Learning Process

            As I approach the end of graduate school I find myself in the position of reevaluating a great deal of the work that I have done since I first began pursuing a Masters’ Degree in Entertainment Business. Many of my initial assumptions have been left behind in favor of new approaches that I had never even considered before learning more about the business end of the industry.

            For example, after studying the strategies of Daymond John and Robert Herjavec I have come to understand that finding investors is not a matter of simply cranking out a standardized business plan that can be sent out to as many people as possible while I sit in my office with my fingers crossed.

            Investors want to see something tangible. They want physical evidence that the person in charge of a project is personally invested in the production, and willing to put forth the effort to make it a reality. Both Daymond John and Robert Herjavec emphasized that a business plan is only a rough blueprint of what is intended, and that the actions of the project leader are far more important in terms of achieving actual results.

            Taking this information into account I have adjusted my initial strategy accordingly. I have reduced my focus on developing a business plan, simplified the over all design of the business plan, and redoubled my efforts on the tangible aspects of the production company.

            Instead of spending time researching what other production companies have done, I am rewriting the scripts to provide better material for the target audience. Instead of assembling biographies of work history on the people that I would like to hire, I have gone out and recruited the people that I need to get the job done. Instead of writing a lengthy review and budget analysis on soundstage rentals and construction costs, I have opened a business that pays for itself and can be used as a zero cost location for the show.

            This means that I won’t be approaching investors and saying, “I need $3 Million and here is a stack of pie charts explaining what I am going to spend the money on.”  Instead I will be saying, “I have already secured everything that $2.5 Million of the budget would have paid for. If you invest the rest of the money needed you can be the person who gets to come along for the ride and make a lot of money with me.”

            What I have learned, what I have adopted into my personal business strategy, and what I have made the focus of my business plan is to demonstrate that so much of the project has already been accomplished that when investors look at the production they can see that my company will be moving forward with or without them. It is an exciting message to deliver in a weak economy. And, it will draw far more attention than a simple standard approach, because actions speak louder than words.