Anybody have a business model/mentor

[k13lock]

Good morning content creators !

Starting the day with a question, do you any of you use a business model or business plan when starting out? In my first year of doing this, have spent ALOT ($$$$$) yes a lot for 16 videos. I love what I do but need to start recouping funds at some point.

Wondering if anyone has experience with this or even could recommend a mentor to assist?

 

[Loki Doki]

the business model should be - spend as little money as possible on your channel if your hoping to recoup the money any time soon (like 1-2 years) i do quite a bit of business consultation and that would be my advice.

if i had no idea about youtube and someone came to me for investment or advice with a business idea about creating content for a thing called youtube, then in all reality in would be laughable. "so let me get this straight. you want to spend $500 on equipment and then spend 20 hours a week for the next 2 years in the HOPE you might start seeing some ad revenue from a revenue stream you don't even have control of?. and if your very good (and lucky) you might earn back that $500 in 2 years.....that if you looked at the numbers only the top 1% even earn enough money to call a part time job.....i'll pass"

yes, most definitely have a plan for your channel. just don't consider it a business. consider it a hobby that sometimes costs money, that you enjoy. then a long wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down the line. you might look at and then decide if it can actually become a business. lets say 50k subs or X amount of views. or X amount of revenue a month.

the trouble with thinking to big too early is that you (like most) will get disheartened when your goal is so very far away, and at that point, most give up

have a plan for your hobby, work on your content, work on your SEO and other ways to get your videos out there. set smaller goals, for instance, build a plan and a timeframe to try and get to 1k subs. that sort of thing

unless something magical happens (see Viral which you can never plan) it will take a long long time before you get that money back. just see it as a hobby expense. or a learning expense.

hope that helps. if you want to chat more you can message me

 

[k13lock]

Thank you so much! Insightful post, wish I would have looked more into this before starting.

I will send a message

the business model should be - spend as little money as possible on your channel if your hoping to recoup the money any time soon (like 1-2 years) i do quite a bit of business consultation and that would be my advice.

if i had no idea about youtube and someone came to me for investment or advice with a business idea about creating content for a thing called youtube, then in all reality in would be laughable. "so let me get this straight. you want to spend $500 on equipment and then spend 20 hours a week for the next 2 years in the HOPE you might start seeing some ad revenue from a revenue stream you don't even have control of?. and if your very good (and lucky) you might earn back that $500 in 2 years.....that if you looked at the numbers only the top 1% even earn enough money to call a part time job.....i'll pass"

yes, most definitely have a plan for your channel. just don't consider it a business. consider it a hobby that sometimes costs money, that you enjoy. then a long wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down the line. you might look at and then decide if it can actually become a business. lets say 50k subs or X amount of views. or X amount of revenue a month.

the trouble with thinking to big too early is that you (like most) will get disheartened when your goal is so very far away, and at that point, most give up

have a plan for your hobby, work on your content, work on your SEO and other ways to get your videos out there. set smaller goals, for instance, build a plan and a timeframe to try and get to 1k subs. that sort of thing

unless something magical happens (see Viral which you can never plan) it will take a long long time before you get that money back. just see it as a hobby expense. or a learning expense.

hope that helps. if you want to chat more you can message me

 

[KidsCorner]

While I agree mostly with Loki Doki, Youtube is also for people chasing dreams. If you want to chase your dreams, you have to make a business plan in my opinion, you can't rely on luck (better try the lottery). Work hard, be smart and keep chasing your dream! If it needs funding to chase your dream you need to take that into the plan. Just try not to spend money on stuff you can't afford and you e.g. have to earn it back before date X or go broke.

 

[k13lock]

While I agree mostly with Loki Doki, Youtube is also for people chasing dreams. If you want to chase your dreams, you have to make a business plan in my opinion, you can't rely on luck (better try the lottery). Work hard, be smart and keep chasing your dream! If it needs funding to chase your dream you need to take that into the plan. Just try not to spend money on stuff you can't afford and you e.g. have to earn it back before date X or go broke.

Chasing my dream! So a business plan is would be necessary.

Thank you for the insight and your response

 

[Loki Doki]

While I agree mostly with Loki Doki, Youtube is also for people chasing dreams. If you want to chase your dreams, you have to make a business plan in my opinion, you can't rely on luck (better try the lottery). Work hard, be smart and keep chasing your dream! If it needs funding to chase your dream you need to take that into the plan. Just try not to spend money on stuff you can't afford and you e.g. have to earn it back before date X or go broke.

as i said, you definitely should have a plan, just not a business plan because its not a business plan. semantics i know but i am hoping people get what i mean

 

[KidsCorner]

as i said, you definitely should have a plan, just not a business plan because its not a business plan. semantics i know but i am hoping people get what i mean

yeah understand what you mean. I have a plan and do spend quite some money chasing my dream. If it doesn't work while giving my best I don't mind losing the money in the process, I knew it was for trying to reach my goals. I try to approach it as much as a business as possible as well, maybe not fun for a lot of people but it's what keeps me going and works for me. Maybe better to call it a project plan with milestones and deliverables haha

 

[Loki Doki]

yeah understand what you mean. I have a plan and do spend quite some money chasing my dream. If it doesn't work while giving my best I don't mind losing the money in the process, I knew it was for trying to reach my goals. I try to approach it as much as a business as possible as well, maybe not fun for a lot of people but it's what keeps me going and works for me. Maybe better to call it a project plan with milestones and deliverables haha

you are totally right. and its fine to chase the big dreams, i fully run my channel like a business. i have just seen far too many people have this giant ambition and plan and when they realise how frickin hard it is. they quit. have big plans, but have smaller goals that are reachable

 

[KidsCorner]

you are totally right. and its fine to chase the big dreams, i fully run my channel like a business. i have just seen far too many people have this giant ambition and plan and when they realise how frickin hard it is. they quit. have big plans, but have smaller goals that are reachable

Exactly, it's very hard to achieve it. I thought I started with a good plan and expected it to be tough and challenging. It turned out much harder than I expected! While I prepared myself for a tough first 3 months, I underestimated the mental impact of spending so much time and money for content going straight into the lost and found department at Youtube.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

I had two plans when we started. The first was a spreadsheet with startup and operating financials so I could keep track of startup costing and then control the operating expenses. The second part was a marketing plan that outlined what steps to take to market videos and the channel. This includes a social media strategy, Adwords strategy, etc. Then there was a branding outline that specified the logo, tagline, color schemes, message we want to get across.

Another key component was what I would call a 'best practices plan'. This is a combination of detail research on other successful channels, an analysis of their video strategies, seo, promotions, topics, etc. This outlines the types of videos we should do, and when to do them, to have the best chances of success. One key decision that came out of this was not to launch with giant surprise egg videos. Apart from one particular (now big) channel, most startup channels that did their giant egg videos too soon flopped on those videos as they did not have enough channel authority for YT to place those videos in suggested. We held off until we had several thousand subscribers, and the giant egg videos were able to get much better traction. There were several other similar items like that I identified and planned for.

If I format and print and bind all those together, they would make up the business plan. Of course some sections are missing, as I did not want to spend weeks and months planning for something that might have flopped. There's a certain energy to rolling your sleeves up and just doing stuff, that too much planning can stiffen.

Mentor wise? I find several past/older members of this board extremely helpful, a few inspirational.