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Hi :) starting a new business and need advice

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melt71

Hi, I'm a regular lurker but this is my first post! ;)
I've been wanting to start my own business for years, probably about 10 years on and off :redface: but I'm finally getting around to it.

I was looking at franchises and came across the mymag and community mag ideas and that kind of thing appealed to me, although not enough to pay the £3.5 fee! :eek: I live in a small rural(ish) town and we currently have 3 free publications; one of them a weekly paper which is ok but mainly consists of a property section, one of them is a weekly A4 mag but is printed using newspaper type print and the other is a monthly publication which is rubbish - it could be 10 times better than it is. Both of the magazine's cover a huge area of our county and 80% of the info in them is irrelevant to people in my town. However in my postcode area we have 16000+ residential addresses and 2000+ registered business addresses, so I know that there is a market for a decent publication here. Both of the existing magazines are FULL of advertisers and I'm convinced that advertisers would be willing to pay to advertise in our high quality glossy and reach their target audience (as opposed to people over an hour away).

My partner will be joining me in this venture and will the one concentrating on the advertising, I will be doing the magazine design, website and all of the finance/admin.

Our mag will be a 40 page A5 glossy and to start making a profit we need to sell approx 12.5 pages of adverts. We are 90% of the way through our business plan, we've sorted the printer, priced up delivery via Royal Mail, organised the website (although it has nothing on it yet!) and we have pretty much all of the operational stuff (computer, software, phoneline etc) we need to get started.

so... can you give us any advice?

We are still decided about the legalities of the business; we will need to register for VAT as our income should be over the threshold. We will be visiting an accountant shortly and hopefully he will sort this out for us.

I am currently working 30 hours per week and earn £18k so I will need to register the business as my second job but my partner has cut his hours right down to about 16 per week so that he can go and visit businesses during the day.

Do you think we should become a limited company? Or is that not the best option for our situation. If we should, is it easy to do as I've looked at the Companies House website and it looked...confusing!

ANY advice would be really welcome. I'm having a daily crisis of confidence although most of the time I'm really excited. :D On the other hand, my partner is totally convinced everything will work out great!


Thanks, Mel
 
Hi Mel,

Good luck with it. Magazines are not the easiest businesses to turn a profit from. Although I do know people that have done very well from it.

It sounds like you really need to talk to an accountant. S/he will be able to advise on the best structure for the business (ie, ltd co, partnership, etc).

Most accountants will provide an initial consultation for free.
 
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Hi, thanks for your reply. I can imagine that magazines can be a nightmare at times, we havent even started yet but our prints quotes vary by almost £3k for the same spec!! Which would have meant that we would have had to have sold double the amount of advertising to break even. I anticipate that the first issue will be done at a loss as most businesses won't want to risk us because they cant see the magazine, however, I'm confident that once issue one is out that they will want to advertise in ours rather other publications. Thanks again for your reply.
 
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No problem. Have you had examples of real mags from both of the printers to see why the cost is so different?

I know two magazines that started at the same time aimed at the same market (they were formed by a falling out at another mag that closed up shop).

Magazine A didn't give a sh*t about it's audience and saw the mag as a money making machine

The owner of Magazine B was very in to the 'scene' and cared about the readership on a personal level.

One has gone on to be a huge success financially and is known by everyone on their target audience.

The other is still ticking over but hasn't made much of an impression.

Care to guess which is which?

Regardless of wether your mag is a finanical success or not, you'e guaranteed to have a whale of a time getting it off the ground. Enjoy it!
 
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Well I hope that our mag will have a balance of wanting to give the readers a quality publication both in print and online with relevant local info, whilst making a nice profit for us! :)

I think the main difference in the printing prices was firstly the local printers turned out to be very expensive and as I was talking to a printer later on it appears that certain printers are better equipped to print magazines than others, I can't remember what he called it but he very honestly said he wouldn't be able to do the job (he was more of a letterhead/leaflet/small brochure printer). I have seen samples from the one we are going to use and he's doing a proof for us, so it should be ok. The samples were great, even better than I imagined and I can't wait to see our proofs!!

Thanks again for your replies.
 
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Hi,

We are launching a local magazine with a website to run alongside targeted at our local community.

Our advertising has already been secured for the first 12 months by going out and speaking with the potential advertisers and getting deposits to secure this. It hasn't been easy - its been 6 months of hard work!.

I think our main selling point has been the locally targeted market through the magazine but we also offered website advertising at no extra cost. The website will be a portal for our local area so this is also targeted to the local community and also generated content through forums etc.

If you want any further advice, PM me.

