5 Reasons Why Musicians Should Consider Themselves Small Business Owners

When I was in college and grad school I took a total of 2 music entrepreneurship courses. One was actually a music business course the other was an entrepreneurship course, but both promised to teach the ins and outs of creating a successful music career. Whether or not that was achieved in the course is another story, but I distinctly remember not a single mention about how musicians are small business owners. In fact, I had never even considered musicians as small business owners until I started my own small business.

In 2020 I started a private flute studio to teach middle and high school flutists in my area. Not uncommon for musicians to do, however, I quickly realized that starting your own private teaching studio is much more than just “teaching music lessons.” There were skills I needed to learn in order to make my studio successful. Skills that went far beyond how to make a sound on the flute. It wasn’t until a few months into starting my studio that a friend’s husband said, “Ana, how are you? I heard you’re doing some amazing things and that you’ve started your own business.” This is the first time I had ever been recognized as a business owner and truthfully, the first time I had ever considered myself a business owner.

The next big shift that happened was when I started booking more gigs in my area. Throughout school, I was able to gig fairly often since gigs were plentiful in the area I went to school in. But moving to a different state and trying to establish myself (especially in the middle of a pandemic) was challenging. When I started booking more gigs I realized how this is an entire small business all on its own. Suddenly, I had gone from being a musician who teaches and gigs, to being the owner of 2 small businesses.

By making a small shift in terminology and thus becoming a business owner, suddenly the way I looked at my music career and the way I looked at myself, changed.

5 Reasons Why Musicians Should Consider Themselves Small Business Owners

1. Accountability

The moment I realized I was a small business owner, I started holding myself to a higher standard. This wasn't necessarily an overnight change, but a progression of small changes that I implemented over many months. I created ways to make it easier for customers to work with me, I created more opportunities for my customers, and I created systems to continue to get customers. After all, I wasn't just a music teacher and freelance musician, I was a business owner.

Throughout our industry, a hierarchy is sometimes created in terms of jobs classical musicians should have. In my own experience, I’ve noticed that private teaching and freelancing are often put at the bottom of the hierarchy. But the truth is, starting a small business is no simple task and certainly is not an afterthought to be put at the bottom. By reframing our thinking and thus becoming small business owners, we redefine what a classical musician looks like.

2. Transparency in Your Finances

So often we can feel unstable with our month to month income. Some months we may have more gigs than others or students come and go. However, once we start thinking of ourselves as small business owners, we can implement different systems to ease the instability. Business owners often have strategies to track income, predict revenue for the year, and understand what costs their business money. There is no reason why we cannot do the same for our small businesses. Establishing these systems and strategies is one of the best ways we can combat the feeling of instability.

3. Legitimacy

We are, by nature, creative people. It’s time that we take ownership of the things that we have created. Part of that means thinking of ourselves as small business owners…because we are. It is so much more than “just a music lesson” or “just a gig.” In fact, having that mindset devalues what we do. The skills required to create a teaching studio and create regular gigs go far beyond proficiency on our instrument. When we take ownership of the things we have created and call ourselves what we are, small business owners, we can start holding our customers to higher standards. This ownership gives you a stronger voice and more power.

4. Creates Opportunity for Yourself and Others

In starting your own business you probably had to develop skills that you didn’t have or didn’t realize you had. Many of the skills I learned during this process have allowed me to be successful in other areas of my career. I remember when I was starting my business, I was often flooded with ideas of how to make it more successful. Many of these ideas have not only allowed me to grow my business but collaborate with other musicians as well. While music is often a collaborative experience many times musicians can feel very isolated. Starting your own business gives you the opportunity to create new things and create opportunities for others.

5. Elevates the Craft

A few months ago I was at a holiday party with my fiancé and one of the owners of the restaurant that my fiancé works at was speaking with us. The owner turned to me and asked what I did. Proudly, I said I was a private music teacher to which he replied “oh” and turned back to my fiancé. It was a strange experience because I got the overwhelming feeling that he thought that I was nothing more than a struggling musician. However, that is far from the truth.

It is time that we give ourselves more credit than just being a freelance musician or just being a private music teacher. Elevating how we think of ourselves will in turn elevate our entire craft. We strive to get non-musicians to understand the value that we provide, but that means we also have to understand the value we provide. Calling yourself a small business owner gives you authority, recognizes the years of work you’ve done, and uplifts the classical music field.

Are you ready to start building your small business but are unsure how to financially set it up? Schedule a free 30 minute call with me!

Does Money Management Mean Sacrificing?

Let’s talk about budgeting.

Ugh. I know. If you haven’t already clicked away, I appreciate you. But let’s be real, budgeting can suck. The idea of budgeting is all about putting limits on yourself and your spending…which sucks.

