youtube what is a business plan

YouTube Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their YouTube businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a YouTube business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a YouTube Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your YouTube business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a YouTuber

If you’re looking to start a YouTube business, or grow your existing YouTube business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your YouTube business in order to improve your chances of success. Your YouTube business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for YouTube Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a YouTube business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings is the other most common form of funding for a YouTube business.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

If you want to start a YouTube business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below are links to each section of your YouTube business plan template:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of YouTube business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a YouTube business that you would like to grow?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the YouTube industry. Discuss the type of YouTube business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of YouTube business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of YouTube businesses:

• Vlog Content : this type of YouTube business features content in the form of a vlog that documents someone’s day-to-day life.
• How-To Content: this type of YouTube channel features how-to content, usually structured around a niche such as beauty, kids or home.
• Comedic Content: this type of YouTube channel features comedy skits.

In addition to explaining the type of YouTube business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of channel subscribers, number of positive reviews, number of views, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the YouTube industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the YouTube industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your YouTube business plan:

• How big is the YouTube industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your YouTube business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your YouTube business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: adult men, adult women, young men, young women, mothers, teens.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of YouTube business you operate. Clearly, teens would respond to different marketing promotions than adult men, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other YouTube businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes Instagram influencers and bloggers. You need to mention such competition as well.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other YouTube businesses with which you compete.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Find out key things about them such as:

• What types of viewers do they serve?
• What types of videos do they create, and what topics do they cover?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide better content, better quality video or delivery?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

For a YouTube business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of YouTube company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to YouTube, will you provide content on Instagram or other social channels, or offer professional speaking or consulting services?

Promotions : The final part of your YouTube marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Partnering with other websites
• Social media marketing

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your YouTube business, including planning video content, filming and editing videos, negotiating ad agreements and interacting with viewers.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to make your 50th video, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your YouTube business to a new social channel.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your YouTube business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing YouTube businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing influencers or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you publish one new video per day or per week? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your YouTube business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a YouTube business:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of equipment and supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or samples of videos you are working on.  

Putting together a business plan for your YouTube business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the YouTube industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful YouTube business.

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Click here to see how Growthink’s professional business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

YouTube Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

YouTube Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your YouTube business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their YouTube businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your YouTube business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

The Ace of Cooking Basics is a startup YouTube channel company located in Denver, Colorado. The company is founded by Charlotte, aka “Charlie” Goodson, an experienced chef who, many years ago, was confused by how long to cook a 3-minute egg. Since that initial experience in the kitchen, Charlie has gone on to learn how to cook an egg in about one hundred different ways and has added over 3,000 personally-developed recipes to her collection of “great home-cooked dishes.” Charlie has been a freelance chef for private and public catering experiences over one thousand times throughout the nation and has received the highest ratings from her guests and hosts of each event. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and frequently acts as a speaker at their international events.

The Ace of Cooking Basics will provide a full series of high-quality and engaging videos via a new YouTube channel featuring the same name. This content will reach a global audience of those who want to learn to cook or enhance their cookery skills in traditional American fashion. The series will leverage the potential of the channel and provide monetization options for The Ace of Cooking Basics.

Product Offering

The following are the services and products that The Ace of Cooking Basics will provide:

• 4-5 videos per week presented by the channel host
• Kitchen appliance product demonstrations and recommendations
• Guest appearances by popular celebrity figures
• Opportunities for video audience appearances
• Exclusive chef’s kitchen offers to “channel members”
• Cookbook offerings

Customer Focus

The Ace of Cooking Basics, based in Denver, Colorado, will target a global audience. Although the creation of digital content is highly competitive, the global interest in at-home cooking will provide multiple opportunities to grow The Ace of Cooking Basics through several customer channels. The YouTube video channel audience, particularly within the cooking sector, has continued to increase each year and the expectation is that the popularity of the company founder, in conjunction with easy-to-follow and delicious offerings, will create an exponential growth in global followers within a three-month introductory period. Videos will be tailored to the preferences of the audience, ensuring a relevant and entertaining addition to their lives.

Management Team

The Ace of Cooking Basics will be owned and operated by Charlie Goodson. She has recruited her sous chef of some years, Danielle Favice, to be her video sous chef and assistant in demonstrating products.

Charlie Goodson is a graduate of the Culinary School of Arts with a degree in American Cookery. She has been working as a freelance chef for 15 years, catering for private and public dining events for up to 1,000 attendees at one time. Her organizational skills and mastery of cooking basics has led to the creation of a cookbook, soon to be published, and a number of speaking and demonstration events. She is well-known in the culinary world, having presented meals at the James Beard House and for other stellar culinary achievements.

Danielle Favice is an experienced sous chef who has consistently supported the cooking of Chef Charlie Goodson for the past six years. She is highly-experienced in all forms of cooking, but particularly talented in desserts and pastry cooking skills. She will be the sous chef and partner to Charlie on the YouTube platform, as well as in the planning and preparation of each video segment.

Success Factors

The Ace of Cooking Basics will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly qualified team of The Ace of Cooking Basics
• High-quality video productions of cooking methods that exhibit the best cooking skills, easily-found ingredients and user-friendly interactions.
• The Ace of Cooking Basics offers lessons in cooking free-of-charge, although in-person lessons would cost thousands of dollars per person.
• Options for purchase will include: exclusive cookbooks, exclusive memberships, kitchen appliances, kitchen products, and other related offers.
• Monetization of various products or offerings by supporting partners will be included, outshining competitors with the quality and consistency of revenue garnered via this channel.

Financial Highlights

The Ace of Cooking Basics is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its The Ace of Cooking Basics. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the equipment, crew and video studio, as well as purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the strategic marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Video studio build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph below outlines the financial projections for The Ace of Cooking Basics.

Company Overview

Who is the ace of cooking basics.

The Ace of Cooking Basics is a newly established YouTube channel company based in Denver, Colorado. The Ace of Cooking Basics will be the most reliable and highly-viewed, innovative choice for the global target market. The Ace of Cooking Basics will provide a comprehensive menu of video services for all YouTube Channel viewers to utilize. Their full-service approach includes a select package of viewer membership offers, cookbook offers, kitchen appliance and product offers, and monetization by interested parties.

  The Ace of Cooking Basics will be able to produce four to five video lessons weekly, in addition to publishing books and ancillary materials, providing cooking tips and hints, previewing high-quality products for review and recommendation, and conducting behind-the-scenes production and video editing. The team of professionals are highly qualified and experienced in The Ace of Cooking Basics and have developed exemplary cooking skills to produce videos for the global market. The Ace of Cooking Basics removes all headaches and issues surrounding the art of cooking and ensures all questions and problems are solved easily and with humor, while delivering the best video cooking lessons, product fulfillment and customer service.

The Ace of Cooking Basics History

Since incorporation, The Ace of Cooking Basics has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered The Ace of Cooking Basics, a C-corporation to transact business in the state of Colorado.
• Has a contract in place to create a video recording studio and lease office space for 10,000 square feet.
• Reached out to numerous contacts to get advice regarding video production.
• Began recruiting a staff of sous chef, prep hands, and and office personnel to work at The Ace of Cooking Basics.

The Ace of Cooking Basics Services

The following will be the services The Ace of Cooking Basics will provide:

Industry Analysis

The YouTube video platform industry has more than 51 million channels, with over 700 channels that have more than 10 million users. The platform is expected to grow over $15 billion in the next five years to over $45 billion. The growth will be driven by an increased number of video channels, bolstered by an ever-growing customer base. Celebrities will continue to populate channels, combining star power with recommendations for products and services, which will increase viewership and marketing potential. An increase in marketing campaigns, including social media, will drive growth and scale YouTube channel businesses. Costs for the YouTube channel are minimal; however, costs will increase for video production and other services necessary to produce winning channels.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

The Ace of Cooking Basics will target a global audience, although the recognition is that most viewers will be housed in the United States. They will target home cooks who enjoy the art of cookery, as well as those who like to purchase kitchen products and cookbooks.

Customer Segmentation

The Ace of Cooking Basics will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Individuals who like to cook
• Individuals who like the celebrity status of Charlie Goodson
• Individuals who like to buy cookbooks
• Individuals who enjoy using kitchen applications and products
• Individuals who like to watch YouTube channels
• Individuals who enjoy “membership” status and special offers
• Individuals who want to increase their cooking skills

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

The Ace of Cooking Basics will face competition from other YouTube channels based on cooking with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Just in Time

Just in Time, Inc. is a YouTube channel with 20,000 followers. The channel provides videos two to three times weekly. Each session is focused on preparing a dinner meal within 15 minutes or less, using prepared food items from a grocery store. The clock countdown continues during each video as the chefs race to prepare the meal. The videos may be humorous, especially because accidents and mistakes frequently happen, which informs the comedic side of the channel and reduces the purpose of cooking. The channel is monetized by kitchen tool manufacturers and social media celebrities.

Just in Time was formed in 2019, just prior to the pandemic, which created a slow start to video production. In the past four years, video production has increased and each 25-minute video contains a meal of: protein, carbohydrate, vegetable or fruit. The meals are simple and presented using prepared foods, such as cubed fruit, from the grocery store. This method increases the cost of the food, but encourages a fast preparation time. Just in Time is owned by Kathy Beacon, who is a food entrepreneur and celebrity, with over ten years in the food preparation industry as a freelance consultant.

Easy Does It

The Easy Does It YouTube channel is owned and operated by Twin Chefs, Inc., an S-corporation. The owners are Raymond and Robert Chapman, who have established the company in Los Angeles, California. Easy Does It creates video content once a week, using the skills of the brothers in kitchen-created videos within their personal home. The videos highlight the easiest types of food preparation and quick meals. With 5,000 viewers, the brothers provide comical and easy-to-view 30-minute presentations. No monetization has been received, according to recent data.

March & Ash Cooking School

March & Ash Cooking School YouTube channel is an outgrowth of the accredited March & Ash Cooking School located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Utilizing the skills of the school chefs, the video lessons on all forms of food preparation and cooking are offered in 30-minute segments. The school is for serious soon-to-be chefs and the YouTube channel reflects that seriousness in each weekly segment. Instructions are offered in both email and on-air formats. The presentations include difficult preparation techniques and the recipes sometimes contain hard-to-find ingredients. The YouTube channel has 10,000 followers. Monetization has boosted the revenue of the school, with approximately $30,000 yearly paid to the channel for product introductions.

Competitive Advantage

The Ace of Cooking Basics will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

The Ace of Cooking Basics will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees that is able to provide a comprehensive YouTube channel dedicated to videos demonstrating highly-refined cooking skills using reasonably-priced grocery products.
• Memberships in The Ace of Cooking Basics Club, which will offer access to cookbooks, products and other items not available to the general video audience.
• Monetization of food products, food preparation tools, and kitchen appliances: all three segments of the cooking industry, which is unique in the YouTube channel competition.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for The Ace of Cooking Basics is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

The Ace of Cooking Basics has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to clients. The Ace of Cooking Basics chefs and staff will encourage word of mouth promotions and referrals from friends in the cooking industry, as well as personal contacts in the chef industry. Kitchen manufacturers will also be contacted for referrals, as associations are built.

Professional Associations and Networking

Both chefs Charlie Goodson and Danielle Favice are members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, in addition to other local and national associations. With continual events during the upcoming year, both Charlie and Danielle will encourage referrals. Social Media Marketing Considerable efforts will be made to optimize video titles, descriptions and tags to improve discoverability and increase organic traffic to the YouTube channel. Also, efforts will be directed toward leveraging popular social media platforms to promote our videos, products and services, which can further drive traffic to our channel. Collaborating with influencers will also expand our niche and extend our reach into their existing audience.

Website/SEO Marketing

The Ace of Cooking Basics will utilize their website to drive traffic using SEO practices, pitch new cookbooks and kitchen preparation tools, and inform viewers of upcoming video segments. Information about appearances by the chefs will be included, as will the history of the company and video highlights of each week.

The pricing of products offered by The Ace of Cooking Basics will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their products or services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for The Ace of Cooking Basics. Operation Functions:

• Charlie Goodson will be the Owner and President of The Ace of Cooking Basics. She will oversee all staff and manage client relations. Charlie has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Danielle Favice: Sous Chef who will assist in all videos, prep certain dishes and manage the kitchen administration.
• Kelly Clark: Office Manager who will oversee all office operations and manage the bookkeeping for the accountant.
• Roger Martin: The Social Media Manager who will also oversee the Website page.
• Dan Morez: The Video Production Manager will produce and edit all videos, overseeing

Milestones:

The Ace of Cooking Basics will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to build out video studio and office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel/staff employment contracts for the The Ace of Cooking Basics
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for The Ace of Cooking Basics clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into The Ace of Cooking Basics studio and office
• 7/1/202X – The Ace of Cooking Basics opens its office for business

Charlie Goodson is a graduate of the Culinary School of Arts with a degree in American Cookery. She has been working as a freelance chef for 15 years, catering for private and public dining events for up to 1,000 attendees at one time. Her organizational skills and mastery of cooking basics has led to the creation of a cookbook, soon to be published, and a number of speaking and demonstration events.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for The Ace of Cooking Basics are the revenues obtained from monetization, customer purchases and membership club dues charged to the customers for their products and services.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to produce studio-quality videos and ancillary materials. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

The Ace of Cooking Basics is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its property management business. The funding will be dedicated towards securing the video studio and office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the social media and website marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of Videos Per Month: 130
• Average product/service orders per Month: $34,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement.

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

YouTube Business Plan FAQs

What is a youtube business plan.

A YouTube business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your YouTube business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your YouTube business plan using our YouTube Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of YouTube Businesses? 

There are a number of different kinds of YouTube businesses , some examples include: Vlog Content, How-To Content, and Comedic Content.

How Do You Get Funding for Your YouTube Business Plan?

