Insights from Business Plan Development at Full Sail University

            I recently took a course called Business Plan Development at Full Sail University as part of my Master’s of Entertainment Business degree program.   Upon enrolling in the course, my original goal was to have a clearer picture of my own business financials and to find ways to improve profitability as a working composer, conductor, teacher and music producer.   I am pleased to report that this objective was more than met, and I have learned far more about creating an artist business plans than I had anticipated.

            The course broke up writing an artist’s business plan into several areas.  Over the first part of the course we examined our target market and consumers and refined our strategic marketing plan for our entertainment company.  Then, we looked into our sales mechanism and examined how to create a positive cash flow for our art.  We continued by examining our current and future staffing needs and then spend a considerable amount of time working out the numbers in such a way that investors can see a potential positive cash flow.

            Two topics captivated me more than the others during this course.  The first was the creation of my “one-minute elevator pitch.”  This is a brief description telling the story of my company; the who, what, where, how and why in a succinct manner.  I plan to refine and rehearse this so that I use it in my day-to-day networking and let everyone I meet clearly know what I am and what it is I do. 

            The second topic that captured my interest was the financial statement creation.  I had done some pro forma financials for my business before, but never with much depth.  I was able to identify a need to delay additional staff for another year or so in order to save on expenses and a need to boost my marketing and sales mechanism in order to increase net income so that my bottom line remains in the black.

            I am looking forward to graduation in June from Full Sail, and have thoroughly enjoyed my master’s program.   While the work took time and dedication, I learned so much that I would not have had the opportunity to otherwise know.