1. Doug Curling Managing Director New Kent Capital/New Kent Consulting doug@newkentcap.com

2. So let’s talk about…….. - Business Plans - Presenting & Selling Ideas - How Do I Get Started ? - Knowing What To Do…& When - Choosing Partners - Managing Frustrations - The Music Business Today & Tomorrow

3. Business Plans - Covering the basics…..in the right order - Having the “Pitch” down cold - Be Excited !!!! - Be Organized – You MIGHT have 20 - 30 good minutes before total ADD kicks in - No more than 10 – 15 pages - Loose/Tight meeting pace - Communicating with the right people

4. Business Plan – Do’s - The Big Idea or the Big Outcome (‘Make Meaning’) - The ‘Problem’ and why it matters - The current solutions and why they fall short - What you’re building and how/when - Why you’re different (and better!) - Your spend plan and expected results - The (obvious) questions & answers

5. Business Plan – Don’ts - Produce an Org Chart showing you as CEO If you haven’t done anything yet ! - Attempt to build a solution for a problem you don’t understand - Disgorge spreadsheets of meaningless financials - Expect the ‘Bankers’ to start by paying you a big salary - Talk to anyone in-depth without knowing who they are, what they know & what they’ve done

6. Presenting & Selling Ideas - Start with the right introduction from the right person - Get your $%^& together before the meeting - Know the best time & medium - I don’t need you to read me powerpoints - Answer ‘Why should this matter to me?’ early - Know what others have done before you - Have a definitive plan & timeline - Always have a specific ‘Ask’ - You don’t know who really matters --- there are no little people !

7. How Do I Get Started ? - ‘You can’t change what you don’t understand’ - Deal with the toughest issue first - Identify and accomplish your #1 objective each day - Know whether value is being created ‘in the essence or the edges’ - Everybody needs a big fan club – recruit advocates, supporters and friends

8. Choosing Partners - Don’t confuse people that are good with people that are talented - Don’t surround yourself with people that need your money - Know what you suck at and fill the voids - Keep away from people that belittle your ambitions - Identify the problems and ‘staple’ the right people to each of them

9. Managing Frustrations - Learn to cooperate with the inevitable - ‘Do or Do Not – There Is No Try’ - If you set out to take Rome – take Rome - Do you want to feel better or do you want to get what you want ? - ‘Not everything worth doing is worth doing well’ - No battle plan survives contact with the enemy

10. The Music Business…… - You have to have GREAT songs - You have to have a GREAT live show - You have to have a GREAT fan base - You have to be willing to GRIND it out ‘They put us in a van and sent us on a summer tour to see if we could survive on the road for 3 months and come back alive’

11. The Music Business….. - Recording/Production can be do it yourself - Distribution is everywhere - Promotion can be self-managed - Merch is cheap and important - Live/Acoustic/Demo is rare and desirable - Fans want to be part of something - Fans will pay for closeness and special - Protect & build the brand

12. The Music Business…… - The old guard still owns ‘the matrix’ - Cutting through the clutter requires work - Buy-on’s are a rip-off - Gear/Wheels are important and valuable - Stale happens very fast - $10 minus $1 minus ?????? - Retail is a meaningless number - Everybody is in the data business

13. Final Thoughts - Hard work does not guarantee success --- but less than your best does guarantee less success - Luck matters --- and luck favors the prepared - Timing matters --- ‘to be right too soon is to be wrong’ - Someone else wants what you want - The network effect is real --- and effective

14. Questions ? Doug Curling New Kent Capital doug@newkentcap.com 678-672-4010 (office) 678-672-4016 (fax)