Here’s the thing though, budgeting or creating a spending plan, or creating your money system, whatever you want to call it, is necessary when you are starting your financial transformation.

I see a lot of finance bloggers, Tik Tokers, and influencers talk about how you don’t need to give up anything in order to get your financial life together. And to be honest, for the majority of individuals that is a complete lie. Here’s why:

The only way to get out of debt, start saving, and start growing your money is to spend less than you earn. If you are spending more money than you bring in each month, the only thing that will allow you to have a financial transformation is to spend less.

In order to spend less you're going to have to give up something. There is no way to have a financial transformation if you are spending more than you earn.

I love to go to Target. I remember when I was in college, I would drive to Target just to walk around. I found it peaceful and calming. Every time I step into Target, I spend at least $40.00. I don’t know how it happens and I have no idea what I buy, but $40.00 leaves my bank account each time I go.

When I first started looking at what I was spending in a month, Target was at the top of the list for places I needed to cut back on. And that’s exactly what I had to do, I had to stop going to Target as much. I had to give up my peaceful Target trips because I was spending close to $120-$160 a month. That is something that I had to sacrifice in order to better my financial situation.

Now obviously, this is an incredibly minimal sacrifice. But it illustrates my point, in order to stop spending more than you earn, you are going to have to cut back or sacrifice on something.

What to cut back on and what to continue spending on

This is the great thing about personal finance: it’s personal.

The only person who can decide what to cut back on is you. When I work with my clients, I give suggestions on areas that they could spend less, but ultimately they know what is best for themselves.

One of my favorite finance people is Ramit Sethi. He is an entrepreneur and author of “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” In his book he discusses something called your “Rich Life.” The main concept of a rich life is determining what the most important things are to you, then spending lavishly on only those things and minimally on everything else. He cites one example of an individual who lives in New York City and loves to eat out. This individual spends thousands of dollars each year eating out in New York because they love doing that. In turn, this individual spends very little on decor for their apartment and clothes, because those things aren’t as important to them.

This is the goal of creating a budget, or spending plan, or money system. Determine the things that are most important to you, spend lots of money on those things, and spend little on everything else. This is exactly why stopping my trips to Target was a minimal sacrifice. Because I realized my trips to Target are not that important to me.

Budgeting and money management are not meant to be constricting. On the contrary, they are meant to be tools that allow you to do the things you love. Take a few minutes this week and think about things that are most important to you. After you’ve done that, look at your spending over the past month. Do those expenses match what is most important to you? If they don’t, think about how you can reallocate some of the spending in one area to spend in another area that you love.

(I should note that there are some expenses that we can’t cut back on like our living expenses. Many times these are costs that we have to incur in order to survive.)

Making the Mindset Shift

There are certain finance bloggers and podcasters who believe that in order to become financially stable you should cut back on EVERYTHING. This is unsustainable.

I remember reading Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover.” He is one of the individuals I’m talking about. In his book he talks about becoming “gazelle intensive” about paying off debt, meaning you should pay it off as fast as possible. In order to pay it off as fast as possible, you should cut back on everything to do so. Well I read that and was inspired to pay off my debt like a gazelle does, apparently, and started looking at ways my fiancé and I could cut back our spending/increase our income. In my gazelle intensity, I told my fiancé that we should sell the TV.

…can you guess how that went over?

It went over poorly. Rightfully so.

Financial stability should never mean completely giving up the things you enjoy. Successful money management can only be sustainable when you are also enjoying your life.

One of my biggest eye opening moments with my finances was when I stopped looking at money as a limit and started looking at it as an opportunity.

Limitations aren’t fun. We as humans don’t want to be held back. Creating a budget that limits your lifestyle never works. But creating a system that allows you to reallocate the money you're spending on unimportant things and put it towards the things you love is the key to your financial transformation.

I no longer go on my peaceful Target runs, and in fact when I do go to Target to pick up something, I order it on the app and have them bring it out to my car when I get there (I know, I’m being extra). The reason I do this is so I don’t even have to go into the store and face the temptation to buy random things. Maybe one day I’ll start spending whatever I want at Target again, but the thing is, I no longer look at my lack of Target trips as a sacrifice. I’m giving up one thing for something better, which I see as an opportunity.

So when you start down the path of your financial transformation, yes you will have to sacrifice something. But YOU are the one who gets to decide what to cut back on and to what degree.

If you are ready to start managing your money better but don't know where to start, schedule a free 30 minute call with me!

The Financial Harm of the Starving Artist Mentality

Do you remember that time in high school when you were a senior and everyone started talking about the colleges they got accepted to and what they were going to major in?

