Just starting. Here is my idea.

[opengrip]

Entertainment Social Networking

The Idea: A social network for the entertainment business used for networking with advanced search filters and profiles.

The Problems:
1. Being a musician myself and over the years of building bands I have noted a very big need online when it comes to networking and finding people to collaborate with.
2. Currently as a musician we need to use word of mouth or go on kijiji which is definitely lacking when it comes to seeing what you get.
3. There are only a few sites that try to accomplish this online and most are failing due to poor marketing/not enough traffic.

The Solution: A site where you sign up and make a profile which can import info from other sites all into one place. (youtube videos, twitter feeds, instagram pictures) The benefit of this site would be its search features which would allow a much easier process of networking and connecting with people. My band needs a new drummer so they search for drummers in there area and can pull up a profile that can showcase him with videos, pics, past accomplishments etc. Lets say we have our album done and are about to release our first single but want a video to really make a big impact, we can look up video directors etc. Need rehearsal space no problem.

The Results:
1. People can save time and find the resource/connection they seek a lot quicker.
2. Anything related to entertainment all in one website.
3. Gain access to new clients in a more streamlined way.

The Market: Anyone related to entertainment including the consumers.

My Questions: I feel that if the site can be built to a international scale that it could be a huge success. Would love to hear back from anyone if they had an input. Also I do realize this type of site will require some advanced coding which is currently a skillset that I don't currently have. Any advice on outsourcing/partnering? If this idea does seem good what is the quickest route for execution? Looking forward to hearing from everyone and would appreciate if this idea stayed on the inside since it does disclose my idea.

Dan

 

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[Royael]

Don't do it. Don't try to build a social network as your first business. Realistically you would need a multi million dollar investment to make this work (i even doubt that that would work, as your market is way too broad + you want to scale out internationally) - as you said yourself, the marketing for everyone else is lacking. So it will be the same for you too, unless you know how to get a customer (member) cheaper than he is to you.

 

[opengrip]

Don't do it. Don't try to build a social network as your first business. Realistically you would need a multi million dollar investment to make this work (i even doubt that that would work, as your market is way too broad + you want to scale out internationally) - as you said yourself, the marketing for everyone else is lacking. So it will be the same for you too, unless you know how to get a customer (member) cheaper than he is to you.

Not 100% sure i understand as you didn't give much detail? What exactly would cost me a multimillion dollar investment? Why is it that just because everyone else is lacking in marketing it would be the same for me? Not saying your right or wrong but your reply definitely lacked description.

Anyone else have an opinion on this idea? I joined the INSIDERS so I could filter out some better advice but so far its pretty quiet.

 

[Royael]

Not 100% sure i understand as you didn't give much detail? What exactly would cost me a multimillion dollar investment? Why is it that just because everyone else is lacking in marketing it would be the same for me? Not saying your right or wrong but your reply definitely lacked description.

Anyone else have an opinion on this idea? I joined the INSIDERS so I could filter out some better advice but so far its pretty quiet.

Sure, here's the thing. You only have 2 options for marketing to succeed: you need to get viral (=word of mouth marketing) or to get your CPA<LTV with CPA being the "cost to acquire each member/cost per acquisition" and LTV being the "live time value of each member". If you pay more for marketing than you get in return you basically can't survive. The investment comes in for "forcing" traction as you will be probably losing money for the first few years by default - because it's hard to monetize social networks. See, social networks are really hard to getting profitable without having millions of users first! There was some saying that the value of social networks is users squared (which is probably very simplified). So that's what the investment is needed for.

 

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[opengrip]

Sure, here's the thing. You only have 2 options for marketing to succeed: you need to get viral (=word of mouth marketing) or to get your CPA<LTV with CPA being the "cost to acquire each member/cost per acquisition" and LTV being the "live time value of each member". If you pay more for marketing than you get in return you basically can't survive. The investment comes in for "forcing" traction as you will be probably losing money for the first few years by default - because it's hard to monetize social networks. See, social networks are really hard to getting profitable without having millions of users first! There was some saying that the value of social networks is users squared (which is probably very simplified). So that's what the investment is needed for.

How would this be different from any other type of internet business? What other model would you suggest following instead which would be more cost effective for a first online business? I do have someone already lined up to do the coding and we are in the middle of talking to someone for graphics but if you think I should go back to the drawing board it would be nice to know what direction would be best or what to avoid.

