ME PLC a term given to me by Alan Durrant, which I had never,
came across before. So I decided I wanted to find out more about it, so I used
my web 2.0 skills and got googling! I found
out it’s the main and popular topic at the moment of ‘making yourself a brand’
I found a
good definition of it as ‘It's about being proactive and being able
to seize opportunities as they arise. In other words identifying what your
potential client (employer) needs, and how you can best provide that’
I like the idea of ME PLC and want to look
into it to make it work for me to use the method of ME PLC to expand
opportunites within the dance profession.
Whilst reasearching
the idea some more I came across this usefull download I thought I would share
with everyone, it gives a simple guide of what ME PLC is and how you can start
to use the method for yourself, looking at your strengths and weeknesses and
what you can do to make yourself more employable.
An important find Steph,
ReplyDeleteAs artists we are obviously brilliant at the art side of things, but can lack knowledge in running ourselves as a business. It is important to get the balance right for these two as they both need each other to survive...
Steph,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great term for performers, that I have never heard of before.
When I was performing and I guess running ME PLC, I didn't treat it as a business, I treated it as a passion that offered me the luxury of earning money doing something I loved - hindsight is a wonderful thing!
I think this is absolutely the right way to approach the profession as a performer and as a teacher and I think that colleges should include this in the third year of professional training, when they are about to embark upon their self-employed career - all we were told was that we needed to phone the tax office for a Schedule D number & that we would have to do a tax return at the end of each year!?!
This idea could be really useful to a lot of people. I wonder if it would also help our confidence levels to feel comfortable "selling" our experience and knowledge as a product?
I have just read the link too - it's brilliant! Thank you for sharing the info - I think that it relates directly to the process of critical reflection - figuring out what you do and how to manage that, yourself.
Then I read on...I worked as a Marketeer about ten years ago and the job introduced me to SWOT analysis - It is an incredibly useful tool for business. Banks sometimes use this type of analysis within a business plan when you apply for business funding / loans too.
I look forward to reading your Blogs with your findings...
I am finding this whole networking and sharing really helpful to me in more ways than one. I hope you are too!?
Best Wishes,
Jo :-)
This is a great write up! Loved the link!
ReplyDeleteMade me think a lot about how i run my business and what i can do to improve myself as the boss. I will definitely suggest this to others!
I find it really fascinating that we can come across a simple term like ‘MePLC’ and it fires off lots of new ideas and ways of thinking. Its great Steph that you also did something practical with it – to try out the form and see if it helped you think through your career and it clearly resonated with others as well.
DeleteWe are all looking at our professional practice here … what it is, what it means, how we engage it … using a ‘perspective’ like MePLC stimulates connections, for example, as Luke suggests seeing himself as both practitioner and boss.
Actually that’s how our brains work, looking for connections (similarities; contrasts etc.) to make sense of the world.
So as an explicit practice (dare I say a critical reflection practice), experimenting with ideas is a creative approach to making greater sense, in this instance, of our professional careers.
Steph, keep this going, this idea has lots you can do with it.