"Create Your Own Project" series - Writing Your Own Budget

In the first two parts of our Create Your Own Project series, I talked about gaining fiscal sponsorship in order to accept tax-deductible donations and how to write a fundraising letter to obtain those investments. For the third part of this series, I will go into detail on how to write a budget for your project. As a dancer, you rarely have to worry about funding beyond, “Am I going to get paid by this presenter?” Now that you have decided to make art on your own, you have a lot more to worry about then simply collecting a salary. If you are following my series as a step-by-step process, you may find things a little backwards, as you will likely need to determine your budget in order to apply for fiscal sponsorship. In the end, there is no correct order to execute these items. But in order to gain the trust of donors and sponsors alike, you will need some semblance of a budget in place.

You want me to write a budget?

Where does one start when writing a budget? Again, I don’t think there is a proper place to start, but this is how I went about it. First, I looked at my project and picked apart major aspects of production that will require funding. Core-ography has a multitude of parts that need financing in order to execute the project fully. It involves dancers, film, editing, travel, choreography, and more. To make life easier, I broke my budget down into 7 categories. These areas that can't be executed without cost include equipment, artist fees, travel, legal fees, facility rental, salary, and unexpected costs. Each of these areas are important to the quality of my final product, so I took these broader subjects and broke them down a bit further.

One of the most difficult parts of writing a budget is the unknown. While there are methods to writing the financial requirements to fulfill your vision, it can be challenging to determine exactly how much money to seek out. If you create a plan that seems way out of proportion, you may turn off any larger-scale donors, grant-makers, or sponsors that see your financial plan as impractical. Especially for first time project-makers, if you create a budget that appears grossly over-projected, you may threaten losing the trust of those that want to see your project come to fruition. While funders give to artists because they want to share in their art, they also want to see the proposed product come to fruition.

Be practical when adding up the sum of your expenses, but don’t go too far in the opposite direction. If you plan for too little within your budget and later find that your expenses are much greater than you expected, you are going to run into some tight spots or risk failing to complete your vision altogether. Find a middle ground and try to come from a practical standpoint in your projections.

Now that I have shared the broader list of places that I need to raise money for Core-ography, let’s talk about how I broke down these categories. Since this project relies on my ability to film high-quality content, I know that I need a professional camera, lens, microphone, and tripod. There may also be additional accessories necessary; like an additional battery or travel case. Beyond this, I need a computer with high-quality editing software that can also handle loads of video footage.

In determining my needs, I didn’t suddenly become an expert on the essentials of a filmmaker. I reached out to my gloriously talented friend, Pacific Northwest Ballet videographer Lindsay Thomas (she is responsible for most of the videos from the PNB channel, like the one seen below), who is quite the expert at dance and film. She offered me suggestions for equipment, as well as less expensive second options in the event that I don’t meet my budget for costs. Whenever you find that you lack knowledge in an area of your project, brainstorm within your network to find friends and colleagues with expertise that can help guide you. The best projections come from somebody that has already been through what you are about to experience. Don’t be afraid to reach out.

Next, a major part of my Core-ography project is traveling on-site to work with each artist. My breakdown for this includes transport and accommodations. While I haven’t yet purchased my tickets for travel, I did a search on Orbitz of round-trip airfares to the cities I plan to visit. For some, traveling by bus or train is more feasible and much less expensive. Taking a general look at fares on plane, train, and bus, I projected that most round-trip plane tickets would cost about $500. Since 6 of my artists are outside of the northeast corridor, I must fly to work with them. When it comes to the other 6, it will probably be more financially responsible and even, possibly, easier to travel via train or bus. Beyond travel, I also researched the average cost of one week in a hotel room on-site. I may be able to defray costs by staying with friends. But I can’t project the possibility of this happening until I solidify travel plans. So, I included the cost of hotel accommodations with 8 of the 12 artists with whom I will be collaborating. Taking into consideration that I live in Philadelphia, have plenty of friends to stay with in New York and Seattle, and will likely figure out one more place, I projected 8 weeks worth of hotel stays.

From here, my next costs are artist fees, legal costs, and facility rentals. Obviously, you want to provide your dancers incentive beyond sharing their art and getting exposure. If an artist is providing you their time and skill, then you should be providing them with some compensation. Now, to get your artists on board and to make sure that they are committed to you and you to them, you need to have a contractual obligation between each other. Since this is your first time creating a project, it is highly unlikely that you understand how to write a legally binding contract. I do have a lot of experience with contracts, especially since I prepared and negotiated a three year contract at PNB. But this was with the assistance of AGMA personnel who negotiates contracts for a living. Even with my substantial experience with AGMA and working as a freelancer, I am still planning on reaching out to have an outside party take care of these documents. Lastly, I took into consideration that I need appropriate studio space to work with my artists throughout the weeks that we work together.

