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[00:00:15] The Poll
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On a whim, last week I posted a poll asking what intimidated you the most about pursuing a career in live audio. I was astounded by the results. Apart from managing business stuff, imposter syndrome, and trading your current stable environment for a new volatile environment, the biggest winner by 60 percent of the vote was getting enough gigs to make a living.
I got several other comments below talking about time, uh, being intimidated by other engineers, uh, just making it hard to make the jump because the market is oversaturated. So I wanted to unpack all of this today because I think there's actually a big mindset shift that needs to take place if you want to move here.
I think, uh, folks actually have a little bit of a [00:01:00] clouded view of the industry and how much opportunity is there. Um, and that if you're a talented, dedicated, available engineer, I really do think you can blaze a trail for yourself and have a lot of success in this industry. But first I want to read in between the lines and see what kind of these.
underlining, uh, lies or self doubts that might be preventing you from that. I want to help us face the scary parts a little bit and what I want to start to do is chart a path forward, uh, because like I said in the title of this video, I think you can actually start to test and experience what this looks like a lot more in a safer way, um, over a 90 day experiment.
I want to tell you exactly how. If anyone who is new in the industry said, Hey, Michael, I want to jump in. How do I go about doing this? Can we get coffee? This is the exact plan I would hand them. And that's what I want to share with you today. But first we have to address the mindset a little bit and then we'll get brass tacks.
[00:01:56] Reading Between The Lines
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So if I'm reading in between the lines a little bit, you might be asking the [00:02:00] question, do I have what it takes? So it's really a self confidence issue dealing with that imposter syndrome. Will others judge me if I screw up? So, I mean, having real skills and executing on them definitely brings clout, uh, and clarity to you being a successful in the industry, but since you maybe not have done that in a professional context, you lack that confidence.
You may also be wondering, is this a long term sustainable career path? And I really do think it is, but you want to make sure it provides for your family. Are there enough gigs to go around? Is there enough variety? Does, is the seasonality of it going to make it to where there's feast or famine? How can I manage that?
You may be also doubting the fact that if you do screw up, is that production company or client going to call me back? So how do you manage that? And then lastly, you might be intimidated by spinning all the plates. But I mean, small business is intimidating and that it's you. You are the craftsperson, the person providing the service.
You're the HR department, the finance department. You're the, you're the [00:03:00] CEO. You're having to take care of taxes, networking, the paperwork, making sure all that all by yourself. You of course can hire some of that out or automate some of it or set up systems, and I definitely like nerding out about all of that stuff.
But if you are a sole proprietor or running your own business, even just as a one person LLC, we can get to all that later, you do have to manage it all. But I actually, can come, I think you can come to enjoy it if you view it within a certain light to be able to set up these systems, uh, and make it generous so they can enable you to do the work that you like to do.
Uh, so I really think you can spin all the plates. It feels intimidating at first.
[00:03:39] Facing The Scary Parts
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Um, so I want to help us, uh, face those scary parts because you may be thinking, oh, I need to make the jump. The jump seems too big, but I would encourage you to not jump step. It's actually one step at a time you're able to build a career and one step at a time to be able to move into this.
So if we're going to take these scary parts [00:04:00] head on and talk about, you know, there's not enough work to go around, um, I don't think he could have designed a more perfect career. perfect experiment than COVID 19 to see how resilient the live event industry was. When people were barred from getting together at all for a long period of time, you know, live event professionals had to figure out and get creative with how else to make a living, but it has now come roaring back.
There are tours, there's concerts, there's corporate gatherings. We are humans. We are designed to gather and we have to facilitate how people communicate in gathering. That's what we do as audio engineers. Um, so I, I, I think that. This industry is promising. It's growing. There's all these adjacent, uh, skill sets that are now popping up that need folks to jump into too, whether that's high level networking, because everything's over a network these days.
There's AR, so blending virtualized experiments with real life experiments. All that being said, I'm very bullish on the industry, so we need more good people in it. Um, and the problem is [00:05:00] it's actually more people leaving or aging out or choosing to retire than coming in. So I think there's more opportunity than ever.
You're thinking, well, no one will hire me, they don't know me from Adam. Uh, well, the thing is you just have to be known, liked, and trusted for someone to hire you. And so we're going to work on how do you go about doing that later. It's those three things. Can you be known? Do people know you exist? Do they like you?
So are you showing up and contributing to the show in a good and positive way? And are you trusted? When they hand you something, do you execute and do it well? And we need to make sure this is done in viable markets. And we'll unpack that a little bit later. Uh, the other scary part we need to face is I'm not good enough.
So kind of circling back to this imposter syndrome, you can prove that to yourself by gaining knowledge and experience and depth through rehearsing. I really like this idea of rehearsing versus practicing. Practicing is really helpful if you want to zero in on a particular skill and get really good at it, so that'd be shooting free throws.
But you also need to do free throws in [00:06:00] real life. That is an exact thing a basketball player will be asked to do in a game. So rehearsing, for you, instead of reading about something or going through the motions, actually getting in a live environment and going through exactly what it looks like on a real show again and again.
will bring about confidence. So finishing something and proving to yourself that you can do it is the best way to build that confidence. And we'll talk about how to do that. In facing this last scary part of the volatility of freelance life, um, first off, you just need to know thyself. What I mean by that is, do you have the natural personality traits that make this lifestyle effortless or at least easier?
