The Future of the "Green Entertainment Industry"

In my last two posting I discussed preparing your business plan and seeking investors for your business. Well now that you have the investor and your business is up and coming, what does the future look like for the industry? The future of my business industry looks to be bright green!

The green industry is continuing to grow and adding the entertainment component will only help with this growth. With the help of social media the “green entertainment” industry is going to be the new source of entertainment. Social media is becoming bigger by the minute as a new tool for marketing, branding, and advertising for an event, a company, etc. Green awareness is continuing to grow as well, and what’s more green than using a paperless marketing and advertising tool most people are always using for personal use? This form of entertainment allows for entertainers to have another source to provide entertainment, and allows for companies or organizations to reach more people, save green, and be green.

Another reason I see the green entertainment industry growing is the youth. They are the most social media savvy, and social media it the easiest way to reach them. By using social media and entertainment as a tool of reaching them on important green issues, the youth are entertained and educated. As more green events come up with entertainers the youth will want to continue seeing their favorite entertainers, which will increase the demand for green entertainment. 

From the entertainment side a positive look is placed on the entertainer because they are green aware, which is positive for the youth. It also allows the entertainers to reach more people and to show their fans that they have a common interest.  Entertainment is not going anywhere, being green aware is becoming more common, and there are already entertainers speaking out for their favorite environmental issues. To me the combination of the three equals a growing industry.

Green Business Loans

My two previous blog postings have been directed at tips for writing your business plan. So now that the business plan is complete the next step is finding finances. When looking for funding for my business chose to look for specific funding for green businesses. In my search I found a good number of investors looking to fund new small businesses providing products or services to promote going green. The Initiative Foundation provides Green Business Loans that I found to be very good and if my business were based out of Minnesota I would qualify for. Whether in Minnesota or another state Foundations and Investors like this one have qualifications, and for green business loans the qualifications can be even more specific.

The Green Business Loans from the Initiative Foundation ranges from $50,000 to $250,000.  Some qualifications that give business eligibility are ventures that incorporate environmental responsibility in business operations, ventures that reduce current energy demands, and ventures that deliver a product or service associated with environmental preservation, conservation, protection, and mitigation or clean up. My business would be eligible because we offer services associated with environmental conservation and protection.

Another stipulation for investors is how the money is used. For the Green Business Loans the funds can be used for fixed assets, equipment, and product development. For someone seeking an investor it is important to pay attention to what the funds can be used for, along with the initial eligibility qualifications. As a stated earlier my business would not qualify because I am not located in Minnesota, but I chose to discuss this source of funding because it shows how investors are trying to help small business within their community. So now knowing about this foundation I can look for investors in San Diego that provide green business loans specifically for small businesses in San Diego. I am not an expert but I would suggest to anyone looking for investor funding to search for investors looking to fund specific small businesses or with multiple specific loan programs.

Resource:

http://www.ifound.org/business_greenloan.php

How my business plan has changed…

Week 4 of my Business Plan Development class, and based on what I have learned from the class and from reading about Mark Cuban and Marin Zwilling there are some things I had to reconsider when doing my business plan. The first thing I had to reconsider was the cost of my company’s services. Mark points out that investors need to see that you will be profitable within 90 days and at first this was not clear. By changing my prices but still offering the services at an affordable price, my projected income now reflects a profit. Along with changing the initial service price, I changed the price a little each year and increased the amount of services provided accordingly and this too helped to prove to investors that my company would give them a return on their investment.

A piece of advice Martin gives on not being negative in your business plan something that I thought about when doing the target market and competition sections of my business plan. Martin says not to talk about competitors or customers in areas the company can’t back up. Naturally when writing in these two sections I wanted to make the company stand out and show how many customers we would reach, but I had to remember Martin’s advice and take a step back.  First I had to really look and see who my target market was. Because my service could potentially be offered to any age group I had to think who would mostly likely be benefiting from my services. So with that in mind I took into consideration the fact that other companies or organizations would mostly use my service, and then think about their target market. After doing this I was able to come up with more clear and representative target market.  

