"You think about money the old fashioned way. Money is not a thing, it is not even a process. It is kind of a shared dream." - from Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
This post is aimed primarily at young (or not so young) artists who do not have significant (or any) outside financial support. In many ways it is a continuation of the thoughts I put down in The Doctrine of Love or Money.
One thing that has led to several blog posts is when I find myself being asked for the same type of advice repeatedly, and then find myself giving the same and/or similar answers over and over.
This suggests that:
1) It is an existing and consistent issue with which people need help.
2) At least some of my suggestions are useful and/or I seem to be someone who has at least partially figured out how to address the problem.
3) My lazy ass can just write it down in one place and send people here.
I'm going to discuss learning about money, marketing, and business. Especially as pertaining to those of us in the arts. We live in a world where it is gauche to discuss such things. I see that mindset as a luxury belief and ultimately extremely classist.
I've written elsewhere about how my experience as a freelance fight director ended up being excellent preparation for success in NYC real estate. What I want to do now is point to some resources that were valuable to me that I consistently find myself recommending.
What follows is a series of recommendations of books and courses about finance, business, and technology that I have personally found useful. All of the listed recommendations are either free or extremely low cost.
It is a place to start. As theatres are likely to remain closed for some time, and as many of us are still in lockdown, it is also a way to prepare for whatever comes next.