Are you someone who SMAART, mic, Volbeat, subs, sub, Nudge her out on the diving board a little bit, uh, when she, if [00:07:00] she's feeling a little bit, the need to have too much safety, if that makes sense. So just ask yourself, how comfortable are you with risk? And that's going to be different for everyone's temperament, their family situation, all that.
I get it. Um, and so with the volatility, um, If we learn and see how it moves seasonally, we can better handle it. So we need to gain financial literacy and discipline. So the fact of the matter is I pay myself the same amount every single month, no matter what, even if it's feast or famine in a given month, what's coming the door.
So you have to set up a system that is able to sustain you through that so that personally on the family side, um, it looks the same every month. And then I can, uh, maybe evaluate over a quarter set of quarters or a year. If that needs to change, if too much cash is building up because I'm not getting paid or if it's dwindling and adjust that.
So it is an ebbing and flowing thing that, uh, that I constantly keep my eyes on and tweak. But at the end of the day, it's the [00:08:00] same amount of money that comes into my personal bank account every month. month. So you can build stability and, and we're going to talk about key ways to do that, but one of them is multiple revenue streams.
And so, uh, one of the reasons I've started this YouTube channel is I, I knew I was good at teaching. I like sound system design. There weren't a lot of, uh, folks doing that. Um, so I said, Hey, how about I can teach that? So in addition to live gigs, I'm able to sell courses and training. It's also served as a way to help market my abilities to other clients.
So it's a virtuous cycle. So I've done this on purpose and it's created multiple revenue streams for me. I also have a diversified client bases. Most of my design clients are churches. Most of my live clients or, uh, corporate gigs, but I also have some engineering work that I do locally. Um, and that's because I've been able to kind of cross pollinate multiple talents.
How I survived COVID was actually leaning on my post production experience to help out with a lot of these live streams. But at the end of the day, uh, I want your clients to stop thinking about [00:09:00] Uh, I just need to fill an A one or an A two slot and start picking you. I would like, uh, my good friend Nick Helling, to be on the show.
He is a rockstar, a one, also a great td and I know clients that I work with that ask for him 'cause he's really good and they want him. So I want you to get good enough to be able to do that where you're not just filling a slot, but they're asking for your name. All of these problems, these scary parts, can be addressed before you do anything drastic.
You can start building your network now. You can gain knowledge and experience and depth now. You can build financial literacy and discipline now. Um, I was listening to an interview the other day with Morgan Housel. He's a, he wrote a fantastic book called The Psychology of Money. I definitely recommend you get it.
He's a car guy. He really likes cars. They live, they live. By all standards, a fairly simple lifestyle in Seattle, especially compared to the amount of money he generates. But every once in a while he gets a wild hair to be like, man, it would be really cool [00:10:00] to have a Ferrari or a souped up Porsche. And so what he does is when he gets that itch, he has the money just to go out and buy one if he wanted to, but he just rents one.
He says every time he rents it, This millisecond he turns right out of the parking lot. He goes, this is cool, but I don't want one. And he drives it around for a little bit, takes it back, and that scratches the itch. So I want this 90 day experiment to be a way that you can start to unpack and rub shoulders with this lifestyle.
Start building these networking and business skills and develop that confidence within yourself before you make a big jump.
[00:10:35] Quick Caveats
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Alright, so some quick caveats. I am not a lawyer or a CPA, so I'm not giving legal or absolutely infallible financial advice. I'm just telling you what has worked for me and some general rules of thumb.
So today is not all of the nitty gritty. I just more want to focus on the mindset shift and how you can start wading into this idea of trading yourself like [00:11:00] someone who owns a business and your craft. Um, I will be speaking from my experience as an American and how its economics, regulations, and taxes are set up.
I know I have a lot. really cool, a worldwide audience. Folks are listening from Bangladesh and Germany and Dubai and wherever, which is really cool. I know a lot of this can transfer, but may not be exactly on the tax front, especially. So I apologize there, but I can only speak to my own experiment, uh, experience.
Uh, there are plenty of wonderful jobs working for someone else in the production industry. So I don't want to, to say that the only way you can make a good living is as a freelancer, but that's a good way to explore the industry and make a lot of contacts is in the freelance world, or you just really like working for yourself.
So, uh, not to say there aren't plenty of great production jobs. This is just one avenue to do it. And lastly, on the caveat side, the grass always seems greener. To be able to say, Oh, wow, Michael, you're freelance, you have so much control of your schedule, uh, [00:12:00] you can decide what gigs you want to take, um, and that is true to much extent, but it took a long time to build the needed skills, reputation, and network to be able to do that.
I'm thankful to be in a spot where I don't have to take every gig that comes my way, uh, but it takes time to get there.
[00:12:17] Plan Overview
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Alright, so I want to introduce you to what I'm calling step one in a four part process of being able to build up a freelance career. In this step one, I'm just calling plan. How can you start to plan and test with what's going on?
Within this, we have four parts. It is first as a personal finance audit. Second is a market and opportunity assessment. Number three is building your bootstrapping framework. And number four is actually executing this 90 day experiment. So let's go through each segment one by one.
[00:12:51] Personal Finance Audit
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So first off is a personal finance audit.
I want you to take ruthless inventory of your current personal finance plan. position, [00:13:00] uh, we need to know what to ask of our business before we set goals and targets to get there because your bad financial habits are going to bleed into the business habits that you have. I've definitely seen this.
