How do you do it when you don't have all the skills for the business idea?

Pussyhands

I would love to have my own business and I think I have some great ideas but the problem is I have no idea how to get started.

For example, I have an idea for a monthly sports review magazine.

Something similar to this monthly magazine here: https://fantasyfootballmag.com/subscribe/

I think I could sell it for 6 euro.

I would target forums online.

The thing is I have no idea what's involved in making this a reality. I'm guessing a graphic designer to make it look good, who do I contact for use of images?

How do I even do a digital mock up to get it printed?

The content I would be fine with but everything else seems so difficult and I don't know where to start.

This is a common theme for me where I think I have a good idea but I just don't know how to get it off the ground...

steve_

Im just gonna throw my two cents in here. but i honestly cannot remember the last time i bought a magazine. Every piece of info i need on any subject is just a few clicks away on my phone. Not to say that others don't still buy mags but i would say its a very volatile business idea at best.

I wouldn't even consider looking at print runs just yet. Try get a digital copy created and see if you can sell that first as a digital download. Even just based on the link you posted you can see they are using https://issuu.com/ to embed a digital copy on their site.

Get a designer, or learn something like InDesign yourself, write the content and try secure imagery and then self publish it on your site. I think your going to need a license though to use any premier league photos first see here

Pussyhands

steve_ wrote: »

Im just gonna throw my two cents in here. but i honestly cannot remember the last time i bought a magazine. Every piece of info i need on any subject is just a few clicks away on my phone. Not to say that others don't still buy mags but i would say its a very volatile business idea at best.

I wouldn't even consider looking at print runs just yet. Try get a digital copy created and see if you can sell that first as a digital download. Even just based on the link you posted you can see they are using https://issuu.com/ to embed a digital copy on their site.

Get a designer, or learn something like InDesign yourself, write the content and try secure imagery and then self publish it on your site. I think your going to need a license though to use any premier league photos first see here

I know I know, no one buys magazines anymore. But it seems any idea I have people will say it won't work and then I see that idea work.

Why wait for someone else to do it, see them successful and then try and win people from them? I think things go in cycles. People are now buying records again because they want the physical copy.

Personally (and I know just because I'd buy it doesn't mean others would) I would buy it because I'd look forward to the monthly review of the previous month and it would take me away from mobile/laptop and give me something interesting to read. Having the physical copy of reviews for different months would appeal to me because I could quickly pick up a copy and have a flick through.

I know the magazine I linked crowdfunded something like 4k pounds for image licences.

Gloomtastic!

That magazine is less than a year old. That is no indication of a sustainable market.

If you want to move forward with this, you have to think on-line. The lead-in for print magazines is too long - you write the story today, once it's printed and distributed, it may not be with the reader for two weeks. How much does a fantasy football team change in that time? On-line is instant.

Where are you going to make revenue from? How are your writing skills? Can you pump out 2/3000 words every day? If not then you'll need to buy in that skill. How's your sales ability? Not good, then you'll have to buy that skill in too.

Where are you going to get the money from?

Pussyhands

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

That magazine is less than a year old. That is no indication of a sustainable market.

If you want to move forward with this, you have to think on-line. The lead-in for print magazines is too long - you write the story today, once it's printed and distributed, it may not be with the reader for two weeks. How much does a fantasy football team change in that time? On-line is instant.

Where are you going to make revenue from? How are your writing skills? Can you pump out 2/3000 words every day? If not then you'll need to buy in that skill. How's your sales ability? Not good, then you'll have to buy that skill in too.

Where are you going to get the money from?

The magazine would be a monthly review, a past review.

Revenue would be solely from people subscribing and buying the magazine, possibly get some advertisements in time but wouldn't have any right away.

Content wise it's fine, I know what people like and know people who might be interested in writing for the magazine. The cost for this would obviously need to be taken into account.

steve_

Would you not consider just starting a site first and writing some blog content and see how that goes first? It would be very similar to your original idea without so much of the costs. You could create a forum to get people talking and publish your reviews on the blog.

You could try some affiliate marketing to generate some money and once you've got regular visitors and subscribers you could try the magazine option

Avatar MIA

Pussyhands wrote: »

The magazine would be a monthly review, a past review.

Revenue would be solely from people subscribing and buying the magazine, possibly get some advertisements in time but wouldn't have any right away.

Content wise it's fine, I know what people like and know people who might be interested in writing for the magazine. The cost for this would obviously need to be taken into account.

You're thinking of starting up a monthly PAPER magazine?