Best of luck!
 
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Sorry to sound negative, but print is VERY hard to make a success from and you really do need a sound niche and be ready for lots of hard work. Having said that "if there is a will there is a way". Be confident, focused and driven and you will hit your targets and more.

Good luck! :D
 
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Hi Mel

I ran my own local magazine a couple of years ago until my son became ill and I had to give it up. I really enjoyed it even though it was very hard work but when locals gave feedback saying they looked forward to it arriving through their door or businesses called me and said they had received another job/booking it really boosted me.

I'm a little confused about your figures though, are you saying you only need to sell 12.5 pages of ads to make a profit on printing and the RM delivering 18k magazines?
 
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carolb said:
Hi Mel

I ran my own local magazine a couple of years ago until my son became ill and I had to give it up. I really enjoyed it even though it was very hard work but when locals gave feedback saying they looked forward to it arriving through their door or businesses called me and said they had received another job/booking it really boosted me.

I'm a little confused about your figures though, are you saying you only need to sell 12.5 pages of ads to make a profit on printing and the RM delivering 18k magazines?
Click to expand...

Hi Carol, thanks for your reply. Good to know you actually enjoyed doing the magazine even though it was hard work.:)

We have a max 30 pages of advert space (it's a 40 page mag) and we need to sell 12.5 of those to pay for the printing costs and royal mail delivery. This is taking into account the maximum discounts (for long term ads) so in other words I've averaged out the figures and took off the maximum discounts that we offer - it leaves us needing to fill 12.5 full pages of ads and once we go above that we're in profit.

We could save a grand by trying to deliver the mag ourselves or get volunteers to do it, but I don't think it will be worth it. One of our selling points will be that it will delivered by royal mail every month to all homes and businesses in our postcode area, so I think it will be worth the money.

I've set my advert rates by comparing prices with other local mags and also using community magazines elsewhere in the UK as a price guide (they have the same distribution figures).

I hope I've got my figures right, I'll be annoyed if I haven't as I've been doing this part of the business plan for about 4 weeks!

I'm moving on to the Marketing part of the business plan tonight so if you have any ideas I would certainly welcome your input :) I'm especially interested to hear how you got started as I've heard that the most difficult part of the initial selling is that businesses want to 'see' the finished magazine :| How did you get past that hurdle? We will have a media pack (an 8 page glossy mag) which will look like our magazine and will be the same quality paper. Do you think this will be enough?

Thanks again,

Mel
 
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Who's doing the selling? There are lots of facets to what you're about to do but it seems to me that there are two mission critical ones:

1. content
2. ad sales

All the other stuff about company structure, print runs and distribution will take your time but is straightforward and a given.

I'd highly recommend that before you do anything else you put together a sales pitch to potential advertisers and get out and provisionally sell space. You'll need the detail of what you're doing to have been worked out and you'll need a mocked up first edition. The key thing a potential advertiser needs to know is reach - ie how many people will see their ad.

Reach is not just circulation it's circulation x N where N is the number of people that will read each copy and circulation is the number of copies delivered. For instance there are 2 people in my house that would read it but if you get it into my dental surgery that might be hundreds.

Content is supposed to be king but infact content is cash. You must have local and interesting content otherwise it will be binned as spam but you probably also have to have advertorial or even just blatantly business sponsored articles - get the mix right and you should crawl into profit fairly quickly.
 
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Mel,
IMHO you should not spend money on the Mymag franchise. You can basically do it on your own although it'll be a little more work.

I set up my own mag, based on the mymag franchise, and i lasted about 9 months. I was making a profit, but didn't really enjoy the selling part and got frustrated chasing payments et.

Drop me a pm and i can send you a lot of my old useful info.

Reb
 
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I forgot the franchise bit.

If you're going to do this, do it your way - please don't franchise.
 
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Hi cjd and rebellion, thanks for your replies.

Firstly, I can clarify that I am definitely NOT going down the franchise route. It was when I was looking at frachises that I got the idea for a local mag, I certainly didn't fancy paying out £3500 just for a manual and a couple of CD's :p However this is why I'm having to spend so much time on the printing/delivery and business plan side of the business because I am completely starting from scratch.

My circulation is quite difficult to guess, but it will go to approx 16000 homes and as over 50% of the population in this area is over 50 years old, I think that they will read the magazine (as apposed to young people who I don't think would be as inclined to). It will also go to about 2000 companies and I will make sure that copies are in the local dentists/doctors/libraries/tourist info centre which will increase the circulation a lot. I would therefore guestimate that the circulation will be 60000 people - do you think that sounds reasonable?

