Here’s part 2 of Setting Up Your Company Structure:

This post will follow up from the last email, helping you to lay the foundations for your record labels success.

Recruiting Help

Once you start to run as a record company, you will realize that there is a lot of work to be done. It will continue as time goes by. Even if you could, you don’t have to do this alone.  Making sure that you set up an internal structure that works for you will allow you to have more man (or woman) power to help you or your company move in the direction that you want to proceed in.

There are many one person record labels that will choose to do everything alone when they are starting out.  However, if you are interested in having a working environment that helps you to meet full capacity, then you will need to approach the situation a little differently.

A good working environment that combines with a correct business structure should start with putting in place the legalities of working with others. Things such as payroll and partnerships should be defined through legal help or by setting agreements, contracts and working standards with others.  Make sure you seek advice from your legal representative and accountant before you reach to this point.

Once you have done this, you can recruit help or staff for your business.

Finding other musicians or like minded individuals who want to be a part of the deal or who are interested in becoming a part of your record label can help to take some of the burden off of your shoulders.  Dividing up tasks such as  admin, driver, coffee maker to engineering, mastering, pre-mixing and or recording, etc, will provide you with much needed help, so that you can concentrate on the parts of the business that you are good at, like making sure all the parts of your business is running like it is supposed to .  Going solo will mean having to wear many hats and could become very demanding.

Plan out exactly how you want your record company to be run and tell whoever works along side you to follow the company plans and goals. This will enable a professional working environment and will allow you to drive your label in the direction towards success.

If you missed part 1 of Setting Up Your Record Label Structure, you can catch up by going here.

Until the next time, stay tuned!

Before you start selling your music or any of your labels merchandise, you have to realize that you are not only a musician, but also a company. I would say that making the music is 20% and the business side is 80%. Knowing exactly how to set yourself up as a company and having a company structure will allow you to get the most out of your record label.

Use the steps below as a guideline to help you get on your way:

• Have you registered as a business yet? The first step that you must take to building your company structure is registering with the government or relevant business registration organizations. When doing this, you will have different options for the type of business you will be running depending on what your budget is like and what you long term goals are. This will be defined by whether you have partners working with you or whether you want to pay taxes with a specific set-up. You can always use a consultant to assist you with this part or can find information on your government’s main website or business names registrations website for help and advice when trying to decide what route you want to take.

• Where is your development plan? This will get you to the next step of laying the foundations of your company. Your development plan will include business plans, maintenance plans, marketing plans and financial plans. All these will be needed to be a part of the company setup. When you set up the structure and take the time and steps to put those plans in place from the beginning, you will have a clearer view of where you are heading. You will also want to find ways to make sure that your music stays within copyright and music licensing laws before you start to sell. You will either want to get help from the relevant music organizations or advice from a lawyer in order to get the help that you need, so you don’t fall outside of the law.

With these basic steps, it will be easier for your company structure to take off running and to reach it’s full capacity.

Stay tuned! We will be bringing you more business tips that every recording label has to know!