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about the business side of things as he/she is usually not qualified to handle such matters. I will relate a scenario that took place 15 years ago. Mike Ralph of RTP Records sent me to ask John Chibadura who was with ZMC to join his stable at a higher royalty of 25 percent instead of the 15 percent he was on with ZMC.
I tried in vain to persuade John to join RTP. His reasoning was: “I am told Oliver Mtukudzi, who is with RTP only earned $40 000 but I earned $60 000 with ZMC.” I told him that his high earnings were due to the fact that he had sold more records than Oliver and if he was on a 25 percent royalty rate, he would have received even more. I explained that he should not view his royalty earnings as a salary but direct rewards for his sweat.
That still did not wash with John. He failed to understand how the payments were being distributed and how he could make more by signing a contract with a higher royalty rate. I told him that he needed a manager to put things in order for him. His argument was: “If having a manager means that we split the door-takings seven ways instead of the present six, I would rather not have one.”  John viewed all what I was telling him with a lot of suspicion. He never thought for once that I was trying to help him.
I tried, without success to convince him that managers are there to boost his business and to make him earn more while taking care of the essential elements of the business. He failed to understand how and at the time of his death, he had sold all his band equipment and his house in order to pay for his medical expenses.
How then can talented artistes of this nature be managed?
The idea behind appointment of any manager is to employ someone who will further advance the artiste’s career. It is better to choose someone who has a keen interest in the music of the artiste and who understands it as opposed to someone who just sees the band as an opportunity to make money. 
Artistes are encouraged to choose someone who will make a difference to their future. They also need to make sure the managers earn their money by relieving the artiste of administrative burdens. The manager should be someone with contacts in the business or someone who is capable of creating contacts. The artiste should avoid unscrupulous and untalented managers.
Do managers need contracts?
In a word, “YES”. Even if you’re managing an unsigned band made up of personal friends and there is no money involved for now, you need a written agreement. It doesn’t have to be fancy or even supervised by a lawyer. Just jot down what is expected of both manager and band, what the percentage of income for the manager will be if any money should come in, and what happens if band and manager decide to part ways. Many new bands don’t want to make their friends sign contracts but it is the contract, which keeps the friendship safe.
The music business is funny in a way. It is the only business I know where the artiste has power to fire his/her manager when things go wrong.
Anyone who has ever been in a band, particularly a band that’s enjoyed some longevity, will tell you that “a band is just like a marriage”. The main difference is that the love is for the music, not necessarily for each other. Nevertheless, the principles are the same when it comes to staying together. Here are a few typical dynamics that a band manager will encounter when dealing with bands:  The first one is the “Big Ego” Syndrome.
Usually, the band member with the biggest ego is                 the lead singer. He/she thinks the band cannot do      without him/her and often chooses to walk on stage late. The second member with a big ego is the lead guitarist.
Typically assigned to the lead guitarist or the lead vocalist, the “Big Ego” syndrome can be deadly to a band. It can take the form of tantrums at the severe end or passive-aggressive control at the low-key end. The question here is — as manager, how do you want to deal with it? When faced with such personality conflict, the best thing to do first is to evaluate your personal gut reaction. Listen to your self-talk. Listen to the things you don’t say.
Is the other person’s big ego competing with your ego? Since you can’t control the other person, how can you best control yourself? There are a few stances you can take. One, you can simply blow it off, ignore it, chalk it up to the other person’s immaturity and play on. That’s fairly easy to do if you have your own ego together and in perspective. That means that your heart and ego are with the music and for music’s sake and nothing else — assuming the band you’re managing is really where you want to be.
Anything that happens outside of that is peripheral and inconsequential. That’s hard to do sometimes but there will always be times when the friction seems less than worth it. I keep reflecting to the days when Andy Brown walked out on the band on stage in Bulawayo and I keep thinking that if they had a good manager, that problem would have been solved instantly. It carried on until the group split up.
The one afflicted with the “Big Ego” syndrome may have good reason to be so. Are you, as manager, there to support that vision? If the answers are two consecutive “Yeses”, then you’re probably in a position to resign yourself to dealing with the big ego. You really need some elementary human psychology to deal with such a situation. Do you have a clear vision of your own? Then perhaps the conflict is deeper than mere irritation. If what arises from your self-talk and an honest assessment of your own needs and desires is that your vision conflicts with their vision, then you might do better to move on. Sometimes we endure the tension and tantrums because we think we have to and sometimes we endure because we don’t know better, and sometimes we endure because we fear moving on or have no alternative employment to go to.
Here’s an interesting problem. There’s one person in the band that, for some reason that no one can discern the closer you as manager, get to your goals, the less they seem interested. You have arranged an important gig for the band to play somewhere, then, say, the bass player chooses not to come because a friend is having a birthday party. Come on, you have known about this party for weeks if not months but you choose to tell the rest of the band on the day of this important gig that you are not going to make it.
Who do you think will take your place? It is like a goalkeeper in a football team who chooses not to play on a particular match-day because he is going to a relative’s wedding. Just like in a marriage, communication is key. A band has to constantly communicate their mutual goals and renegotiate their goals every step of the way. Some members might believe at the outset that they are in it to “go as far as they can”.
But when it comes down to it, and play becomes work, they’re no longer as committed. Honest and open communication can settle this problem as soon as it’s detected.
Once a band has acquired a local following and things really begin to heat up, one or some members might jump the gun and quit their day jobs in order to commit themselves entirely to the music. Usually this happens because the money’s coming in from steady gigs and that’s so much more attractive than the mundane day job. Things look good, but that’s when the trouble starts.
The pressure is now on to gig continuously and for good pay, in order to sustain those otherwise unemployed. What started out as fun is now “work”. This creates undue tension and breaks a band that has already been through much and gone far. A good manager should sit down with the band and decide when to make what moves. It’s not fair to other members to put that kind of tension on the group. The best thing to do is again, to communicate and decide together, as a group, when and if the group wants to strike out and go full-time.
The smart thing is for the group to make all decisions together by continuously communicating mutual goals. The bands that make it far are the ones that communicate and agree as a group. Failure to do so, bands become impossible to manage.

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