I have been working on the design of the magazine and ideas for regular features since pretty much day one and you are definitely right about the need for good content, it's one of the reasons I wanted to start this as the competition is seriously lacking in that department! ;) I want to produce a magazine that I would be happy to receive through my door and would read.

Thanks again for your replies, I think I will pm the people who have suggested that I contact them.

Mel
 
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cjd said:
Who's doing the selling? I'd highly recommend that before you do anything else you put together a sales pitch to potential advertisers and get out and provisionally sell space. You'll need the detail of what you're doing to have been worked out and you'll need a mocked up first edition.
Click to expand...

Sorry I forgot to answer this point! My partner and I are complete opposites personality wise. He is absolutely relishing the thought of going in to businesses with his sales pitch! :eek: I personally find that side of the business quite daunting although I will be the one that has contact with schools/councils/libraries etc in the area as I deal with these types of businesses in my day job. I'm more the logical one, I'm going to be doing all of the admin side of the business and I'm an experienced credit controller so that side of things doesn't faze me at all. Saying that we are both creative but I'm the one with the DTP experience, and I'm also a qualified and experienced photographer which will definitely come in handy.

Basically I think between us we have everything covered because the things I like doing he wouldn't be so good at and vice versa. Although I'm terrified that there is something BIG that I am missing and it's all going to go pear shaped (which I'm sure is normal when you are starting a new business).

We are just about to get our media packs printed which will have all of the sales info on, our ad rates, who we are, circulation details & where we cover plus our introductory discounts. It will be an 8 page A5 booklet designed in the same style of the magazine and will use the same quality paper as the mag will be.

I was therefore hoping that we wouldn't need a mock up magazine. Is this realistic?

We will have until August to get enough advertisers on board before we go to print. I don't feel we can leave it any longer than August without risking the competition getting wind of what's going on.

Thanks again,

Mel
 
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Hi Mel

A mock up 8 page mag will be fine to show as a starting point. That is similar to what I had and worked OK. Although I wasn't keen on the sellin bit I basically went out and walked into shops/businesses and asked them if they could spare 5 mins whilst I told them about what I was doing.

You are not missing anything 'big' as far as I can see, but you will get a lot of businesses saying no initially so be prepared for this. You are exactly like I was - I thought the idea was fantastic and why wouldn't businesses advertise - it's a no brainer :rolleyes: except a lot of businesses didn't see it that way. They had either used their advertising budget for the year, only advertised in the local paper, didn't advertise at all but got work by way of mouth etc. so you have all these objections to get over and that's where you don't want to let it get you down. Just keep going and after a few editions the calls will start coming to you rather than you having to chase businesses.

If you do have a bad day, by all means pm me as I may be able to help or give some tips.

Don't forget to do restaurant reviews, always a good seller, and you and your partner get a free meal out of it :D PM me if you want more info!

Still concerned about your sales figures and only having to sell 12.5 pages to make it work. I had really cheap print costs and delivered the mags myself with the help of some friends to 8k homes but still had to sell 30+ pages of advertising to make a profit. PM me if you want more info

Good luck
 
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Hi Mel,

I have been in publishing and related markets for some years.

It seems that you are entering the consumer, community press market. Here are some tips compiled from mistakes that I once made.

1. Before investing or arranging working capital, be SURE that you have conducted unbiased market research for the project, using the target market in question as a data base and that the findings are positive.

2. Make up a Dummy copy of the proposed magazine to show to advertisers, distributors and contributors alike before printing a single copy.

3. Ensure that your printer has the correct plant for your job and that he/she is providing a fair and accurate print quotation with no 'hidden costs'. The choice and cost of paper stock has an enormous bearing on the final quote, so be sure you are not wasting good money on uneccesary quality paper.

4. Your available working capital should be sufficient to cover your first print bill plus your first month's working overheads. Relying on unplaced budgeted advertising revenue which may not materialise at first is economic suicide!

5. Your distributor is one of the most important criteria in your business plan. He must be reliable, quantitive and known to potential advertisers, especially if the publication is a freebie. For it to be percieved as having readership value by the advertisers it must be professionally distributed.

6. Remember that community press publications rely on covering local news. You should ensure that you have a reliable and competent network of local contributors who geographically mirror your distribution network.

7. The cost per thousand readership ad rate is as important as the cost per circulation ad rate. Remember also that classifieds, correctly priced, can be most lucrative and provide readership interest.

Remain positive, but remember to be realistic as well.

This is hard work, but can be very rewarding.

Good luck

Allan.
Faldon Ltd.
 
