Sign Only Quality!

My Father owned an apartment building when I was growing up. When he screened renters, checked their references, and selected quality people to rent to he rarely had any aggravation. He made money instead of losing money, he had little stress and the operation was enjoyable. He could focus on improving the apartments and enjoying his life. When he rented to people he was unsure of he almost always suffered negative effects and it usually cost him time and money.

I had learned from observing this over the years but I could only apply it to the part of my life that dealt with renting the extra room in my home. It took me a while to understand that selecting quality people to work with is vital to your success and happiness. The quality of your life is directly determined by who is in it! We've all heard some variation of that before right? When then do we often select poorly?

When I began my professional career I would often agree to sign any athlete, coach, or musician. Why? I am a very helpful person and I can see potential in many people. I am confident in my skills and abilities to help them, so I thought I could make them a success and benefit myself also. Was I correct? Heck ya, about once out of every 20 times I took a risk, would they have success worth of the time and energy I put into them. I would have enjoyed greater success and a lot less stress and aggravation had I bypassed some of these clients.

W.I.I.F.M. Principle (What's In It For Me), it sounds terrible right? I thought it sounded selfish when someone first explained it to me as a college student. "What a horrible way to operate in the world," I thought. It isn't a negative principle at all if applied properly, it is a very positive one. When presented with an opportunity, simply ask yourself, "is this worth it? Will the return on my involvement be positive for me? Will this create unnecessary stress and aggravation? What are the potential negatives? What are the potential liabilities to me? Can I lose money? Can my reputation be damaged?

Create a hard copy check list of what makes a client worth signing. This evaluation if done well, will save you time, energy, and money. It is tempting when business is slow or you are trying to build your client roster to sign everyone and anyone who is willing to sign with you but this is not the path to success. The path to success is to sign as many quality clients as you can. You must be able to handle the workload of all the clients you sing. When deciding to sign a new client you should ask yourself if you will need to hire additional staff to handle the workload. If the artist is a definite income earner then it is not a problem but if it is a client who may or may not make income for you is increasing your business cost a risk you are willing to take?

Here are some additional questions to answer when deciding to sign a new client:

1) Is this person a hard worker? Are they willing to do whatever it takes to succeed?

2) How close is this person to earning income for me?

3) What is the potential return-on-investment?

4) Will this client add cost?

5) How difficult or easy is this person to work with?

6) Does this person have a realistic set of expectations of themselves and what they expect from you?

7) Who does this person associate with? Is their entourage a positive or a negative?

8) Do you believe in this artist?

People are worth taking risks on, just not all of them, so choose wisely!