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!

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!

Diverse Repertoire Makes Financial Sense

This past week I posted this photo on my Instagram story >>>

The captions read:

- Happy Thursday!

- Friendly reminder that as classical musicians it is important that we learn and perform works by underrepresented composers on an individual level.

- It is not enough to only push for larger classical music institutions to do the work. We also have an individual responsibility.

This is something that I strongly believe in along with finding ways to reach underprivileged communities in the classical music world. This particular photo was posted after a series of events led to a morning of intense frustrations and disappointment.

I am the Artistic Director of a non-profit whose mission is to get classical music out of the concert hall and integrate it in my city's rich art scene and community. One of my main responsibilities is finding musicians to play for various events that we organize or that we are invited to participate in. Multiple times a month I email out a "call for performers" to a list of over 200 local classical musicians asking for individuals or ensembles to perform at whatever events are on the books. We have 1 volunteer event a month (a monthly variety show) and the rest of the events are paid performances. The majority of the time, I have no issue finding performers to play, especially if it is a paid event. Except for this particular event we were invited to participate in....

This particular event was hosted by an outside organization. The event was going to feature artwork by Black and Indigenous local artists, and we were to perform for an hour during the exhibition. I should mention that we asked this organization to provide us with a generous budget to compensate our performers and they gladly agreed to our number. So in my usual fashion, I craft up a call for performers email. For this particular event, I asked that musicians perform any work of their choosing by a BIPOC composer. Looking forward to seeing what the talented musicians in my area would come up with, I enthusiastically hit send and waited for responses.

...and then I kept waiting...and waiting.

Out of the over 200 musicians I emailed, I received 1 musician saying they would like to perform. One.

A week before the event, I decided to put out another call for performers and this time I expanded the repertoire that musicians could play to include works by composers of color, female composers, and composers who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. This led to my first feelings of frustrations as I felt like I shouldn't have to expand the type of repertoire we were looking for in order to get more musicians to participate. But, I was hopeful that more individuals would jump on the opportunity, so I hit send and waited for responses.

...and then I kept waiting...

I received one more musician who said they were interested in performing.

This was when my frustration hit the limit. As I sat at my computer trying to figure out how we were going to fill an hour of music, I couldn't help but think the reason why we were having trouble filling out the program was because we were looking for musicians to perform works by underrepresented composers. For most of our events, musicians can play whatever pieces they like by any composer and I have no issues filling up a program. So, the only conclusion I could draw was the fact that we were looking for works specifically by underrepresented composers and it seemed like out of the over 200 musicians that I emailed, only 2 players had pieces to perform that fit that stipulation.

Now, I may be grossly generalizing about the classical music world and I understand that the musicians in my area do not represent all classical musicians in the world. But, it is important for us to remember that we cannot solely rely on the larger institutions of the classical music industry like the symphony orchestras, elite chamber ensembles, conservatory's, and academia to be the only ones programming the works of underrepresented composers. We must also do this work on the individual level. (And to say "do this work" is misleading because as musicians shouldn't we always be striving to explore new repertoire and push the boundaries of our own playing??)

Now, you may be thinking to yourself "Anamarie, this has nothing to do with finance, please stay in your lane." But, on the contrary my friend, this has everything to do with personal finance.

Diversifying our repertoire on an individual level not only makes us more marketable (yes, I said the M-word), but provides instant monetary support to underrepresented composers by purchasing their works and provides new attention on their works (not to mention this is a morally and ethically important thing to do). This allows audiences to be exposed to new composers, which will lead to new opportunities and support (including monetary compensation) for these composers allowing them to compose new works for us to perform, which in turn, allows us to expand our repertoire and performing possibilities. And this is a repeatable cycle that will continue to benefit all parties. When you diversify your repertoire, you are not only supporting other classical musicians in this field (the composers), you are supporting yourself.

The financial benefits speak for themselves. Playing music by underrepresented composers opens doors and provides monetary interest for all musicians in the classical music world.