The Next Step

Now that you have identified your music and your audience, it’s time to start planning your promotion.

Rules For Goal Setting

The first step is to set some goals. Here are a couple rules for goal setting:

• Be realistic - Don’t set goals that are unattainable or generally out of your control.
• Break it down - Set your overall goals and then break those down in to small measureable goals.
• Create a plan of action for each goal - What are each of the steps you are going to take to reach that goal?

Set Your Career Goal(s)

What do you want to accomplish in your music career? Remember, make this an attainable goal that you can work towards. (i.e. I want to make x dollars per year to support my family and career NOT I want to be the biggest pop start since Elvis.)

You career goals will remind you why do you the unglamorous mundane daily tasks.

Break It Down

Now, it’s time to set the break down goals.

• What are your goals for this Year?
• What are you goals for this Quarter?
• What are your goals for this Month?
• What are your goals for this Week?
• What tasks do you need to complete Today to reach those goals?

Keep In Mind

Now, remember, these goals should not be entirely separate from your career goal. These goals should break it down into manageable pieces.

For Example

If your career goal is simply to make a living making your music, decide on your ideal yet realistic “yearly salary.” How many years do you want to take to reach that “salary”? What is your goal for this year?

Then, for this year, evaluate how many gigs you need to book, cd’s you need to sell or merch you need to move in order to reach that goal. You’ll likewise, break that down into Quarters, Months, Weeks and Days.

Other Goals

Once you are comfortable with goal setting, try creating different sets of goals:

• Music Goals - (i.e. “I’d like to collaborate with So-and-So.” “I would like to create an instrumental album” etc.)
• Financial Goals - (i.e. “salary")
• Audience Goals - (i.e. “I would like to reach X number of people with my music and have X number of people subscribed to my newsletter")
• Promotion Goals - (i.e. “ I would like my music to be featured in X publications or sold in X stores.)

Summary

Create your goals for this year, this month, this week and today. Make them attainable. When you reach a big goal, let your music friends know. Use your success as a promotion in itself.