discipline. If you really want to do music for a living, then you have to treat it like you would a job: have regular and focused working hours that you work consistently, create a mission and set of values that you and your band mates follow, and a system in place when someone deviates from their role/responsibilities. 

5.Handling Money:
All organizations have strict money handling rules. If you work a register, you are accountable for what goes in and what goes out. How is cash handled in your band? Do you account for each sale, have a consistent till for change, account for expenses (such as buying gas)? If/when you file taxes as a business for your band, you’ll need to have some good accounting practices in place.  



Click Here for the original article