FRETS.COM
Shop Tip #089
© Frank Ford 2004; Photo by FF

Here's one you may not like, so I'll try not to belabor the subject. If you're self-employed in the music business, you're likely to have economic ups and downs. The difference between long term success and short term failure may well be a financial matter. REMEMBER to figure how much credit costs you! If you pay off your credit card balance monthly, you won't be living beyond your means, and you'll be much more likely to weather the storms of an outrageous economy and market. We saw a terrible bloodletting during the early 1980s, when so many of our friends and colleagues had to quit the business. A number of factories and wholesalers went under the hammer then, too. . .

Update 2009:

Well, here it is again, RECESSION. At least we enter this one with zero debt, so we'll be likely to survive if we're careful. . .