the little waterpark that grew

Success - we all want it in some way. when i was a kid i knew i wanted to be a musician....well, either that or a baseball player. and although i started in the varsity squad most of my high school years, i was not blessed with the ability to hit a ball 400 feet over a fence. the desire for success comes with an equal desire for success to come QUICKLY. when i was 21 i was working at a big recording studio in chicago (www.chicagorecording.com). and when i say working, i mean making coffee, wrapping cables and taking my boss' dog outside (and yes, picking up the dogs' success in a plastic bag). i remember listening to a Spitalfield record that i loved and finding out that Sean O'Keefe, the producer was about my age and had already produced a great record. i would get so frustrated and wonder why i wasn't producing great records yet. i wanted success NOW. but over the years i've learned and am still learning that the road to success is frequently the slow and steady approach.

oh, you want an example? well, ok.

i grew up in springfield, IL. as a kid, we would go to a little waterpark called Knights Action Park. (www.KnightsActionPark.com). this "waterpark" was built on flat cornfield land. somehow they built a single hill about 4 or 5 stories high and had a grand total of 3 waterslides. except one of the waterslides is only for kids under 50 lbs. (that's 22.7 kilos for the rest of the world). they had mini golf and batting cages and go karts, but really, we all made fun of the place. i remember going to other waterparks on vacation and thinking about how much they dwarfed our little waterpark. when people from springfield would talk about Knights Action Park, it was almost as if we were embarrassed.

pictured above: everything they had when i was a kid

but here's the thing - the owners of the park kept at it, slow and steady. i've heard that their goal was to add one new thing a year. they added bumper boats, a lazy river, then a giant wave pool. i would come back to springfield every summer and they would have something new. and you know what?? one day we all woke up and realized that Knights Action Park was actually a pretty sweet place. they now have tons of waterslides and are still adding things. a few years back they added on a couple of drive-in movie screens. what waterpark has that???

pictured above: awesome attraction they DIDN'T have when i was a kid

my point is, there was nothing special about Knights. i mean, who ever heard of a waterpark built on corn fields? but they kept their heads down and did their best and eventually they had turned into a monumental success. i have no idea how much money that place makes, but i can make an educated guess that whoever owns the park is doing just fine.

the same applies to pretty much any situation. i remember talking to an older engineer back at that chicago studio asking how he got things to sound so good. he told me "i wish there was some trick i could tell you, but there isn't. you just get better over time." and you know what? he was right. the path to success is not about getting a big break. if you're a musician, it's not about getting discovered and getting a huge record deal. if some record company had found me as a 16 year old and given me a million dollar record deal, i would have failed MISERABLY and then my music career would have been over. patience and hard work are the key. when the time is right, opportunity will present itself and you will be ready. so if you're like i was, don't waste all your frustration just because you're not yet where you want to be. i mean, it's good to be motivated, but don't kill yourself because you haven't yet taken over the world. just keep your head down and keep working. one day you will look up for a second and realize that everyone is looking at you

If Dave Ramsey Was A Musician

Musicians are supposed to be young, cool, and fly by the seat of their pants. i've been playing music in some sort of professional capacity for about 7 years now. i am none of these things. and i admit, back when i was bachelor i (attempted to) dress cool, i was younger and i would do anything at the drop of a hat. now i am older, married, and if you haven't heard yet, i'm going to be a daddy in about 6 months.

growing up will change you. especially in the money area. when i was a bachelor i had roommates and found living situations where my rent was as cheap as humanly possible. ("humanly" possible - as if being an animal would qualify for cheaper rent). i ate hamburger helper and mac & cheese like my life depended on it....and realistically, it did.

if money was low for a certain month, no big deal. but now i have a family. i actually have car insurance and health insurance now. and in case any of you have been living under a rock for the last couple years, the economy hasn't been so great. especially in the christian music industry. so the last two years trish and i have been working the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt and get our financial house in order.

but lately (and by lately, i mean the last two years) i've been wondering what would happen if bands would run their business according to the Dave Ramsey plan. or better yet, what would Dave do if he was a musician?? well i've gone through and picked out a few of Dave's rules that run counter to what is common practice in music today.

