WIBO Week 11 ~ Investing in People: Human Resources

One of the lessons that keeps coming up for me is that I cannot do it all myself. In order for my business to grow, I need to replace myself so more work can be done, and more money can be made.

As resistant as I am to getting help, I finally understand that this is a necessary investment that will free me up to do other things.

During the breakeven analysis coaching, the video producer in my group taught me an important tip: In video production, you’re only as fast as your Grip (the person or people that move the gear from one location to another). In post-production, you’re only as fast as your video editor. If I’m doing all of these things myself, it takes longer to get them done. As I’m still editing my Music Success and Taxi videos, I’m painfully aware of this truth.

So if you know any video editors, please send them my way! 😉

For more information about the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) course, visit WIBO.org

WIBO Week 10 – Making a Profit: Purchasing

This week in WIBO we plan for the next investment that we’ll make in our businesses.

Whether it’s staff or equipment, we’re reminded that we have to evaluate the potential return for that investment beforehand:

* How much will we make as a result of purchasing an item, or hiring an employee?

* How soon will we get that money back?

* How else could we use that money?

These questions and others help us to decide how to spend our money wisely.

Our workshop leader says that it’s all downhill now that we’ve completed the breakeven analysis sections.

I am doubtful… 😉

For more information about the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) course, visit WIBO.org

WIBO Week 9 ~ Making a Profit: Financial Decision Making

Now that we’ve learned how to “crunch the numbers”, this week we use those numbers to solve a problem or evaluate an opportunity in our businesses.

I love how this course is so practical, meaning we apply everything we learn to our own businesses. Doing the math may feel tedious at times, but when you you’re doing it for your own company, as opposed to some random case history of people you don’t know or care about, it makes a huge difference in your motivation level. Onward!

For more information about the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) course, visit WIBO.org

Carla on Joyce Barrie & Friends Internet Show!

On today’s Joyce Barrie & Friends show at 11am, I’ll be speaking on

“How to Win Friends and Influence People Using Social Media” – Of course this totally feeds into my new book with Ariel Hyatt, The Musician’s Roadmap to Facebook & Twitter: Your Complete Guide to Being Liked, Followed, and Heard

Tune in at http://BlogTalkRadio.com/JoyceBarrie where you can also log into the live chat room.

About Joyce Barrie & Friends:
Stimulating talk, news you can use and ways to stay home, have FUN and make more money. Motivation, inspiration, and education. Positive, happy thoughts to improve your life, health, and finances. Take positive actions to create a gratifying lifestyle. Life Lessons from me, your host, Joyce Barrie, straight from the Coach’s Corner and some valuable insights and specific recommendations about having a lucrative, home business. And not to be missed, our special friend(s)each and every day to motivate and inspire you to have what you want in ALL areas of your life.

My Last Original Gig of 2010: SIP Lounge, Nov. 14th

2010 has been a great year for performing, and I’m happy to say that I surpassed my goal of 10 gigs this year. Between my original gigs, choir gigs, band and hospital gigs, I was a singing FOOL – just the way I like it!

But alas, this weekend marks my last scheduled original music NYC gig of 2010. Anything can happen at the last minute, of course, but as far as I know, this is it!

If you’re in NYC, come celebrate 2010 with me at SIP Lounge, a fun & cozy hangout spot near Columbia University. I’ll be performing as part of their Acoustic Soul Lounge/Something Different Performance Series:

WIBO Week 8 ~ Making a Profit: Pricing Strategy

Now that we’ve learned our breakeven numbers, this week we learn to calculate the OPTIMUM PRICE for our products and services.

It’s important to break even, no doubt, but the ultimate goal of this class is to learn how to make a profit. Your optimum price may stay low, but understanding how much you could charge to make greater profits offers an important perspective.

Thank goodness WIBO has 9 course locations in the NYC area: Harlem, Downtown Brooklyn, Lower East Side, South Bronx, Washington Heights, Central Brooklyn, Long Island City, Southeast Queens, and Yonkers. Since I’ll be in LA for Taxi’s Road Rally next week, I made up the lesson by attending this unit’s class in Washington Heights (four blocks from my house!!).

I volunteered in class to get help with my profit planning, and wrote my company’s breakeven analysis on the board. The Discussion Leader helped me check my numbers (which I’m constantly revising!) on the board, and it was just like being in math class again – but better. This time math class was showing me how to make money with my music business. SWEET!

For more information about the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) course, visit WIBO.org

TAXI Road Rally 2010: Will You Be There??

At this very moment, I’m taking a quick break from editing my new book with Ariel Hyatt. Yeah, I know…I hadn’t mentioned it before now, but it kind of sprang up kinda suddenly 😉 We both had so much material on Facebook, Twitter and other social media how-to’s that we decided to launch a new book (more details forthcoming)!

Ariel and I will be attending TAXI Road Rally, an annual music business conference which takes place in Los Angeles, CA Nov 4-7th. Amidst the three exciting days of music workshops, Ariel will be speaking, and I’ll be mentoring on behalf of Ariel Publicity. We’ll be doing video interviews with musicians and other important people. And we’ll have our new book with us!

For the record, I haven’t been to LA in over 15 years (since I moved to NYC), and I am very excited about being there, and seeing friends.

But in the meantime, it’s back to work for me!

PS – Ariel and I will be hosting a tweet up on Sunday, Nov 7th. Leave a comment below if you want to RSVP, and I’ll follow up with you via your email address. Hope I get to see you!

Music Success in Nine Weeks ~ Week 4: Social Media for Musicians

This week’s video blog for Ariel Hyatt’s Music Success in Nine Weeks covers social media for musicians. It’s short and sweet – just like me!

WIBO Week 7 – Making a Profit: Costs

This is the week where we begin to learn about creating a Breakeven Analysis for our businesses. In other words, we learn to do the math that determines how much money our businesses need to generate to be successful.

Without a doubt, this is the part of the course that separates the dreamers from the doers. This section is the reason I put off taking this course for 3+ years. This also is the week that people start dropping out of WIBO. Yeah, it’s all fun and games to visualize your ideal day, and create vision boards, but put numbers to paper?? Ha!

It’s not enough to have products and services to sell. We also have to sell enough in order to pay our expenses, to break even.

I will say, though, that creating a budget for my “ideal life” in black and white makes things DO-ABLE! Like, it’s no longer a dream if you can figure out how to do it on paper. It’s a great feeling to see what can be accomplished. I just have to do it!

I recently read a quote from a successful entrepreneur whose company was sold for 2.8 Billion that inspires me: “I still work 100 hour weeks,” says Harry Gruber, “but it’s not really work. I find something fun to do and then get someone to pay me.”

As scary as this week seems at the outset, it’s important to know what we need to earn in order to break even. I’m in this class to win, so I’m sticking with it (wish me luck)!

For more information about the Workshop in Business Opportunities (WIBO) course, visit WIBO.org