- Know Yourself - Know what you have to offer the professional world. Assess your strengths and weaknesses, and create realistic goals.
- Know the market/industry - Size up the competition for the work you wish to do. Know what kind of work musicians at your level are finding and the skills needed to do it.
- Network - Get to know people doing what you’d like to do and find out how they got started. Ask people you know - teachers, mentors, colleagues - and ask them for other names and contacts.
- Research your options - Read other musicians’ bios and find out what grants, competitions or festivals would be helpful for your future and research these. Information leads to opportunity.
- Use your interpersonal skills - Be a good colleague - helpful and personable. Don’t gossip or backstab! The person you snub today may be the person who doesn’t recommend you tomorrow.
- Find your niche - What sets you apart from other musicians? What are your unique abilities, interests, connections, or possible opportunities?
Maintain a professional attitude - Be positive, resilient, and flexible. Keep your ego in check. Be prepared to deal well with rejection as well as acceptance.
Think like an entrepreneur - Bring the same imagination and creativity that you put into your music making into the business side of your art. With limited ready-made opportunities, you may need to create your own!
- Set goals - Both long- and short-term goals can be used as motivational tools and ways to monitor progress. Goals are simply dreams with deadlines.
- Feed your soul - Remind yourself often why you got involved music in the first place.
The unwritten rule, of course is: Get Lucky!
