Make the sort of money your book, art or performance deserves

I had the privilege of listening to Dr Ernesto Sirolli for more than an hour today.

He was the keynote speaker at the inaugural Moreton Bay  

Creative Industry Expo 2012

Moreton Bay is a region of Queensland Australia and is where I live.

I will try to explain as simply as possible what Dr Sirolli had to say.

If I do what you consider a good job, please send a link to this post to everyone you know who is an independent writer, artist or performer.  It concerns how good artists can make a decent living from their work. Anybody working in the arts knows that is just not happening today.

 

Dr Ernesto says all work offered for sale involves three processes.

1.       Production

2.      Marketing

3.      Administration, including finances

 

 

The second point is no-one who has ever lived or who shall ever live has been, is, or will be excellent at all three skills.

 

What this means for an independent artist (a writer or a performer is an artist, in my book) is they need to find a marketing expert and a financial expert for their business to have great success.

 

You do not find these people through formal partnerships but by seeking out passionate people who may be retirees, students or relatives and friends who believe in your talent.

 

These people may work for free as volunteers or for the promise of payment when you are financially successful. If you think this is fanciful, remember that Dr Sirolli has helped create thousands of successful enterprises in 300 communities throughout the world based on these principles. He also cites this as the way billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates began their careers.

 

Dr Sirolli believes people within an industry can often make more money individually as members of a co-operative, either formal or informal. I am not sure if this follows from his basic principles but it is worth including for your consideration.

 

Also the “enterprise facilitators” – marketeers and financial people – have been trained by the Sirolli Institute to  create those 300 community success stories.

Obviously it did not take Dr Sirolli more than an hour to say what I have presented above.   But I promised to keep it simple and I believe I have.

 

The interpretation is, of course, mine but I believe it is faithful to the core ideas.

Now let’s watch Dr Sirolli tell it in his own words.

 

 

 

Let the conversation continue. Please leave a comment and we will start the ball rolling in our virtual artistic community.  If you want to run this as a guest blog, just ask.