There's definitely things I need to work on, mindsets I need to change, habits I need to fix, but it's been a work in progress for a long time. It's a lot better than what it was. So I want you to be able to do two things in this finance. audit. First is what is the monthly income number you need to hit?
What is that take home pay that you can use for your mortgage, your kids, school supplies, groceries? And, um, the easiest proxy for that is ask, what are you taking home right now? And is that working? Is it, uh, comfortable for you or, um, is actually under and you're really struggling to make ends meet? be honest with yourself.
I'll say right now, um, a good target to maybe think of that might be achievable in the near future is 50, 000 for a single person or 100, 000 for a family in 2024. That's kind of the medium [00:14:00] income, median income in the U. S. This is definitely, uh, will change depending on what part of the U. S. that you were in.
For instance, in Arkansas, the average, uh, income. Household income is 57, 000 as of last year, but in Maryland, it's 95, 000, I think. So, anyway, depending on your locale, this will change. Your family size, your marital status, the cost of living. But, um, for easy math here, let's just think about, can we make 4, 000 a month or 1, 000 a week?
Okay? So I want you to define that monthly number for you and your family. So if your spouse is working, that'll be different. If it's just you as the sole bread winner, or if you're a single person, um, What is that number? So that will give us a target to work backwards from later. Number two, I want you to minimize liabilities as much as possible.
So liabilities is just a fancy term in financial speak for what you owe. So this is consumer debt, credit cards, student loans, car payments, anything you're [00:15:00] on the hook for, even your house payment. So I want you to see, could you pay off a debt. Um, could you sell a car? Can you actually have a budget and live within your means?
So you have to have this amount of, uh, financial shrewdness to be able to develop that within a business sense. Cause one thing that's been hard for me over the years is that you see back here, I have guitars and I've definitely produced records before and done things that are musical, but what's earning the most amount of bread, if you will, is the live side and the training.
And so I've had to. Since kind of separate this back to more of a hobby from a production standpoint and really spend business dollars and things are going to get a return in the business and not spend them as much as like a cool new guitar plug in or something like that. Um, so even last week I was really tempted to get this new, uh, plug in from Neural DSP.
I was like, you know what? It's great. It'll probably be on sale later. Um, this is not where I need to put my business dollars to invest the most, where I need to move what I'm doing forward. the most. [00:16:00] So I did it. Uh, I've definitely failed at that before. Um, but all that being said, I want you to think about, uh, how can you decrease your personal expenses as much as possible?
So the burden on the new business venture is as light as possible. Okay. So that's the personal finance audit. Define the monthly number and minimize your liabilities as much as possible. Get really creative here. If you can.
[00:16:25] Market & Opportunity Assessment
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Second, we're moving on to a market and opportunity assessment. Again, that kind of sounds finance, finance y, big business speak, but it's basically a market is a group of customers or leads that you interact with to exchange good or services.
So this is on a local and national viability for us in the audio industry. So if you're tour, you're going all over the U S, but it's also, uh, based somewhere, uh, you could be doing stuff in local clubs or opera house or a church or whatever you could just fly out to high profile corporate gigs. So this is definitely a hybrid economy and how you [00:17:00] can build a career here.
So first thinking locally, do you actually know anyone locally, uh, that is making a living, what you're doing? in the live sound industry, whether they're just working in bars, clubs, theaters, local bands, corporate gigs, do you know anyone? That's usually a good indicator of like, hey, can this area support that if I want to make most of my money locally?
Are there thriving production companies in your area that regularly hire freelancers? Do you know any of them? What kind of scene are you in? If you're in a more urban area, there's going to be more bars, more theaters, um, In my neck of the woods here in Northwest Arkansas, there's actually a lot more corporate gig opportunity than there is music opportunity as of right now.
So that's the market that I am in. Does your family life permit you to travel? My wife works a couple days a week. She's the NICU dietician, does really important work. And I want her to be able to have a career too. So that's why I've actually intentionally limited my travel time to three days at a [00:18:00] time.
Just to make sure that's not too much of a burden with her taking care of our three kids while I'm gone and managing her work life. So let's definitely open up that conversation with your spouse if you're figuring out what that needs to look like. Uh, do you live close to an airport? So if you're wanting to do more of these travel gigs, is that going to add more of a travel burden if you live farther from an airport?
And do you want to tour? Does your, uh, Family situation, permit you to be gone for multiple weeks or even multiple months at a time. I know touring artists, maybe they'll go for two weeks and come back for a week, out for two. There's lots of ways to skin this cat, but at least you just want to get your brain spinning and thinking about what's the dichotomy of local versus a national opportunity here.
And once you're kind of thinking about that market, I now want you to make a list of those opportunities. I want you to see what kind of opportunities stick before you make the jump. Because bottom line, I want you to build your asking muscle, because that's something that I usually, I struggle with when you're new, when you're not confident in your abilities, you haven't done a lot of [00:19:00] stuff, asking someone else to take a risk on you, you don't want to do.
You don't want to be a burden. You're kind of scared. You want to mess up. But I want you to start to build that muscle and build that confidence. So here are some ideas for you of these opportunities. Uh, the obvious one for me is there are churches that need regular professional help. I actually used to, through the production company I worked for early on in my career, they actually set up a agreement with the local church where their volunteers would come in and run the consoles.