The final two areas that artists surprisingly leave out of their budget are salary for themselves and unexpected costs. If a dancer/choreographer is creating art and investing a great deal of time into their work, they must plan to pay themselves. Yes, artists often have passion projects. But passion doesn’t put food on your table or a roof over your head. It can feel selfish and pretentious to include a livable wage in your costs, but it is, perhaps, the most important part of your budget. Beyond this, I feel one should always include a bit of wiggle room for emergencies. Perhaps, I need to change my flight or the camera lens breaks after an accidental grand battement. For this reason, I would suggest that you always leave room for unexpected costs in your budget. Again, don’t be outrageous, but allow some wiggle room to assure yourself that a minor snafu doesn’t become a full-fledged crisis.

Keep your head from spinning and plan for unexpected costs (Photo: J.J. Tiziou)

One thing I keep in mind when sharing my budget with potential funders is that costs can be offset by donated equipment and space, shared accommodations, crowd-sourced funding campaigns, and grants. Rarely will an artist fund the entirety of their project through private donations. For this reason, it is important to project your budget to be fulfilled by an array of funding options. Just like a 401(k), the more diverse your portfolio of funding possibilities is, the more likely you will be able to meet or exceed your budget goals. Now, go ahead and project your financial needs and start figuring out how to get people and organizations invested in your art.

Create Your Own Blog

Writing this blog

When I started this blog a little over two years ago, I had little idea that it would become a great platform for me to share, educate, and speak out about issues while on the journey of my dance career. In fact, I only really started this blog because I was scared shitless about finding my own work. I knew that I had writing skills and a unique perspective. But I saw blogging more as a personal journal that could potentially be used as a marketing tool instead of a platform for sharing my experiences, thoughts on dance politics, or a handbook for independent contractors of all professions. Yesterday, Life of a Freelance Dancer reached over 50,000 views. And as it approaches 100 posts (this will be #99), I have decided to share some of my secrets about creating a blog and how to write compelling posts that draw your audience into your unique world.

I don't know if it's our age or more of a popular trend within the ballet world, but I have had a great many friends mention to me that they want to start freelancing. Since I started a blog that is unique and contains material that has generally been untouched in the past, I get a lot of people reaching out to me about working as an independent contractor. During a handful of these conversations, more than a few of these dancers have told me that they are considering starting their own blog. They see that I have been successful with it and figure, "If he can do it, I can do it." The problem I often find, though, is that not much more thought has gone into something that can be a monumental task.

The first thing I do when somebody mentions that they are going to start a blog is ask questions. I always begin with, "What is your niche?" The obvious answer for us is dance. But is that enough to be compelling? There are many styles of dance, different types of dancers, and a multitude of tracks that somebody can be on throughout their career. The first thing that a potential blogger needs to think about is finding their niche. This special place one hopes to hold in the blogosphere needs to be one topic in which the blogger has endless knowledge and exponential passion. It may seem like an easy task to sit down and write about a subject here and there, but it is absolutely impossible to maintain one's writings over an extended period of time if the topic doesn't mean the world to you. This is the ultimate reason that most bloggers fizzle out within the first month or two of writing.

Once a writer chooses their niche, they need to take other things into consideration. How often do you plan on blogging? If a blogger plans to write whenever they feel inspired, they are not going to be able to maintain an audience. Even things that people are most passionate about usually swing up and down on the scale of inspiration. When I started LOFD, my plan was always to write one blog post per week. I didn't know if this was feasible, but it seemed often enough to keep people coming back to check in and infrequent enough to keep me from burning out. Two years later, the longest I've gone without writing has been two weeks. And while I wasn't posting during that period, it wasn't because I was uninspired. It was because I was too busy rehearsing or performing to sit down and create content. It is extremely important to post with regularity, as it will help you to maintain your audience. And, believe it or not, if nobody is reading your blog, you are that much less likely to continue writing.

Now that you have considered your niche and time management, why would somebody want to read your blog. Just writing about a specific area of expertise doesn't mean that everybody who has interest in that topic will read what you have written. I have heard people tell me, I'm going to write about me doing this and my review of that and my experience with this and my thoughts on that. My response can come off pretty offensively, but it is one of the most important things to consider. What makes you so interesting? So, you are a ballerina that likes fine dining. Or you have a special knack for knitting leg warmers. But just because you are passionate about something and you shared it on a public platform doesn't make you or your writing interesting. What makes a writer compelling is finding their own unique voice. When you talk to somebody in person, you can hear their vocal inflection as they speak. But reading a smattering of letters jumbled together on a blog with pretty colors in the background and IPhone photos in the foreground does not draw an audience into a story. Creating a unique writing style within your own content will make one far more interesting. Beyond the way that I phrase my posts, I am known to be too openly honest for most of today's common social standards. But the combination of these two things give me a unique voice that makes my writings stand out in ways that others may not. The tendency is for people to watch somebody do something successfully and to attempt to become successful by copying how that person garnered their success. This rarely works. Find what is unique about you, put yourself out there, and people will read what you have to say.

