day early, and before we know it, it’s 8:30 p.m., 9:00 p.m., or later as we tweak a lyric or
wrestle with a melody that refuses to behave. We think, “I’ll just finish this up on Satur-
day morning,” and yet another weekend slips away with evening gigs, rehearsals, writ-
ing, business tasks and more.
Although you love what you do and need to get the work done, it’s important to your
health and well-being to set up boundaries and stick to them. In keeping with you new
found business sense, open the door by working too late, on the weekends or holidays
and that door becomes awfully tough to close later on down the road.
Friends and family can also be taxing on a self-employed musician. They tend to
think that just because you’re a musician and don’t have a real job work, you’re always
available to run errands for them, pick up the kids, and do this or that. If you don’t clearly
communicate that you’re working and that your musical career is just as important as
their day job, emotions can get the better of you and anger can quickly set in.
We work to better our lives. Yet by overdoing it, our personal lives and relationships
with family and friends suffer. We may have decided to be a professional musician as a
way to gain more freedom in our lives, yet we end up achieving the exact opposite of
what we set out to do and become a slave to our band and its business. When we work
too much, we set ourselves up for exhaustion and burn out. If that happens, you won’t be
any good to your clients, family, and friends.
Think about why you do this work. What is your attitude toward your profession and
your business? Are they a means toward an end, or do you see them as ends unto them-
selves? Many artists define themselves by their work. When that happens, they can have
a difficult time separating themselves from their business. They put themselves on the