But in the middle of the week, it was just a half day week, five hours, where we would go in, set the stage, Set the patch for that week, test all the inputs, make sure everything's good to go. And it's all flossed and ready to go for the Thursday night rehearsal. And the tech director, and I guess worship pastor at that time, could focus on other things from the musical side.
So maybe you could partner with the local church. Like, hey, can I do a half day a week? Just making your life easier. So, yeah. Could you look at that? Could you actually mix their services? Um, could you look at, uh, uh, stagehand staffing agencies? So in bigger markets, [00:20:00] there's dedicated agencies that coordinate labor for big tours that come through town or even smaller shows.
Uh, so reach out to those stagehand agencies. And this is actually a big way if you haven't been in the Um, professional live environment, this is where I would get my feet wet the most is just as a stagehand because it's low pressure and that you're not actually operating something on the gig, but you're touching the equipment.
You could partner up with a department. It's a really good thing to be able to do that. in the beginning, just as a stagehand. Those are usually in four hour shifts on the in and the out, at least in my experiment, uh, my experience. Could you reach out to production companies directly, even if they already have enough internal labor to coordinate things?
Can you say, Hey, can I go into your shop? Can I, uh, help you restore gear, get comfortable with what you have? Uh, could I work for you directly as a stagehand and help you load in instead of having to go through the markup of the labor union? I want to work with you. Can I help you? load in. Can you reach [00:21:00] out to local theaters that are having plays and performances?
What about schools? They have plays, they have pep rallies, they have a sound system for the marching band. Used to be a marching band. That's what I actually did my senior year is I played bassoon, which is a double reed. You can't march with it. So they don't know what to do with this redheaded stepchildren.
So I actually ran the sound system for the pit or all the marimbas whatever on the field. And so could you help coordinate that? Could you go to all your high schools in town and assess and upgrade and really, really help? Wire correctly and set up the sound systems for all the marching bands. And so again, just get, I want you to get your wheels turning, get creative with just how much opportunity is out there for you to leverage these skills.
Uh, and then lastly, just looking at corporate companies, it's a huge new thing for everyone and their mom to have a podcast, just like the one you're listening to now. And a lot of companies want to have them. They want to have different internal conversations among employees that are private. They want to have external ones in each department.
Uh, for instance, this is a big retail environment. So they have different divisions of companies talking about the [00:22:00] products that they sell, how they want to make supply chain more efficient. So there's huge opportunity within the corporate space, uh, and most of them. probably don't have much audio experience and they need someone to help capture it.
They need someone to help edit it. Um, there's always like galas and dinners and Christmas Eve parties and all this stuff that companies usually have a lot more money available than some bar band who just makes 30 bucks and gets a beer on the weekend. So maybe you could reach out to the local companies in your area and say, Hey, do you have any events that I could come help out with?
Can I help edit and produce a podcast internally? Just a few ideas. Um, And then in the interim, if these aren't these more direct opportunities for you to use these skills, what are adjacent skills that you could use that would be really flexible in the interim? So I talked about podcast editing. This isn't live, uh, live audio, but can you get decent at video editing?
Is this Uber driving? What's something that helps, again, take the pressure off getting that day rate that you could just slot in on the [00:23:00] side with your current gigs? This might be on the weekends or evenings or whatever. Okay, now that we've done a personal finance audit, we have assessed the market opportunities and seen what's available to us, and you think like, okay, cool, I could start knocking on some doors.
We need to have some infrastructure in place to make sure this all flows nicely,
[00:23:19] Bootstrapping Your Startup
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and this is what I call bootstrapping your own startup. So, number one thing is, I don't want you to depend on this income in the future. yet. Again, you may be watching this and be like, Hey, I don't have a job right now. I need to not just get things going and just execute this faster.
But if you have the opportunity to stay where you're at and make this a gradual thing and a nice slower experiment, then, uh, I don't want you to depend on this income you are going to generate from getting these new gigs. And it, because what I think it does is helps takes off the, takes the pressure off forcing bad gigs.
Uh, but it gets you in the habit of taking ownership over your work. Again, I want you to rehearse what it's actually like to be a freelancer and set [00:24:00] up all these systems and not just play house. And by rehearsing it, you can feeling exactly what it's like going to be like to go to someone, ask for a gig, get asked to do it, book it, show up, do it, invoice the whole thing.
That will get you a taste of what's really like to do it and you want to keep doing it. Um, again, I am now fortunately in a spot where I do very little outbound inquiry, but it took 10 years to build it. I want to reiterate that because I've talked to younger engineers that I may think like, well, I deserve more work or I'm good enough to do it, but people aren't calling me.
But You need to make sure the industry knows who you are and there are lots of ways to do that. Okay, so I want you to not feel like you're depending on this, uh, but There's all sorts of things I do not want you to worry about just yet in this bootstrapping experiment. Uh, I don't want you to get a website or a domain name.
That's usually the first thing people think of. I'm like, Oh, I'm a new business. I need a website. I need to buy up, uh, audioengineerpro. com. Don't, don't worry about that. If you want to have some sort of digital real estate, [00:25:00] you can make what's called an Instagram landing page. And, uh, for me, you can just, Find me at ProducemateNKC, I'm not active on Instagram.
