Final Project: Business Plan

            Finally, the fruits of all our labor is put together and our business projects begin to take a life of their own; at least on paper. In what has been a twelve-month odyssey, albeit a fun and exciting one, I can say that my skills and abilities as an entrepreneur and businessman have grown ten-fold. I can say that every single course listed below was crucial to take in order to arrive where I have today. My business plan is set, I have successfully written an executive summary, a company description, identified both a target market and the competition, analyzed the state of the industry and what that means for my company, set up a successful marketing plan, outlined the management structure and operations for the company, delivered an elevator pitch and investor presentation, and finalized all the facts and figures for the financial data needed to get this endeavor successfully finished.

            From my personal experience, not having had to write up a business plan for the franchise company I used to own, I can say today that I wished I would have. Even though I ran that business properly and successfully, I can only imagine how much better equipped that business would have been with one in place. Moving forward, knowing that I can prepare a business plan for either a start-up or a business already in existence looking to expand and grow is more than just satisfying, it is empowering. The last few words I would like to leave about this experience is that the knowledge I have gained, the connections I have made, and the abilities I have added to my repertoire throughout the entire program and process are as invaluable to me as the love I receive from my family. Should anyone out there ever think bout going through this experience, my recommendation would be that the tools to improve on your abilities and skills, as a leader and business person, are here, it is up to you on how effective they will actually be and what impact they will leave on your career. This was a great experience and I am truly thankful for it. 

Business Plan Development

Received Course Director Award

            The first of two courses that is the result of all the previous courses culminating together to bring forth a potential business plan. For me, it was at this point where I began to realize how all of the knowledge from the prior courses below began to fit like a puzzle into what was eventually going to be my business plan. Even though there is now one right way to write and execute a business plan, having the knowledge of what investors and lenders look for in one is beyond extraordinary. Even if the business plan is created for a start-up, as it was in my case, if anything at the least the benefits of writing one makes one think about the environment that company will potentially be going into. In this course, knowledge is key, and the more knowledge you have about your company, industry, market and competition the better situated your business will be when it opens its doors to do business.

            Aside from thinking about one’s target market or competition within the industry, the financials is where the meat of the business is. Understanding how to find, build and execute proper start-up costs, staffing salary, and more can be what makes an investor interested in an idea or not. For it is as I said numerous times below, it all comes down to the bottom line. And as it should when it comes to doing business, it is only natural to want to invest in one that is going to produce and generate a return. Making the right assumptions now at the business plan stage can mean seeing your company profitably in the near future.

Digital Marketing

            Having majored in Marketing for my undergrad degree, I felt completely at home in this course and loved every minute of it. It was very refreshing being in this course since, back during my undergrad, this form of marketing was still in its infancy and was not more than just an afterthought in general marketing courses. Focusing on real world application, digital marketing is a rapidly growing form of marketing that has many interconnected concepts that branch out like a spider web. The ability to understand and implement search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to any business with a website functioning over the Internet. Using SEO functions to improve traffic towards websites, blogs, online stores, or social media platforms is a relatively cheap endeavor. Understanding how to implement, track, analyze, and interpret result from display and pay-per-click advertising cannot only help with traffic initiatives, but also help to better understand consumer behavior. The better one understands their customer market, the easier it will be to get a desired message across.

            This course has also empowered me with the ability to strategize and execute a digital marketing plan, for not just a business but also a product or service initiative. Tasking different objectives within an online campaign so that every digital endeavor works cohesively is what can truly make a difference when reviewing the bottom line at the end. Also, having a plan in place also means having a budget to work with and allocate to certain initiatives within a plan. With that said, this means every aspect of a digital campaign is running as effective, both intentionally and in cost, as it can possibly be. This course has only strengthened my understanding and experience of being a marketer in today’s economy.

Entertainment Media Publishing & Distribution

            Having great ideas and concepts is wonderful, but without possessing the knowledge of how to go about releasing said ideas into the market is as useful as not having created anything in the first place. It does not matter what branch of the entertainment industry one belongs to, if you want to release content you have two options: 1) find someone to publish your work for you, or 2) do it yourself. For something that may sound easy enough to do, the amount of work and preparation that goes into following either option more the opposite. This course has provided me the ability to write film treatments, television show pitches, screenplays, and game design documents. Self-publish music or any types of literature, while at the same time being cost effective in order to produce a higher return at the end are invaluable abilities. More so, having an understanding of the different distribution chains within the industry puts me at the advantage of being able to choose from more options for distribution with more than just an educated guess. The information taught in this course and the skill set gained by the end of it is what sets the amateurs apart form the professionals.

Advanced Entertainment Law

            As the second graduate law course I take, this Advanced Entertainment Law differed greatly for the Corporate Law course I took a couple of years prior. I am fortunate enough to have knowledge from both, and at the same time glad I was able to do so because law is a field that really piques my interest. In Advanced Entertainment Law I was able to apply everything that I learned in Corporate Law and put it into an entertainment setting. Having had the chance to dive deeper into intellectual property and contracts I now have a clearer understanding as to how law is applied in this industry. Also, the benefits of having taken two courses in my lifetime is that I cannot only understand the legalities that go on in an entertainment company; I can also comprehend legal issues that arise on a corporate level, such as business to business issues.

            For the entertainment field this course teaches one how to better protect themselves and their work in today’s legal system. Protecting one’s property is crucial to any creative individual. Aside from protecting work, negotiating contracts within the entertainment field is vital to a career. The ability to know where one stands legally and what options are available can be the difference in having the upper hand in any given legal situation. This course is fundamentally important to any future businessman or woman.

Product & Artist Management

            In a course that took me back to my undergrad days, I quickly realized that managing and artist is not much different than managing a product. In essence an artist is also in many ways a product; at least in the form of the work they produce. When managing any profitable entity, one must not only set goals and objectives to guide that product or artist properly, one most definitely should have a plan for how they will accomplish those goals. With that said, a key skill one must possess is strategy development. Having the ability to project and foresee certain obstacles and setbacks can make the difference form having a successful product/artist or one that fails to reach its potential. Personally, my planning and tasking skills have been put to work since the days of owning my own franchise. We had many seasonal products that needed planned managing in order to be implemented into the market successfully. With the years of experience, I have seen how managing products correctly benefits a business. If the same due diligence is apply towards an artist I am confident in my management skills to get that job done effectively.