Assistance with my business plan

[Foxus]

For a first-time startup guy, it all seems a bit overwhelming. And when I say I have no business plan worked out, I have no business plan worked out.

All I know is the idea of Relevancy Records is it is a label for the people, but I don't know where to go from there.

 

[Gurjinder Singh Bhamra]

What I think you should to is just spitball ideas alone or with somebody about the brand, think about marketing, how you will do the website and how you will bring in clients

 

[Foxus]

What I think you should to is just spitball ideas alone or with somebody about the brand, think about marketing, how you will do the website and how you will bring in clients

I would like to create not just a website for the desktop version, but a mobile version as well.

Since the executive summary is basically a summary of what your business does, who it serves, etc, since I aspire to grow the label as a larger indie label than just one to house myself, or an artist or two, it would most likely have to be a corporation, not an LLC, with the executive summary being something like this:

Relevancy Records is a US-based label aiming to discover, and nourish both new and existing talent, to its fullest potential, in a plan developed between the artist and the label (since every artist is different, let alone the type of audience that artist appeals to in particular).

 

[bob1978]

For a first-time startup guy, it all seems a bit overwhelming. And when I say I have no business plan worked out, I have no business plan worked out.

All I know is the idea of Relevancy Records is it is a label for the people, but I don't know where to go from there.

You're going to have to start asking questions to yourself. What's the purpose of Relevancy Records? Why is it "for the people"? What are you trying to solve? Who will benefit from this company? Why will people purchase music from this label? Why would artists and bands sign up with this company? And so on.

Once you've outlined objectives, rationale, and goals, you can connect them together, rearrange them around, place additional notes for different parts, etc.... Then, you can begin forming a structure for how this will all work. Think about venues, equipment, contracts, skills you'll need, people with skills you'll need, research for existing businesses, schedules, and so forth.

Honestly, it's not an insurmountable amount of work. You just need time, and to be thorough, and to keep punching holes in the idea. For example, you say people will definitely buy from an indie label. Why? Did you confirm this? Don't say it's because it works for other companies, you'll actually need to get out there, and test it out yourself. Start out by signing a very simple contract with one artist, for a limited time only. You'll own temporary rights to a few of their tracks. Then, promote the music under the new label, to see what kind of interest you can gain. Promote in social media, on your local radio station, online music stations, youtube, and so forth. Then you'll know several things - what promotion strategies work, what doesn't, whether there's enough interest in the genre, and so on.

Yes, one artist/band isn't enough to do much with. You'll know very fast how strong your desire is to get the new label organized and functional.

 

[T J Tutor]

If you use a professional business plan software, it will force you to complete all of the steps that will bring everything into focus for you. One step at a time.

LivePlan
EnLoop
BPlans
StratPad

These are all good to get you started. They all have everything step by step so you don't go off course and by completing the steps you are forced to make both the creative and business decisions.