When Making A Business Plan...

There are many things that are important to take into consideration when sitting down and creating or refining a business plan for any future endeavor. Often I find myself worrying too much about formatting and numbers than they way it comes off to the person looking at it.

I understand there is defiantly a lot that goes into making sure a business plan has all the information and numbers or cost a potential investor would be interested know prior to buying into the idea.  However, I feel as if a lot can be said for creating a document or presentation that gets them excited before they see any projections on the company's potential revenue. This is especially important for someone like myself who isn't necessarily creating this too pulling any sort of funding but rather to be considered for a partnership with a preexisting publicity firm.

Running an operation like the one I have outlined and wish to pursue further, there is virtually no over head, start up, or any other costs associated. Because of this the company can be active while not making that much money while it grows and becomes something that could support myself. With that being the case, I am more likely to show a publicity firm what I plan to do and how I plan to work in hopes of being associated with them and their existing relationships in exchange for a percentage of my earnings. With this in mind it is easier to stop worrying so much about exact numbers or projections and focus on something I hadn't even thought about prior to this class, presentation.

I hope to take what I have put together this month and expand on my current business plan to create something that showcases the feeling and direction of the actual company. A document that will interest people to take a look and read over, rather than the plain word document I currently have.

Dissecting the Teachings of Frank Foire and Mark Cuban

BUSINESS PLANS (image from 348_business_plan_cartoon.jpg)                                                        

As Karen Klein states, in her Bloomberg Businessweek write up Building a Better Business Plan, "A business plan serves two purposes: It's an organizing tool... And it's also a document that sells your business idea" (K. Klein).

Klein touches on the two very important points, the first is the most clear to anyone sitting down to make a business plan, and that is you need a plan.  The BP acts as a fail safe guide to show you where you are at with your current idea, how well it will stand up in the industry, and what you need to work on to make it successful from day one.  The other key point that is sometimes lost while drafting the BP, is that after completed, it is a great way to sell your company and yourself to investors or potential strategic partners. To get a better idea of what we can gain from a great BP we turn to two industry experts to hear what they have to offer op on the subject!

Image source: http://www.frankfiore.com/

Frank Foire is a "best selling author" for his work in non-fiction prints which include the book Write A Business Plan In No Time. "He has a B.A. in Liberal Arts and General Systems Theory from Stockton State College and a Masters Degree in Education at the University of Phoenix." (http://www.frankfiore.com/)

"A business plan also acts as a dry run for your business even before it starts. It's actually a written description of your business' future."             - Foire

What Foire is stating here, is that a well thought out and honest BP can show a potential business owner how well they are doing in preparing for the launch of their business, as well as what areas they need to focus on before seriously considering moving forward.  As we worked on our business plans for class this week, there where a number of areas that I realized I had taken little to no time to consider and that launch was quite a bit farther off than previously assumed.  Although this is technically considered a set back, it is much better to be honest with yourself prior to starting the business than the jump in and realize you need to work out a few kinks.

Image source: mark-cuban.jpg

Mark Cuban is a self made billionaire from Pittsburgh, PA and is widely known as the owner of not only the NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, but also Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures.  He also appears as a "Shark" or investor on the ABC television series "Shark Tank"

Even with all these major accomplishments, rather than sit back and let his fortune mass up, Mark has developed his own version of a Stimulus Plan which directly relates to the creation and distribution of business plans.

"Rather than trying to be a Venture Capitalist, I was looking for an idea that hopefully could inspire people to create businesses that could quickly become self funding." - Cuban

Essentially Cuban was offering his personal Blog "Blog Maverick" as a place where potential business owners could share their ideas with him in hopes of having him invest in their companies. The only catch that comes along with posting your business plan on an investors site is that now it is out in the public for anyone to try to emulate.  This however may have been exactly what Cuban was looking for, yes there is a moral grey area about actively pursuing someone else's idea, however this gives the public that subscribes to Cuban's Blog endless ideas to not only make a life for themselves, but also to boost the economy.

The base of this idea is a well made, well delivered business plan that not only shows a clear outline of how the business is too be run, but also a creative and engaging portrayal of the direction the presenter hopes to go as well as how successful the company potentially can be.

After reading what these successful experts had to say about the importance of a well thought out and honest business plan, it has really changed my out look on my own plan and lead me to address potential flaws within it.  Although it is important to be confident in the success of the business, it is also important to understand just how much of a chance you stand regardless of how confident you are.