What a totally weird experience.

I went to school in Northern Virginia at Yorktown High School, and I remember this time so vividly. It was weird because everyone was trying to one up each other by bragging about the school they got into and what they were going to study.

Everyone in my school definitely knew I played the flute. It might have been because I was a massive band geek and probably also the fact that I held 3 recitals during senior year which my friends heavily advertised for (I'm talking about very embarrassing posters hung all over school). So, it shouldn't have been a surprise to any of my peers that I was going to pursue music. But during this time of proclaiming your future college endeavors was the first big moment I realized the gravity of the starving artist mentality.

In case you're unsure what I'm talking about, the staving artist mentality has a couple different meanings. First, it is the idea that all artists struggle to make a living because there is no money in art. The second meaning is that artists don't want any sort of financial compensation for their work because that makes them a sellout (their struggle brings out their artistic nature).

I remember receiving nasty comments from my peers about pursuing music, "You're gonna study music? I hope you have a back up plan," "You do know that it's impossible to make a living as a musician, right?" "You're going to THAT school? To study music? Oh, that makes sense." I obviously knew what the starving artist idea was, but this was the first time I was confronted with it head on. And honestly, their comments did make me a little nervous. Was I making the wrong choice?

Looking back on this experience, I realize that the starving artist mentality only holds weight because society buys into it. We aren't born believing that artists struggle financially, we are taught that from the way artists are portrayed in movies, TV shows, and comments that are said to us by our trusted individuals. If artists were portrayed differently, would the mentality even exist? And if this mentality wasn't engrained in our society, how would society treat artists? Maybe the reason artists and art can be so undervalued is because so many people think artists struggle financially, so it's not worth compensating them what their value is.

I'm going off on a little bit of a tangent, but my point is the starving artist mentality is learned. If we are going to thrive as musicians in this world, it is time that we unlearn it.

The Starving Artist Mentality is Perpetuated by Academia

I had really fantastic experiences with my main professors throughout my career. I've been lucky enough to study with three powerhouse women who are all incredible flute players. And on top of that, each of them encouraged me to cultivate skills outside of just playing the flute which has allowed me to do many things with my career.

That being said, this has not been my experience with all mentors throughout my career. Over the course of my time in school and out of school I've encountered many instances when professors and mentors discuss the financial difficulties of this industry and the intense competitiveness of the job market. The majority of the time when these individuals would talk about this, they were coming from a good place. They were trying to prepare us young musicians for the realities of this industry.

However, this is the issue. Informing young musicians of the financial difficulties of this career field without any additional financial guidance doesn't really help them. It just fills them with worry and reinforces the starving artist mentality. I can't tell you how many times

circumstances like this leads young musicians to think, "well thanks for the warning but it's kind of too late now" as they sink deeper into student loan debt.

If we are to start unlearning the starving mentality, it first has to come from our trusted mentors and teachers guiding us along the way.

The Starving Artist Mentality Holds You Back Financially

The actual financial impact of believing in this mentality is high. I was one of the biggest believers in this mindset. And because I believed in it so much, I never took any steps to start getting my finances in order. I thought because I was a musician, I was suppose to be bad with money. So why would I take the time to create a budget?

Believing in this mindset warps the way you view this career field and drives you to take certain actions. Constantly thinking that you are never going to make any money as a musician may lead you to overbooking your schedule. Which, as we know, is a one way door to burnout. And even if you are able to manage a hectic schedule, holding onto this belief does not teach you how to adequately manage your money. So you end up working really hard, but still live paycheck to paycheck. How defeating is that? So many great musicians end up leaving this career field because of this exact circumstance.

On the other hand, this starving artist thought process can lead musicians to make poor financial decisions. If you follow me on social media, you know I talk about this a lot. There are so many stories of young musicians being coerced into investing thousands of dollars into summer festivals, masterclasses, new equipment, etc., and that investment crippling them financially. If these musicians are being told that this investment will allow them to "make it" in this industry, then of course they are going to invest that money regardless of the financial impact. That's not to say that these investments are not worth it or necessary, but these investments are being made out of fear of failure. Making a poor investment, once again, only reinforces this this idea.

This mentality isn't just something the laugh off. Ask any young musician if they feel like they will be able to sustain themselves financially in this career field. This belief is not only causing mental harm to musicians, but also financial harm. If we are to continue to grow as an industry and thrive in our modern society, we have to start rejecting the starving artist idea. And while trying to get all of society to discard this mentality will be a big undertaking, we can start by throwing out this belief in our own industry.

If you feel like the starving artist mentality is holding you back from your career and your financial wellbeing, schedule a free 30 minute call with me!