YouTube businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a YouTube Business?

Starting a YouTube business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A YouTube Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed YouTube business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your YouTube business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your YouTube business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your YouTube Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your YouTube business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your YouTube business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary YouTube Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your YouTube business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your YouTube business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

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What is a business plan? Definition, Purpose, and Types

In the world of business, a well-thought-out plan is often the key to success. This plan, known as a business plan, is a comprehensive document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies , and financial projections. Whether you’re starting a new business or looking to expand an existing one, a business plan is an essential tool.

As a business plan writer and consultant , I’ve crafted over 15,000 plans for a diverse range of businesses. In this article, I’ll be sharing my wealth of experience about what a business plan is, its purpose, and the step-by-step process of creating one. By the end, you’ll have a thorough understanding of how to develop a robust business plan that can drive your business to success.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a roadmap for your business. It outlines your goals, strategies, and how you plan to achieve them. It’s a living document that you can update as your business grows and changes.

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Purposes of a Business Plan

These are the following purpose of business plan:

• Attract investors and lenders: If you’re seeking funding for your business , a business plan is a must-have. Investors and lenders want to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll use their money to grow your business and generate revenue.
• Get organized and stay on track: Writing a business plan forces you to think through all aspects of your business, from your target market to your marketing strategy. This can help you identify any potential challenges and opportunities early on, so you can develop a plan to address them.
• Make better decisions: A business plan can help you make better decisions about your business by providing you with a framework to evaluate different options. For example, if you’re considering launching a new product, your business plan can help you assess the potential market demand, costs, and profitability.

What are the essential components of a business plan?

Executive summary

The executive summary is the most important part of your business plan, even though it’s the last one you’ll write. It’s the first section that potential investors or lenders will read, and it may be the only one they read. The executive summary sets the stage for the rest of the document by introducing your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

Business description or overview

The business description section of your business plan should introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way. It should include your business name, years in operation, key offerings, positioning statement, and core values (if applicable). You may also want to include a short history of your company.

Product and price

In this section, the company should describe its products or services , including pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other relevant information could include production and manufacturing processes, patents, and proprietary technology.

Competitive analysis

Every industry has competitors, even if your business is the first of its kind or has the majority of the market share. In the competitive analysis section of your business plan, you’ll objectively assess the industry landscape to understand your business’s competitive position. A SWOT analysis is a structured way to organize this section.

Target market

Your target market section explains the core customers of your business and why they are your ideal customers. It should include demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic information about your target market.

Marketing plan

Marketing plan describes how the company will attract and retain customers, including any planned advertising and marketing campaigns . It also describes how the company will distribute its products or services to consumers.

After outlining your goals, validating your business opportunity, and assessing the industry landscape, the team section of your business plan identifies who will be responsible for achieving your goals. Even if you don’t have your full team in place yet, investors will be impressed by your clear understanding of the roles that need to be filled.

Financial plan

In the financial plan section,established businesses should provide financial statements , balance sheets , and other financial data. New businesses should provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years, and may also request funding.

Funding requirements

Since one goal of a business plan is to secure funding from investors , you should include the amount of funding you need, why you need it, and how long you need it for.

• Tip: Use bullet points and numbered lists to make your plan easy to read and scannable.

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Types of business plan.

Business plans can come in many different formats, but they are often divided into two main types: traditional and lean startup. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says that the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

Lean startup business plans

Lean startup business plans are short (as short as one page) and focus on the most important elements. They are easy to create, but companies may need to provide more information if requested by investors or lenders.

Traditional business plans

Traditional business plans are longer and more detailed than lean startup business plans, which makes them more time-consuming to create but more persuasive to potential investors. Lean startup business plans are shorter and less detailed, but companies should be prepared to provide more information if requested.

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How often should a business plan be reviewed and revised?

A business plan should be reviewed and revised at least annually, or more often if the business is experiencing significant changes. This is because the business landscape is constantly changing, and your business plan needs to reflect those changes in order to remain relevant and effective.

Here are some specific situations in which you should review and revise your business plan:

• You have launched a new product or service line.
• You have entered a new market.
• You have experienced significant changes in your customer base or competitive landscape.
• You have made changes to your management team or organizational structure.
• You have raised new funding.

What are the key elements of a lean startup business plan?

A lean startup business plan is a short and simple way for a company to explain its business, especially if it is new and does not have a lot of information yet. It can include sections on the company’s value proposition, major activities and advantages, resources, partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.

What are some of the reasons why business plans don't succeed?

• Unrealistic assumptions: Business plans are often based on assumptions about the market, the competition, and the company’s own capabilities. If these assumptions are unrealistic, the plan is doomed to fail.
• Lack of focus: A good business plan should be focused on a specific goal and how the company will achieve it. If the plan is too broad or tries to do too much, it is unlikely to be successful.
• Poor execution: Even the best business plan is useless if it is not executed properly. This means having the right team in place, the necessary resources, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Unforeseen challenges:  Every business faces challenges that could not be predicted or planned for. These challenges can be anything from a natural disaster to a new competitor to a change in government regulations.

What are the benefits of having a business plan?

• It helps you to clarify your business goals and strategies.
• It can help you to attract investors and lenders.
• It can serve as a roadmap for your business as it grows and changes.
• It can help you to make better business decisions.

How to write a business plan?

There are many different ways to write a business plan, but most follow the same basic structure. Here is a step-by-step guide:

• Executive summary.
• Company description.
• Management and organization description.
• Financial projections.

How to write a business plan step by step?

Start with an executive summary, then describe your business, analyze the market, outline your products or services, detail your marketing and sales strategies, introduce your team, and provide financial projections.

Why do I need a business plan for my startup?

A business plan helps define your startup’s direction, attract investors, secure funding, and make informed decisions crucial for success.

What are the key components of a business plan?

Key components include an executive summary, business description, market analysis, products or services, marketing and sales strategy, management and team, financial projections, and funding requirements.

Can a business plan help secure funding for my business?

Yes, a well-crafted business plan demonstrates your business’s viability, the use of investment, and potential returns, making it a valuable tool for attracting investors and lenders.

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How to Write a YouTube Channel Business Plan

Since  62% of businesses use YouTube to post video content , you probably don’t want to miss the opportunity of using this booming platform.

Writing a business plan for your YouTube channel can be huge guidance in your journey to turning your channel into a real business .

Anytime you feel lost, you can go back to your original plan and find the guidance that you need.

But for that to work, your business plan has to cover every aspect of your channel.

Use this guide to go step by step through everything you need to write a YouTube channel business plan.

Table of Contents

1) Write down the ultimate objective of your Youtube channel

2) define your target audience, 3) planning the products you’re going to sell, 4) choosing the format that will connect better with your target audience, 5) equipment budgeting, 6) hiring budget, 7) filming locations, 8) create a system to find new ideas for your videos, 9) recording routine, 10) promotion plan, 11) defining a strategy to keep the audience for the long term, 12) funnel and product building, 13) plan your marketing, 14) scale and expand plan.

Knowing WHY you’re doing this will keep you going when things don’t go right.

It has to be a really strong why to be able to keep pushing through the tough times and the  hundreds of videos you’ll have to record.

There are probably better ways to make money than YouTube, so there must be a better reason why you want to do this with this video platform.

For example:

• Do you like helping people with their problems?
• Do you enjoy connecting with other real people through the magic of video?
• Do you want to make an impact in the world?

As long as it’s a strong desire beyond money and your plan makes sense, you’ll be successful.

Hint:  if you don’t like recording videos, this type of business might not be the right for you.

Think about different potential subjects that can attract a lot of people, and write them down.

Use the following questions to help you choose the perfect idea for your channel:

Will it be a single-person YouTube channel?

YouTube is very similar to having a job.

You HAVE TO show up constantly.

It’s not like  having a blog , where things are more passive since an article will attract people for years.

Videos on YouTube do that too, but  they periodically start attracting fewer and fewer people if you’re not active :

And that’s just because of the way the algorithm works.

So when it comes to defining your target audience — and consequently, the subject of your videos —, you need to choose something you really like doing.

Think about it:

You’ll have to record HUNDREDS of videos.

Do you see yourself talking every day for years about the same subject?

Just look at how long the biggest YouTuber has been doing this:

This is vital if you’re doing everything on your own.

Or Will it Be a Team YouTube channel?

If instead, you want to hire a team to do the videos with you, then just go for the type of videos that get tons of views.

Subjects extremely popular like makeup, business, health and fitness, or entertainment are an excellent choice for a YouTube channel business.

The wider the audience and the bigger your budget, the more people you’ll be able to attract with the power of video.

Create a Buyer Persona

When defining your target audience, you must be extremely specific about who you’re targeting.

What age, where they’re from, what are their pains, hopes and desires should be defined as clearly as possible.

Your Persona is a semi-fictional character that will represent your audience.

It should be like describing a fictional character in a novel, and even giving her/him a real name and face will help you remember your ideal audience:

Remember this person every time you’re planning your next video and make the videos specifically for them.

You’ll be able to connect with people that watch your videos much more easily this way.

From the target audience ideas you wrote down before, choose 3 ideas and research the products that are being sold to that audience.

What types of products are being sold to those audiences?

Are they digital or physical? 

• Go to YouTube and study where your competitors are sending their viewers to find the sales funnels they’re using:

Is there a strong pain point in your target audience that allows you to create a product for selling?

• How are your competitors talking to their audience to persuade the purchase?

• Finally, study their prices determine how profitable each niche might be.

Take those prices and define:

• Profit goals
• Possible profit margins
• Revenue if 0.5% of people that watch your videos buy one of the products.
• How many views you’ll need to hit your profit goals
• How you’ll raise awareness about your products

Define alternative monetization methods

Besides selling your own products, what other income methods are you going to use?

Some of the popular ones for YouTube: 

• Affiliate marketing: helping sell other people’s products and get a commission.
• Sponsor videos : getting paid by big brands to mention or show their products in your videos.
• Crowdfunding: opening an account on Patreon can help you get direct support from your most loyal viewers.
• Ad revenue : money YouTube will pay you directly for every 1,000 views.

It’s important to not depend on a single one of these.

The best strategy is to have your own products where the profit margins are the highest, and also use different methods mention above to diversify.

Remember the buyer Persona you defined earlier?

Here’s where you’ll use that persona to define the best type of video that will connect with them.

You have to create videos that provide  value  to your target audience if you want to get any attention.

If they’re Gen Z , focus on content that makes them laugh:

If they’re Millenials , news and human interest stories will keep them entertained:

If they’re Baby Boomers , try online tutorials to teach them new skills:

Don’t use a format made for  Boomers with a Gen Z audience , or you’ll never be able to deliver value to your audience.

Surprisingly enough, you don’t need to have a professional crew to record videos that people want to watch on YouTube.

One of the beautiful things about this platform is that normal people can grow a huge audience, even recording with a simple smartphone .

Because of that, carefully evaluate if you really want to spend a big part of your budget on video production.

Also, bear in mind that you don’t only need a camera, there is also other equipment you’ll need :

• Teleprompter
• Editing software
• Thumbnail creation software
• Computer for editing

Besides your equipment budget, you also need to define the budget for hiring a team — if that’s your approach.

You can approach your YouTube channel in two ways:

• You can do it all yourself
• You can hire others that can do a better job

In case you want to delegate to others the things that you don’t know how to do very well, make sure you take into account every job:

• Project manager
• Scriptwriter
• Camera crew
• Marketing team
• Product development team

You might want to hire someone only for the jobs that you struggle the most with if you want to save a bit of money.

Now you need to define where you and your team will record your videos.

Setting up a studio

It’s better to build a studio at home or office so everything is always set up and ready to start recording:

Set your lighting, camera, and your background so it looks appealing and it’s consistent in every video that you make .

That’s the best approach to create tons of high-quality videos in a short time.

Planning filming locations

However, if you want to do it outside and constantly change the location, you need to plan very carefully the locations you’re going to use:

• Do you need permission to record in said location?
• Is the weather proper for recording?
• How are you going to handle transportation for your team and equipment?

Generally, setting up a studio for video recording is the most efficient way to create videos at the lowest price.

How are you going to constantly come up with new refreshing ideas for your videos?

You need to be constantly innovating if you want to captivate your audience for a long time.

Some of the most common methods to come up with ideas:

• Track what your competitors are doing that is popular right now.
• Do keyword research and find outdated or boring videos that you can produce better.
• Carefully study your channel’s analytics to see what videos are performing the best in terms of watch time and engagement — and make more similar videos.
• Ask your audience what they want to watch next.

How will the usual recording day look like?

Is the teleprompter the first thing you’re going to set up, and then you’ll get ready with your makeup?

Or is it first makeup and then a bit of practice before recording?

Come up with a system that allows you to record more videos in less time.

The more efficient you are, the more videos you’ll be able to publish and the faster your YouTube business will grow.

The ideal system will allow you to record more than 1 video per day without too much stress.

If you already have some following in other platforms, or you have a long list of clients, define how you’ll make them aware of your new video content.

Some options are:

• Targeted Instagram or Facebook ads
• Email outreach
• Direct telephone calls

If you’re using YouTube instead to attract new customers (which is the best way to use this platform), then you don’t need to promote outside of YouTube.

This video platform has over 2 billion visitors per month .

You don’t need to look for more people outside.

In fact, most of your views will come organically from users that are already on YouTube:

Instead, you need to know how to reach your target audience that is already using the platform constantly.

For that, you’ll need to learn something called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

YouTube is a search engine that recommends videos automatically to people that its algorithm thinks will like them.

You need to learn to communicate to the algorithm with good SEO so YouTube knows whom to recommend your videos to.

