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Industry Advice From The Divine Miss M

Miss M, I’ve been working at a marketing firm for 7 years, and I’ve had it. I’m ready to start my own business and get some clients of my own. I’ve already gotten my business name and all of the technical stuff, but how do I go about getting clients as soon as possible? I’d like to start working right away so I can get some money coming in and keep the business afloat. What should I do?

The first thing you should do is figure out exactly what you want to do in the marketing field. You should figure out exactly what kind of marketing you’d like to do based on your duties and experience from your job, then think about how you’ll stand out from the rest of the people in your immediate field that are also doing forms of marketing. Check around your neighborhood and see if there are any local businesses that might need some marketing ideas. Start talking to associates and friends about your plans – you may have some friends that have their own businesses and may be able to use your expertise. Be aware that working with friends can be risky. If a friend has a marketing venture that you feel may not turn out how they’d like it to, you should definitely make them aware of your feelings as opposed to taking the money and trying to make it work because you don’t want to let them down, or because you want to prove yourself as a legitimate business person. In the end, you’ll lose both business and friends.

Miss M, I currently own and operate my own consulting firm. I have employees that work under me, but I’m having a problem. I am very passionate about what I do, and I feel as if no one that I hire is passionate as me. It’s understandable, because they don’t own the company, but how can I depend on them to work for me if they’re not as dedicated to the job as I am? Please help!

Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you…because I am the same way! I love what I do… and I don’t think there’s anyone else in the universe that loves what they do as much as I do. I also get frustrated because some of my assistants don’t know how to talk to clients like I do, or they don’t deal well with people in general, which results in a bad reflection on me if they decide to have an attitude or not take a situation seriously. The only suggestion I can give you is the one that I used in my situation. I sat my assistants down and explained to them exactly how I got where I am – through my relationships. I tried to make them understand that building a solid relationship gives you a good rapport with the client – especially in the case where your campaign is unsuccessful. Some of them understood, and some just shook their heads and carried on in the same manner. Now I know that I can only use certain people for certain projects, because everyone isn’t universal. I hope I was able to help you…let me know how it turns out!

Yo Miss M, Check this out – I’ve spent the last 8 months building my database of contacts that I’ve had since I first got in the music business 5 years ago. Yesterday, I found out that my boss went into my computer, got a copy of my list and gave it to a VP at another record label. I know it’s my database because I saw it at the other office in the promotion department, and I’m the only one that uses that particular format of FileMaker Pro. One of the cats over there told me that he saw more than one copy over there, which means it could be all over the building by now. What can I do to protect my relationships with those people in that database?? It also has home numbers and private info that shouldn’t be out there like that, and I don’t want my contacts to think that I just handed their info out without respect for their privacy.

Yikes. Well, all I can say is, if you’ve known those people for 5 years, they should be able to understand your situation. Your privacy was violated and your list was taken without your permission. The list was on company property if I’m not mistaken, so your boss had a certain amount of rights to access your computer. One thing I have learned is that something that is gained easy goes away even easier…another thing I know for a fact is that relationships don’t exist on paper – they’re real. No one can build that five years of conversations, conventions, concerts, jokes, emails, drinks, and dinners that you’ve had with that person by having your database in their hands for a day, a week or even a year. You should lock your database with a password – FileMaker allows you to do that. You should also make a dummy list so that if that happens again, your boss ends up with a list of all of the Red Cross Centers across the country instead of your database… :)

The Divine Miss M has survived the ups and downs the entertainment industry for 13 years and is here to share that insight with you.

So if you need advice on dilemmas within the music industry? Hit her up at thedivinemissm@thecrusade.net.

Message The Divine Miss M and tell her what you think

The Divine Miss M

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