Business Plan & Strategy
MUM Says: You may think that your music business is small and negligible and that it only really needs to be set up if/when it’s happening at scale, but having a clear structure of people and roles, of what money comes and when etc. will help to design strong strategy for the business to grow maximally. How many apples will you sell if you don’t know who is responsible for harvesting, let alone market them interstate?
A business plan creates structure, organisation and sets out key information relating to a business idea. The purpose of writing a business plan is to have a documented set of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-sensitive goals and objectives. A business plan helps to articulate business visions and validate business assumptions through research. An effective business plan considers all aspects of a business idea including purpose, target market, business future, finances, Work Health and Safety, Legal and Regulatory considerations.
Business plan development process:
Conduct Research
Define Business Purpose / Company Profile
Document essential components
Business Details
Target market
Finances
Marketing
Work Health and Safety / Legislative Requirements
Write a Mission / Vision statement (this happens after the fact).
Examples of reasons to document business plans:
Maintaining Business Focus.
Securing Outside Financing
Fueling Ambitions and Mapping Growth
Enlightening Executive Talent
Define a new business model, product or service
Support a loan application or to raise equity funding
Define objectives and describe programs to achieve those objectives.
Create a regular business review and course correction process
Define agreements between partners
Set a value on a business for sale or legal purposes
Business planning aims to specify expected and unexpected outcomes. Without planning, the business will lack direction and purpose. Planning aids in defining business goals and objectives while identifying realistic and achievable milestones.
The key aspect considered when planning a business are:
Feasibility planning - Assessing the viability of a business idea.
Strategic Planning - Defining business strategy, direction and decisions on resource allocation to pursue identified strategies. It may also incorporate control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the strategy.
Operational Planning - A highly detailed plan that provides a clear picture of how a team, section or department will contribute to the achievement of the organisation's goals. The operational plan maps out the day-to-day tasks required to run a business.
Financial Planning - Developing strategies to help manage financial affairs and meet business goals and objectives.
Marketing Planning - A comprehensive document or blueprint that outlines the advertising and marketing efforts for identified timeframes. It may involve decisions regarding the best use of company resources to achieve goals and objectives.
Business Information- Outlines business vision / mission statement, business details, ownership and other business related information.
Market Research- Outlines the target markets identified for intended products / services through effective market research.
Sustainability - Outlines the future of the business and defines sustainability plans / considerations.
Finances - Defines financial considerations, structures and other related financial information in-line with business structures, goals, objectives, operations and undertakings.
Work Health and Safety / Legislative Requirements- All legal, regulatory, legislative and industry requirements to operate a business within defined jurisdiction/s."
If you are managing an artist you would specify a 2 year timeframe / plan to help guide the project timeline. Key elements that are considered include:
Artist Management
Determine artists contribution to the business and setting up expectations ie: Write, produce, mix music, marketing background, skills, knowledge etc. #Note: The artist's contribution to the business will help determine the correct actions and needs of the business plan.
Create business vision / mission statement
Outline SMART outcomes / objectives
Artistic content (how much, what is it?)
Review branding, images, and all associated assets
Initial and ongoing market research
Set budgets and forecast costs. Access available funding options
Consider variables
Create the business plan
What can an artist contribute (alongside attributes):
Business Level
Professionalism
Artistic
Attitude, willingness, entrepreneur, business-minded
Musical ability / talent
Time management
Communication
Emotional intelligence
Every artist will have different assets or stories to be developed into a plan.
Eg: A business plan for an artist who has a national touring base making decent money and they have big social media numbers. They come to you and say "we have hit a plateau, how do we get bigger"?
What is the possible answer?
Investing earning back into the business (with a business plan objective - build a bigger base)
Serving radio, publicity, promo, re-branding, publishing opportunities, record label involvement (behind releases), have you worked with industry bodies (APRA, Sounds Australia).
Market analysis (Social media, fans) Identify target markets.
Utilising database management, data collection. Create a DIY model.
Create a marketing strategy
Determining the Market Ceiling for a Band
Manager Business Plan
Do you like their music? Do I like the artist/s? Will I die for them?
Does the artist have the key defining attributes / contribution (Songwriting, producing, attitude, contribution etc.)
Analyse market potential (Existing database, potential market, market forecasting min/max, analysing the music niche'/mainstream)
Define potential, fans
Identify risks up-front
Analyse financial considerations
Prepare / structure an agreement (Ownership, license, commission, publishing, 360, management etc.) Put forward your case to form a mutually / beneficial agreement.
Business Plan and negotiate the deal at the same time.
Pitfalls: Investing time weakens your stance. You are more likely to bend on terms to land the deal.
Set Goals and objectives
Business goals and objectives are defined as SMART, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-focused. Goals and objectives define work tasks to be achieved and milestones to be met. Work dependencies may impact project deliverables and company resources, worker effort and wellbeing are all factors that contribute to achieving goals and objectives.
Goals and objectives create accountability and set-out deadlines for workers to achieve which may be reviewed by managers for performance.
The first approach to specifying goals and objectives begins with a review of your company’s mission statement. Using key phrases from your mission statement to define your major goals leads into a series of specific business objectives.
The connections between goals and your mission are easy to visualise if you use a flowchart. Key phrases in the mission statement lead to major goals, which lead to specific business objectives. If your mission statement doesn’t suggest a list of goals, you may want to reevaluate it to see whether it really captures what your business is all about.