A good SEO strategy includes the following aspects:

• How to write titles with the right keywords and that also attract people to click
• How to design thumbnails that attract clicks.
• Use the right tags to tell YouTube what your video is about.
• Uploading your scripts to each video so YouTube knows exactly what it’s about.
• How to get more likes and comments in your videos to increase engagement.
• Using cards to link to other relevant videos for your audience.
• Knowing when to stop production a video format that isn’t working.
• Knowing how to double down when something is working.
• What hashtags to use in your videos to make them more discoverable.

These are all things that you should know about before starting your channel or you’ll find it really hard to get eyeballs on your content.

We offer a free course about this. Click here to sign up if you want to learn more.

You don’t own the audience that is subscribed to your channel on YouTube.

That’s why one of your main concerns has to be how to keep them in case your channel is terminated or YouTube suddenly stops promoting it .

Most YouTube channels simply send their viewers to another social media platform like Instagram.

However, you don’t own that audience either.

The only real way to own your audience is by collecting their email addresses or phone number.

Email marketing is the most popular way to go about it, and it’s also the most effective marketing strategy.

Here’s how to collect email addresses from your audience :

First, put a link in your YouTube channel banner and in the description of your videos to send people to an opt-in page:

In the opt-in page, offer your audience something they’d want to get for free and that isn’t complicated to make (a checklist, a report, etc) in exchange of their emails:

Then, set up an automated email response when they join.

You can take advantage of this by asking them right away what their main struggles are.

Use that data to come up with good product ideas that may solve the problems of your audience.

Once you’ve built the base of your email list, you’ll want to come up with your final product idea.

To know if it’s the right idea, simply ask your subscribers if they’d be interested in buying a product like that :

Test different prices until you find the perfect balance between price and demand.

Once you’ve confirmed your idea with enough people, develop it.

Finally, set up a new email series promoting your new product and prepare for your first launch.

Define where all your marketing efforts will focus on.

What social media platforms are you going to use to build a better relationship and more trust with your audience?

Try to f ocus on only 1 social media platform besides YouTube if you’re just starting or it will be too much for you. 

The good thing is that you’re already using video to talk to your audience, so you’re already using the  best content format for a business :

On the other hand, if you plan to hire social media managers, then write where you’ll find the candidates and what jobs you’ll assign to each one .

What other products can you offer later on as an upsell or to keep your clients happy?

What improvements could you implement to your first product to better fix your clients’ problems?

Do the same as with your first product and ask your current clients what they want to learn next.

If you’re already selling one product successfully, then you should keep reinvesting in new, improved ones for your customer.

After all, once someone buys from you, they’re much more likely to buy again.

This is how you keep scaling your business until it becomes an amazing money-making machine that is also helping thousands of people.

Congratulations, you’ve reached your objectives and you’ve built a YouTube channel business.

Will has been a full-time content creator since 2014. He’s an audio, video, and tech hobbyist dedicated to reviewing products and giving you the best tips he knows to grow your audience.

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How to Write a Business Plan for YouTube: 14 Rules and Tips

Knowing how to write a business plan for a YouTube channel is important.

You can do it as a project or even just a simple draft. But should have a clear vision of what you want your channel to look like at the end. This is the only way to avoid getting lost in the process.

Once you have your plan, you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come and how you can improve along the way.

One of the main reasons why many people fail at turning their YouTube channel into a profitable business is that they don’t know where to start or how to act later.

As a result, you need to know what you’re going to do before you do it. That’s why we’ve created this guide.

What Every YouTube and Vlogging Business Plan Must Have

1) create a strong vision for your channel.

First of all, you need to have a clear vision of your channel.

In other words, it needs to be something that’s achievable in the short term but also something that will make you stand out from the crowd.

To demonstrate this, here is a list of questions you should ask yourself:

• What will my channel be?
• How will I get people to watch my videos?
• What will my channel look like?
• How much time will I spend on this channel?
• How much money will I pay?
• Who will I connect with?
• Why should people subscribe to my channel?

Naturally, if you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll be more motivated to keep going. The best way to come up with a strong why is to figure out what you really want.

For example: “I want to help people by making videos on how to solve their problems.” “I want to connect with other people and share my life story.” “I want to make an impact in the world by changing lives for the better.”

Write down your why in one sentence or paragraph. Make sure you have a clear vision of what you want your channel to be.

2) Define Your Target Audience

Once you have a clear vision of what your channel will be, you can start thinking about who you want to reach.

You need to know who your audience is, where they are, and what they like. If you don’t know who your target audience is, you might end up creating a channel that no one wants to watch.

If you don’t know where they are, it’s very likely that you won’t be able to get them to watch your videos.

Obviously, you need to do some research before you start creating videos. However, if you know your audience and where they are, you can use that information to create videos that will resonate with them.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to define your audience:

• What kind of people will my videos appeal to?
• Who will my videos benefit from?
• What do my viewers want?
• Where will my viewers be?
• How much time will they spend watching my videos?
• How much money will they spend?
• What will people say about my channel?

3) Connection with Your Audience

Your videos have to be entertaining, but you also need to make sure that they provide value. This means you need to understand your audience and create videos that they will actually want to watch.

But how do you know what kind of content they want?

You can start by using analytics tools to find out what kind of videos are performing well and what kind of content your audience likes.

For example:

• For Generation Z, you’ll want to make sure the content they share is funny.
• For Millenials, you’ll want to find content that’s relevant to their interests.
• For Baby Boomers, online tutorials are a great option. Baby boomers are interested in learning new skills, whether it’s learning how to make new recipes or how to master new apps. They’re also looking for content that gives them the latest health news.

4) What Products or Services are you Going to Promote?

Like any business, you need to have a plan for how you are going to monetize your channel – sooner or later.

Basically, you don’t need to focus on specific products or services but if you know your targeted audience and channel niche you could do quick research on your potential partners who could agree to work with you.

Here’s the deal:

Most products and services that are promoted on YouTube are e-books, apps, coaching programs, and online courses.

Once you know what products you’re going to promote, you can create videos that will resonate with them.

With that being said, you should also make sure that your videos are relevant to your products and services. That way, you’ll get more people to watch your videos and you’ll have a better chance of converting them into customers.

Aside from selling your own products and offering your services, there are other ways of monetizing your channel, namely:

• Affiliate marketing – promote and sell products/digital products and earn a commission. Affiliate marketing typically involves the sale of other people’s products or services. These products or services have an affiliate program that pays affiliates a commission if they bring traffic to the advertiser’s website and if the traffic converts into a sale.
• Sponsor videos – A sponsor is someone who pays you for showing/ mentioning their brand/product in your videos. If you get paid to promote a brand, it’s called influencer marketing. If you’re not familiar with sponsorships, they are a great way to make money on YouTube . The best part is that you don’t even have to be a very popular YouTuber to be able to get paid to mention a product. The easiest way to get started with sponsorships is to create a free account on YouTube. After you do this, you can start creating a list of brands you want to work with and start making requests.
• Crowdfunding – Crowdfunding is similar to a traditional fundraising campaign in that it involves people pooling their resources in order to make a bigger impact on a particular project. There are a lot of different types of crowdfunding platforms that you can use, such as Kickstarter , Indiegogo , RocketHub , GoFundMe or even Patreon – which is super popular nowadays . Each platform offers different ways to promote your campaign and get funding. But the bottom line is that crowdfunding is a great way to get a project off the ground and is usually less expensive than traditional fundraising.
• YouTube Ad Revenue – Advertisers pay for advertising based on the number of views a video receives. If your video has more views than others, you can expect to make more money from the same ad budget. However, there are other factors that affect how much you make from your ad campaigns, including the quality of your content and whether or not it’s suitable for the target audience.

5) Video Capture Hardware

Needless to say that you don’t need a big budget to get started uploading videos on YouTube. You could easily start creating vlogs with a smartphone .

It is impressive to see how much impact a simple smartphone can make on the internet.

You could record amazing vlogs that thousands of people will watch with your smartphone.

But, there is a catch:

There is a difference between devices that you are filming your videos blogs. It correlates with the number of views you get from a video uploaded with a smartphone and a video uploaded with a high-quality camera.

So, if you are thinking of uploading a video, it is best to use the best equipment you can afford that will allow you to make the best possible video, which will result in more views. In other words, it should be like an investment for you.

Formerly, video production was very expensive and only professionals could afford it. However, these days, video production tools and services are cheaper than ever before. So, if you have the budget for it, you can have professional vlogging equipment that will help you grow your channel.

If your smartphone doesn’t record very well, the best way to start is to get a flip-screen camera and an external microphone .

Moreover, you could need to have lighting for videos and a tripod .

The most important elements of a good video are the video itself, the message it conveys, and the quality of the video. A video with a good message and high quality can attract a lot of views and comments. The more likes and comments your video gets, the more people will be interested in watching your videos and subscribing to your channel. This is a compelling way to grow your YouTube channel.

6) Hiring a YouTube Creative Content Team and Your Budget

The key is to find people that can help you with your vision and that you can trust.

As your channel grows, you will find that you’ll need to add more people to your team.

Once your channel starts expanding, it is normal that you will start struggling with some tasks.

Here are some positions that you could think of hiring.

• Project manager – A project manager will be in charge of everything related to your YouTube channel. They will be in charge of managing the people on your team, scheduling their work, and keeping them on track. Your project manager will take care of the day-to-day management of your channel and ensure that everything runs smoothly. They will also be in charge of all the tasks that come up along the way. Surprisingly, the best person to choose as your project manager is someone that has already been in your shoes. They know how it feels to manage a YouTube channel . If you have a lot of experience managing other channels, you will know how much work it is and how much time it takes to keep things running. You can also ask your previous managers or your clients if they can recommend someone.
• Scriptwriter – You might not think that your content is very creative. But what if you could make it even more creative by writing the script? A good scriptwriter will be able to add some spice to your content and make it stand out from the rest. You can look for a scriptwriter on Fiverr.com or Upwork.com.
• Editor – If you want to make your videos more professional, you should consider getting an editor to do the job for you. An editor will help you keep your content on track and make sure that everything runs smoothly.
• Producer – Producing your videos is one of the most important jobs in your channel. It will help you get your message across and give your content a professional look. You can hire a producer from freelance platforms as well.
• Cameraperson – It depends on your videos. If you are filming yourself then you could do it on yourself, but if you are doing multiple scenes and different types of videos, usually it is better to have at least 1-2 persons behind the cameras. The first person will be responsible for shooting the action, while the second one will be in charge of taking care of the technical side of things.
• Marketing team – You should be careful when hiring someone to work on your marketing team. You don’t want to end up with a freelancer that is not trustworthy. Instead, you should consider hiring a marketing team that has experience in your industry. They can help you with everything from social media to email marketing and everything in between.
• Product development team – You might not know it, but your channel doesn’t have to be just about videos. In fact, your channel can include other types of content, such as articles or even a blog. The key is to create content that is valuable for your audience. You should hire a product development team if you want to add more content to your channel. They will help you develop new products that you can sell to your audience.

7) Find Locations

You may want to invest in a studio, but that depends on the type of niche you choose. The cost of a studio varies depending on the size and design of your space. But it’s always worth investing in one.

Once you have your studio set up, you’ll want to start recording. You can either do that yourself or hire a video editor to do it for you.

It’s always a good idea to have someone else watch your videos, especially when they’re first being created. They’ll be able to spot any mistakes you might make.

It’s better to hire someone to help you with the setup, so you can focus on your business plan. Again, you need to have a good idea of what you want to do and where you want to be filmed.

One of the most important vlogging rules – you should also make sure that you have permission to film in those places. If you don’t have permission, you could get in trouble. And you might not be able to use the footage at all.

• Do you want to shoot in the office? Or outdoors?
• Do you want to use a set or not?
• Is it private property?
• Will you have access to the area?
• How much time is needed to film?

If you can’t answer all these questions, you’ll need to rethink your plan. The last thing you want is to spend a lot of time and money only to find out that you can’t shoot there.

Obviously, you must know the weather condition of the location you’re going to film your video. For example, if you want to shoot in the middle of winter, you need to know what temperatures you’ll encounter. You should also know how you can protect your equipment from extreme conditions.

Moreover, you should think about every aspect of your channel before filming. You should also check the laws of your country and state regarding filming. This will ensure that you’re protected legally and you’ll be able to use all the footage you shot.

Think about the following:

• How much time is needed to shoot your video?
• Are you going to use a set?
• Where are you going to film?
• What is the weather condition going to be like?
• What is the temperature?
• Is it public or private property?
• Are there any restrictions on filming?
• How will you transport equipment and your crew?

8) Look for Creative Ways to Find New Content Ideas

You have to innovate to keep your audience’s attention.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to come up with a new idea every week. If you don’t come up with new ideas, you’ll soon start to notice your subscriber count dwindling.

So, what should you do?

The quickest way to get fresh ideas is by following what’s trending on the Internet (you could use Google Trends for help). But the problem with that is that you’re only getting ideas from what’s already popular. And that’s just not going to help you grow your channel and become a successful YouTuber .

Here are some proven techniques to come up with new ideas:

• Create a list of the top 10 videos your competitors are creating . Then ask yourself: What would make mine better? Ask your customers what they want. Start a list of all the things you know about your audience. You can use this list to get inspiration for future content. The more you do this, the more ideas you’ll have.
• Do an analysis of your competitors’ channels . You can get their channel analytics from the YouTube Analytics tool. Look at how other channels are using similar content to yours. You can also look at how they’re making money off of it. Use your social media accounts to find out what people are saying about your brand. This is a great way to find out what they like and what they don’t like about your business.
• Get feedback from others about what you’re doing well and where you need improvement . By seeing what kind of comments you’re getting on your YouTube and social media accounts, you will find out if you’re doing something right or wrong.
• Create a list of all the things that are important to your audience . You can do this by asking them or by using tools like Google Analytics. This will help you create your video content strategy and your overall business plan.

9) Stick to a Recording Schedule

This may cause you to lose focus and motivation, you’ll end up with videos that don’t really add value to your channel.