Learning from the class, Mark, and Martin I think the target market, competition, and financial sections are most important in the business plan. To me these sections are most important if you are trying to gain investors. By making sure each of these sections are strong and truly show your company investors can see the full potential of your company. This shows what market is, who is already in the market, and the potential money you can make; which for an investor is most important. If there is no market, there is no competition, and there is no profit.

Resources:

·      http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/

·      http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-02-10/tech/30004645_1_business-plan-funding-entrepreneurs

·      http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2011/02/04/ten-top-investor-turnoffs-around-business-plans/

Writing a successful business plan

If you are thinking of starting your own business then you know you must have a business plan and that business plan needs to be able to show investors why they should invest in you. So if you are like me and would like some sound advice on how to make sure you business plan is the best and gives you the best results, here is some advice from two experts on writing a business plan.  The first expert is Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, successful businessman, and billionaire entrepreneur. Mark’s best area of business is in Internet business. One key piece of advice Mark gives about writing your business plan is to ask yourself, is there an actual need for the product or service. Asking this question is so important because if your service or product is not one that is needed, then investors will not see the need invest their money into a business that will not give them a good return on investment. Mark has recently started a new platform for entrepreneurs to seek funding from him for their own business. He gives the entrepreneurs 12 rules if they want to receive funding from him, and one that stands out to me is the rule that the business plan must show that it will be profitable within 90 days. This too shows the investor that the business will bring in income and they will receive money back on their investment. Mark has confirmed to receive money; you must show that you will bring in money.

Martin Zwilling is the second expert I researched. Martin Zwilling is the CEO and Founder of Startup Professional, Inc. He has been published in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and Business Insider writing about business plans, so I would say he knows what he is talking about and the business world agrees. Zwilling gives me a different look with regards to my business plan has he explains what turns off investors. This is equally important because by knowing what not to do you know more on what to do. He gives 10 things that turn of investors in his Forbes article and one that stuck out to me was “don’t be negative”. Zwilling explains not to talk about your competitors or customers in areas you can’t back up. If you are making a statement about your competitors and customers it should be supported by third-party data. I found this to be key, because it is easy to think and speak about competitors and customers from our own point of view, which is probably in favor of our business. By having third party data it shows investors that we have proof, like having creditable sources in a research paper.

Both Mark Cuban and Martin Zwilling have great tips on how to have a successful business plan. I will be using what I learned from each of them in creating my business plan. If you are planning on starting your own business, I suggest taking a look at the articles each of them have done on business plans.

Resources: 

  http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/

  

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-02-10/tech/30004645_1_business-plan-funding entrepreneurs

http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2011/02/04/ten-top-investor-turnoffs-around-business-plans/ 

     

Green Marketing aka Digital Marketing

This word “green” is being used more and more these days with people becoming more aware of the environmental issues taking place globally. When you hear the word now, you think environmentally friendly or something having to deal with being environmentally conscious. My focus is on “green” entertainment and while the industry is definitely new and growing, there is an area used in the entertainment industry that has been “green” since its existence. I am talking about digital marketing (green marketing), more specifically social media marketing. 

The introduction of social media marketing put a new spin on marketing, allowing for even more targeted audiences and not to mention reaching a larger audience at little to no cost. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn seem to be the most popular out now and if you have all three not only is your target market that much larger, but the types of people you are reaching is different within the three.  Another plus with using social media marketing are the different types of marketing you able to do. With each of the three social media sites listed you are able to market on your home page and provide links to other pages to help market. For example DigitalLA is an entertainment organization that I think does a good job utilizing social media marking. They have the three main social media sites, but each one seems to be used for different purposes. Facebook is used to announce an event, post pictures from an event, provide a link to an event homepage, and give status updates on an event. Twitter is used to follow an event as it is taking place as a kind of live interview, tweeting attendee questions and responses. LinkedIn is used for more of a networking tool. DigitalLA can use LinkedIn to market to other organization or people who would like to collaborate on an event or hire them to do it event for them. Although DigitalLA’s homepage could use some work, they have the right idea on using social media marketing.  To see more about DigitalLA and how they are utilizing social media marketing visit http://digitalla.net/. 

