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<\/a><\/p>\nThere are no illusions in this 28 Days to Diva series. You simply cannot ‘business plan’ your way into a singing career. You absolutely need to have the love and the skill for classical singing. If any of those areas are lacking, the answers will not be found in these posts. Ask yourself, seriously, if you could be just as happy being successful at something else. However, if you have the deep understanding that this is what you are meant to do, I am here to help you figure out how to make it a viable choice in today’s reality.<\/p>\n
Your Day 8 challenge is to Be Your Own Financial Professional<\/h2>\n
Singing for the love of singing is a completely worthwhile decision. If you do not want to mix money and music, you may want to consider how to fund your music-making in other ways. If you desire to sing professionally and make it your full-time job, you will need to be adequately prepared for the financial aspect of your business. You will need to be able to synthesize your business in terms of projections, cash flow, and investments. Financial planning probably was not the backbone of your educational experience. It isn’t too late. Today is the day to begin anew.<\/p>\n We discussed the beauty of financial freedom yesterday. When you are in the feast or famine cycle of freelance work, that goal can seem out of reach. In order to start feeling more control in the financial arena of your life, you need to know how much cash is coming in, how much you are spending, and your anticipated earnings. As you start to sign contracts further in the future, you will want to see when that income will be usable in the future. Having a cash flow worksheet helps you avoid the terror of a budget-crushing bill landing in your mailbox. When you are in the middle of financial crisis mode it is practically impossible to see beyond the immediate. Setting up a cash flow worksheet like this one<\/a> or this one<\/a> will be an active system (Remember Day 1?<\/a>) that prevents that horrible unstable situation.<\/p>\n Remember that it is completely acceptable to ask companies and presenters what their payment terms are so you know that check is either leaving the gig with you or will be arriving in your mailbox on the 15th. Also, if you have recurring payments from your teaching, professional chorister, [fill in the blank] job, ask for direct deposit so that money will show up on a regular schedule around which you can plan. Another solid point for the freelance types:<\/p>\n To maintain cash flow, you must maintain solid work flow. And it costs a lot more to bring in new clients than to get more work from current ones. So, leverage your current relationships and see how you can not only continue doing work for the same client but how you can use their network to bring in even more work. \u201cWith that kind of word-of-mouth strategy you can pull back a lot on your marketing,\u201d says O\u2019Berry. And you\u2019ll ensure a steady stream of work that will turn into steady cash flow. – Cynthia Ramnarace “Get in the (Cash) Flow”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When I originally read the headline, “The 7 bank accounts every family should have<\/a>“, I think I choked on my coffee a bit. Seven bank accounts?! Who has seven bank accounts? Then, as I read through the post it made more and more sense. With all credit given to Jordan, the Fun Cheap or Free Queen<\/a>, I have combined her concepts here for singers to follow.<\/p>\n Whew… that seems like a lot. Remember: your job is to sing. This is just how we try to avoid the pitfalls that get in the way of doing our job. Don’t wait for someone to come along and bankroll your career. Be your own sugar mama, diva! Singing for the love of singing is a completely worthwhile decision. If you do not want to mix money and music, you may want to consider how to fund your music-making in other ways. If you desire to sing professionally and make it your full-time job, you will need to be adequately prepared for the financial aspect of your business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[759,1],"tags":[761,1063,1064],"class_list":{"0":"post-4747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-28-days-to-diva","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-28-days-to-diva-2","9":"tag-cash-flow","10":"tag-financial-planning","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sybaritic](\"http:\/\/sybariticsinger.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/day8.jpg?w=600\")
<\/a>Do You Have These Seven Bank Accounts?<\/h3>\n
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<\/a> Let me know if you have any other financial tips and tricks to share with the diva crew. I would love to read them in the comments below or on Twitter (@mezzoihnen<\/a>) using hashtag #28DaystoDiva.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"