Instead, try to spread out your content creation over the course of the week so you don’t have to decide on what to create next.

In contrast, if you try to record more than 2-3 videos in one day, you become too tired that it affects the quality of the editing, that is, if you don’t have anyone who will do it for you. You’ll also be less likely to share those videos with your audience, which means they won’t see any value in watching your videos. This will lead to a lack of subscribers, which will ultimately be bad for your channel.

Accordingly, it’s important to keep your channel content fresh.

So, how do you know if you’re doing too much? There are a few ways you can find out.

First, you can use the YouTube analytics dashboard to figure out how many views and subscribers your videos are getting. If you’re not getting enough views or subscribers, it’s time to slow down and take a step back. You should also consider how long it takes you to create a video. If you’re spending too much time creating content, then you might want to reconsider your strategy.

So, we highly recommend setting the estimated number of videos per week in your YouTube business plan.

10) Promotion Plan

Undeniably, YouTube is the best place to produce video content. As you create your YouTube channel business plan, consider all the ways you can connect with your audience and get them to engage with you.

There are three main ways to do this:

• Interactive – through questions, polls and comments;
• Social – through sharing and liking your videos;
• Promotional – through paid advertising.

With interactive, social and paid advertising, you can target your audience on their level of engagement. For example, if you’re looking for a way to increase your reach, you’d want to focus on people who are most likely to engage with your content.

You don’t need to go searching for people outside of YouTube to find your target audience. Most of your views will be from users who are already on YouTube.

However, to get those views and to build your audience, you’ll have to do SEO – which is where you’ll find what you need to attract customers from inside YouTube.

SEO is the process of making sure that when someone searches for a specific topic, they find your channel among the results. To do that, you’ll need to create a strong description and title that covers all the keywords in the description. It’s not just about posting a catchy title and description. You need to make sure that those two elements are optimized for YouTube and other search engines.

Search engines, such as Google and Bing, work by using complex algorithms and artificial intelligence to provide the most relevant results in a fraction of a second. YouTube works similarly, but with videos instead of pages.

You need to learn how to use SEO to get videos recommended by YouTube to other viewers, and to make sure that the viewers see your videos. Here’s is a great article on how you could do a perfect YouTube SEO .

11) Design Effective Thumbnails

You must find or do it by yourself an effective, clickbait YouTube thumbnail to attract more views.

Always keep in mind the psychology of human beings when designing thumbnails.

Make sure that you design them in such a way that they make people want to click on them. The first impression is the last impression. So, always keep in mind that people are going to see your thumbnail before they see your video. When they do so, they’re going to judge it by its appearance.

If it doesn’t grab their attention, they’re going to leave your channel immediately. So, make sure that your thumbnails are unique and attractive. They should be eye-catching and compelling.

So before you create any YouTube video, make sure that you already know what will design your YouTube video thumbnail.

12) Your Audience is a Digital Asset. Keep Them!

Keep in mind that you don’t own your subscribers on YouTube. That’s why your biggest concern has to be how to keep them watching your videos day by day.

So how do you keep your YouTube subscribers?

First things first:

We won’t say anything new to you, but your priority task is to motivate them to subscribe to your channel and click on that ring bell.

So, you have to prepare a plan on how you are going to achieve that.

We have one great strategy that works:

In the first 30 seconds, you have to say that “this video is sponsored by…you – viewers, so please click subscribe for more videos”, or you should convince your viewers that it will be very supportive for your channel.

So instead of launching useless ads, do it at least two times per video and you should see how the number of subscribers will increase.

13) Product Development and Marketing

It’s essential to create attractive products for your audience and test different pricing models until you find a balance between price and demand. Then develop it and start creating your new product funnel .

So it doesn’t matter whether you will build and sell your own product or do affiliate marketing – you need a plan for that.

You need to understand the benefits of your potential customer and why they would want to purchase from you.

Here are some things to think about:

• Which demographics are you going after?
• What are your competition’s strengths and weaknesses?
• Who is your ideal client?

14) Scale, Expand, or Step Back

Having a YouTube channel or making vlogs is a business.

As a business owner, it’s important to do the same thing that you did when you first started your business. You need to continually improve the quality of your video first and get a decent number of subscribers too. By improving your YouTube channel, you could integrate some products to earn money.

Once you start earning money from YouTube videos, it could be a snowball effect .

At the same time, you must track your budget and see how it goes. Sometimes it is recommended to step back, stop creating videos, re-think your plan and implement actions. That’s why this part is needed.

This article is more for those who view YouTube as a business niche. If you are not interested in making money in the near future and are creating video blogs for yourself, you should not take some steps.

Anyway, we hope these tips on how to write a business plan for YouTube will help you get started with building a successful channel. It might take a while before you become profitable, but I’m sure you’ll eventually get there.

You can use all of these tips and techniques as long as you have a passion for what you do and are willing to learn how to create a profitable YouTube campaign.

In the end, it all comes down to having the right mindset. If you’re going to do something, you’ve got to enjoy it, and you need to love what you’re doing. After all, your audience wants to see your passion for your work. They want to see your energy and enthusiasm.

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I am Glen and I’m a 100% tech-addicted guy, Blogger, Video Editor and Entrepreneur. I spent a lot of my time learning how to properly edit videos, I've tested a lot of vlogging equipment and now with my team, I share all these tips with you.

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YouTube Business Plan

YouTube has massive business potential thanks to its more than 2 billion active users. Are you wanting to launch or grow your own YouTube channel, but are not sure where to start, then you need a plan first.

Do you need a business plan to start, grow, and secure funding for your YouTube channel? If yes, then we have prepared a YouTube business plan template for you.

Free Business Plan Template

Download our free YouTube business plan template now and pave the way to success. Let’s turn your vision into an actionable strategy!

• Fill in the blanks – Outline
• Financial Tables

How to Write a YouTube Business Plan?

Writing a YouTube business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is generally written after the entire business plan is ready because it provides an overview of the whole business plan. Here are some components to add to your summary:

• Start with a brief introduction: Describe your YouTube channel, its niche, and the type of content that will be available on your channel. Also, do not forget to include the name of your channel in this section.
• Market opportunity: Provide a high level of understanding concisely about your target audience along with their demographics and behavioral pattern. Also, explain how you will meet the needs of your target audience.
• Mention the niche: Are your videos going to be academic, giving investment tips, fully comic, giving the knowledge of the latest tech, or into fashion? Mention the genre of your videos in this section.
• Video production: Here mention the procedure of how will you shoot and where will you shoot the videos that you will update.
• Marketing strategies: List the strategies you will use to attract new viewers and promote your channel. You can do it through collaborating with other creators, advertising, boasting it on social media, etc.
• Financial highlights: Provide a summary of your financial projections for the company’s initial years of operation. Include any capital or investment requirements, startup costs, projected revenues, and profits.
• Call to action: End your executive summary with a call to action, it can be a further meeting, a partnership proposal, or inviting another influence onboard with your channel.

Ensure you keep your executive summary concise and clear, use simple language, and avoid jargon.

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2. Business Overview

In the business overview, add different elements like location, legal structure, history, and vision & mission statement of your channel. Here is the business overview example for your YouTube plan:

• Photography and Videography Channels
• Educational Channels
• Gaming Channels
• Vlogging Channels
• Tech Channels
• Fitness Channels
• Political News Channels
• Comedy Channels
• Makeup Channels
• Experiment Channels
• Toy Reviews Channels
• Legal structure Mention the legal structure of your channel, it might be a sole proprietorship, partnership, or LLC.
• Ownership: Describe the owners of your channel and mention their roles in running it.
• Mission statement: Add a mission statement that sums up the objectives and core principles of your channel. This statement needs to be memorable, clear, and brief.
• Business history: If you’ve already started a business, then you might have a story to tell about how you got the idea to start it and who helped in building your YouTube business back then.
• Future goals: It’s essential to communicate your goals and vision. Include your goals for your channel’s future, as well as any plans you may have to launch a new channel.

This section should provide an understanding of your YouTube business. Make it engaging as well as informative.

3. Market Analysis

The Market analysis section provides a precise understanding of the market along with the target audience and competitors. Your market analysis should contain the following essential components:

• Identify your target audience: Who are the people you want to attract to your channel? For instance, if you are teaching science on YouTube, your target audience will be science students.
• Market size and growth potential: Provide an outline of the industry, and the growth potential it has for upcoming years. Also, provide information about the number of potential viewers, their categories, etc.
• Competitive analysis: Identify and explore all other YouTube channels for a better understanding, including direct and indirect competitors. Do the SWOT analysis, and explain the competitive edge of your channel over other YouTube channels providing similar content.
• Market trends: Examine current and developing trends in your industry, such as involving live streaming, influencer collaboration, and video quality. Describe how your company will adapt to all the current trends.
• Regulatory environment: Describe any regulations or licensing requirements that affect the YouTube channel, such as copyright laws, data protection laws, child protection laws, etc.

Some additional tips for writing the market analysis section of your business plan:

• Gather information from a range of sources, such as surveys, market research studies, and industry reports.
• Be specific and provide detailed information wherever possible.
• Include charts and graphs to help illustrate your key points.
• Keep your target audience in mind while writing the business plan.

4. Content Strategy

The content strategy section of a YouTube business plan should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

• Type of content: Explain in detail the type of content viewers can expect from your channel as tutorials, reviews, vlogs, etc. Avoid using complex technical terms or jargon in this section especially.
• Highlight the advantage: Describe how your content will help your target audience. Draw attention to the advantages your content has over those of your rivals.

Overall the products and services section in a business plan should be thorough, informative, and customer-centered.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Yes, as the name suggests, it is one of the most important sections of a YouTube business plan because it mentions how to attract new viewers & subscribers and retain them.

• Your USP: Mention how your content will be different from the rest, also add the USP of your channel if you have any.
• Marketing strategies: Create a marketing plan that includes online marketing strategies. Think of email marketing, content marketing, social media, and other channels. Advertising strategy: Provide information about advertisements you will run such as paid advertisements, hoardings, banners, etc.
• Monetization strategy: Describe your monetization strategy, which outlines how you plan to make money. Will you sell to clients directly or through middlemen? Which sales strategies will you employ? What is the flow of your sales? How will you evaluate sales results?
• Analytics and Metrics: Define the metrics and analytics that will be used to measure the success of the channel’s sales and marketing efforts, such as views, engagement rates, and revenue.

In general, be detailed about how will you drive viewers to your channel and retain them.

6. Operations Plan

It’s crucial to take into account all your business processes and operational procedures while drafting the operations plan section . The elements that should be in an operations plan are as follows:

• Content creation and publication: Describe your plan for producing and releasing videos on your channel. Include details about any software or tool you’ll be using, your plan for producing and uploading content, and how you’ll edit and publish movies.
• Operational process: Describe the methods and practices you’ll employ to manage your YouTube channel. Mention your day-to-day plans and plans to achieve long-term goals.
• Engagement with the audience: Describe your strategy for interacting with your audience, including your plans for responding to comments, hosting Q&A sessions, developing polls or surveys, and promoting audience participation.
• Content calendar: Create a schedule for your content that specifies when you’ll make and publish new videos. Take into account the time needed to plan, write, record, edit, and upload each video.

You may develop a thorough plan that describes how you will run your YouTube channel by including these essential components in your operations plan section.

7. Management Team

The management team section describes the responsibility of individuals for running the YouTube channel. This section should provide a detailed description of the experience and qualifications of each manager, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

• Founder/CEO: Life the founder and co-founders, and describe their key roles and responsibilities necessary for running a successful channel. Key managers: Describe your management team’s key members, roles, and responsibilities. It should include the senior management with their relevant experience in the industry.
• Organizational structure: Describe the organizational structure of the management team, including reporting lines and how decisions will be made.
• Compensation plan: Describe your compensation plan for the management team and staff, including bonuses, and other benefits.
• Advisors/Consultants: Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea. So, if you have any advisors or consultants, include them with their names and brief information consisting of roles and years of experience.

Describe the key personnel of your company and highlight why your business has the fittest team.

8. Financial Plan

Before planning your finances do a thorough analysis of all the financial projections at least for the first few years of your YouTube channel like the below:

• Profit & loss statement: It should display the expected revenues and costs.
• Cash flow statement: Estimate your cash inflows and outflows for the first few years of operation. As in incorporate cash receipts, and cash outflow to make your content, loan, or any cash-related inflows or outflows.
• Balance sheet: The balance sheet should show the assets and liabilities of your YouTube channel.
• Break-even point: Find a point where your costs and revenue will be equal. This way one will get to know about the point from which a company might start making profits.
• Financing needs: Estimate your financing need to launch, operate, or grow your channel. Do not miss out on including both short-term and long-term financial needs. Be realistic with your financial projections, and ascertain all the estimates by providing proper evidence.

9. Appendix

When writing the appendix section, add all the additional information which can support any of the above sections of your business plan. It might include research sources, data, legal documents, or other such relevant information.

• Include a table of contents: Make it easy for your readers to get to any specific part they want to check out directly after seeing it from the table of contents.
• Conduct market research and present the results here, together with statistics on the target audience, market trends, and demographics.
• Include any rules, licenses, or permits that may be applicable in this section.
• Include any brochures, product descriptions, marketing materials, or other materials you may have that are associated with your business strategy.

A word of advice: Avoid using sophisticated vocabulary in the headings or table of contents. For your audience, keep it straightforward, understandable, and easy. Additionally, avoid adding any extraneous information to this portion of the company strategy.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

This YouTube business plan sample will provide an idea for writing a successful plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you are still confused about how to write an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, then download our YouTube business plan pdf .

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Frequently asked questions, why do you need a youtube business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful YouTube channel. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your channel.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your YouTube channel.

How to get funding for your YouTube channel?

