Before seeking out and hiring a personal manager, it’s important to understand the various types of management options that are available to you. The most common choices, depending on how far along you are in your career, are self-management, start-up management (by an individual attempting to break into the music business), and established professional management. In part 1, let’s check out self-management.

Self-Management
In the early stages of your career, unless one of your relatives happens to be the president of Warner Bros. Records, no one is going to help you until you first help yourself!  Remember that good management must always begin with the artist. Too often, musicians believe that the solution to their problems is finding some third party to magically whisk them up from rehearsal room to super-stardom. It’s true that an experienced manager can make good things happen fast, but having a motivated manager does not make it okay for you to be lazy. First, you must seriously ask yourself if there’s anything you can be doing yourself. For example:

• Are you writing a large repertoire of songs and even co-writing with professionals

• Are you professionally recording your music, manufacturing CDs, and selling a respectful number of units at your live performances and over the Internet?

• Are you booking your own shows and drawing large numbers of fans?

• Are you getting your fans involved in promoting your music and creating strong legions of “street teams” in your state and around the country?

• Are you utilizing print media and the Internet to stimulate excitement?

• Are you getting played on college, Internet, and satellite radio?

• Are you placing your songs in films, TV shows, and video games?

• Have you aligned your band with local and corporate sponsorships?

• Have you recorded a video and posted it on Internet sites?

• Have you given serious thought to your career vision or goals, and do you know exactly what you want to accomplish?

• Are all members of your band united in a common goal?

You must acquire a basic knowledge of the music business and promote your ass off before ever thinking about a getting a personal manager. This is the digital age where “doing it yourself” is far easier than ever before. Even classic bands like Mötley Crüe, whose chaotic demeanor made them appear completely incapable of functioning at a professional business level—and whose generation didn’t have the advantages of the Internet—worked their butts off the old fashion way and generated career momentum, long before ever getting involved with their first manager.

Some artists have it so together that the first time a personal manager comes into play is after they’ve signed an agreement with a record company. A band may then be better positioned to pick a more powerful manager. But even then, the band must continue to monitor the progress of their business and work with their personal manager to build a successful career. After all, the personal manager ultimately works for the band!

Hope this quick tip helps. We’ll cover start-up management in the next edition.

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