But all I have is this, as someone just found me, it's the nine squares with my picture, it has links to pertinent stuff, and be like, hey cool, it's on the gram, and it just basically is a landing page that links out to other stuff. This also could be a link tree, which is basically one link that has several buttons on it that could fan out to different places.
Um, it could also just be a Google Doc. And, uh, it Because the most common thing someone might ask for would be a resume, but even that is not commonly asked for in the live event industry. It's usually with newer, bigger companies that have more robust HR onboarding procedures for the contractors, but don't worry about it.
So just get a Google Drive, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, but you don't need a big fancy website. When you start, I don't want you to also worry about forming a formal business yet. You can function as a sole proprietor, aka just your name acting in the world as a business. You could also be have a [00:26:00] DBA or doing business as a name.
and which is interchangeable with your real name. I will have you do that just so you can set up separate business banking accounts. And we'll get to that in a minute. Uh, I don't want you to worry about, worry about insurance just yet, cause it can be expensive. Um, unless the gigs you're trying to get the, the company requires you to have it.
So, uh, if you need to get it, get it, but for now, see if you could try to get gigs that don't require the insurance. And I don't want you to buy a bunch of gear. I'll talk about what gear. is pertinent for you to have when you start, uh, but don't think you have to buy your own rig. Most of the time, or vast majority of the time, the only tools that I'm bringing is the stuff I need to be able to tune, a few more just tool tools, like a Gerber or a Leatherman, a flashlight, that kind of stuff.
So you don't need to invest in a bunch of gear. It's the production companies, the clients that own it, you come in and operate it if they own it or rent it in. Okay. So we've talked about. Uh, I don't want you to depend on this income. Things not to [00:27:00] worry about. So here's what I do want you to do. And the first bootstrapping thing.
Here are the startup costs. And I want you to have 1, 500, 1, 500. You may be thinking, oh shoot, I don't even have 500 in savings. Well, I think before you do this, I want you to add 1, 500. So do what you can. Again, moving back to that personal finance audit, what can you do to reduce your expenses? Maybe work a couple extra shifts at work, whatever, to get this 1, 500 nest egg to start you.
So, uh, again, you're a sole proprietor and you're with the DBA. And so you're doing a, doing business as, and you can use, uh, pay for a service like LegalZoom to file all that paperwork for you, or you can do it yourself, uh, just file it online with the government and set up your business name. And with that business name, for me, that backend is Movement Brands, LLC.
I just, I, I used to run Movement Mastering, my mastering company. I still master some records, but, uh, I just made an LLC that's Movement Brands and it just houses everything. Uh, so [00:28:00] you've probably never heard of that cause you just heard of my name on the internet. But that is that when people cut checks to me, that is what they do.
So for me, I've made Movement Brands LLC, and for you, it could just be your name, doing business as Super Awesome Audio Human Company, whatever. And you're going to go to your bank, uh, so hopefully you already have a bank and a checking and savings account. You're going to open up a new set of accounts with your business.
You can open up three of them. First, you're going to do an operating account. This is the, where the. Every day business expenses are gonna flow in and out of so people are gonna pay invoices to you You deposit it here. If you pay for a flight or you pay for some training, it's gonna go out here That's your operating account five hundred dollars here in that operating it account operating account next a savings account You're gonna this be your emergency fund.
So this is how we're gonna offset some of the volatility And again, we're not going to be relying on this income or needing to draw from it very much, but I want you to get in the habit of thinking about structuring the financial backbone of your business this [00:29:00] way. Again, just one way to do it. I'm not an accountant, uh, I'm not a lawyer, but this is how I structure my business.
I just want to share it. Got an operating account, put 500 in there. Got an emergency fund, 500 in there. And then once you open up one more savings account, and this might get tricky with minimum balances. So just find a bank that doesn't have these. Open up a tax savings account and throw 100 in there.
Okay, so those three accounts, operating account, emergency fund, tax savings. And then you've got 400 left over from that cash. I want you to use that if you need help with the business name filing and then get the minimum amount of gear you need to do these shows. So that might be a Pelican. You don't have to have a Pelican.
It could be just be whatever little case, but it gets you a Leatherman or a Gerber multi tool, gets you a flashlight. If you're going to be tuning systems and functioning as an A1 right off the bat, get you a small two channel or four channel audio interface, get you a measurement microphone. What is that minimum tool [00:30:00] set you need to be able to accomplish a gig?
So, uh, you're not having to ask the production company you're working for, for Sharpies or a knife or whatever. So knife, flashlight, multi tool. Audio interface, measurement mic, should be able to get all of that for under 400. Um, and I want you to buy this with the new operating account you just opened, uh, up.
And so, uh, actually, I guess that means put 900 in the operating account, buy those tools, bring it down to 500. Okay? Alright. Then, revenue targets, okay? So now that we've set up the financial backbone, we have to think, how are we going to get money in the bank? So I want to ask you, could you get 1, 000 a month?
are 3, 000 for the quarter, so three months, in total revenue in this 90 days. So that's what 90 days is. It is three months of time. So there's lots of ways to do this. Could you get two day rates at 500 or six total day rates for that quarter? So that could be two Saturdays where you're working a corporate gig and 500 a day.
is a very like [00:31:00] medium level, uh, income for that. Uh, if you're not able to get those corporate gigs or paying more, that might be 10 stagehand shifts at 50 bucks a shift. Again, every market is going to be different. Do your own research to see what's paying there. Um, this could be one 500 a day rate, uh, two 100 stagehand shifts.
