Help!! Busines idea!..

Pink_Mummy

Hello!

I could really do with some advcie from you lovely people..

I am looking at setting up a magazine/ directory for small local businesses in our area..

The magazine would be for a specific group of people and woud include tips, advice, whats on and a directory of local businesses.

I REALLY want to do this as I think it would be brilliant for us, my hubby and I both don't currently work because I have back and hip problems meaning he is my carer and can't go back to work full time because we have 4 children to look after too.. This would be a great way for us to work from home and up our income (I currently get a work pension which is rubbish money)

Could anyone offer any advice/ support of what to do, how to start and if you think it is a good enough idea to make decent money from it.. I am also looking to re-train as a nail technician in the new year and my hubby is looking to go into security work so that he can work a few nights a week..

Knowing what to do is soooo hard! Any advice would be greatfully received, thank you so much x

BargainGalore

I hope it isnt that company where you pay money to get so called exclusivity in your town. I forgot the name now it I would avoid it at all costs if it is

Pink_Mummy

Nope that's My Mag, I looked at them but they charge a forture for a tiny area.. I wanted to start it alone but dont know how, where or when!?!?

GavB79

Do it on-line, print based media is dying a death

Becles

Do a lot of research first.

We kept getting a local magazine through the door, but most of the ad space said "you could advertise here........." We got a few issues and then it just stopped coming, so I'm assuming it didn't work out.

PasturesNew

I worked for a printing company who were closely associated with the local Trade Association. The Trade Association couldn't afford to print/send their membership magazine any more, so the printer decided we would create a brand new "Local Business Magazine", A4, 2000 copies - to be sent out to all businesses in our postcode. There was a meeting with the Trade Association and it was agreed that, in exchange for their membership list, the magazine would include the Trade Association's 4 pages in the middle.

So this gave us: "at cost" digital printing, access to the local trade association and members directly. A winner. No. Getting people to buy advertising is tough and it's a full-time job trying to persuade them to advertise. Even the members who had always advertised in their Newsletter said "No, we'll stop advertising for now, see how it goes" - and new people said "It's new, we'll see how it goes, we've no budget for it this year".

We could run the magazine "without cost", having ad designers on tap and the huge digital printing presses right there. We could change the number of pages we were printing at the drop of a hat. And still it never broke even. We, the staff, were working for free, going in at the weekend and stuffing 2000 copies into 2000 free plastic bags and attaching 2000 labels before lugging it all to the post office. We also tried getting the local free papers ladies to deliver them and we tried using the kids of the staff and their mates to deliver them. Delivery was all within a 2 mile radius, every business.

I'd suggest you do one online first as there are no overheads really for that - and then maybe do a print run 3-4x a year max.

The cost of design/layout/printing and delivery is where the money goes.

PasturesNew

What MichelinMan said is spot on. Those are the key issues.... cost of printing and who will actually part with hard cash to advertise. It is a hard selling game. HARD.

I am close now to having built a town/community website, that over time I hope will bring me in an income. It was virtually free, I have a host that I pay once for and can then add on as many other domains as I want, so that's "free" to me as I was already using it for one domain. I used their "one click install" for Wordpress. I've found a great free template that's brilliant. And I've put a lot of work into producing pages already.

My next stage, now I have some content, is to look at income !!!!!!s/advertising.

I expect this to be a 2 year project adding in all the information, playing around with different ways of bringing in money .... but all it's costing me is time. If I hadn't already had that hosting in place then it'd be costing me $130/year plus time. $130 is about £80 or so .... cheaper than any sized print run on a magazine.

Benefits are: it's low cost, it's dynamic, I own/control everything, I can improve/tweak everything without further cost. Once I write something on a website it's there/available all the time (not like a magazine that goes in the bin).

Angely

Do a lot of research first.


+1

Hermia

Becles wrote: »

Do a lot of research first.

We kept getting a local magazine through the door, but most of the ad space said "you could advertise here........." We got a few issues and then it just stopped coming, so I'm assuming it didn't work out.

Agreed. We used to have one where I lived that disappeared. They just couldn't sell enough advertising space, the cost of printing the magazine wiped out any profit and less and less people were interested in hard-copy information. I spoke to them 18 months ago and they were hoping some businesses would buy some advertising space and save them, but nothing has been heard since.

xbrenx

Remember after the hard sell to get advertisers on board in the first place, you have to then get them to part with their cash. A friend of mine was forever owed money and in the end had to give up because of it.