How do you know if your passion for recording is a business or a hobby? As someone who grew up accumulating all things sound, this is a question I haven’t asked myself until quite recently. I always bought gear or software with the idea that “I’m investing in my education. This will pay off someday.”
I’ve told myself this throughout college while I haven’t really seen the return on my investment other than my growing knowledge of the field.
Sure, I’m good at mixing and mastering but, that doesn’t really matter unless I can find paying clients.
A business person would be asking questions like the following:
- “How do I maximize profit?”
- “What’s my return on investment?”
- “How do I grow my client base?”
I am a strong proponent of following your dreams. But, the biggest lesson I’ve learned in life thus far (at 21) is that there are many ways to reach the finish line. I am currently a digital marketing intern for a company in Atlanta where I am developing content promotional strategies, designing websites, creating graphics, and more. I already have the knowledge and experience in audio and music production. What I don’t have yet is the business know-how to actually run a business and market my service. But hopefully, with a bit of work and research, I’ll get there. So, the next time you want to spend hours researching that plugin or piece of outboard gear, I encourage you to do a little research into social media, digital marketing, and more. This industry you and I are involved in is super expense heavy where people invest thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on their gear. But, what’s the return on investment? If you are in this industry to make a living, you need to do some serious research into business practices and principles if you hope to get your startup off the ground.
So, the next time you want to spend hours researching that plugin or piece of outboard gear, I encourage you to do a little research into social media, digital marketing, and more. This industry you and I are involved in is super expense heavy where people invest thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into their gear. But, what’s the return on investment? If you are in this industry to make a living, you and I need to do some serious research into business practices and principles if you hope to get your startup off the ground.
And hopefully, with a lot of work and a little luck, we’ll get there.
Thanks for reading!
dB Sound Blog 