How To Increase The Possibility Of Receiving Funding For A Media Startup

Media startups increase in numbers and it is normal to see this as the influence of online media is constantly growing and the truth is that there is a lot of money to be made in the industry. The problem is that you cannot guarantee yourself success by having really good journalism skills or by understanding what you have to do. There is a need to obtain funding in many situations or you will end up being highly limited.

You cannot obtain funding simply because you are really good at what you do. Remember that funding usually comes from people that are interested in making money in the future. With this in mind, they are mostly interested in the business side of things, not in the product you want to create.

In order to increase the possibility of receiving funds for your media startup, we recommend that you do the following:

Find A Partner

Journalists cannot easily approach entrepreneurship. A media entrepreneur needs to create a team that is capable of basically accomplishing goals. If we just have a few journalists that want to achieve something, there is a hole in that team. In order to be really successful, you need people that know a lot about business, developers or other specialists that would complement the work of a journalist.

There are many that simply try to do everything alone. They use short term financing that can hurt other financial moves in the future without even realizing that they need partners. The most successful teams are those that are multidisciplinary. The journalists know how to offer quality but they usually have no idea about the marketing side of things.

Learn All That You Can About Customers

Entrepreneurs and media ventures have to identify customers as soon as possible. That is necessary in order to make sure that the proposed product is suitable based on the needs or wants of the consumers. You cannot say that you create a site that just offers news. There are already many such sites out there and even the really big ones do not offer all types of news. You need to realize what the target audience wants and fulfill a need or a wish through the services or products that you offer.

Building A Business Model

No matter what idea the startup is based on, it will need a strategy or it will die. The difficult part is taking that idea and transforming it so it becomes a business. In most cases people just stay focused on the idea that they have. When you forget that you run a business, it is a guarantee that you will make mistakes. One of the main reasons why startups fail is that they do not have a clear direction and there is no business plan behind the idea. Create your plan based on a business model. Also, the investors will not give you money if they do not see a business plan.

Finding The Right Investors

There is a pretty good chance that you will need to pitch the business to different investors until you obtain funding. You can lose a lot of time if you do not research available investors so that you can find those that are really good.

Before you look for funding, it is a really good idea to determine what goals you have so that you can locate funding sources with similar goals. As a simple example, the business that has a really high growth potential will want venture-capital funding and the non-profit startup needs foundation-funded grants. You basically need to realize who you want to raise money from. The team you lead needs to have goals aligned with those of the investors.

Focus On Presentations Without Many Words

It is not enough to create a really strong pitch, one that is perfect on paper. It is always better to create a prototype so that you can showcase what the investors will put money in. Any investor will find it easier to fund a project in the event that there is a vision. The entrepreneurs should employ proof-of-concept projects. Alternatively, create a website or a visual presentation that highlights that proof-of-concept. It makes it much easier for people to realize exactly what you want.

Research Is Highly Important

There are so many people that apply for funding and they do not even have a suitable research done. The media entrepreneur needs to be really careful to the project types that foundations actually fund. You need a really strong presentation, a good idea and a call to action. In order to create all these, you need research done.

You should look at your competition, get the domains you need, buy the trademarks and showcase eligibility. There are many organizations that can actually help you out right now. However, if you do not know much about the funders or the competition, you will not be able to create a really strong pitch since people do not have the necessary data to put trust into your project.

Always Create A Long Term Plan

Investors love to see the fact that you think about the future and that the future you envision is not a few months away. The investors do demand returns and whenever talking about foundation funding, this can disappear fast. A foundation is not able to offer support and this means that you only gain revenue for the short term. No matter what funding source you have, it is sure to be temporary. This means that you need to think ahead. The investors will appreciate the pitch more if there is a clear showcase of long term plans.

The Bottom Line

The more information you have about the interested investors and the more you can tell them about your project’s success potential, the higher your chances of finding funding! Never believe that simply because you have something great you will find what you are looking for. This is just a misconception that will lead you towards a lack of funding.