My apologies for not posting much these past few weeks. I have been working on my taxes and it tends to take me away from more creative endeavors. I have been doing my own accounting for many years. I suppose I could hire an accountant to do it for me, but I find that I have a better understanding of my business when I do it myself. It also helps me to track deductions more efficiently.
Most musicians shy away from accounting for their business because they just don't have the mindset for it. Math and accounting principles are the least of their interests. I must admit that I don't get a big thrill taking care of these task either, but I find it to be a necessary skill in running a business. I can see what costs are beneficial and which aren't. For instance, I recently paused my Google Adwords account because I found that the cost didn't really benefit my business. The cost of the account was as much as any business revenue it was bringing in. I was essentially selling CDs to benefit Google stock holders! I have sold many more CDs with my other low cost marketing efforts (Myspace and YouTube) and I don't have to pay Google Adwords fees anymore.
In the 'old days', Google Adwords was a good buy because competition for choice search key words was not as great and so the key word bids were lower. Now, bids are exorbitantly high and it just doesn't make good business sense for me anymore. My research has shown me that other small businesses such as mine have had similar experiences and now Google is reporting lower revenue and profit. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Balancing my creative energies with 'mundane' tasks such as accounting is a challenge for me. The flip side would be for me to ignore these vital tasks but my business would suffer. My experience has been that when my business suffers, my creativity suffers because my mind is preoccupied with my suffering business. I just have to bite the bullet and pay attention to all the necessary aspects of a creativity based business. RR
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