Although there are several ways to finance your YouTube channel, self-funding is one of the fastest and most effective methods. Other options for funding are:

• A loan from a bank – You can apply for a loan from a public or private bank.
• Small Business Administration (SBA) loan – Before applying, make sure you meet the requirements. SBA loans and programs have low-interest rates.
• Crowdfunding – the practice of obtaining a large number of investors for your idea or business, typically online.
• Angel investors – One of the most popular choices is to obtain funding from angel investors.

There are small business grants also available in certain areas; search for them in your area and apply.

Where to find business plan writers for your YouTube channel?

There are many business plan writers available, but no one knows your business and idea better than you, so we recommend you write your YouTube business plan and outline your vision as you have in your mind.

What is the easiest way to write your YouTube business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any YouTube business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business plan software.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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YouTube Channel

Back to All Business Ideas

How to Start a YouTube Channel and Make Money

Written by: Carolyn Young

Carolyn Young is a business writer who focuses on entrepreneurial concepts and the business formation. She has over 25 years of experience in business roles, and has authored several entrepreneurship textbooks.

Edited by: David Lepeska

David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.

Published on June 4, 2022 Updated on August 1, 2024

Investment range

$2,850 - $6,300

Revenue potential

$30,000 - $100,000 p.a.

Time to build

0 – 3 months

Profit potential

$27,000 - $90,000 p.a.

Industry trend

Key considerations to keep in mind when launching your YouTube business:

• Define your niche — Choose a specific niche or theme for your YouTube channel, such as tutorials, reviews, vlogs, gaming, fitness, beauty, or educational content. Focus on an area where you have expertise or a strong interest.
• Video planning — Develop a content strategy and plan your video topics, format, and schedule. Create a content calendar to stay organized and consistent with your uploads.
• Equipment — Invest in high-quality recording equipment , such as cameras, microphones, lighting, and editing software, to ensure your videos are professional and engaging.
• Editing software — Use professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro , Final Cut Pro , or DaVinci Resolve to enhance the quality of your videos and ensure a polished final product.
• Monetization — Earn revenue through ad placements by joining the YouTube Partner Program , engage in affiliate marketing by promoting products, secure sponsorships, and brand deals for sponsored content, and create and sell merchandise related to your channel, such as branded clothing and digital products.
• Register your business — A limited liability company (LLC) is the best legal structure for new businesses because it is fast and simple. Form your business immediately using ZenBusiness LLC formation service or hire one of the best LLC services on the market.
• Legal business aspects — Register for taxes, open a business bank account, and get an EIN .
• Partnerships — Build relationships with other YouTubers, brands, and influencers to generate collaborations and expand your reach.

You May Also Wonder:

How profitable is a YouTube business?

If you can get a large following on your YouTube channel, your YouTube business can be extremely profitable. Millions of viewers will mean that you can earn significant ad revenue. The key is providing excellent content.

How much can I get paid for ads on YouTube?

YouTube ad revenues are determined by the YouTube algorithm. Once you qualify for the YPP, you can expect around $5 per 1000 viewers.

How do I start a YouTube channel with no experience?

To start a YouTube channel with no experience, you should first decide on a niche or topic that you are passionate about and have some knowledge or expertise in. Next, create a Google account and sign up for a YouTube channel. Choose a name for your channel that reflects your niche and brand. Then, create and upload your first video, making sure to optimize the title, description, and tags for search engines and viewers. 

How do beginners get YouTube views?

Beginners can get YouTube views by optimizing their videos for search engines, using relevant and eye-catching thumbnails, promoting their videos on social media and other online platforms, collaborating with other YouTubers in their niche, and engaging with their audience by responding to comments and questions.

What is the easiest YouTube channel to start?

The easiest YouTube channel to start is one that aligns with your interests and skills. Some examples of easy channels to start include vlogs, gaming, cooking, crafts, or beauty tutorials. You can also start a channel that focuses on sharing your opinions, experiences, or advice on a specific topic.

How to make a successful YouTube channel without showing my face?

To make a successful YouTube channel without showing your face, you can create animated or illustrated videos, use voiceovers or text overlays to convey your message, or use stock footage and graphics to create engaging and informative videos. You can also collaborate with other YouTubers or hire a spokesperson to represent your brand.

What type of content is most viewed on YouTube?

The type of content most viewed on YouTube varies, but some popular categories include music videos, gaming, beauty and fashion tutorials, comedy skits, and educational content such as how-to guides, product reviews, and explainer videos. 

Step 1: Decide if the Business Is Right for You

Pros and cons.

Starting a YouTube business has pros and cons to consider before deciding if it’s right for you. 

• Flexibility – Make videos on your time from home
• Express Yourself – Get creative with your videos as you build your brand
• Huge Potential – Gain a large following and the sky’s the limit
• Delayed Revenue – It takes time to get enough viewers to earn money
• Saturated Market – Compete with a massive number of other YouTube channels

YouTube industry trends

Industry size and growth.

• Industry size and past growth – US YouTube ad revenue in 2021 was $5.56 billion after increasing 220% from its 2018 numbers.(( https://www.statista.com/statistics/289660/youtube-us-net-advertising-revenues/ ))
• Growth forecast – US YouTube ad revenue is expected to grow 23% in 2022 to reach $6.87 billion.

Trends and challenges

Trends on YouTube include:

• Challenge videos are trending on YouTube, where two people or groups challenge each other in something that could be anywhere from a food challenge to a weightlifting challenge.
• YouTube shorts, which are videos less than 60 seconds and are posted on the Shorts channel, are the most popular videos on YouTube.

Challenges on YouTube include:

• Companies are avoiding advertising on any content that is in any way controversial, so YouTube businesses must be very careful about the videos they create.
• YouTube users generally skip ads as much as possible, and must watch an ad for at least 30 seconds before YouTube will pay the creator for the ad.

Popular products

The most popular video categories watched by YouTube users are comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to.”

How to Start a YouTube Channel

To start your YouTube channel, you simply need to sign into your YouTube using your Google account. You can then click on the video icon, which will prompt you to create a channel if you don’t already have one. Then just follow the prompts to set up your channel.

Then, you’ll want to do the following:

• Decide what type of content you want to post and what your brand will be. You should create some sort of a theme and identity for your channel. What you choose for your channel name, channel icon, channel banner, and channel trailer will be the branding of your channel. You can use YouTube tools to create these things.
• Once you create your first video, you’ll upload it in the creator studio on YouTube.
• You’ll have access to YouTube analytics to see how your video is doing.
• Use the YouTube SEO tools to drive traffic to your channel.

The key to your YouTube strategy is to create engaging videos that will get many views. When you’re eligible for YouTube monetization, you’ll need to sign up for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) in order to start getting YouTube ads revenue. 

To qualify for YPP you need to be in good standing with YouTube, have 4,000 valid public watch hours in the previous 12 months, and at least 1,000 subscribers.

How much does it cost to start a YouTube business?

Startup costs for a YouTube business range from $2,800 to $6,300. Costs include a computer and your video equipment. 

You’ll need a handful of items to successfully launch your YouTube business, including: 

How much can you earn from a YouTube Business?

Ad revenues are difficult to predict because they are determined by the YouTube algorithm. You can probably expect about $5 per 1000 views once you’ve reached the required levels to qualify for the YPP. Your profit margin should be about 90%. 

In your first year or two, you might get six million total views, bringing in $30,000 in annual revenue. This would mean $27,000 in profit, assuming that 90% margin. As your channel gains traction, views could climb to 20 million. With annual revenue of $100,000, you’d make a great profit of $90,000.

What barriers to entry are there?

The only barrier to entry for a YouTube business is the massive competition you’ll face.

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Step 2: hone your idea.

Now that you know what’s involved in starting a YouTube business, it’s a good idea to hone your concept in preparation to enter a competitive market. 

Market research will give you the upper hand, even if you’re already positive that you have a perfect product or service. Conducting market research is important, because it can help you understand your customers better, who your competitors are, and your business landscape.

Why? Identify an opportunity

Research YouTube channels to examine their topics and followings. You’re looking for a market gap to fill. For instance, maybe the market is missing a channel with DIY upcycling video content or a comedy YouTube channel with a certain theme.

You might consider targeting a niche market by specializing in a certain aspect of your industry, such as music videos or blog videos.

This could jumpstart your word-of-mouth marketing and attract clients right away. 

What? Determine your channel content

You’ll just need to decide what kind of videos you want to create. Some YouTube businesses also create branded merchandise to sell on their YouTube channel. 

How much should you charge for YouTube ads?

YouTube ad revenues are determined by the YouTube algorithm. Once you qualify for the YPP, you can expect around $5 per 1000 viewers. Your profit margin should be about 90%. 

Once you know your costs, you can use this Step By Step profit margin calculator to determine your mark-up and final price points. Remember, the prices you use at launch should be subject to change if warranted by the market.

Who? Identify your target market

Your target market will depend on the type of video content you create. If your target audience will be younger, you can market your channel on TikTok and Instagram. 

Where? Choose your business premises

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever need a space for your YouTube business, unless you decide to rent a production studio. You can find commercial space to rent in your area on sites such as Craigslist , Crexi , and Instant Offices .

When choosing a commercial space, you may want to follow these rules of thumb:

• Central location accessible via public transport
• Ventilated and spacious, with good natural light
• Flexible lease that can be extended as your business grows
• Ready-to-use space with no major renovations or repairs needed

Step 3: Brainstorm a Youtube Channel Name

Here are some ideas for brainstorming your business name:

• Short, unique, and catchy names tend to stand out
• Names that are easy to say and spell tend to do better 
• Name should be relevant to your product or service offerings
• Ask around — family, friends, colleagues, social media — for suggestions
• Including keywords that relate to your brand and themes boosts SEO
• Name should allow for expansion, for ex: “Jim’s Woodworking Crafts” over “Jim’s Wooden Closets Crafts”
• A location-based name can help establish a strong connection with your local community and help with the SEO but might hinder future expansion

Once you’ve got a list of potential names, visit the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office to make sure they are available for registration and check the availability of related domain names using our Domain Name Search tool. Using “.com” or “.org” sharply increases credibility, so it’s best to focus on these. 

Find a Domain

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Finally, make your choice among the names that pass this screening and go ahead with domain registration and social media account creation. Your business name is one of the key differentiators that sets your business apart. Once you pick your company name, and start with the branding, it is hard to change the business name. Therefore, it’s important to carefully consider your choice before you start a business entity.

Step 4: Create a Business Plan

Here are the key components of a business plan:

• Executive Summary: Summarize the goal of your YouTube channel to create engaging, original content targeted at a specific audience, emphasizing strategies for growth and monetization.
• Business Overview: Describe the focus of your YouTube channel, such as producing content in a specific genre like educational tutorials, entertainment, or vlogging.
• Product and Services: Detail the types of content offered, including video series, live streams, and interactive sessions with viewers.
• Market Analysis: Assess the potential audience for your channel, considering factors like viewer interests, age groups, and trending topics on YouTube.
• Competitive Analysis: Compare your channel’s content and style to similar channels, highlighting your unique approach or niche.
• Sales and Marketing: Outline your strategy for promoting your channel and attracting subscribers, including SEO optimization, social media marketing, and collaborations with other YouTubers.
• Management Team: Highlight your skills and any team members’ expertise, particularly in video production, content creation, and digital marketing.
• Operations Plan: Describe the process of content creation, from ideation and filming to editing, uploading, and managing viewer interaction.
• Financial Plan: Provide an overview of financial aspects, covering equipment costs, potential revenue streams like ad revenue and sponsorships, and growth projections.
• Appendix: Include supplementary materials such as content calendars, viewer analytics, or partnership agreements to support your business plan.

If you’ve never created a business plan, it can be an intimidating task. You might consider hiring a business plan specialist to create a top-notch business plan for you.

Step 5: Register Your Business

Registering your business is an absolutely crucial step — it’s the prerequisite to paying taxes, raising capital, opening a bank account, and other guideposts on the road to getting a business up and running.

Plus, registration is exciting because it makes the entire process official. Once it’s complete, you’ll have your own business! 

Choose where to register your company

Your business location is important because it can affect taxes, legal requirements, and revenue. Most people will register their business in the state where they live, but if you’re planning to expand, you might consider looking elsewhere, as some states could offer real advantages when it comes to YouTube businesses. 

If you’re willing to move, you could really maximize your business! Keep in mind, it’s relatively easy to transfer your business to another state. 

Choose your business structure

Business entities come in several varieties, each with its pros and cons. The legal structure you choose for your YouTube business will shape your taxes, personal liability, and business registration requirements, so choose wisely. 

Here are the main options:

• Sole Proprietorship – The most common structure for small businesses makes no legal distinction between company and owner. All income goes to the owner, who’s also liable for any debts, losses, or liabilities incurred by the business. The owner pays taxes on business income on his or her personal tax return.
• General Partnership – Similar to a sole proprietorship, but for two or more people. Again, owners keep the profits and are liable for losses. The partners pay taxes on their share of business income on their personal tax returns.
• Limited Liability Company (LLC) – Combines the characteristics of corporations with those of sole proprietorships or partnerships. Again, the owners are not personally liable for debts.
• C Corp – Under this structure, the business is a distinct legal entity and the owner or owners are not personally liable for its debts. Owners take profits through shareholder dividends, rather than directly. The corporation pays taxes, and owners pay taxes on their dividends, which is sometimes referred to as double taxation.
• S Corp – An S-Corporation refers to the tax classification of the business but is not a business entity. An S-Corp can be either a corporation or an LLC , which just need to elect to be an S-Corp for tax status. In an S-Corp, income is passed through directly to shareholders, who pay taxes on their share of business income on their personal tax returns.

We recommend that new business owners choose LLC as it offers liability protection and pass-through taxation while being simpler to form than a corporation. You can form an LLC in as little as five minutes using an online LLC formation service. They will check that your business name is available before filing, submit your articles of organization , and answer any questions you might have. 

