Yeah, Don, but when your business music you have to do double time as a salesman--first to sell the client on the gig and then to sell yourself to your audience. Everyone who sells a product wants a product that will "sell itself," and your product is your music/stage personality, etc. Unfortunately, word of mouth (by way of your music selling itself) is only as good as is the communication among your potential clients. Folks who play mainly for the senior circuit don't develop a "name" the way local club musicians can, since you don't often get written up in the paper or talked about on the radio, and since activity directors often don't communicate that much with each other. I don't know if this is as much a problem when you play for schools, but with retirement and convalescent facitlities, you pretty much have to go back to square one a lot of the time when the person who was booking you leaves that job.My problem is that I basically hate having to care whether people want to buy what I'm selling or not. I'd much FIND the market for something I already like and believe in--or (as in the case of most senior facilities), find out what the market wants and then provide it. If you enjoy trying to win people over, I think you have a leg up in any "sales" business, especially music.
I've thought about supplementing what is essentially a day music job by trying to do some coffee house and bar gigs, but I understand that the problems with double bookings, clients being evasive and playing hard-to-get, and getting stiffed on payment are as bad in that kind of venue as in the senior services businesses. Am I right?
Genie