In this solo advisory video, Wendy Day addresses independent musicians and label founders on how to secure financing for their careers. She emphasizes that the music industry is costly but can be approached in phases, stressing the necessity of a clear budget and a business plan that itemizes expenses such as recording, video production, merchandise, promotion, and living costs. Day discusses the trade‑offs between DIY efforts and hiring professionals, recommending the assembly of a supportive team of friends, family, or hired experts. She then outlines practical networking tactics for locating investors, from regular Chamber of Commerce meetings to unexpected venues like strip clubs, and identifies the types of individuals most likely to invest—small‑business owners, real‑estate investors, high‑earning professionals (doctors, lawyers), and professional athletes. Throughout, she shares client anecdotes illustrating how these connections were made, underscores the importance of reducing perceived risk for investors, and advises relentless outreach and word‑of‑mouth promotion. The overall message is that, while challenging, finding an investor is achievable with strategic planning, persistent networking, and realistic budgeting.
Chapters
Hey guys, how are you today? I am going to talk about finding an investor. For those of you who are unsigned and want to build a buzz, or you are independent and you are looking to stay independent and do this on your own, You need to have some sort of a budget to do this. Um, the bad news is this is a very expensive industry. The good news is you can do it in phases, so you can get a little bit of money, do some work, get some more money, do some work, get some more money, do some work. But in a perfect world, you want to be properly funded when you start. You know that Starting any business is expensive, and the number one reason that most small businesses fail is because they're underfinanced. So money plays a really key role in starting anything you do in this country, um, and music is no different. You need to have money to record, you need to have money for production, you need to have money to shoot videos, you need money to travel and move around, you need money for posters and flyers. Postcards. If you live in a part of the, the country or you're in a genre of music that still, um, uses CDs, you need money to press CDs to hand out as promotional items. You need to be able to support yourself while you market and promote your music and while you build your career. Um, you know, I heard artists many, many times say that they're really thankful they didn't quit their day job, and I, I totally get why. This is really an expensive industry, but if it's your dream and you want to do it, you find a way to do it, right? You don't just say, "No, I don't want to do this, it's too expensive." You figure out what it's going to cost, and then you find a way to get the money. The way that I would suggest doing it is to put together a business plan to figure out what your costs are going to be. There is another episode of one of these videos where I talk about putting together a business plan. Also on my blog at industryreport.com, there is a, an article that I wrote about how to put together a business plan. But you want to have some sort of a plan. You want to know exactly what it's going to cost. Even if you don't want to put a whole business plan together, you would need— you at least need to make a list of all the things that you want to do and price them out. Figure out how many t-shirts you want to give out, find out what it costs to press those t-shirts. Figure out how many singles you're going to put out, how many mixtapes, how many albums. Figure out what it is that you're trying to do. Make a list of all the things you're going to do to market and promote yourself, and then figure out the costs. Um, also figure in things like publicity and video shoots, things that you would normally hire somebody else to do, because if you don't have the money to, to hire somebody, you're going to have to do it yourself. You're going to have to reach out to all the blogs and build relationships and be your own publicist. Um, I don't condone that. I'm not saying that that's what you should do. For what I do, I hire people that are great at what they do. That makes me great at what I do because I can depend on them for their relationships and connections. Um, so again, I don't condone you doing this by yourself, but if you don't have the money to hire somebody, what choice do you have? You're gonna have to do this yourself. Um, you're gonna have to put together a team of people that can help you do this, friends and family that are willing to help you and pick up some of the slack. There's just not enough hours in a day for you to do all the things that are gonna need to be done. So having said that, you know, when I started Rap Coalition 24 years ago, people told me that it wasn't gonna last, there was no need for it, there was no way for me to make money doing what I was doing. And you know, here it is 24 years later, you can see in the background that I do indeed have a roof over my head. Um, you find a way to make it happen. You do what you got to do. If you got to drive for Uber to make money part-time, do it. Whatever you have to do in order to live your dream, that's what you're going to have to do. And I'm living proof that it can be done. I'm not wealthy, but I'm doing okay. I'm not homeless yet, uh, knock wood, knock wood, knock wood. Okay, so finding an investor, um, This topic is a little challenging for me because when people hire me, they've already got investors in place. So I've never really had to go and find an investor for anything that I've done. So I'm just gonna share with you stories that I know from my clients of how they found investors, but I'm gonna especially suggest that you go and do some research