This sounds like a how to make a million euro idea... Start with 10 million and start a monthly magazine.

You'd need to attract high caliber sports journalists, and they wont come cheap or in all likelihood associate themselves with a start up magazine owned by an unknown.

And who wants to read about what happened a month ago when they can go on Boards.ie and discuss the event last night?

As a matter of interest what ideas did you come up with you saw someone else run with?

I don't mean to knock your drive, but starting a magazine must be one of the hardest things a novice could do.

Gloomtastic!

Pussyhands wrote: »

The magazine would be a monthly review, a past review.

Revenue would be solely from people subscribing and buying the magazine, possibly get some advertisements in time but wouldn't have any right away.

Content wise it's fine, I know what people like and know people who might be interested in writing for the magazine. The cost for this would obviously need to be taken into account.

Stop dreaming and come back to the real world!!!!

Forget print, you haven't got the money to finance it for six months before you see a cent.

Start small i.e. just you, on-line and build it from there.

So, no revenue from subscribers, where are you going to get your money from?

Pussyhands

steve_ wrote: »

Would you not consider just starting a site first and writing some blog content and see how that goes first? It would be very similar to your original idea without so much of the costs. You could create a forum to get people talking and publish your reviews on the blog.

You could try some affiliate marketing to generate some money and once you've got regular visitors and subscribers you could try the magazine option

I think a physical copy is the main attraction. The experience of reading something on paper is much different to reading it on a screen. A site is too similar to a forum where there's bit and pieces of the content I'd have anyways.

steve_

Pussyhands wrote: »

I think a physical copy is the main attraction. The experience of reading something on paper is much different to reading it on a screen. A site is too similar to a forum where there's bit and pieces of the content I'd have anyways.

for the kind of content you're putting out i can say that personally i wouldnt be too bothered with a physical copy. Id rather read through a quick blog post on my phone and be done with it. Best of luck anyhow

Pussyhands

Avatar MIA wrote: »

You're thinking of starting up a monthly PAPER magazine?

This sounds like a how to make a million euro idea... Start with 10 million and start a monthly magazine.

You'd need to attract high caliber sports journalists, and they wont come cheap or in all likelihood associate themselves with a start up magazine owned by an unknown.

And who wants to read about what happened a month ago when they can go on Boards.ie and discuss the event last night?

As a matter of interest what ideas did you come up with you saw someone else run with?

I don't mean to knock your drive, but starting a magazine must be one of the hardest things a novice could do.

I saw the dollar shave club monthly sub model work in the states and thought it would work in Ireland. Then I saw boldking advertise here.

I also thought of an app for finding a cleaner and now I've seen helping advertise on tv here.

That's just two and I didn't neccessarily create the idea but I thought it would work here.

If you look at an ireland (Dublin) only publication you look at the Dublin Inquirer. They have actual proper journalists who need to be paid well and they print. I think my market is much bigger as I'd be looking at the UK, US & Ireland.

Regarding discussing the events and they could just come on boards.ie, I'd be focusing on stats, analysis and conclusions. People would read things they might not neccessarily go looking for but they might find interesting.

Pussyhands

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Stop dreaming and come back to the real world!!!!

Forget print, you haven't got the money to finance it for six months before you see a cent.

Start small i.e. just you, on-line and build it from there.

So, no revenue from subscribers, where are you going to get your money from?

I don't see why I would need a huge financial need. It's a subscription model, only printing copies that were sold. I would think all costs would be covered by the price of the magazine but I haven't looked into it in huge detail yet.

steve_

I just gotta say the Dollar Shave Club solved a need people had. They wanted cheap razors delivered to their door without any fuss. Not to mention they had some of the best marketing campaigns to back them up.

Your idea isnt a need that people are actively looking for. Its another magazine along with the 1000's of other magazines in an industry literally being crippled by online content.

Just take these people's advice and think digital cause print is a non runner

steve_

Pussyhands wrote: »

I don't see why I would need a huge financial need. It's a subscription model, only printing copies that were sold. I would think all costs would be covered by the price of the magazine but I haven't looked into it in huge detail yet.

Then look into print runs and how a magazine is actually printed. No print house is gonna fire up their machines for a handful of copies

Bandara

You are aware that you will need a marketing budget of millions ?

You are aware that magazine sales in every sector, except womens casual weeklies, are down approx 60% in the past 3 years ?

What do you know about the magazine/sports/journalist/design/marketing industries ?