 

[Royael]

How would this be different from any other type of internet business? What other model would you suggest following instead which would be more cost effective for a first online business? I do have someone already lined up to do the coding and we are in the middle of talking to someone for graphics but if you think I should go back to the drawing board it would be nice to know what direction would be best or what to avoid.

It's all about monetization for starting out. Just pick any business model with quick monetization - which ultimately is your feedback for having something what works. I wouldn't say your idea is bad, but its just very risky. In the end you must know for yourself, but I would rather start a business with a nearly guaranteed $1000 rather than a $1mm with a 1% chance (I don't have any idea about how the real numbers are, but this is my gut feeling for your business).

Funny is, I just published a blog article on business models - with ranking them by all those factors like risk, income potential etc... http://sunnyincome.com/39-business-models-to-make-money-online-the-ultimate-list/ So I would suggest you pick something like "web services" where you can make a quick buck from, and than scale those up. If you really want to build something like a social network at least do it for a very very tight vertical. "Anyone related to entertainment" is just too broad.

 

[opengrip]

It's all about monetization for starting out. Just pick any business model with quick monetization - which ultimately is your feedback for having something what works. I wouldn't say your idea is bad, but its just very risky. In the end you must know for yourself, but I would rather start a business with a nearly guaranteed $1000 rather than a $1mm with a 1% chance (I don't have any idea about how the real numbers are, but this is my gut feeling for your business).

Funny is, I just published a blog article on business models - with ranking them by all those factors like risk, income potential etc... http://sunnyincome.com/39-business-models-to-make-money-online-the-ultimate-list/ So I would suggest you pick something like "web services" where you can make a quick buck from, and than scale those up. If you really want to build something like a social network at least do it for a very very tight vertical. "Anyone related to entertainment" is just too broad.

Nice! Didn't expect to get a list like this. As you mentioned in your blog its hard to find a compiled list of options. That being said its very clear that a lot of these won't be worth my time if I plan to fastlane and follow the rules of CENTS.

For me I need something with a small investment when it comes to start up costs. But I also want something that can be brand-able without using my identity as the brand itself. (Makes it easier to have an exit plan) This eliminates a lot of options such as blogging, coaching etc.

The other thing is I want to be able to automate most of the business in order to free up my time. So any business that will require my time to constantly come up with new content will also be out of the question.

I feel like Flipping, brokering and investing options are great for on the side if I run into opportunities but I feel like focusing on them before I have a steady income from passive income would be a mistake.

Obviously 3rd party options aren't great for fastlane either as it takes away your overall longterm control.

For me I feel like since I don't have a physical product the best starting options would be web services or software.

I know you gave general ratings for each category regarding overall income potential but you don't really go over which give you quickest results. Would love to dive into this a little more and maybe pivot my idea in a direction that would be able to give me a way to gauge my success with less risk. That being said I don't want to lose income potential overall. Any thoughts?

 

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[Royael]

I know you gave general ratings for each category regarding overall income potential but you don't really go over which give you quickest results. Would love to dive into this a little more and maybe pivot my idea in a direction that would be able to give me a way to gauge my success with less risk. That being said I don't want to lose income potential overall. Any thoughts?

I think income potential, business success and quick results are inversely related. So you could get some quick results, but they would be very short term. Like doing a rev share or something, which I don't recommend at all. On the other side you could build up your income over time, but this wouldn't be quick at all.. as stated in the article, there obviously is no silver bullet.

I would really look into services which can be productized later on. So if you want to do something with musicians, offer them for example a service by manually creating them a "band/artist presence/website" with instagram, youtube, gig calender, description etc. and sell it for like 200$. If you can get results there, you can make a software from it anytime, lowering the costs (making it a self serve software) and turning it into a fastlane business (considering CENTS as you desire).

 

[Supa]

Funny, the first idea that a friend and me had after thinking about starting our own business (our very first one), was a social network for musicians. One where musicians from all over the world can share their work and connect with each other.

I still like the idea, but back then we got discouraged from that idea pretty fast, after we read about all the requirements needed for such a huge project (coding and legal requirements.)

Our research showed the mass amount of things to consider when building a social network, that stopped us and we decided to do something else.

I am sure it is not impossible to do, just do your research work and know what to expect when starting this project.