Wow... it might be that creating my own little fledgling Early Music ensemble in Australia might just work! It has only been half a year, and we have given two concerts that have been quite well received by audience and critics. Everyone around is crazily supportive and encouraging... I feel like I'm the only person with doubts and worry!

Of course, I'm not really worried about the actual music and performance side of things... that side of stuff I'm decently good at, and I think it does come across well. At the very least, no-one has thrown anything sharp or hard at me... yet.

The worry has all been about financing and how to get through the early growing pains of launching an ensemble. I'm lucky that my wife is a highly accomplished pianist/fortepianist and that means that we already have a core of two players that are able to play without getting paid. However, I can't ask that of other people... despite the fact that there have been musicians that have said that they would do it to help get through the early stages. But... I'm crazily uncomfortable with that. I can't ask seasoned and highly respected professionals to do that... we aren't students anymore.

So... I've been trying to grapple with this funding conundrum... do I dip into personal future funds to spend essentially on a passion project... no, I'm not that comfortable with that either, as it is money that belongs to our whole family, our children as well as the parents. I'm not going to do that to my kids...

... seek funding from grants councils. Yes, but dangerous in its own way as there are conditions that could sink a fledgling group... and if you get too reliant upon it, well it could sink you in a different way when the money isn't here for planned concerts and you end up having to scramble to delve into cash buffers!

So... the two concerts that my wife and I have already put on... well, expenses were low as there was generous support from the venue and we didn't need to pay ourselves. So, we are starting to build a cash buffer... a small one, but there is one that we can draw upon! I wasn't expecting much... and actually more expecting to break even at best.

It appears that even without funding, we would have the ability to bring in at least one additional player from the cash buffer for a concert... that would give us more options for repertoire (you know... the actual thing that is important!), and hopefully... we would be able to replenish the buffer from ticket sales as well.

I will also need to start establishing a web presence... and accounting backend and all of that. Sigh... for the arts council funding, you will need all of that stuff, and it is likely to be easy enough to do initially, but I just need to get my head around it. Sigh.. all the headaches that aren't music related that need to go alongside the running of the group. I starting to think that the biggest incentive for trying to get through this initial stage is get enough funding to hire a bookkeeper/administrator to handle this for me.

Anyway... I'm bubbling full of hope now that I know that we have a little bit of a cash buffer to play around with... and I think that this will be driving me for a little bit! So happy for the good news, and I'm out of the financial conundrum doldroms!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.