Industry Context - Goals and Objectives
Overall Business Concept
Successful brand
Brand Integrity
Great product (Art / Music)
Effective sales (local and global)
Create / manage / Distribute (Intellectual Property) Performance / Publishing
Micro Businesses
Technology helps businesses to evolve, develop and adapt.
The Strategy
One key thing to understand is that you can have a great product or strong goals, but if you don’t have the ability to turn them into a tangible or realistic form, you might as well cast them away (which can also happen after conducting market research and realising that your ideas aren’t as “new” and “fresh” as you thought).
This chapter is all about taking an idea to the point where you can answer the question:
“Is this business idea financially viable?”
If so, how!?
That is where market research comes in…..
Effective research market challenges and/or validates business ideas. The more effective it is, the more scope your business has to achieve success. In hindsight, all businesses can benefit from effective market research before, during and after conducting business practices.
Market Research Contextualised
Idea Creation - Developing Business Ideas
Gather information
Test and check ideas
Make assumptions
Determine possible goods/ services
Competitor analysis
Market Research
Engage industry / Research / Collect Data
Market Positioning, exposure.
Conduct market research
Sustainability considerations
Population, economy etc.
Understanding how to develop, implement and review operational strategies is a key aspect of running a successful business. Operations allows an individual to continually monitor and review / update business policy and procedure to ensure the business is operating at a sustainable capacity. Having a thorough understanding of the purpose of business operations may be implemented in Small to Micro Businesses right up to large corporations. The fundamental knowledge and application of business principles does not differ from small to large companies.
Business Template Links (below):
Develop Operational Strategies
Action Plan
An action plan is a plan that contains enough detail to achieve an objective or goal.
This typically includes:
an outline of goals,
objectives,
measurements,
action steps and
responsibilities for each step.
In some cases, dates and budget are also included
Developing Action Plans:
Consultation
Company CEO / MD (Ground up)
Other employee
Goals
Unique / niche' business model
Market Research / Competition
Knowing insightful information
Operational Steps
Marketing (Inform the Industry):
Contacts List - Inform Industry / News Articles
Website / Social Media: Mission Statement
Build Contacts Database
Reach-out to Industry Networks (Govt Bodies, Companies)
Attend / Conduct Conferences
Determine Financial Model:
Costs
Profit
Resources
Services
Setup Business Operational Aspects:
Marketing Assets / Marketing Material
Accounting Practices
1) Implement updated sales strategies
2) Register sales activity
3) Monthly performance review
1) a) Incorporate face to face client interactions
b) Attend live shows and network
c) Attend industry events
2) a) Keep a registry of effective leads ie: 3 leads were obtained through attending gigs, 2 leads were obtained through attending an industry event etc
3) a) Document performance, discuss with manager effective strategies moving forward.
Monthly review
Within established budget
Project Management
The entertainment industry has many moving parts and sometimes, when working on projects, you will cover multiple stages and manage tasks that are involved in achieving a goal or product outcome. Project management is a key practice across multiple sectors of the industry.
Having the skills and knowledge to apply time-management when managing projects provides transferable skills to enable you to work effectively across multiple industry sectors.
The Steps of Project Time-management
1) Plan Schedule Management.
2) Define Activities.
3) Management.
4) Sequence Activities.
5) Develop a Schedule.
6) Control Schedule.
Projects are helped along by utilising "tools" and "techniques". Tools are usually software-based and include user interfaces that aid in preparing and editing the above fields. It isn't uncommon to work entirely in spreadsheets or cloud-based documents to achieve the same thing. Techniques are methods that workers use or employ to get the job done ie: communication techniques/methods, email, document editing etc.
Tools and Techniques allow the tracking of the below fields in the project time-management process:
Time management
Resources
Cost
These 3 fields are interrelated and form to combine "risk". Risk is the analysis of the implications of a project's time, resources and budget to be viable.
All of the above project time-management strategies and practices contribute to achieving:
Agreed schedule baseline (ie: the project staying on track)
Effective communication of schedule and changes to stakeholders."
"Being able to successfully track the progress of a schedule is the bread and butter of being a project manager (or simply managing a project). There are some vital techniques involved in effective project time-management that include:
Measuring progress
Recording progress
Reporting progress
These 3 practices allow a project to be tracked. Another common acronym for these measurements is "KPI" or Key Performance Indicators. Simply put, these KPI's are measurable instances of a project being: Time, Cost or Resources.
Other Key Business Words:
Project Objectives: Measuring project schedule and budget
Meeting stakeholder objectives
Quality Deliverables: This determines if specific task deliverables are being met.
Effort and Cost Tracking: PMs will account for the effort and cost of resources to see if the budget is on track. This type of tracking informs if a project will meet its completion date based on current performance.
Project Performance: This monitors changes in the project. It takes into consideration the amount and types of issues that arise and how quickly they are addressed. These can occur from unforeseen hurdles and scope changes.
The last phase of the project time-management process is the ability to review your performance during the project and identify areas of improvement in work practices, time management and other project-based fields / areas.
Having a sound understanding of the implications of how resources, cost and risk impact each other allows for the successful analysis of beneficial work practices to be employed.
#Note - Budget is creating cells in the schedule and manipulating financial information using software