Sorry, earlier, 100 stagehand shifts is what I meant to say earlier. And then maybe six podcast episodes you edit for 50 a pop, so you're starting to stitch together all these production related skills that can add up to 1, 000 in revenue per month. Okay, so can you get to that revenue target? Again, that's more than likely going to be less.
then your current day job right now, but could you start building that on the side, just a thousand dollars a month, make that attainable. Okay, so here is what that cash flow as that revenue is coming through your business is going to look like. I want you to stay lean. Okay. So as far as your rates, I talked about 500 a [00:32:00] day earlier for a corporate gig.
Uh, I would not go any lower than 25 an hour. Okay. or 250 a day for something like a bar gig where you're actually running audio. Again, every market is different, but I think you're worth at least that. So right now I charge 700 a day for an A1 gig, but even more if I'm doing more specialized work from designing or tuning a system.
So stagehand rates are likely going to be dictated by your local labor agency or union. Uh, so that might ebb and flow, but if it's just some venue that needs a tech for a night to run a band for a show, it, they may or may not be booking in half day or full day rates, or might be hourly, so negotiate that, ask that up front.
Always ask, hey, what does this pay before you say yes to a gig, before you just get tips and free beer? Okay, so that's the income that needs to come in, quantify that, again, do your own market, Survey and see what you can get from that and then quantify what is that stack of gigs I need to get maybe one corporate gig [00:33:00] edit a few podcasts and do some stagehands shifts and then moving on to the salary So that money is coming in.
What do you need to now pay yourself? I want you to start with something incredibly low, in this instance 150 a month. So don't worry, we're going to increase this later by making it low on purpose so that it is sustainable. It's a little reward you get for, uh, for rehearsing and manage your time, all these projects and money in a real environment, but we're not depending on this yet.
So that's salary. It's simply going to be a check you cut yourself from your business account to your personal account, or you could just transfer it. It's technically a better paper trail if you cut yourself a check, but as long as you keep good records, that's, it's not a big deal. Moving down to, we've talked about income, money coming in, the salary, what we're going to pay ourselves.
So these are different facets of money here. And then we'll move to operating expenses. So this is, um, expenses that are incurred by a business in the normal course of doing business. So we talked about getting a G Suite [00:34:00] or I think it's Google Workspace now to have an email address and cloud storage and Google Sheets and all that stuff.
Definitely get that. I think it's 12 or 15 bucks a month, or you can go Microsoft Office, whatever you want to do. I've found more of the production industry is comfortable with the Google suite than Microsoft but that's just my anecdotal experience. This may be insurance, which you could pay yearly or on a monthly basis.
Since this is a 90 day experiment, I would just go with a monthly policy if you can, but they probably won't do it for less than a year. So that's try to get gigs that don't require insurance just yet, but if it's inevitable, bite that bullet. And then prior to operating expenses, below that on the P& L or profit and loss statement would be COGS.
So COGS is cost of goods sold. That means the cost you incurred to do the service and make the product. So if I was selling t shirts, this would be actually purchasing the blank t shirt and then the printing of it. And so I might buy a blank t shirt. t shirt for 2 a pop. After printing it, [00:35:00] selling it, making it look cool, I might sell it for 20.
So that cog is the 2 t shirt plus the other manufacturing expenses. So for us in this industry, that is almost always flights, meals, and lodging. So if I'm having to fly out to a gig, the client might have me book it. I incur that expense as a cost of goods sold, as the cost that took, that I had to pay doing the gig.
And on the final invoice, I'll just have Put that receipt on there, just bill exactly that amount and they will pay me back. That is a billable expense, but it, it is a cog. And then I also wanna make sure as far as your operating expenses, that you're tracking mileage so you can pay yourself, um, a amount every month at the.
at the annual government mileage rate. I believe in 2024, it's 67 cents a mile. So if you drove 100 miles, that would be 6. 07 that you pay yourself, um, every month. So this could be, again, transferring from your operating account into your personal checking [00:36:00] account. Or for me, I just do it yearly. So I don't have to keep up with that admin every month.
And so that's just a nice check in January that I get. And I've kept track of my mileage throughout the entire year. Okay, moving on from operating expenses down to taxes, what I want you to do is set aside 15 percent of your profit each month in a tax savings account. So what is profit? So that's your total gross revenue or income that came in the door.
So that's the 500 invoice for the day rate, the podcasts you got paid for, and the The stage hand shift you did, that's a hundred, uh, a thousand dollars, and then we subtract our expenses. So that's our operating expenses. So let's say that was a 150, right? We would then pay taxes to our federal and possibly state government as well, depending where you live, at a certain tax rate.
What I do is I look backwards at the year prior and look at my effective tax rate and our tax return, and that's what I set aside. So this past year, It was [00:37:00] about, uh, I can't quite remember, but I think it was just under 15%. We have deductions because we have children and blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff.
So talk to a real CPA to get this exact number, but that's a good roll of thumb. It's 15%, if you want to be more conservative, up it to 20%, but we only have to pay taxes on our profit. So not our gross revenue, not the total amount of money that came in the door, just our gross revenue. um, profit. So that would be our gross revenue minus operating expenses minus COGS, and that is what's called our gross profit.
