I’m pretty into live music, and my wife and I often go out a couple evenings a week to see local musicians play.

The Bay Area has some really talented local musicians and I admire how hard they work – often for little or no pay. Some of the best musicians I’ve ever seen play hard all night for few dollars tossed into the tip jar. Even being a “big time” recording artist doesn’t pay very much these days, in an era when the royalties from digital music are often pennies per thousand streams.

This past week I was sitting in a local bar watching Kevy Nova on stage, putting on a great show with his dazzling guitar work. As he finished a particularly rocking number the woman dancing in front of the stage screamed how much she loved that song. Without missing a beat, Kevy pulled a card out of his pocket with a link to where she could purchase it on iTunes and handed to it her. With that, he launched right into the next song.

Always be ready to close the deal. No matter what profession you are in, always be ready to close the deal.