Contributing to a new business

It seems like there is a new digital media agency coming online every month so how do you decide to contribute to the latest business as an artist.

The new business already have their software and slick new website ready to go, and they now need customers and content, the customers will not even look at the business unless there is a large amount of quality content, so the first step for the new business is to find appropriate suppliers with artist content.

To advertise to the artists will be both expensive and slow, there is no way to approach artists through the site owned networks and forums of the existing websites, a bit of knowledge or research will lead to several primary options, artists, bloggers forums and social networking as a possible way to generate interest.

Artists

If the new website owners know any of the big existing artists, or can offer incentives to get some of the big players as contributors, then this can add weight when courting new artists and marketing the new website, also with some of the well know artists having their own websites and blog followings, a mention there is more networking.  

Blogger

There are a number of bloggers online that have a large loyal following, so an email with the details about the new website with any new aspects to the business, including the overview of where the new business fits into the existing market, if the new business is successful in getting a mention on one of the large blogs this  can lead to the blog post being feed by RSS Feeds to many other industry specific websites.

Forums

There are several independent forums where the business representatives can join up and get involved, post a new topic about the new business, be seen and get feedback, these forums are quite lively and often give the new business some hard questions to answer, even leading to a change of thought by the new business.

Social Networking

Social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook are fast becoming a business tool for ‘business to business’ social networking, these should not be dismissed as just a social tool, there are many artists using these services to connect to other users, a new savvy business will join up, filter and add a large number of users, they are worth considering if you are not already using them.

When someone adds me on twitter I will follow the link, look at the tweets, visit any associated websites, if I think that the information would be useful to anyone following me on twitter, I then follow them, watch their tweets and re-tweet any good posts, to pass hopefully good information to anyone that is following me.

Artist or Business

As an artist decisions are sometimes made without any business considerations, the new business has a ‘website that looks good, the upload is easy, so lets give it a go’.

If you are an artist contributing your assets to an online agency then you are a business and need to consider this in more depth when uploading your assets to a new business and make business decisions that will in the longer term benefit you.

Business Decision

As an artist you need to make a decision based on the business factors not on the look and feel of a website, it is a new business so you do not know if it will gain a market position or when, so how can you make an informed decision on contributing.

First step is to ignore the website hype and look for solid information, ask the representatives some searching questions in the forums or by email, take all the information then collate into a risk assessment.

Assessing the Risk

Every time you join a new venture there is the risk to your business, this requires calculating two components, the magnitude of the potential loss to your business and the probability that the loss will occur.

You might think that there is no risk to your existing business by contributing to a new business, so what are the elements that could make a potential loss to your existing business.

First steps are not to jump in but gather as much information about the new business that wants your assets, ‘the fact that the website is slick and the owner is a nice guy is not enough’, who is running the business and what are their industry and business background and credentials, it is a business so how sound is it, where is the financial backing for the business coming from, what skills do they have in house, most important is where are the new customers coming from to support the new business.  

If you are happy with the new company management structure, it’s financial standing and targeted markets, then you need to look at the impact on your own business, if you already contribute to other agencies is this new business going to directly compete for the same customers, do you have capacity and time to upload or would this time better spent protecting and expanding your existing business with the established agencies where you contribute.

Will your existing assets be devalued on the new website via an affiliated agency, will your assets be competing on different sites at a higher or lower price point, will spreading the same assets to another website devalue your assets by giving a lower price point and return, lower sales prices do not mean that the new business will do well there has to be a unique selling point.

The sting in the tail is the probability that a loss will occur, it takes over two years to get a small foothold in the industry, does this new business have the financial resource to survive for the next few years, as there is already a saturation of new businesses with many having tried and failed, many by using the same model as the main businesses, so what in your opinion is different with this new business that will make it stand out to buyers and contributor so it should survive. 

In a nutshell do you thinks the possible gains from contributing to this new business venture out weigh the costs and risks.    

I will have missed many points, feel free to add via the blog feedback