on this topic since I don't have firsthand knowledge of it. I haven't used the information that I'm about to give you myself personally to go out and raise money. So basically it's hearsay, but I'm sharing with you what my clients have done. Um, and this is obviously— we're not looking for street money because the last thing you want is to get shut down by the feds halfway through putting out your project. Um, one of the smartest things that I heard a client say is that he met his investor at the Chamber of Commerce meeting um, his town once a month had meetings at the Chamber of Commerce— Chamber of Commerce meetings, hence, hence the name— and he was able to network with business owners from his small town once a month. And once when, when he started going to the meetings and he started networking and getting to know people, he soon found that there were people that owned small businesses that were making quite a bit of money, but they didn't want to put their money into the stock market, or they didn't want to put their money into real estate. And there were some that really had a strong love of the music business. And he was able to start his career and his company, his own record label, um, by combining two folks together that he met at, um, the Chamber of Commerce meetings. Some Chamber of Commerces do breakfast meetings, so you can do 8 o'clock meetings once a week. Some of them do monthly meetings. Look into whatever it is that your city or town has to offer and become part of it. You know, you've got nothing to lose. Don't just go once and, and never follow up and not go back. That's not how it works. Somebody you don't know is not going to hand you a couple hundred thousand dollars just because they saw your face one time. Also, this is going to be a little bit of an easier process if you've got a bit of a buzz and some renown in your area, because it's much easier to convince somebody to jump on your bandwagon once you're moving forward than it is to convince somebody to put seed money into something that's just a dream inside of your head that hasn't had a chance to show that it'll work. So if you can reduce the risk, um, of, of losing your investor's money, it's going to make this a lot easier. Um, one of my clients met his investor at a strip club. They were sitting next to each other and he struck up a conversation. The guy seemed to think it was really cool that he was a rapper. He happened to know the owner of the club. He asked the owner if he could get up and perform one song in between dances. The owner said sure. He got up, he performed, he ended up performing 3 songs, and the gentleman that had been sitting next to him, um, started hanging out with him and spending time with him. And 6 months later, he put up over half a million dollars into this guy's career, um, and that artist has just recently signed to a major label. So there are people that you can meet in, in the most bizarre places. And yeah, I realize that when you go to a strip club, your priority is not talking to the guy next to you. It's pretty much, you know, watching the tits and ass. But still, if you could strike up a conversation, that's not a bad thing. Um, I think as you're looking for an investor, you should tell everybody you know that that's what you're doing. And I mean everybody you know. And ask them to ask the people they know if they know of anyone that's looking to invest in the career of an artist or to start a label. The more people you tell, the more people they will tell, and the larger your need goes out into the universe, the more people are likely to say 'Hey, yeah, you know, I might be interested. Shoot me a business plan.' And that's what you want. You want somebody who is willing to at least have a conversation with you. Don't expect to talk to one person and find an investor. You're gonna have to talk to hundreds. I'm not exaggerating. You're gonna have to talk to a lot of people before you find the person that's ideal for you. There are certain industries that are a little bit more likely to look for, um, a, a more risky investment. And let's be real, the music industry is a little bit risky. It's not like buying real estate or flipping a house. It's— it— or, you know, even the stock market is, is probably a little bit less risky, um, when you know the stock, you know, when you know stocks and bonds. Um, real estate investors are a great resource because they are, they are used to having their income in a safe investment. They're used to being able to flip and get large chunks of money. That's very similar to the music business. In the music business, you get paid in chunks. It's not a steady stream of income the way, like, having a job and a weekly paycheck is a steady stream of income. The music comes— the money comes in spurts in music, and when it comes, it comes very quickly, and it comes in chunks. Doctors and lawyers, usually high-income people, sports figures, you know, basketball players, football players, and I'm talking professional sports. Players. Um, these guys all make very large amounts of money, so they can take a risk by putting $150,000 or $300,000 into someone's career without worrying about it. Um, someone who makes 50 grand a year probably isn't going to be able to do that. So there's some of the ways that I know that people have found money in the past. Um, a lot of artists have gone on to get jobs and then funded their career making, you know, as they make income with their jobs. I realize that families and obligations come into play, and you can't always put 100% of your money into your music career. But if you really want to do this, you're going to figure out a way to get it done. So figure out what it's going to cost, figure out how you're going to get that money, and then pay attention to these videos, and maybe you can build a career in music. Like I said, if I can do it, you can do it. Okay, bye.
