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.