Form Your LLC

Choose Your State

We recommend ZenBusiness as the Best LLC Service for 2024

Step 6: Register for Taxes

The final step before you’re able to pay taxes is getting an Employer Identification Number , or EIN. You can file for your EIN online or by mail or fax: visit the IRS website to learn more. Keep in mind, if you’ve chosen to be a sole proprietorship you can simply use your social security number as your EIN. 

Once you have your EIN, you’ll need to choose your tax year. Financially speaking, your business will operate in a calendar year (January–December) or a fiscal year, a 12-month period that can start in any month. This will determine your tax cycle, while your business structure will determine which taxes you’ll pay.

The IRS website also offers a tax-payers checklist , and taxes can be filed online.

It is important to consult an accountant or other professional to help you with your taxes to ensure you’re completing them correctly.

Step 7: Fund your Business

Securing financing is your next step and there are plenty of ways to raise capital:

• Bank loans: This is the most common method but getting approved requires a rock-solid business plan and strong credit history.
• SBA-guaranteed loans: The Small Business Administration can act as guarantor, helping gain that elusive bank approval via an SBA-guaranteed loan .
• Government grants: A handful of financial assistance programs help fund entrepreneurs. Visit Grants.gov to learn which might work for you.
• Friends and Family: Reach out to friends and family to provide a business loan or investment in your concept. It’s a good idea to have legal advice when doing so because SEC regulations apply.
• Crowdfunding: Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo offer an increasingly popular low-risk option, in which donors fund your vision. Entrepreneurial crowdfunding sites like Fundable and WeFunder enable multiple investors to fund your business.
• Personal: Self-fund your business via your savings or the sale of property or other assets.

Bank and SBA loans are probably the best option, other than friends and family, for funding a YouTube business. You might also try crowdfunding if you have an innovative concept. 

Step 8: Apply for Licenses/Permits

Starting a YouTube business requires obtaining a number of licenses and permits from local, state, and federal governments.

Federal regulations, licenses, and permits associated with starting your business include doing business as (DBA), health licenses and permits from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA ), trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other intellectual properties, as well as industry-specific licenses and permits. 

You may also need state-level and local county or city-based licenses and permits. The license requirements and how to obtain them vary, so check the websites of your state, city, and county governments or contact the appropriate person to learn more. 

You could also check this SBA guide for your state’s requirements, but we recommend using MyCorporation’s Business License Compliance Package . They will research the exact forms you need for your business and state and provide them to ensure you’re fully compliant.

This is not a step to be taken lightly, as failing to comply with legal requirements can result in hefty penalties.

If you feel overwhelmed by this step or don’t know how to begin, it might be a good idea to hire a professional to help you check all the legal boxes.

Step 9: Open a Business Bank Account

Before you start making money, you’ll need a place to keep it, and that requires opening a bank account .

Keeping your business finances separate from your personal account makes it easy to file taxes and track your company’s income, so it’s worth doing even if you’re running your YouTube business as a sole proprietorship. Opening a business bank account is quite simple, and similar to opening a personal one. Most major banks offer accounts tailored for businesses — just inquire at your preferred bank to learn about their rates and features.

Banks vary in terms of offerings, so it’s a good idea to examine your options and select the best plan for you. Once you choose your bank, bring in your EIN (or Social Security Number if you decide on a sole proprietorship), articles of incorporation, and other legal documents and open your new account. 

Step 10: Get Business Insurance

Business insurance is an area that often gets overlooked yet it can be vital to your success as an entrepreneur. Insurance protects you from unexpected events that can have a devastating impact on your business.

Here are some types of insurance to consider:

• General liability: The most comprehensive type of insurance, acting as a catch-all for many business elements that require coverage. If you get just one kind of insurance, this is it. It even protects against bodily injury and property damage.
• Business Property: Provides coverage for your equipment and supplies.
• Equipment Breakdown Insurance: Covers the cost of replacing or repairing equipment that has broken due to mechanical issues.
• Worker’s compensation: Provides compensation to employees injured on the job.
• Property: Covers your physical space, whether it is a cart, storefront, or office.
• Commercial auto: Protection for your company-owned vehicle.
• Professional liability: Protects against claims from a client who says they suffered a loss due to an error or omission in your work.
• Business owner’s policy (BOP): This is an insurance plan that acts as an all-in-one insurance policy, a combination of the above insurance types.

Step 11: Prepare to Launch

As opening day nears, prepare for launch by reviewing and improving some key elements of your business. 

Essential software and tools

Being an entrepreneur often means wearing many hats, from marketing to sales to accounting, which can be overwhelming. Fortunately, many websites and digital tools are available to help simplify many business tasks. 

You may want to use industry-specific software, such as Adobe , Canva , or Animoto , to create, edit, and organize your videos. 

• Popular web-based accounting programs for smaller businesses include Quickbooks , Freshbooks , and Xero . 
• If you’re unfamiliar with basic accounting, you may want to hire a professional, especially as you begin. The consequences for filing incorrect tax documents can be harsh, so accuracy is crucial.

Develop your website

Website development is crucial because your site is your online presence and needs to convince prospective clients of your expertise and professionalism.

You can create your own website using services like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace . This route is very affordable, but figuring out how to build a website can be time-consuming. If you lack tech-savvy, you can hire a web designer or developer to create a custom website for your business.

They are unlikely to find your website, however, unless you follow Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) practices. These are steps that help pages rank higher in the results of top search engines like Google.

Launching a YouTube channel is an exciting venture, and effective marketing is key to gaining visibility. Here are practical strategies to boost your channel’s presence:

• Compelling Thumbnails and Titles: Craft attention-grabbing thumbnails and titles; they are your first impression and can significantly impact click-through rates.
• Consistent Branding: Establish a consistent visual identity with a recognizable logo, color scheme, and style across your videos, making your channel easily identifiable.
• Optimize Video Descriptions and Tags: Use relevant keywords in your video descriptions and tags to improve searchability and increase the likelihood of appearing in search results.
• Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments, ask questions, and encourage viewers to share their thoughts; building a community fosters loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion.
• Collaborate with Other YouTubers: Partner with creators in your niche for collaborations; cross-promotion exposes your channel to new audiences and can result in mutually beneficial growth.
• Utilize Social Media: Share snippets, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to drive traffic to your YouTube channel.
• Create Playlists: Group related videos into playlists; this encourages viewers to watch more of your content, increasing overall watch time and improving your video ranking.
• Leverage Trending Topics: Stay informed about trending topics within your niche and create timely content to capitalize on current interests and maximize discoverability.
• Run Contests and Giveaways: Generate excitement and engagement by organizing contests or giveaways, encouraging viewers to subscribe, like, and share your content for a chance to win.
• Optimize Upload Schedule: Establish a consistent uploading schedule to train your audience to anticipate new content, increasing the likelihood of viewers returning regularly.

Focus on USPs

Unique selling propositions, or USPs, are the characteristics of a product or service that sets it apart from the competition. Customers today are inundated with buying options, so you’ll have a real advantage if they are able to quickly grasp how your YouTube business meets their needs or wishes. It’s wise to do all you can to ensure your USPs stand out on your website and in your marketing and promotional materials, stimulating buyer desire. 

Global pizza chain Domino’s is renowned for its USP: “Hot pizza in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.” Signature USPs for your YouTube business could be:

• Learn how to remodel your home with our DIY videos
• Subscribe to our channel — daily laughs guaranteed! 
• Beat your friends! A new challenge video every week

You may not like to network or use personal connections for business gain. But your personal and professional networks likely offer considerable untapped business potential. Maybe that Facebook friend you met in college is now running a YouTube business, or a LinkedIn contact of yours is connected to dozens of potential clients. Maybe your cousin or neighbor has been working on YouTube for years and can offer invaluable insight and industry connections. 

The possibilities are endless, so it’s a good idea to review your personal and professional networks and reach out to those with possible links to or interest in YouTube. You’ll probably generate new customers or find companies with which you could establish a partnership. Online businesses might also consider affiliate marketing as a way to build relationships with potential partners and boost business.

Step 12: Build Your Team

If you’re starting out small from a home office, you may not need any employees. But as your business grows, you will likely need workers to fill various roles. Potential positions for a YouTube business include:

• Actors – appear in YouTube videos
• Camera Operator – shoot videos
• Marketing Lead – SEO strategies, social media

At some point, you may need to hire all of these positions or simply a few, depending on the size and needs of your business. You might also hire multiple workers for a single role or a single worker for multiple roles, again depending on need. 

Free-of-charge methods to recruit employees include posting ads on popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Jobs.com. You might also consider a premium recruitment option, such as advertising on Indeed , Glassdoor , or ZipRecruiter . Further, if you have the resources, you could consider hiring a recruitment agency to help you find talent. 

Step 13: Run a Youtube Channel – Start Making Money!

YouTube is an extremely influential platform with a massive global audience. If you’re creative and want to make a splash online, with just a few unique videos you could start to build a YouTube following and grow your channel into something great. If your videos go viral, there’s no limit to your channel’s income potential! 

You’ve done your due diligence to learn the ropes of starting a business, so now it’s time to fire up that camera and get your successful YouTube business up and running. 

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• Decide if the Business Is Right for You
• Hone Your Idea
• Brainstorm a Youtube Channel Name
• Create a Business Plan
• Register Your Business
• Register for Taxes
• Fund your Business
• Apply for Licenses/Permits
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Get Business Insurance
• Prepare to Launch
• Build Your Team
• Run a Youtube Channel - Start Making Money!

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How to Start a Profitable Youtube Channel Business [11 Steps]

By Nick Cotter Updated Feb 02, 2024

Business Steps:

1. perform market analysis., 2. draft a youtube channel business plan., 3. develop a youtube channel brand., 4. formalize your business registration., 5. acquire necessary licenses and permits for youtube channel., 6. open a business bank account and secure funding as needed., 7. set pricing for youtube channel services., 8. acquire youtube channel equipment and supplies., 9. obtain business insurance for youtube channel, if required., 10. begin marketing your youtube channel services., 11. expand your youtube channel business..

Starting a YouTube channel business requires an understanding of the current market, including trends, audiences, and competition. A thorough market analysis will help you carve out your niche and create content that resonates with viewers. Here are some steps to guide you through the process:

• Identify your target audience: Consider demographics such as age, gender, interests, and geographic location to determine who is most likely to watch your content.
• Analyze competitors: Look at other channels in your niche, noting their content strategy, viewer engagement, and what works well for them.
• Understand trends: Keep an eye on trending topics, video styles, and formats that are currently popular on the platform to stay relevant.
• Assess market demand: Research keywords and topics within your niche to gauge viewer interest and search volume, which can inform your content strategy.
• Examine monetization options: Explore various monetization strategies used by other creators, such as ads, sponsorships, merchandise, and memberships, to understand potential revenue streams.

Are youtube channel businesses profitable?

Yes, YouTube channel businesses can be profitable and many creators have been able to make a living from their efforts. Factors such as the types of content created, the number of subscribers, and the number of views all impact the likelihood of profitability. Additionally, creators may be able to monetize their channels through advertisements, affiliate marketing, and sponsorships.

Starting a YouTube channel as a business requires meticulous planning and strategic thinking. Your business plan should outline your channel's vision, objectives, and the strategies you'll employ to achieve success. Below is a guide to help you draft a comprehensive business plan for your YouTube channel.

• Define Your Niche: Clearly state the content focus of your channel and the target audience. Understanding your niche will help you create relevant and engaging content.
• Content Strategy: Outline the types of videos you will create, the value they provide to viewers, and how often you plan to upload new content.
• Monetization Plan: Detail the methods through which you'll generate revenue, such as ad income, sponsorships, merchandise, or memberships.
• Marketing Approach: Explain how you'll promote your channel and content, including social media strategies, collaborations, and SEO practices to increase visibility.
• Financial Projections: Offer an estimate of startup costs, potential earnings, and a break-even analysis to forecast the financial sustainability of your channel.
• Operational Plan: Describe the resources you need, such as equipment and editing software, and any team members or roles crucial to your channel's operations.
• Metrics and Goals: Set specific, measurable goals for subscriber numbers, view counts, and engagement rates, and outline how you will track and analyze these metrics.

How does a youtube channel business make money?

YouTube channels have the ability to monetize their content through advertisements and link sponsorships. This means that businesses can earn money when viewers watch their videos and click on advertisements. For example, a YouTube channel focused on air duct cleaning could target business owners as a target audience. These owners could benefit from the advice provided in the channel's content, such as 11 Steps To Starting a Successful Air Duct Cleaning Business. This would provide an opportunity for the channel to earn money while also providing helpful information to people looking to start their own business.

Creating a strong brand for your YouTube channel is essential for standing out in a crowded market and attracting a loyal audience. Your brand encompasses everything from your channel's visual identity to the tone and personality conveyed in your content. Here's how to develop a robust YouTube channel brand:

• Define Your Niche: Be clear about the topics or genre your channel will cover. This specificity helps you attract a targeted audience.
• Develop a Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Determine what makes your channel different. Your UVP should highlight what viewers gain by watching your content that they can't get elsewhere.
• Choose a Brand Name: Pick a catchy and memorable name that reflects the essence of your channel and is easy to search for.
• Create Visual Identity: Design a consistent aesthetic for your channel with a recognizable logo, color scheme, and thumbnail style to build brand recognition.
• Craft Your Voice: Decide on the tone and personality of your channel. Whether it's humorous, educational, or inspirational, ensure it's consistent across all your content.
• Plan Your Content: Align your videos with your brand identity, ensuring each upload reinforces your brand's message and values.
• Engage Your Audience: Build a community by interacting with viewers through comments, live streams, and social media, making your brand feel more personal and accessible.

How to come up with a name for your youtube channel business?