At this point you've created your blog, so the next step is to write your first post. What are you going to write about and how many topics have you already compiled? Most first-time bloggers think that they are going to come up with all of their topics on the fly as they find inspiration. Some people can do this. But for most of us bloggers, we need to compile a list of possible topics for the future. I generally write about what I am experiencing or inspired by in the moment. But as I stated above, you don't always feel equally inspired to write. How are you supposed to write when you don't feel any motivation and it has been days since you last planned on posting? Nothing can destroy your drive to blog more than writing a handful of forced entries. Not only do these posts take too much energy to write, but they often come off as uninspired to readers. And as for maintaining readers with humdrum content, you can think of it like this. If you go to a restaurant once and the food is bad or the service was poor, how likely are you to return to that restaurant? Unless you have already pulled in a loyal following of readers, this can force people to stay away from your content before they even get to the entree. I always have a list of, at least, ten blog topics that I could write about if I can't think of any other subjects. I have gotten to the point where I rarely need to touch that list. But every once in awhile, I'm too busy to be imaginative or in too little of a writing mood to conjure up a new topic.

When trying to summon new material to write about, I find that I write best when I am inspired. What inspires you? I can be inspired by something that I have experienced at a gig, a conversation with a friend about dance politics, or even a random person walking down the street having a conversation with a fire hydrant. I find that when I am truly inspired by a topic, I can write a blog in a wildly short period of time. If I'm less inspired, the task is more tedious and takes a lot more effort. Keep in mind that inspiration doesn't always have to be positive. But, if you are inspired and passionate about something, people will be more likely to enjoy your content. How many times have you seen a street performer present an act skillfully with passion and stood in the street smiling to yourself. If you can write passionately inspired posts, people will respond the same way. And they will come back for more. Who doesn't feel good when they are pursuing something that they feel passionate about?

The main reason that bloggers continue posting in a public forum is because they want people to read their content. If you post and don't tell anybody about your writing, nobody will know it exists. Most people figure that they will simply post their blogs on their Facebook or Twitter. And they think that all of their friends will read what they write and then their friends will share with their friends and their blog will become famous. It unfortunately doesn't work like that. The more you sell your blog in your own social media feed, the more likely your friends are to get annoyed with you. I do post every blog on my accounts, but I don't post about it much more than that. When I first started blogging, I oversold myself to my friends and I instantly saw fewer comments, less likes, and some even deleted me. Using social media successfully is a delicate balance of posting enough, not posting too much, and delivering interesting content that isn't too sad or self-indulged. The best way I find to draw in readers is a combination of social media and Search Engine Optimization (or SEO).

One of my recent Twitter posts

For social media, I always post a link to my most recent blog on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, typically with a quote from my writing. On Twitter, I always make sure that I use hashtags for #dance, #ballet, #freelance, and/or #blog. This allows people that are interested in these topics to find my tweet, even if they don't follow me. Beyond that, I have each individual post linked on a separate LOFD fan page on facebook and on a board in Pinterest. The way my blog is set up, you can only see the most recent post at the top of the page. Most of my other posts are hidden on the sidebar or on other pages of my blog. Since I have spent so much time writing each post, I don't want them to disappear into the blogosphere only to be found when somebody searches a specific topic. On Pinterest, each blog post is pinned to the board like a post it. This makes it easy to scroll through individual pieces versus scrolling through entire pages of writing.

As for Search Engine Optimization, this is where things get a little trickier. I am still on a bit of a learning curve when it comes to SEO. But using blogger, I have a few tricks that I use to increase traffic to my website. SEO is essentially creating pathways to have search engines, like Google and Bing, move your site closer to the top when somebody searches a topic that may relate to your blog. In my posts, I try to find ways to insert links to articles and businesses that are related to my writings. Make sure that you are being honest to your writing with these links. Don't add a random link that has no relation to your work because it is popular. But adding links to other searchable subjects may have your blog showing up when somebody searches for a place, like the School of American Ballet. Also, be sure to add labels/keywords after you have finished your post. In Blogger, there is a sidebar with post settings that allows you to add labels to your content. During my editing process, I search for words in my writing that really stand out as important to the post or names/subjects that are highly searched. For instance, if I wrote a post that included a story about working with Christopher Wheeldon, I am surely going to include him in that list. The more searchable your blog is, the more likely you are to gather readers. And the higher the viewership, the longer the life of your blog.

At the end of the day, you may ask me why I spend so much time sitting at my computer having a conversation with my keyboard? I never thought of myself as a writer until recently. Obviously, the excitement of seeing the number of views on my content tick higher and higher contribute to my long stream of writings. But the reason that I continue blogging from week to week is because it gives me a platform to express my thoughts, views, and explorations to people that I don't even know. I can help somebody I've never met learn how to get a job or cope with shitty conditions in their workplace. I always tell people that criticize me for sharing so much about my personal and not-so-personal life online this. There are so many times in life that we feel alone, like we are experiencing something all by ourselves. Those of us that have a platform to share MUST do so for those people. At some point, somebody has experienced what I have along my journey through my career and life.  Sometimes, though, they don't realize that they weren't the only one to have ever experienced it. If putting a little too much of myself out there helps somebody else in their time of need, I'm more than happy to help. With all of this said, if you've got it in you, GET STARTED WRITING!

Don't be afraid to express yourself