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^^^^ Good post.
 
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Allan, you make allot of sense.

I see that was your first post.

Welcome to the site.
 
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All good information already given. The only thing that struck me was...Where are you going to get the actual non-advertising content from?

I have seen numerous of these local mags coming out in my area, but few have lasted long. My interest came from wanting to produce one myself at a stage. Their main problem was being taken seriously as newsworthy print. They all fell into the trap of being an advertising magazine and readership fell dramatically.

The only suggestion I would give is to get some articles published from experts as well as plenty of local news. One of our local papers started an 'out and about' section which gave a round up of information from each area, mentioning people graduating, 50th anniversaries, twins being born, etc - local people have an interest in this sort of thing from their own area. You could also ask some of the members on here for help with some useful articles on subjects like Computers, Personal Legal Issues, Tax Help, Finances, etc. Some might have articles you could publish or will write you one. You could also have a section which would highlight and review websites of public interest, etc. The options are limitless, but something to keep them reading is essential.

Good luck with it.

Mark

Oh, and welcome to Allan as well - good post to introduce yourself with.
 
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Comspec said:
All good information already given. The only thing that struck me was...Where are you going to get the actual non-advertising content from?
Click to expand...
That's actually why I wanted to start this business in the first place. I love good magazine articles but they are very much lacking in the existing publications in this area, although there certainly doesn't seem to be a lack of advertisers! It's shocking really, one of the publications is so bad (content wise) that I actually put it straight in the recycling bin now, I don't even bother reading it, it's crap quality and just full of adverts. I wouldn't sit and read the yellow pages so I'm not going to bother reading a magazine that resembles it.

The existing publications do have the 'local news' covered though, so I aim to have articles from all different kinds of local businesses apposed to just news. I think this would be much more enjoyable and would make the magazine a better quality publication. I will also be writing some articles myself. I do have a lot of ideas and today my partner has already spoken to our Golf Club about advertising - they think our ideas are excellent and they already advertise in the existing publications so we're definitely on the right tracks. If anybody would like to contibute small articles based on your line of work then please feel free to PM me!! If you have a website I would be happy to credit your business details.

We're still in the very early stages as we haven't finalised the media packs yet, we're still debating (read arguing!!) about prices. I may do a new post about this query to get all of your expert opinions ;)

We've had a bit of advice about starting up a business and we've got our webspace & business emails sorted, our new computer, phone line etc so things are moving forward, just not as quickly as I would have liked.

Oh, and welcome to Allan as well - good post to introduce yourself with
Click to expand...
Yes it was very helpful. Thank you Allan and thanks very much to everyone who replied :D It is very much appreciated.

Mel
 
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DuaneJackson said:
I know two magazines that started at the same time aimed at the same market (they were formed by a falling out at another mag that closed up shop).

Magazine A didn't give a sh*t about it's audience and saw the mag as a money making machine

The owner of Magazine B was very in to the 'scene' and cared about the readership on a personal level.

One has gone on to be a huge success financially and is known by everyone on their target audience.

The other is still ticking over but hasn't made much of an impression.

Care to guess which is which?
Click to expand...

Noone ever did make a guess as to which was which!
 
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How to make a small fortune.

Quote Ed Dale, one time serial magazine publisher, became very successful internet marketer.

"Start with a large fortune then open a magazine"
 
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Hi Duane,

I hope that you won't be 'sulking' now!

Your analogy seems to be surrounded by some sort of 'trick' question.
You kind of want us to answer and say A magazine was the successful one financially because the publisher followed the marketing pattern of 'knowing' who is target market was.

I guess that in this case Magazine B probably bucked the normal trend, and became more financially successful, maybe because the publisher was more tenacious in his ad selling than the traditional Magazine B, who may have been concentrating his valuable time disportionately and keeping his non paying readership happy at the expense of ad revenue.

Whatever the correct answer is, I still find your main point rather ambigious, in that never in my experience has 'EVERYONE' in the target market supported such a project.

I would continue to guess and say, that if normal market forces prevailed, Magazine B may succeed in the short term, but once smart advertisers realised the true motivation of the publisher, i.e. that he was merely publishing to create a 'money making machine' for himself, they may then swap horses and support A, as after all, he is honestly reaching the readership market where the ad spend is!

It's often been proved, consumer publishing of any kind needs a proper budget with sufficient working capital to see the project through in the middle term. There is no short term miracle path to a publishing money making machine, wether in hard copy or new media form.

Please let me know if my guess answer to your example is completely wrong! Whatever, I enjoyed your challenge anyway!

Cheers, Allan.
 
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