Jazz It Up with social media marketing

Yesterday, Saturday September 3^rd the Trinity House, a local transitional house for homeless women and children hosted their first “Jazz It Up Concert”. The concert was to help bring awareness and raise money for the homeless women and children in San Diego. My wife’s company was hire to work with the Trinity House on the concert so I was able to enjoy the concert. The concert was a big success and their digital marketing had something to do with that.

Facebook was a major part for the “Jazz It Up Concert” digital marketing. Facebook gave the event a large target market and cost them nothing in marketing. Each of the members working on the event used their personal and business Facebook pages to help market the event. They simple placed the “Jazz It Up Concert” flyer as their profile picture and this provided details on the concert and a link to the concert website with more details.  With each of the 10 business/organizations working on the concert having over 500 friends on both their personal and business profiles reaching at least 3,000 potential customers. The concert brought in 300 people from social media marketing alone. At first this might not seem like much but with the concert bringing in 500 people with an estimated 700 people total.  With a majority of the total ticket sales coming from free marketing I would say the marketing did its job.

Other than the social media marketing success another area to look at was the SEO from the “Jazz It Up Concert” website. I searched Google for the concert and my results came back with the smooth jazz calendar being the first website from the search.  With the top search result being the calendar of the local jazz radio station helping with marketing. Another point with regards to SEO is when I started to type the concert title the first suggestion in the Google search box was Jazz It Up San Diego. This is another top search result using the concert title as keywords, which benefits the result optimization, and makes it easier for potential customers to find information on the concert.  Overall I would say the digital marketing for the concert did its job. You can read more about he concert at http://thetrinityhouse.org/JazzItUp/

"Go Forth Music"

Yesterday I received an email from a friend in New York who studied entertainment law and had recently partnered in started a new LLC. Her email asked me to vote and comment on a panel discussion she and her partner are trying to have at an upcoming conference. The panel discussion they want to have is centered on a new demographic of artists, “Music Middle Class”. When I saw this new demographic I thought about my friend 3D and how he could be placed into this demographic. Music Middle Class is defined as musicians that fall between “superstar” and “starving artist” status, make a steady income, and maintain a level of control over their careers. As I read more about what she and her partner were doing, I began to think about how many artists or artist managers out there who would find this new demographic a helpful selling point? I am sure there are more than one might think, and just I was thinking this my friend and her business partner have thought of this and provided a solution, “Go Forth Music”.

“Go Forth Music is an artist services firm dedicated to providing quality strategies and support services to musicians and music industry entrepreneurs” (goforthmusic.com).  As I looked at the site I thought to myself, this is exactly what new artist needs and what a valuable source this is. The services offered are the exact services in which most new artist need the most help with or do not have the time to deal with. Along with offering services such as website design and planning an album release, the site also offers artist professional mixes and press kit examples.

For me the press kit examples are key! Having recently done a press kit, I know how valuable they are for an artist, which I think most already know but knowing what goes into the press kit is even more important. By providing this example Go Forth Music has given artist and mangers a reliable and valuable tool to use as a guideline. I can honestly say if I did not have press kit example to follow when I did my press kit, I would not have known where to start.

The last thing I thought was very cool about the site and services was that they are coming from two people who have worked in the industry and have the educational background in the industry. This helps a new artist and managers feel comfortable using the information provided because the source is reliable. Overall the message and feel I take from Go Forth Music is that they are there for the artist and that’s most important whether you are artist yourself or managing an artist.

I will be using Go Forth Music for some consulting and working with my artists. To checkout the website and learn more about Go Forth Music please visit http://goforthmusic.com/