1. PARTNERSHIPS

Dave has a saying that goes something like this: A Partnership is the only ship that will never sail. he ALWAYS advises against partnerships. and for good reason too - mixing business, friends and money is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. but here's the thing - a band is essentially a partnership. does that mean it's financially irresponsible to start a band? not necessarily. in many cases, when a band gets a record deal and makes the jump from amateur to professional, there is frequently one person (usually the singer) who does the majority of the writing. it is common practice for the label to sign just this person to a record deal and the remaining members are paid a per show rate. there are many ways to structure a band to avoid a partnership. many create a corporation with each member owning shares and when decisions are made it's based on a simple majority vote of shareholders.

my point is this - when a band has been together for years, eventually the members, no matter how good of friends they were in the beginning, slowly start to resent each other for whatever reason. but the reason 9 times out of 10 has something to do with pride.

2. DEBT

Dave is probably most known for his stance against credit cards. they're a trap that is too easy to fall into and everything you can do with a credit card can be accomplished with a debit card. most bands have credit cards. and honestly, a lot of them are responsible and pay their bills on time. but i often wonder if by having more cash reserves to book flights and rental cars instead of floating on debt would decrease the likelihood of a band getting in over their head when times get tough.

3. CASH FLOW

a way to avoid debt is to use existing cash flow to cover expenses. for instance, instead of taking out a big student loan, Dave would suggest getting a job, going to a less expensive state school and paying cash for college.

how this could best apply to musicians is in merchandise. here's how many bands handle merch - when you place an order for tshirts or any other merchandise, you usually have to place large orders. i'm talking $10k, $20k or more at a time. bands usually find a way to pay for the order whether through an advance or credit cards or whatever, and then when they sell it at the table, they spend that money without setting aside money for future orders. doesn't it make sense that if you sell a shirt for $15 and it costs $5 to make the shirt, you should set aside that $5 for a future order and consider the remaining $10 profit that can be spent on other things?unfortunately, this is not usually the case.

4. EMERGENCY FUNDS

Dave's plan suggests to first get a $1000 emergency fund, then later to work towards an emergency fund that covers 3 to 6 months of expenses. if you are a brand new band wanting to go on your first tour to the west coast, get some sort of emergency fund together. i promise you things WILL go wrong. you WILL break down from time to time. promoters will stiff you of money. i know from experience that getting stranded an hour outside Salt Lake City in December because your alternator went band can really turn a fun tour into something less than fun.

for established bands, cash reserves should be observed religiously. this business is either feast or famine. we go on tour and make lots of money, and then will go two months without significant income.

5. INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE

for most people Dave says to put aside 15% of your income for retirement. for professional sports athletes, i've heard it said that they need to be saving at least 50% of their income because their careers don't last as long as other jobs.

most bands don't last a long time. for every Newsboys that have lasted 30 years, there are 500 bands that get record deals but don't last longer than 5 years. if you are one of those few artists who are fortunate enough to do music full time, consider investing 15% or more into some sort of mutual fund or annuity for when the band does eventually break up or move on. you may not save up enough to make each member independently wealthy, but what if you built up a nest egg that spins off $10,000 for each member in interest every year for the rest of your life? now that is doable.

basically, i can sum up this whole blog by saying Dave would use common sense and rational decision making in an industry that's based around people pursuing dreams and making decisions based on dreams and not money. and i don't mean to be a buzzkill. i know you want to buy that tour bus. but instead getting ahead of yourself because it appeals to your ego and your dreams, take it one step at a time. buying that bus or lights or hydraulic spinning drum riser before it's financially feasible is the quickest way to get into trouble and take all the fun out of a career that is supposed to be fun. if you're a brand new band, don't immediately buy a van and book a 2,000 mile west coast tour for your first shows. start regionally and build a following. then branch out from there. i know you want to road trip to LA with your buddies and play some music. but what if you van breaks down and you end up putting thousands of dollars on a credit card to fix it - and when you get to that show in LA only 5 people are there and your van gets towed because it was illegally parked?

don't overextend yourself. there's a lot of competition with little reward in the music industry. one of the few benefits is that it's a fun lifestyle. don't ruin it by getting in over your head.