I'm a college student looking to make a few extra dollars here and there. With a friend of mine, I've started a small internet-based record label without about four artists.I have a small bit of secondhand small business experience from my father, whom I worked for through high school, and his home-based business. Aside from that, however, I've never done any real business before.
I'm looking to keep things very small, maybe 10 musicians maximum, but potentially more after college. Any tips to help me along with this smaller than small business?
When we were starting out we thought about the following questions all of the time:
- Do people want our product?
- How are we differentiated?
- What will this cost us?
- How will we make money?
- Who can we ask for advice?
- What are we forgetting?
Focus on making something people want-- this is paramount. A good rule of thumb is that your product needs to be good enough that people willingly recommend it to others. Make sure your product is differentiated-- people won't trust you at first (and they will trust an established competitor) so you need to offer something customers can't get elsewhere. Charge for your product-- sounds obvious, but you can't make money without it and it's not as easy as it sounds. Network, network, network-- too many founders forget to network with customers, vendors, business partners, future employees, etc. because they get too focused on developing the product. Networking will be a great source of feedback and will open doors you may never have known existed. Remember, you're creating a business not just creating a product.