All right? So we're going to set aside 15 percent of that. So let's look more at an example month here. So if we had 1, 000 come in the door, We had a 150 in operating expenses, maybe that's Google Workspace, I took a mentor of mine out to coffee to ask about the industry, I paid 20 for a meal while I was on a local gig, and then I bought a 100 measurement microphone.
That adds up to 150. So that means I have [00:38:00] 850 in profit. So again, that's gross revenue or all income minus operating expenses gives me my profit. And now just multiply that by 0. 15 or 15%. That comes out to 128. I would then take that. and put it in that tax savings account. So just transfer it right from the operating account to tax savings.
And you may think, well, you have to still pay yourself your salary, Michael. Isn't that an expense? It is not because that is technically profit that I'm just keeping over and giving to myself since I'm still a sole proprietor, or again, I'm not now, but in this specific case, you were likely a sole proprietor.
And what you're doing is The equivalent of what's called an owner's distribution. You're just taking money from the business and we need to be able to pay taxes on all of that, so your take home pay is taxed. So if you're working for a regular employer right now and you get your pay stubs, the company's taking out some taxes, you're having to pay some, and that's all done for you.
But we need to make sure and [00:39:00] actively set that aside in advance. on the total amount of profit, not just money that's left in the business after you take out your own salary, right? So that's 15 percent of profit. That's 128. We pay ourselves our salary. That's 150. I know that's low. We just want to make it very manageable to turn a profit in this 90 day experiment.
So that means the money we have left is 723 to reinvest in the business. And where should you put that? I would put it in your emergency fund. And that's how you build up the cushion. to withstand the volatility of this industry. If it's feast or famine, um, you know, if you're a touring engineer, I mean, it's during the summer, you're crazy busy, but there's not a lot of tours during November or December.
So you need to be able to draw from a nest egg that you build up while times are good. And that is the emergency fund, right? And we make sure to have that. So take that money left. I know it's tempting to want to go get a steak dinner or buy a cool new piece of gear, but I would park that. And. [00:40:00] in your emergency fund and, and then, um, make sure you have enough in your operating account to, to handle, uh, all of the next month's expenses.
So what I might do here is basically get my operating account back up to 500 and park the rest in the, uh, emergency fund, right? So if we look, zoom out and look at that from a quarterly perspective, so three months or 90 days, which is our experiment, That is 3, 000 in total revenue, 1, 000 a month. We had 450 in operating expenses, and it'll likely be lower than that if you're not purchasing gear.
That means we had 2, 250 in profit. OK, we took home and paid ourself 450 and we set aside 384 in taxes in our personal tax savings account. And that means we have 2, 169 to reinvest in the business. I would take the difference of each month of getting our operating account back up to 500 and then park the rest in your, [00:41:00] um, emergency fund.
And now you can have a little bit of a nest egg, which is cool. So that builds some stability into the system. Okay? Bunch of finance stuff,
[00:41:09] Execute Your 90 Day Experiment
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now I want to zoom out even farther to what does it look like to actually execute that 90 day experiment. We've basically gone through it in slow motion now, but I want to stitch everything together.
Uh, the reason why I love 90 day experiments is it's short enough where we won't destroy anything if it's a bad idea, but it's long enough to get a decent sample size and a frame of reference. Okay. Again, a quick caveat, uh, seasonality matters. So depending on what industry or slice of the industry you're going after, whether that's touring, corporate gigs, uh, the church world, seasonality matters.
The nice thing about church is it happens every single weekend all over the world, so that's regular. Touring is likely going to be in the middle of the year. Corporate gigs, uh, is really dead in November and December, but ramps up in January. October is always crazy because people are getting in events before the holidays.
So study your industry, where you want to get go and where you [00:42:00] get going, and make sure you are doing this experiment when there are gigs in the industry is active. Okay? So if you're doing the planning phase, do it while it's down, start to ramp things up when gigs are coming up in the particular slice of the industry that you want.
So step one is perform that ruthless financial audit. So I want you to define your monthly number. What do you need to take home as a proxy is what do you make now or about 50, 000 a year? Can you get up there? And I want you to reduce your liabilities as much as possible. So get out, get rid of as fast as you can, any consumer debt, car payments, outstanding student loans, that kind of stuff.
So you're not, um, you know, starting behind this, or, uh, your blocks aren't moved back from the starting line before you even go. You want to make this as effortless and easy as possible, and having more liabilities makes that harder. Number two, I want you to make your list of opportunities. I want you to get them on the phone.
What are the, the churches, the production companies, the staffing agencies, theaters, the corporations that all need your help. Can you call [00:43:00] them? If it's a production house, you want to start developing a relationship with, be like, hey, I'm new in the area. Or even if you're not, be like, hey, I'm just wanting to get more of these gigs.
Can I come to your shop and start learning your gear? This is a way to get hands on. It shows that you are a team player, that you're proactive and does lots of good things. Again, I just want you to be creative and assertive. And this is something I've had to work on because I'm not a naturally very assertive person, but I've had to build this up.
I want you to get active on site work. If at all possible, and then see if you can build up some scrappy, odd jobs, whether that's Uber driving or, um, Lyft or editing a podcast that's kind of on the side that can fill in the gaps when you're not actively on a gig. Again, please balance this with your current commitments.
