Erin McKeown on balancing business and art, 2002

A mistake I made when I was just starting out was to try to do everything myself. While I am certainly a better businesswoman for understanding how the industry works, I neglected my creative life in the process. You have to have help—so find some good help and trust them. You can’t ever completely check out of the business side of your career (which I have also done at times to devastating effect), but you can definitely find a way to supervise without devoting all your time to it. It is a certain skill in itself to recognize someone who can help you, but if you never try it . . . you’ll just be sitting in Kinko’s a lot.

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

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