Do you have the skills and experience and are you impressive enough an individual to sit in front of a room of hard nosed financiers and pitch for a business loan? And if you are successful, you are aware that you will need to provide up to 60% of the funding yourself and then sign personal guarantees for the rest.

Oh, and you'll need millions to make it work. And even then its highly odds against that you'll last three months.

Its a dead industry thats never coming back

Pussyhands

Bandara wrote: »

You are aware that you will need a marketing budget of millions ?

You are aware that magazine sales in every sector, except womens casual weeklies, are down approx 60% in the past 3 years ?

What do you know about the magazine/sports/journalist/design/marketing industries ?

Do you have the skills and experience and are you impressive enough an individual to sit in front of a room of hard nosed financiers and pitch for a business loan? And if you are successful, you are aware that you will need to provide up to 60% of the funding yourself and then sign personal guarantees for the rest.

Oh, and you'll need millions to make it work. And even then its highly odds against that you'll last three months.

Its a dead industry thats never coming back

I don't know why you would think it takes millions. These guys have monthly mags going for a much smaller demographic...

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyPL/comments/62kmyl/a_quick_update_on_the_fantasy_football_magazine/

Avatar MIA

Are you thinking of a print on demand colour magazine with approx 40 pages? Ballpark I'd say you'd be looking at 10-12 euro per magazine to print, probably higher. That's before distribution costs. That's the good news, because these are variable costs, so if that's all the costs you had you could "simply" charge €15 per mag and you'd cover your costs.

But what about the content? who is going to generate that? These people are going to want payment whether you sell zero or 10,000.

What price point are you thinking of selling your magazine?

And what can you offer that isn't for free on the internet, what will be your distribution channel?

Avatar MIA

Pussyhands wrote: »

I don't know why you would think it takes millions. These guys have monthly mags going for a much smaller demographic...

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyPL/comments/62kmyl/a_quick_update_on_the_fantasy_football_magazine/

"Firstly, thank you to everyone who downloaded"

Download magazine... bit of a hobby for you, grand. Go for it.

steve_

Pussyhands wrote: »

I don't know why you would think it takes millions. These guys have monthly mags going for a much smaller demographic...

https://www.reddit.com/r/FantasyPL/comments/62kmyl/a_quick_update_on_the_fantasy_football_magazine/

Why not email them. Ask them how they managed it and their costs and overheads.

Vex Willems

Why anyone would think starting up in print media in this day and age is a good idea I just don't understand, you are probably 20 years too late! We live in a digital world now, go digital and and try and find a way to monetise it.

StupidLikeAFox

You seem to have your heart set on a print magazine but it's a huge undertaking without qualifying the need.

If you are confident you can create compelling content, then build a user base online, build a mailing list and facebook following etc. You can still publish a magazine once a month if that's a business model you think would work but distribute it digitally. Then, when you have proved that you have something there, you can begin to monetise it, which may include a print run if that's what your research tells you.

Try read up on the lean startup and the concept of "minimum viable product" - I think you would find it interesting. It might give you an idea how to approach this or other business ideas you might have

Pussyhands

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

You seem to have your heart set on a print magazine but it's a huge undertaking without qualifying the need.

If you are confident you can create compelling content, then build a user base online, build a mailing list and facebook following etc. You can still publish a magazine once a month if that's a business model you think would work but distribute it digitally. Then, when you have proved that you have something there, you can begin to monetise it, which may include a print run if that's what your research tells you.

Try read up on the lean startup and the concept of "minimum viable product" - I think you would find it interesting. It might give you an idea how to approach this or other business ideas you might have

Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't be starting it and just hoping people buy it. I am part of a forum where I would pitch the idea and depending on whether I am seen as part of the community or someone trying to sell something.

I think the forum I frequent would be a fan of it and would hopefully get some people interested.

I will look into the lean startup.

pedroeibar1

Pussyhands wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't be starting it and just hoping people buy it. I am part of a forum where I would pitch the idea and depending on whether I am seen as part of the community or someone trying to sell something.

I think the forum I frequent would be a fan of it and would hopefully get some people interested.

I will look into the lean startup.

I think you should go for it. You will only lose whatever you put into the project (no professional investor would touch it). It will be a learning experience for you, a lesson on how to assess advice, how to sort the good advice from the bad, and when to call it quits. Go back and read Bandara’s post #15. Read the posts about digital media. Then ask yourself ‘How was I so stupid?’
The answer to your title “How do you do it when you don't have all the skills for the business idea?” is “You don’t!”