My Thoughts on Personal Management:
Working with personal management is a process.
It takes time and discipline because so much time and money is invested in the band.
Your band must also commit the time, the monetary investment, and it is important that we all feel comfortable every step of the way. I will discourage you from asking for advance funding, truly because I rarely get paid back. There is a method to the process.
First off, your band must have significant talent.
It is my responsibility to say "no" to the artists I don’t feel have sufficient talent.
This is a very subjective decision, and we are prepared to accept that we will sometimes miss out, but I owe it to our bands and artists to be very careful in ascertaining their abilities as a recording artist. Strictly Heavy Management can spend thousands on marketing and never gain an inch if you don’t have the talent to stand on.
This business is about perseverance, and determination.
Your band can be the next Cannibal Corpse or the next Opeth, but if you cant get your music into the hands of the right people you'll never be noticed.
It always or nearly always takes much longer than you think. We've gotten artist signed within six weeks of signing them ourselves, and we've also had to wait over three years for a record company to recognize the enormous talent of one our bands. Sometimes the contracts even take up to 1 year to negotiate! There are ways for you as an artist to shorten this time and that is where teamwork comes in.
One of the things that sets SHM apart from other managers is that we optimize the "four fronts of marketing," but that is a discussion that comes later.
It can take many years for us to recoup the time and money we spend on our artist and during those years many things can happen. Bands break up, the hope of getting a record deal dwindles, personalities conflict, money runs out, consider all the stories you‘ve heard. In most cases when an artist/band leaves us, it is because they no longer have the economic possibility of pursuing their dream. This is sad, but it's part of life and part of the music business. What most artist/bands dont realize is that when they have to throw in the towel, SHM has lost probably 10 or 20 times as much money that they have because of the overhead and agent expenses that we've had in representing them. It's very much a two-way street. In other words, this is the "day job."
We are not a booking agency, but we book incidentally to assist artist and bands still trying to secure a professional booking agent. Our feeling is that time spent booking gigs for our artists is time away from getting record deals and building relationships with the important people who make up the team; i.e. booking agents, lawyers, publicists, sponsors, record companies, photographers, that the artist will need in order to have a successful full career. Think of your management as the people between you and the rest of the world. Its our job to protect you, market you, help you build your act, set up relationships between you and the people you need help from, and guide you on your way to a successful career. If we do all the booking as well, we'll lose that focus that we feel is essential in getting your seat on the mountain.
Criticism is good. Nagging is bad. Suggesting a better way to do things is good. Expecting us to follow all your suggestions is bad. Keeping positive attitude and offering to help whenever possible is good. Complaining that some of our artists or bands are making it, and your not is bad.
Keeping it positive is everything. By the way, you dont have to be apart of the SHM team to practice that either. It is true, as long as you have talent, if you have the patience, will-power, and self-confidence, you CAN make it. With SHM behind you, you're one step closer. When we decide to take on an artist or a band we plan on going all the way, no matter how long it takes. That is the only attitude to have if you want success.