I hope this has helped you to consider going back, dusting off that old business plan, and giving it another look!

Dave Melillo's MixTape is HERE!

The much awaited release from Dave Melillo is only hours away from releasing for free all around the web. This new style release, the "Thinking of You" MixTape is fully free and meant to showcase teh versatility and stylized abilities of Dave.  Although mainly a love song based release, there is much more than simple guitars and four by four beats driving this as Dave shows growth from start to finish not just as an album but on a song by song basis.

Pulling a lot of the MixTape together during the creation and release of his recent EP "Future Focused" there is a simple flow to the complex dynamics featured one each and every track.  While not featuring any of his more RnB // POP style tracks, Dave is looking for a shift in his music career and hopes by focusing his efforts on high profile remixes of the new songs will help his current fans grow and transition with him as he makes the jump from Acoustic Singer/Song Writer to a more POP focused individual.  With projects such as Cute Is What We Aim For and Nocturnal Me Dave has a strong "Indie" following that he doesn't want to lose or upset during the transition.  This is where the MixTape really bridges the gap, even though there are some songs that may not fit into his typical style, they still have the same voice and drive behind them.  As remixes are created and passed around, Dave's current fan base can slowly develop a new idea of his potential and feel like they have been with him from the beginning.  Just in business, it is easier to keep a existing client than to find a new one.

It will be interesting to see how the release goes over, as a personal project of mine I will be focusing on keeping Dave' old contacts up to date with everything while maintaining a constant effort to find and push the MixTape to new demographics.

A New Revenue "Stream"

With the economy in the state that it is, fewer people are as loose with their money when it comes to entertainment as they used to be.  Not only that, but the decline in album sales in the past years and the trend in the youth pirating the music they do download, it is often hard for new artists to make ends meet.  A lot of bands have realized the old model of doing things just simply doesn't exist on a small level anymore, you can not support yourself of music sales and need to find other ways to make money.  Thanks to the Internet, there are a lot of ways for artist to share their music and promote shows, allowing them to reach more people and get "bigger faster."  However with the majority of their income coming from concerts and tours, where do they make money while in the studio or writing or doing anything besides touring?

Well a few artists have found a very interesting way to "Stream" their revenue in the downtime.  Online "Streaming" is becoming more and more popular in all fields of entertainment from music to video games.  With multiple site options available virtually anything is available for view. Dave Melillo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
is one such artist utilizing online streaming. He does a show every monday called Melillo Monday's during the time he asks from requests from viewers, answers questions and more or less provides his community with a "live vlog" experience. Streams provide the artist with the ability to manually run ads or have the run at certain times, the amount of viewers as well as clicks on the ads that run are what makes up the income for the artist.  Depending on the amount of viewers this income can really start to add up.  There are also options to "donate" to the streamer as well as the priceless ability to plug new shows/merch and releases.  This one week show is just one way artists are making money with streaming, some bands could do studio/rehearsal streams or even concert streams,  not unlike the Ben Folds ChatRoulette Concerts. Some streamers like Steven "Destiny" Bonnell II, a professional video game player, make the majority of their income from money made streaming.  I hope we see a surge in the music industry a few months down the road as streaming begins to catch on, this is an amazing way to connect with fans while earning a little extra income.

Gold Coast Music Group and Renee Yohe!

As Gold Coast Music Group pushes forward looking to make a name for them in this industry it was apparent that focusing on small acts would only help get their name so far.  By taking the time to consider their strengths as a publicity firm and evaluate potential cliental they were able to secure new campaigns that, with the pull of the clients, will hopefully push them into that next level and help not only bring in more business, but validate them within the industry.  In the next two blog posts I will be talking about two up and coming opportunities, how they came about, and GCMG’s plans for the publicity campaigns. First we will look at the new project from “To Write Love On Her Arm’s” inspiration “Renee Yohe.”

Renee is known for her books as well as being the driving force behind a teen help program “To Write Love On Her Arms,” which is set up as a support program for troubled teens dealing with drug/alcohol abuse and suicide.  Renee is now finishing a full-length project that blends pop style vocals with folk driven rock.  The band is currently in the end stages of the project and hopes to be releasing with in the year. 

Sean from GCMG is actually very involved with the project as he not only writes for the band, but also plays guitar in the band currently.  This is the main reason for GCMG being able to pick the project up.  With the press from TWLOHA as well as a movie based one Renee being released in the near future, securing features in online publications such as Pitchfork, Daytrotter, and PureVolume will be rather simplistic.  Besides this GCMG hopes to push the album through soundcloud and as many “free” online publications for the most cost effective press.

