Entrepreneurs in Music — and Don’t Forget about Mozart!
Thanks for your comment! As far as the business skills go, I really think that some of it is innate and a great deal of it is learned. Every successful entrepreneur I know is a self-made person, and despite their success story I think that if you really get them talking, they’ll all tell you that they made a lot of mistakes along the way. I believe that it is in those mistakes (and in the growth that comes from acknowledging those mistakes) that we become who we are, and we realize that we each have something unique to contribute.
I was always interested in business as a kid – I started a little bread-making business in my neighborhood when I was 12, and delivered bread weekly to about 25 houses, and with that money was able to go Interlochen to study for a summer. But the ICE business stuff – the grants, the managerial strategies, etc. – was all trial-by-error. You try something, it doesn’t work, you figure out what doesn’t work, you pick yourself back up, and you try again with a different strategy. The important part of this process is figuring out what doesn’t work, analyzing it, and turning an obstacle into an opportunity, right there on the spot.
As far as the actual grant-writing goes, my advice is very simple: get your hands on and carefully read winning proposals. Lots of them. Most people and many organizations are happy to give you copies of successful grants they’ve written. The same goes for business plans, contracts, bylaws, nonprofit applications, and even board meeting minutes. Most organizations are happy to pass this on to friends, colleagues and mentees. Reading through this material and learning how other groups organize themselves, describe their goals, and deal with conflicts is incredibly instructive. And it’s fascinating, too!
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