Coming up with a name for your YouTube channel business can be a difficult task. Consider making the name memorable and recognizable, while avoiding overly long or overly complicated names. Brainstorm ideas that are relevant to your niche, and take into account the rhythm and pronunciation of the name. Additionally, check to see if the name is available as both a business trademark and a corresponding web address. With a little bit of creativity you should be able to come up with an appropriate name for your YouTube channel business.

Starting a YouTube channel as a business involves not just creating content, but also ensuring that your venture is legally recognized. Formalizing your business registration is a critical step to set up a proper structure for tax, legal, and financial benefits. Here’s how to go about it:

• Choose a business structure that fits your needs, such as a Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC), or Corporation, and understand the implications of each for your YouTube business.
• Register your business name with the appropriate state authorities. If you're using a name different from your own, you may need to file a Doing Business As (DBA).
• Obtain any necessary business licenses or permits. The requirements can vary depending on your location and the nature of your content.
• Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS if you plan to hire employees or if your business structure requires it.
• Open a business bank account to keep your personal and business finances separate, which simplifies accounting and tax filing.
• Consider consulting with a business attorney or accountant to ensure you're meeting all legal requirements and optimizing your tax situation.

Resources to help get you started:

Explore key resources designed for YouTube channel entrepreneurs to gain insights on market trends, operational best practices, and strategic advice for business growth:

• YouTube Creator Academy : Offers comprehensive tutorials and guidance directly from YouTube on how to grow and manage your channel. Visit Creator Academy
• Tubefilter : Provides industry news, analysis of trends, and strategic insights for digital video creators. Explore Tubefilter
• VidIQ Blog : A resource offering tips and tools for audience growth, video optimization, and monetization strategies. Read the VidIQ Blog
• Social Blade : Offers analytics and data tracking for YouTube channels, essential for competitive analysis and growth tracking. Access Social Blade
• Google's Keyword Planner : Helps in identifying high-volume search terms for topic selection and SEO optimization. Use Keyword Planner
• Think with Google - Consumer Insights : Provides insights into consumer trends which can aid in content planning. Discover Consumer Insights

Starting a YouTube channel as a business comes with its own set of legal considerations. Depending on the content you plan to create and how you intend to monetize your channel, you may need to obtain specific licenses and permits. Here's what you need to consider:

• Business License: Depending on where you live, you may need a general business license to operate your YouTube channel as a commercial entity.
• Content Licenses: If you're using music, video clips, or any other copyrighted material, ensure you have the appropriate licenses to avoid copyright infringement.
• Resale Permits: Should your channel involve selling goods, a resale permit or sales tax license might be required by your state or local government.
• Zoning Laws: If you're operating from home, check local zoning laws to make sure you're in compliance, especially if your business activities increase traffic or noise.
• Permits for Special Activities: Occasionally, special activities such as giveaways or contests might require additional permits, particularly if they involve complex rules or large prizes.

Always check with your local and state authorities to ensure you're fully compliant with all regulations related to your YouTube channel business.

What licenses and permits are needed to run a youtube channel business?

The licenses and permits you need to run a YouTube channel business can vary depending on your location and the type of content you produce. Generally, you may need to apply for business licenses or permits in order to operate legally. You may also need to register your business name, obtain copyright or trademark protection, or acquire any other necessary permits. In addition, if you plan to monetize your content with ads or sponsorships, you will likely need to register with the local government in order to pay taxes.

When starting a YouTube channel business, it's crucial to keep your finances organized and secure the necessary funding to support your growth. Opening a business bank account can help you manage your earnings and expenses effectively. Additionally, securing funding can fuel your business ambitions, allowing you to invest in better equipment, marketing, and other resources. Here's what you should consider:

• Choose the right bank: Research and select a bank that offers services tailored to small businesses, with low fees and good customer support.
• Gather required documents: Prepare your business documents, including your business license, EIN, and any other paperwork the bank may require.
• Understand your funding needs: Assess how much money you need to start and operate your channel, including equipment, editing software, and marketing costs.
• Explore funding options: Look into small business loans, lines of credit, crowdfunding, sponsorships, or even personal savings to finance your business.
• Keep your finances separate: Maintaining a distinct boundary between personal and business finances is essential for tax purposes and financial clarity.

Setting the right price for your YouTube channel services is crucial to attract subscribers while ensuring your business remains profitable. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you determine a pricing strategy that reflects the value of your content and appeals to your target audience.

• Analyze Your Costs: Calculate the total costs involved in producing your content, including equipment, software, and your time. Ensure your pricing covers these costs and allows for profit.
• Research Competitors: Look at what similar YouTube channels charge for their services or content. Use this information to benchmark your prices competitively.
• Value-Based Pricing: Set prices based on the perceived value to your audience. If your content is unique or high-quality, you may be able to command a higher price.
• Tiered Offerings: Offer multiple pricing tiers with varying levels of access or perks. This allows viewers with different budgets to engage with your channel.
• Flexibility: Be prepared to adjust your pricing based on feedback and the evolving market conditions to remain competitive and fair.
• Transparency: Clearly communicate what viewers get at each price point to build trust and manage expectations.

What does it cost to start a youtube channel business?

Initiating a youtube channel business can involve substantial financial commitment, the scale of which is significantly influenced by factors such as geographical location, market dynamics, and operational expenses, among others. Nonetheless, our extensive research and hands-on experience have revealed an estimated starting cost of approximately $2400 for launching such an business. Please note, not all of these costs may be necessary to start up your youtube channel business.

Starting a YouTube channel requires some essential equipment and supplies to ensure your content is high-quality and engaging. Depending on your budget and the type of content you plan to create, your needs may vary. Here's a list of the basic gear you should consider acquiring to set up a successful YouTube channel:

• Camera: A good-quality camera is crucial. This could be a DSLR, a mirrorless camera, or even a high-end smartphone if budget is tight.
• Microphone: Clear audio is essential, so invest in a decent microphone. Options include lapel mics for interviews or condenser mics for voiceovers.
• Lighting: Proper lighting can make a huge difference in video quality. Softbox lights or ring lights are popular choices among YouTubers.
• Tripod or Stabilizer: To keep your footage steady, use a tripod or a handheld gimbal stabilizer, especially if you're recording on the go.
• Editing Software: Quality editing can set your content apart. Software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro is widely used, but free alternatives like DaVinci Resolve also exist.
• Storage: Videos can take up a lot of space; have reliable external hard drives or cloud storage solutions in place.
• Backdrop: A clean and professional backdrop or green screen can improve the visual appeal of your videos.

List of software, tools and supplies needed to start a youtube channel business:

• Video camera ($100 - $500): Essential for recording high quality videos.
• Tripod ($15 - $50): Stabilizes the camera and makes it easier to record steady shots.
• Lighting equipment ($50 - $200): Can help improve the quality of your videos.
• Microphone ($20 - $100): Captures audio to ensure sound quality.
• Computer ($500 - $1000+): Used to edit and upload videos.
• Video editing software ($5 - $50/month): Used to edit and enhance the video footage.
• Graphics/Logo design software ($20 - $200): Used to create visuals for the video, like logos, titles, etc.
• YouTube Channel Art Creator tools (free): Used to personalize your channel page.
• Social media management tools ($15 - $30/month): Lets you track performance of your channel on social media
• Promotional/Advertising materials (varies by type/quantity): Materials used to help market and promote your content.

Starting a YouTube channel can be an exciting venture, but it's important to protect your business from potential risks. Obtaining the right insurance can safeguard against liabilities and unforeseen events that could impact your financial stability. Here's how to secure business insurance for your YouTube channel:

• Assess your risk: Determine what types of risks your YouTube channel might face, such as copyright infringement claims or equipment damage.
• Research insurance options: Look for insurance providers that specialize in digital or media-related coverage and compare their policies.
• Consider general liability insurance: This can protect against third-party claims for bodily injury or property damage related to your business activities.
• Explore professional liability insurance: Also known as errors and omissions insurance, this covers legal fees and damages if you're accused of professional negligence or providing misleading information.
• Check for equipment insurance: If you have valuable filming equipment, this insurance can cover loss or damage to your gear.
• Review your homeowner's or renter's policy: Some policies may offer coverage for home-based businesses, but you may need additional insurance for complete protection.
• Consult with an insurance professional: An expert can help you tailor a policy to your specific needs and ensure that you have adequate coverage.

Successfully marketing your YouTube channel services is crucial for attracting audiences and potential clients. It's important to reach out to the right people with the right message to grow your business. Here are some strategies to consider for promoting your YouTube channel services:

• Utilize Social Media: Share your content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to increase visibility. Engage with your audience and use relevant hashtags to reach potential clients.
• Collaborate with Other YouTubers: Partner with other content creators to tap into their audiences. This can help you gain exposure and credibility within your niche.
• SEO Optimization: Use search engine optimization techniques to improve your videos' visibility on YouTube and Google. Research keywords related to your services and include them in your video titles, descriptions, and tags.
• Content Marketing: Create valuable and informative blog posts, infographics, or e-books that can attract clients to your services. Share these on various online platforms to demonstrate your expertise.
• Email Marketing: Build an email list and send out newsletters with updates, promotions, and useful content to keep your audience engaged and informed about your services.
• Online Advertising: Invest in paid advertising through Google AdWords or YouTube's advertising platform to target potential clients who are searching for services like yours.

As your YouTube channel grows, it's essential to look for ways to expand your brand and increase revenue streams. Here are some strategies to consider for taking your YouTube channel business to the next level:

• Collaborate with other YouTubers or influencers to tap into new audiences and share viewership.
• Develop and sell your own merchandise, such as t-shirts, mugs, or digital products related to your brand.
• Offer exclusive content or perks through membership platforms like Patreon or YouTube's channel memberships.
• Extend your content to other platforms such as Twitch, Instagram, or a personal blog to reach a wider audience.
• Engage in affiliate marketing by promoting products or services and earning a commission for each sale through your affiliate links.
• Seek sponsorship deals with brands that align with your channel's content and values.
• Host live events or workshops to connect with your audience in person or virtually and build a stronger community.
• Consider hiring a team to help manage and produce content, allowing you to focus on creative direction and business strategy.
• Utilize analytics to understand your audience better and tailor your content to their preferences, increasing viewer retention and growth.

How to Start a YouTube Business

If you are looking to spread information, improve the human condition and help others, you should consider starting a YouTube business. YouTube businesses provide informative and helpful videos that benefit others in countless ways. Though anyone can start a YouTube channel, the channels that provide useful and insightful content amass plenty of viewers. Such successful channels are legitimate businesses.

You may also be interested in additional online business ideas .

Ready to turn your business idea into a reality? We recommend forming an LLC as it is the most affordable way to protect your personal assets. You can do this yourself or with our trusted partner for a small fee. Northwest ($29 + State Fees) DIY: How to Start an LLC

Start a youtube business by following these 10 steps:

• Plan your YouTube Business
• Form your YouTube Business into a Legal Entity
• Register your YouTube Business for Taxes
• Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
• Set up Accounting for your YouTube Business
• Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your YouTube Business
• Get YouTube Business Insurance
• Define your YouTube Business Brand
• Create your YouTube Business Website
• Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your youtube business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas .

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

What will you name your business?

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?

How much can you charge customers?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Youtube Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship , you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name , we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability .

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

Find a Domain Now

Powered by godaddy.com, what are the costs involved in opening a youtube business.

You will need a camera of some sort. Some YouTube business owners film their videos with their smart phone camera. Others use professional video equipment. Start out with a high-quality smartphone. It will cost a couple hundred dollars up front and between $50 and $150 per month, depending on your data usage. It is advisable to use a high-quality microphone. A microphone will cost between $20 and $100 or more. It will also help to have a computer with a high-speed internet connection and video editing software. Budget at least $750 to $1,000 for this initial equipment.

What are the ongoing expenses for a youtube business?

The business owner who uses his smartphone for videotaping content must pay the monthly smartphone bill of $50 to $150 or more. He will also need an internet connection. A high-speed internet connection will cost about $50 to $100 per month. A computer with video editing software is necessary to produce high-quality videos. Plan on spending at least $500 per year on hardware and software.

Lighting, soundproofing, a green screen, a microphone and support staff might also be necessary. Plan on spending $50 to $100 per month on such equipment. If you are insistent on using paid actors for skits and other content for you channel, budget in at least $50 to $100 for each actor's day of work. More accomplished and experienced actors will make more money yet beginning actors might be willing to work for little money to build their resume. If you add staff for video production, editing, lighting, audio etc., plan on spending at least $10 to $30 per hour for their assistance.

Who is the target market?

There is no single market for YouTube businesses. The target market hinges on the types of videos you upload to your channel. However, it must be noted that many YouTube users are youngsters. Gear your video content to the younger crowd and the odds will be in your favor.

How does a youtube business make money?

Popularity is essential to success as a YouTube business owner. Create helpful, entertaining or otherwise meaningful video content and people will flock to your channel. If one of your videos reaches 10,000 views, you can monetize your channel. It does not matter what your subject matter is as long as your videos do not violate YouTube's and terms of service. Abide by these rules and you will be compensated for views. Just be sure to change your YouTube channel's settings to “Monetize with Ads”. This way, the ads placed in your video will provide you with revenue.

YouTube business owners are paid a specific amount of money for views and clicks of sponsors' ads. This means the business owner does not choose how much to charge clients.

How much profit can a youtube business make?

This business has the potential to make anywhere from a couple hundred dollars per year to tens of millions of dollars per year. The most popular YouTube business owners like PewDiePie reportedly earn more than $10 million per year.

How can you make your business more profitable?

It is possible to make additional money by promoting certain products or services during YouTube videos. You can also redirect your audience to your personal website or blog where you can sell ad space. Some YouTubers also sell clothing, coffee cups, stuffed animals, and other items that feature their brand or likeness.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC's free Small Business Startup Guide - a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

One crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked when starting your youtube business is the importance of establishing a solid business foundation. While sole proprietorships and partnerships are the most common entity types for small businesses, they're a far less stable and advantageous option than LLCs.

