This means that big is not always better. So how can you keep your music business lean and trim. Let me give you some tips:
* Reduce marketing spending to reflect potential sales. Everyone in the music business always believes their first releases are the tracks the whole world is waiting for when in reality, that is far from the truth. There are at least 13 million songs on the internet. That is a humongous amount of labour just sitting on servers. Most of this would not even sell 10 downloads/copies (unless you have a big family). The other note worthy point to mention is that although the cost of production has dropped, the cost of marketing can be said to have increased. Try getting a radio Plugger and you soon find out your need for an internet expert. Therefore your spending should have a direct relationship to sales; otherwise you will be running a flabby business!
* Use technology instead of employing people. When the super markets in the UK introduced the self service tills, I thought that would be the end of cashiers within the store. Thank GOD that is not the case. Having self service tills offer better and quicker services to the customer. Therefore the question for use should be – what part of our operation needs to be automated?. Can I automate my emails, letters, phone calls, releases, and so on? This saves man power, saves money and offers a better use of resources that all together helps keep the business Lean and Trim.
* Review costs every 6 months. I know someone who goes through his wardrobe every 6 months and gives away any piece of clothing he hasn’t in the previous 6 months. I tried getting my wife to do it but it didn’t work! Costs change every so often, many times due to new technology or a shift in the market because of competition. You may realize that you can literally cut your phone bill in half just by going to a new provider. There are many other costs we have which do not get reviewed and we should be paying much more attention than we currently are. Many times we may find that we don’t even have the benefit of the latest facility. In an interview with Ian Roger’s, one of the owners of Topspinmeadia.com, he was exited and made a comment that their other partner should check out a new webinar software because it was cheaper and offered greater facilities. Apparently they were paying more for a program offering less. The fact is that when they bought that program it could have been the best in the market but now the industry has already moved on. So check out your regular costs, see if you can get a better deal. Let’s keep our music business Lean and Trim.