Once interest has been made and features secured the print publications will be alerted for not necessarily “release” date interviews and features. 

Gold Coast Music Group and Dave Melillo

Besides the Renee Yohe project Gold Coast Music Group also has been able to secure a publicity campaign for former “Cute is What We Aim For” bassist Dave Melillo.  Apart from playing bass in CIWWAF Melillo is also known for fronting and writing for his acoustic project “Nocturnal Me.” NM released a new EP earlier this year, and Dave has just recently released a five song acoustic EP to help get his name back into the spot light for his upcoming Mix Tape release entitled “Thinking of You.”

Melillo came to Gold Coast Music Group with an interest in gaining press for the mix tape after seeing their work with the Iowa natives “The Anytime” and their March release “CRAVE”  GCMG was able to secure multiple high profile interviews as well as features for the band in addition to gaining them a main page feature on PureVolume which translated into over 14,000 plays within the 3 day feature.  Melillo will be releasing the entire 20-song mix tape for free and is looking for as much free publicity as possible. 

The guys over at GCMG plan on targeting college music blogs and news sites as well as blogs that focus on mix tape based submission and news.  In addition to searching for new publications and listeners, with the release of the new EP the also plan to send the mix tape to all the people talking about it as well as the places that supported Melillo’s original work in hopes of getting old listeners excited again!  Because this will be a completely free release it is important to focus energy of sites that do not charge for feature placement, as well as push hard to get any fee based publication to cut the price as a sign for good faith.  GCMG feels that the record is strong enough to stand on its own, and it is only a matter of time until it takes off!

Entertainment Law Podcast's

Initially I was going to interview an individual practicing law in the state of Illinois, however after realizing that I really didn't know enough about Entertainment Law in general to validate asking a professional to focus time and energy on myself, I felt it best to get some more information and education while figuring out what may be important to ask as a "student" before I have to pay to talk to an attorney.  To do this I have researched and subscribed to a couple different podcasts that focus not only on law but mainly on "entertainment" law and will be discussing them here.

First we have a website known as Entertainment Law Update Podcast, which is more or less, exactly what the name states.  Over all one will not be taught law, but rather updated on the goings on within the legal side of the entertainment industry.  The blog spans all aspects of the entertainment industry from film and TV to music and sports etc. The show is hosted by two individuals Gordon Firemark and Tamera Bennett both whom practice entertainment law.  I found this podcast to be very easy to listen too, as someone who doesn't have legal jargon down very well.  The podcast flows very well and with pages of archives provides potential listeners with lots of topics.  In addition to the podcasts, this website also provides a huge resource list for people visiting acting almost as a one stop shop for entertainment law information!

The next podcast comes from Law School Podcaster, and although this website generally focuses on preparing individuals for starting to coping with law school, they did have a very insightful podcast about the entertainment industry.  The first thing that caught my attention with this podcast was a statement that often times I hear people at Full Sail state, it's not all glamor and not all about celebrities. Often times I feel people get into the entertainment industry just for the glitz and glam rather than a passion for the arts.  This statement is brought back up mid way through the podcast as they begin to reveal the hard work needed to break out into the entertainment law field and just how much competition people will face on a daily basis. I really liked this podcast because I felt the contributors weren't trying to sell anyone on the idea of going to a certain law school, but rather cautioning them about the hardships they may face and the amount of time and effort needed to make something of themselves. I would recommend this website to anyone preparing for law school on any level not just entertainment.

The final website I would like to highlight is that of the Legal Talk Network, focusing on their podcast series Lawyer 2 Lawyer. L2L consists of practicing attorneys J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi discussing various issues in the legal world.  Often of the podcasts involve issues on the goings on in the entertainment industry.  The podcasts are once again easy to listen to span various topics providing content for just about anyone interested in law.  The particular podcast that I listened too was one involving the new battle over song royalties. This is something that I have been following since I started school at Full Sail over two years ago. I felt that not only the hosts, but also the guests brought on were very insightful regarding many issues such as was the music created as a work for hire, and does the artist still owe recoup funds to the label.  Defiantly something I am glad I took the time to listen too and will keep an eye out for more music based topics in the future.

Over all the internet provides a vast knowledge base at anyone's fingertips.  Whether they choose to indulge in pleasure or knowledge based activities is up to them, however I hope these three choices will help you out when you feel like being productive and learning a thing or two!