Feedback on Business Plan

 Feedback from Final Presentation

• You said this was a side project as you needed a full time job to support yourself. Have you the time to create the many varied interviews/reviews/analysis to keep content fresh?
• Have you considered the costs in starting up a paper based magazine?

In my business plan, I didn't mention much about how I would be supporting myself financially while running the business, as it is not stable in funding by itself to be my full-time job. Therefore, I need to include more information about me and how I will cope with personal funding while my business is running.

Also, the question about having time to create content while keeping up a full-time job points out a major flaw in my business plan, due to the fact that I will be the only staff member in the business at the start of its time. In response, I will hire some freelancers to help create content while I have little time, and in return I could write a piece for them in the future, or just hire them monetarily. This adds varying tastes and writing styles to my blog which will attract a wider audience from my target demographic. This will prove to be more expensive though, which is something to be included in my finance sheet although this is difficult to estimate - there are sites such as https://www.freelancer.co.uk/ that I can use to help me with this.

When it comes to the costs in running the paper-based blog, this is included in my finance sheet (printing, postage etc.), although I haven't yet been able to estimate the costs of partnerships, which I mentioned in order to include goodies such as discounts on venue tickets and also my own merchandise. This is due to the fact that partnerships don't always have to cost money, which is something that can be helped from forming connections. 

To conclude, in response to all the questions and issues with my business plan, I will start by estimating costs altogether for printing, combining postage, printing and partnerships- this will be added to my finance sheet. Then I will look into the Freelancer website to hire some music journalists when I see fit, which will not be a regular thing as I want to stay true to the trustworthy and relatable source of music news - as mentioned in my business plan - which is hard to do when multiple people are working on the blog at the same time.

Action Plan

ASAP - start publishing blog content, loan application; investigate printed copy costs and add to finance sheet; form connections with local venues and print suppliers to help with cost reduction. Form connections with freelancers, advertising start-up.

6-12 months - apply for professional domain for website, hire freelancers when needed to add diversity to work and also focus on my full-time career.

12-16 months - start to distribute printed copies and merchandise, look into hiring editors for the blog and increase my own wages from the business.