Happily I can now confirm that the Noisy Badger’s business plan is complete, I’ve sent it over to Alex who is proofreading it in between shifts at his hateful day job. I’m actually really happy with it, it’s completely comprehensive, so much so that the sales forecast covers nine pages of A3 and takes into account a whole host of different pricing structures and release schedules. Looking at it now it may actually be too much information, but better to have too much than not enough I suppose.
Writing the document has really made me focus on what I want the business to be. Obviously I had ideas and a loose vision of the sort of entity it would become, but putting everything on paper really galvanized Noisy Badger in my mind. Writing a nine year plan will do that to you, and I’m not just talking business related aims.
I want Noisy Badger to be big enough to eventually allow me and Alex to be quite philanthropic in terms of helping raw talent get their ideas to market. Yes of course this will benefit the badger, but my motivation is probably borne from seeing so called “industry types” who really just run a two-bit operation come into universities and take all the ideas they can, not even being courteous enough to give proper feedback. You might be able to tell, I was personally involved, as a student, in a situation like this. When we help newbies we will provide clear and concise briefs, accurate feedback, and we will never EVER demand that the student sign away the rights to their idea for any time period unless we have reached an agreement with the student that we will definitely take that idea forward. Ok mini rant over. I’m getting way ahead of myself here.
I had Barclays Business division ring me up and arrange for Alex and I to meet a business manager there next Wednesday. I’d signed up to get my hands on their business plan templates (which I ended up never using) and from those details they called me. After a small chat, the guy on the other end of the phone sounded like he thought we were a good bet, and importantly said the money we are asking for isn’t that much so I’m really hopeful. A business loan would be a great alternative to investment as well, which we were really reticent to offer as the investor would make a ridiculous and unfair amount when compared to how little we need.
I’m also on the verge of securing what could be quite a substantial contract, which I unfortunately can’t go into just yet but would, if successful, happily support Noisy Badger for its first few months at the very least, at the very most it would be a rolling deal that will underwrite some of the more entrepreneurial ventures that the studio will undertake.
Exciting times indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment