Advice on new business idea?

**FullPotentialAdv** · 01-01-2008 07:06 PM

I have just started a local advertising magazine for small businesses around my hometown, which is actually a big city. My target is small business owners who do not have much money in their budget to advertise. But I also plan to go after well established local companies also. I am going to put their advertisement in my magazine for a small fee. The magazine will be free to those who see it in magazine stands at drug stores or wal-marts. My attractions to the magazine are coupons the businesses will offer and specials.
Please check out my website. It is not final, it is just set up to describe my objectives.
My questions are, Do you think this is a good business idea? Any advice?

Thank you

**BusinessAdviser** · 01-01-2008 07:17 PM

I think you've made more than one of the same post, but I'll go ahead and reiterate my point from a previous post.

This is an idea that has been done. Done successfully. But you don't need to reinvent the wheel to find success.

I think that there are two keys to success:

1) Sales - You must be able to sell advertisers on the idea. You need to have a detailed business plan to show them that you are organized, professional, and have your idea planned out thoroughly. You also need to print a sample magazine in order to put your idea into tangible form and also to show the quality of the magazine. Finally, you must give them something of value if you expect them to pay you to be in the magazine, which leads to the second key...

2) Distribution - Very simply, the greater your distribution and reader base, the more interest there will be from advertisers, the higher prices you can charge, and the more money you can make. Provide greater value to your advertisers and create greater distribution by being ACTIVE in your distribution. Don't simply sit a stack of them outside Walmart and drug stores, hire a couple friends and pass them out at the busiest spots in town. Is there a college campus there? Are there a few large churches? Is there a busy movie theater or skating rink there? Pick one day per week, say Thursday, and pass out your magazine at these busy spots on Thursday each week. This will give you an opportunity to charge advertisers weekly and will create greater distribution. Starting to catch on? You must be active if you really want to be successful.

**OneStepAhead** · 01-01-2008 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by jmenq2

I think you've made more than one of the same post, but I'll go ahead and reiterate my point from a previous post.

This is an idea that has been done. Done successfully. But you don't need to reinvent the wheel to find success.

I think that there are two keys to success:

1) Sales - You must be able to sell advertisers on the idea. You need to have a detailed business plan to show them that you are organized, professional, and have your idea planned out thoroughly. You also need to print a sample magazine in order to put your idea into tangible form and also to show the quality of the magazine. Finally, you must give them something of value if you expect them to pay you to be in the magazine, which leads to the second key...

2) Distribution - Very simply, the greater your distribution and reader base, the more interest there will be from advertisers, the higher prices you can charge, and the more money you can make. Provide greater value to your advertisers and create greater distribution by being ACTIVE in your distribution. Don't simply sit a stack of them outside Walmart and drug stores, hire a couple friends and pass them out at the busiest spots in town. Is there a college campus there? Are there a few large churches? Is there a busy movie theater or skating rink there? Pick one day per week, say Thursday, and pass out your magazine at these busy spots on Thursday each week. This will give you an opportunity to charge advertisers weekly and will create greater distribution. Starting to catch on? You must be active if you really want to be successful.

Listen to jmen, he knows what he's talking about.

Going off of what he said about reinventing the wheel he is right this idea has been done before and its been done successfully. I would suggest you check out some of the franchises already doing this sort of thing, I believe coffee news is one of them. They may have already done most of the work for you, leaving the distribution and sales up to you.

Best of luck!

**BusinessAdviser** · 01-01-2008 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Nick S

Wouldn't a better idea be to advertise discount coupons for these businesses in the magazine. I do not see why people would bother reading it unless they get something of value out of it. I would make the magazine that offers discount coupons for every business advertised in it.

Oh yeh and you obviously need good sales people.

Two things:

1) I agree with Nick, but I assumed that was how you were doing it. The advertisements need to basically all include discounts/coupons. Otherwise, readers will have no reason to open the magazine.

2) You need good sales people, but this must certainly include yourself. You need to keep costs low by doing the legwork yourself, maybe have a friend or two help. The entrepreneurs who think they can just come up with an idea and hire people to run it for them run into the "reality wall" pretty damn hard.