If, uh, if you're younger and single, this is going to be easier than if you're older and married, for instance. I want you to get your DBA filed and your bank account set up. So that, uh, and then, uh, so remember that's the operating. OpEx account, the emergency fund, and the [00:44:00] tax savings account. So that's a checking, savings, savings.
I want you to purchase the minimum viable gig equipment. So that's a Leatherman or Gerber, a flashlight, some black durable shoes, an audio interface, a measurement microphone. Again, if you want to really be an A2 later on and not worry about system tuning, Don't worry, don't buy that gear, but just the minimum production equipment needed.
And then I want you to go out and crush your gigs with professionalism. Be kind to yourself, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to learn, but just go out there and do the thing. And when you do the gigs, I send my invoices always on the following Monday after the gig, so I just batch all that admin work.
You don't need QuickBooks yet if you don't want. You can just have a simple Google Doc invoice template, and so just name it, hey, the invoice number. 101, client name, show name, list out the services, what you built it at, send it to them as a PDF, not as the original Google Doc, they'll say great, they'll put it in their accounting department, they'll either get you in a payment system and do a direct deposit, they'll cut you a check, um, anyway, [00:45:00] so, and uh, they might want to pay you over Venmo, great, goes into your Venmo account, you transfer that into your personal operating account, everything flows in and flows out there, right?
Again, so just be professional. Send it first thing Monday morning. Be clear about what it was for. Don't be ashamed of your rates, and then I want you to get paid. So any check you get, make sure it goes in that operating account, and then you have money, which is really cool. And then I want you to look monthly and do an evaluation.
And so what are those helpful evaluation questions? I want you to ask, did you like the work? Was it enjoyable for you to get on these gigs? Or did you feel more alive and more present, uh, by doing this? Uh, were you able to turn a profit? How much? And so again, I want you to keep your expenses absurdly low.
So that is really easy. Even if you just got one gig to turn a profit and start building that momentum. I want you to ask how many new clients did you have? Were you able to build a network and kind of get on a show, meet [00:46:00] someone who's playing bass for a band, but he actually works at another production company and does bass on the side and wants to get you to gig?
That's how it works. Just be known, be active and out in the industry and good things will come. Number four, did you have any repeat customers? It's good to build a repeat customer base so you don't have to always be in on the hunt mode. Cause Clients usually have multiple shows per year or have an annual show that repeats or have an ongoing podcast So can you build a bench of clients that know your name and keep calling you?
And then ask with this does this seem like a sustainable career path for you? How about you and your family make it a group conversation to feel like This is cool. It's a little more volatile. Um, I'm stretching myself. I'm having to take some time away in the interim away from my family because I might have to hold down my nine to five, then gig on the weekends or on some evenings.
But this is again, just a concentrated 90 day experiment just to see if you can get comfortable with what's going on. Um, [00:47:00] did the rate of opportunity accelerate? Did you get more gigs as time went on? Were they higher tier gigs? Did you move up from, you know, the, the lower paying, just hourly bar gig up to doing something in a more regular basis?
Um, I run sound at the University of Arkansas basketball games, you know, so men and women's basketball games have, um, games in Budwalton Arena, it's a 19, 000 seat arena with a huge EAW rig and the announcer needs to be heard. There's the marching band, there's press conferences, that kind of stuff. So there's lots of places that need audio.
Uh, and then lastly, how many more gigs with this current mix, whether that's a corporate gig here, a bar gig here, and a podcast edit there, would you need to make the 50, 000 a year equivalent? Again, that's going to be different depending where you're at, uh, with your family or part of the world or country.
But, uh, how much, uh, would you need to ramp this up to make that happen? And that can basically give you the idea of how to now start this off [00:48:00] ramp of my current commitments so that I can ramp up into this new type of work if you like it and you want to make this transition. Again, like I said at the top, it is a step, not a jump.
Sometimes you have to jump. Circumstances outside your control. So just run this all a little bit faster. But once you're thinking about stepping towards that.
[00:48:19] Recommended Reading & Listening
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The last thing I'll read you with is some recommended reading and listening if you just want to get more of this business mindset and skill set development mindset.
The first is So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. It basically undermines this idea of that passion is the best indicator of a good career or field. It's actually development of real skills that you get really good at that develops the most amount of satisfaction. So, I recommend that. Uh, second is Business Made Simple.
It breaks down a lot of Business concepts, very simply, just like the title says. It's speaking more to someone that is already within a company of how to be a good employee, but the principles definitely transfer to the [00:49:00] freelance mindset. And then lastly is the Two Bobs podcast by David C. Baker and Blair Enns.
And they talk to creative marketing agency owners, but they, again, generalize and extrapolate all these brilliant marketing, sales, branding, and strategy conversations. And it's always really good to learn from an adjacent industry. So you can kind of break out of the mindsets we kind of kept in our own.
So I, they are both brilliant folks. They have a huge backlog of episodes. So start chewing through that. Okay, we covered a lot today. I hope this is helpful for you and gave you a 90 day game plan for you to start stepping into a new career as a freelance live audio engineer. I would love to have your comments below on what was helpful, what I might have missed.
Maybe you've already made this journey and want to share something. Please leave it below if you're watching here on YouTube. Um, if you're listening on a podcast. Thank you so much for hanging out. I will catch you next time. You can always ask another question that I can answer on the podcast at the link in the show notes or in the description.
My name is Michael Curtis. Catch you [00:50:00] next time.
