Do What You Do Best---Create a Repertoire

Do what you do best, and you'll love what you do. The music you play that resonates within you carries your own fingerprints. Even if other musicians can play the same songs as you do, what you bring to these sonsg is uniquely your own.

To land lucrative wedding gigs, you need to find your niche among the competition. This is know as "positioning" in marketing lingo. It means researching what makes you different from the rest of the musicians and capitalizing on these differences. Compiling your wedding repertoire is the first step to making you stand out.

"You are more attractive when you break bread with a competitor."-from Attracting Perfect Customers by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniea of Perfect Consulting Unlimited.

How do you find out what your competition plays? There is no better time than now to enlist some allies. Make friends with other successful musicians in your geographical area and hear them perform. Get together and jam. Check out their websites. If some musicians give you the cold shoulder when you approach them in friendship, they may be viewing you as a threat, and that's their problem. Your competition can be your friends.


Copyright © 2008 by Anne Roos, excerpt from "The Musician's Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings", published by Hal Leonard Books. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.

September Tips for Musicians & Entrepreneurs--Education is the Key to Communication

Regardless of your business, whether you are a musician, a wedding professional, or an entrepreneur in another field, the way to keep communication lines open and to keep your client happy is to educate them about what you do.

As a harpist, most people who initially contact me to play at their wedding or special event may have never thrown another big party before. A bride may have a specific picture in her mind of her perfect wedding, so she'll enter into the wedding planning with these expectations. She may also be wrestling with the expectations of her fiancé, parents, and future in-laws, too.

Accept the very real stress a bride may be under and help her through this process. Educate her about what you need from her, from music selections to the kind of performance area that you require. Don't assume she is experienced with party planning. Even for more relaxed clients who are planning smaller, less formal weddings, they still need to have the same level of communication with you as more stressful clients.

No matter what your line of business may be, inform the client every step of the way about what you'll do for them. Even after they commit to hiring you, don't drop these lines of communication. If they are considering whether to hire you, educate them about yourself, don't "sell" yourself. When offering referrals, educate your client about others, and don't push. And certainly, if a dispute arises with your client, think in terms of educating them about the way you handle business, not in terms of winning an argument.

In the wedding business, educating the client averts wedding disasters. And in all business fields, educating your client results in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and yes, referrals for new customers. Read more general information about weddings and at my Celtic Harp Music blog. Feel free to go there and leave a comment.

Hundreds of additional tips, are available for musicians (and all entrepreneurs) in my book, "The Musician's Guide to Brides" available wherever Hal Leonard Books are sold: music and bookstores, and through online retailers including sheetmusicplus.com, amazon.com, Sylvia Woods Harp Center catalog, and of course, at my website at http://www.celticharpmusic.com/.