Indie Musicians – What is Your Backup Plan?

The National Football League’s 2021 preseason got underway this past weekend.  Technically you could say it was the week before, as the annual Hall of Fame game was played.  But all teams were in action starting with games last Thursday night and running through this weekend that we just finished.  These warmups are supposed to prepare everyone for when the real thing kicks off on Thursday night, September 9th.  That includes knowing who your backup will be if, unfortunately, the starting quarterback goes down.

Here in Tampa Bay, we are all, of course, watching our Buccaneers get ready to defend their Super Bowl championship.  But we are also keeping a close eye on the storms – the latest being Fred and Grace – and listening to the local news reminding us about having a plan for if a hurricane were to come through the area.  They not only tell you where and/or how to take shelter but what you should have in a kit in your home.  Even though it gets repeated year after year, the point is to have a plan.

Someone who I know that organizes events was planning to stage a major conference in November but took a survey and found that people still just aren’t ready to get into hotel ballrooms with two thousand other attendees.  Or at least they’re not willing to do so in Florida.  So, he told me that he’s just going to have to do a virtual version of the event.

This morning the Tampa Bay Times reported that, “Florida reported 1,071 deaths this week, a 74 percent increase from the previous week.”  They also wrote, “In the first week of the new school year, Tampa Bay school districts reported 961 cases of COVID-19 among students and staff.  During the first two weeks of school last year, the counties reported 116 cases.”

I was really proud to see a client of mine posting on social media about being at an outdoor gig but having provisions so as to be ready for the rain.

It's all about having a backup plan.

Watching the weather forecast and being ready for rain is one thing but seeing news reports about the latest COVID cases increasing and having a plan in place if things shut down again are another.

I loved that a few weeks ago on Episode 390 of my weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast, Love and a .38 bass player Justin Emord was ready when I asked him what he learned from the world shutting down last year, meaning, if the same were to happen again.  He said that he has the experience now and can sustain himself if the same were to occur.

What about you?  If you did things that didn’t work, you can’t just default back to those.  Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.  So, if you launched a Patreon then and no one signed up, don’t go back to that.  If you did live streams during the pandemic and gave out your Venmo and/or your PayPal but nobody donated, why would doing the same thing again bring a different result.  Did you not put out music just because you couldn’t get to a studio?  There are ways around that.

The bottom line is, NOW is the time you should be making sure that as things (ugh) get worse yet again, you have a plan in place in the event that we are all stuck inside again.  Your music career is a business, and you need to make sure you can still keep operating that business.  Don’t wait until there are flames all around you until you draw up a fire evacuation route.

What WILL you do?  Tweet your plans to me via @NHT_tweets.  Or, put them in a post on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Or you can just write to me via email to let me know.  But if you have questions or challenges (or both), take advantage of my more than 15 years in the entertainment business.  Book a private, one-on-one video consultation with me and let’s get you moving forward.