This is because unincorporated business structures (i.e., sole proprietorships and partnerships) expose you as an owner to personal liability for your business's debts and legal actions, while LLCs protect you by keeping your personal assets separate from your business's liabilities.

In practice, this means that if your youtube business were to face a lawsuit or incur any debts, your savings, home, and other personal assets could not be used to cover these costs. On top of this, forming your business as an LLC also helps it to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.

More than 84% of our readers opt to collaborate with a professional LLC formation service to kickstart their venture. We've negotiated a tailored discount for our readers, bringing the total down to just $29.

Form Your LLC Now

Note: If you're interested in more information before getting started, we recommend having a look at our state-specific How to Start an LLC guide (DIY) or our in-depth Best LLC Services review (for those opting for a professional service).

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website . If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil .

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history , which can be useful to raise money later on.

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a YouTube business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting the SBA's reference to state licenses and permits .

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses .

Trademark & Copyright Protection

If you are developing a unique product, concept, brand, or design, it is prudent to protect your rights by registering for the appropriate trademarks and copyrights.

Learn more about trademark and copyright protection

The nature of legal requirements in distance education is ever-changing, especially in regard to copyright laws. Here is a frequently updated resource that can help keep you aware of the legal requirements .

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance . This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance . If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

FInd out what types of insurance your YouTube Business needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for YouTube Business.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren't feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners , we'll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended : Get a logo using Truic's free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker .

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator . Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market a youtube business

One of the best ways to promote and market your videos is to collaborate with others who own YouTube businesses. Contact individuals who are building successful channels or have already established successful channels. Ask if they are willing to feature you on one or several of their videos. You can reciprocate by featuring collaborators on your videos. Be sure to inform the audience of the featured guest's name, YouTube channel name and social media information. This information should be presented verbally during the video and also in text form below the video.

How to keep customers coming back

YouTube businesses do not market their channels like traditional businesses. As noted above, collaboration with fellow YouTube business owners is one of the best ways to attract new customers. Be sure to fill out your videos' title and thumbnail with the most important information. Such information leads to promotion in the form of “suggested videos” next to related content. Always ask viewers to subscribe to your channel and hit the “like” button.

Key in on making videos about trending content. If people search YouTube or the web for information that is referenced in your videos' titles and thumbnail, you will gradually attract new viewers. In terms of customer retention, cater to the masses. You never know who is going to watch your videos so you have to cater to all ages and demographics. Entertain, inform, make people laugh, and solve their problems. Add such value with your videos and people will come back for more.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business .

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

• All legitimate businesses have websites - full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
• Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
• Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended : Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders .

Other popular website builders are: WordPress , WIX , Weebly , Squarespace , and Shopify .

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2023 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it's fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

This business is ideal for those who would like to make money by providing helpful video content to others. This is your chance to make educational, entertaining, and captivating video content for the masses. If you have a passion for spreading information, helping others, and making videos, a YouTube business is the perfect way to make money.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at a youtube business?

YouTube business owners spend the majority of their workday creating and editing videos. The bread and butter of this business is the continuous generation of high-quality video content. The best YouTube business owners are willing to invest the time necessary to edit the smallest details of their videos. A portion of the workday is also spent brainstorming ideas for new video content.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful youtube business?

Experience making and editing videos will certainly help. Those who have a background in entertainment, marketing, and psychology tend to do quite well with their YouTube businesses. Stage presence is the most important characteristic. Though you probably won't be filming YouTube videos on any sort of stage, it can be argued every setting in which you film your videos is the equivalent of a YouTube stage. If you are comfortable speaking while in front of the camera, you stand a good chance of building a successful YouTube business.

What is the growth potential for a youtube business?

This business has unlimited growth potential as the entire world is your audience. Everyone who has access to the web can contribute to your business's success. It is possible to amass a significant subscriber base, generate millions of views per video and grow the business into a massive video production company with several employees. Or, you can operate every aspect of your YouTube business on your own and still grow your subscriber base and the business across time. The direction you take your channel is completely up to you. The bottom line is high-quality video content will catalyze your subscriber base, subsequent views, and the growth of your channel.

Not sure if a youtube business is right for you? Try our free Business Idea Generator and find your perfect idea.

TRUiC's YouTube Channel

For fun informative videos about starting a business visit the TRUiC YouTube Channel or subscribe to view later.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor.

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting a youtube business?

Spend some time performing market research. Find out what people are looking for in online videos. Match your strengths and knowledge base to the desires of prospective channel subscribers. As an example, if you have a passion for video games, consider launching a YouTube channel that features video game reviews or footage of your gameplay. If you have a broad knowledge of technology or electronics, consider launching a YouTube channel centered on reviews or previews of high-tech items. Even “reaction” videos to current events, movie trailers, and video game trailers generate a massive number of views. Also, be sure to avoid risque language. YouTube administrators recently decided to pull ads from content creators who curse in their videos. Above all, your videos should provide some sort of value to the audience, whether it is in the form of entertainment, education, or something else.

How and when to build a team

This is a one-man operation for at least a few months. If your YouTube business grows by leaps and bounds, you can consider adding a camera operator, script writer, researcher, and possibly a few actors. However, many YouTube business owners have enjoyed considerable success without the help of others. This is one of those rare businesses that can be operated by a single person.

Useful Links

Industry opportunities.

• YouTube Creator Hub
• Learn about more Online Business Ideas

Real World Examples

• Yuya, a Mexican beauty vlogger
• Epic Rap Battles of History
• Comedy group Porta Dos Fundos

Further Reading

• Advice from a successful YouTuber
• Tips for starting this business
• Interview with a successful YouTuber

Have a Question? Leave a Comment!

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How to Create a Business Plan Around Your YouTube Channel

Hey this is Sasha and today I want to share with you how to create a business plan around your YouTube channel.

For many people they look at a YouTube channel and they think, this is my business, YouTube is my business, and that’s not necessarily the way that you should be looking at it, YouTube is a platform to help you within your business, but you have to build the business around YouTube or around that platform.

The platform is not your business

And there are a lot of people that are very successful in various platforms; nowadays we have a lot of platforms. From Facebook to Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, there are a lot of different platforms, and you can build a whole business just around a single platform, especially if you dominate that platform within your industry or category.

But you have to build your business around it, and not just use that one platform as your business. And yes it can fuel those things and fuel your business, but you have to build things around it. Because the problem is if you use that as a full backbone and that is your whole business. If things go sour, if YouTube doesn’t exist anymore, then all of a sudden what’s going to happen to your business?

Think about what happened to MySpace, how things changed so quickly and very rapidly, people merged over to Facebook and Twitter and now MySpace is gone.

Look at Yahoo, what happened to Yahoo? When Yahoo was huge, Google came out, and again these things started shifting and changing the technology space.

You have to be mindful that you’re creating your own business and if you have a solid business strategy and you’re creating a business plan around that, then that’s fine and dandy, but if you’re not and you’re using the platform, YouTube itself as your business, that can be very dangerous

Let’s break this down and look at how we can create a business around YouTube, rather than just using YouTube as your business.

Making money

Let’s talk about making money because this is really what everybody wants to start with. In the online space, there’s a few ways to make money.

Especially from your YouTube channel, your YouTube channel, more so, what you’re going to do is get sponsorships and clicks.

Some people they have affiliate products, because they promote certain products and they say, if you like my review of this product, click this link Bellow, like an amazon link right down below. And in that case, they get a commission or percentage of that sale.

And then other people may have their own product, which has the highest margin return for when you make a sale, but these the three ways that you can make money on YouTube, or at least through YouTube.

Don’t rely only on sponsorships

If you’re just doing sponsorships, that’s fine, but you don’t have a business around those things. You just have a basic viewership, and even if you have a high viewership rate, it might be fantastic, you might make a lot of money, but it’s not a way to consistently make money.

Let’s just say if you’re on the top 10% of Youtubers or top 10% of people with viewership. Yes, you might be able to make a lot of money and you might be doing great on sponsorships. But if anything happens with that algorithm, you lose your channel, you get hacked, whatever the problem may be, this could create a big problem to your business, because you’re resting everything on one single pillar.

Build a multi-pillar structure for your business

What you want to do in your business is put up multiple pillars, you have sponsorships, you’re selling other products, you’re selling your products, and you create a multi-pillar structure, so that way if any one thing collapses, you’re still able to sustain through the storms.

If we’re looking at a structure, let’s just say it’s kind of like a pyramid structure, whatever it is, think of it as legs.

You could do this part from your blog, or you could do it from your podcast, it’s just a distribution channel, but you continue to add on these things, so then you have our own product, so that would be kind of the next stage or step.

Build up multiple fronts with multiple pillars

If one of your pillars fails – The others will support your business

Again, you’re building structures all in place that if any one of these, let’s say this product one or two or three is a failure, you still have two products.

This is your core business, and you’re building more rings around your income, and you continue to grow those rings.

As one channel may be your sponsorships, then your income continues to grow, then your income again continues to grow, and you continue to expand those channels.

You might start with YouTube, and that’s perfectly ok, but then you add in a podcast, which allows you to distribute more products, more affiliates, more sponsorships, more viewers.

Continue to grow and expand

This isn’t a full business plan for your YouTube channel, but it’s just to show you how the business plan around the YouTube channel really works.

And some people have ultimate success with YouTube, and that’s great for many people, sometimes it works out, your videos go viral, but if you want a systematic approach, this is how you do it.

What can you offer?

It really just comes down to which one you have an edge in, and then use that and continue to grow it and expand on it.

I hope that you really start seeing the bigger picture behind creating a business around YouTube, rather than just using YouTube and looking at sponsorship and making some side income.

Side income is great, it allows you to get the ball rolling, but that’s what allows you to take that ball and turn it into a business, take it to the next stage, and continue to evolve it, up until the point where you’re satisfied and enjoying your life.

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How to Create a YouTube Channel for Your Small Business

Victoria Greywing

9 min. read

Updated February 9, 2024

Millions of people all around the world use YouTube as their primary source of internet entertainment. There are numerous advantages to creating a YouTube channel that will help a small business.

The success of your YouTube efforts is highly dependent upon finding an effective strategy for optimizing your account. If you want to know how to start a YouTube channel for your business, there are several steps you must complete. This article covers the ways to build a massive channel that will attract customers to your website and generate income for you. 

• Why does your company need a YouTube channel?

Before we dive into the specific details, let us go over how YouTube could benefit your company. 

The major advantages are building an active, targeted audience for your website and increasing your visibility to search engines. Secondly, you can develop relationships with other businesses and influencers by commenting on their videos and collaborating. Thirdly, you can brand yourself and your website as experts in your chosen niche when you get enough exposure.

So, how does all this work?

The amount of time people spend online has drastically increased, especially in the last two years due to the pandemic. This eventually led to larger video consumption –  82% of internet users  prefer videos to  other types of content . And that opens a whole lot of new opportunities for marketers.

In 2020,  88% of marketing specialists  claimed to use YouTube as a part of their digital strategy. And that’s not surprising at all — the platform has an audience of 2 billion people, providing a wide range of niches your business can fit in. When you reach the right audience, you increase  brand awareness , loyalty, and sales — and these are the ultimate goals of any business.

• How to create a YouTube channel

As part of your  digital marketing strategy , you must understand that YouTube offers several unique features that can help you promote your small business. Among them are advanced analytics, video optimization, search engine optimization, and more. Let’s take a closer look at the step-by-step process of starting a YouTube channel.

1. Set up an account

A Gmail account automatically creates a YouTube profile as soon as you log into the platform. For security reasons, it’s better to create a separate corporate account so that only your current employees can have access to the channel:

• Log into your Youtube account via Google.
• Click on the profile picture icon.
• Choose “Create a channel” from the drop-down menu.
• Enter your channel name and upload the profile picture.
• Confirm your actions with the “Create channel” button.

Now you have a channel. You can access it via the “Your channel” button in the drop-down menu. It opens the dashboard where you can customize the look of your channel and manage videos. But first, you need to fill out the profile information.

• Go to “Customize channel,” then click “Basic Info.”
• Add channel description and contact info.
• Add links to your site or social media accounts.
• Change the URL to your channel to a custom one. Note that you can do it only after you have 100 subscribers and your account is at least 30 days old.
• Go to the “Branding” tab.
• Add a profile picture (if you haven’t already) and a banner image.
• Upload a watermark logo that will appear on all your videos. Preferably, it should be your company’s logo.

Since it’s a corporate channel, you may want to have several people take care of it. Ideally, you should have a whole team of specialists – a videographer, a community manager, and a content manager. To give access to several people, go to the “Settings” section in the left-side menu, then click “Permissions.” There, you can send out invites to the people of interest and choose their roles:

• Managers can edit everything as well as add or remove other people.
• Editors can change profile information but can’t delete videos.
• Viewers can only view the profile but can’t change anything.

You can also give out limited editing or viewing permissions. Plus, the only person who can delete the channel is you, the creator.

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2. Match the market

The next important thing to do is to  research the market . Ask yourself these questions: “Are my competitors present on YouTube? What content do they make? How do they promote themselves?”

And most importantly, “How can I beat them?”

That’s right. You should never copy other brands, but make sure your company stands out. You need to invest some time and effort into the visual layout and  branding  of your channel, not to mention the quality of content. For now, let’s talk about your channel’s appearance.

Make a channel trailer

This will be the first thing people who are not subscribed to you see when they first visit your channel. It can be a short compilation of the best of your videos or a welcome video presenting the company. 

Highlight a featured video

This video is meant for your subscribers. You can use your latest video for this section or choose the one you think they should watch right away.

Add navigation sections

Help your followers navigate through your channel by making themed playlists: uploads, live streams, and custom lists.

Work on channel art

The design of your YouTube channel should match the whole brand strategy and color book. Having the same patterns, colors, and fonts will invest in the trust and loyalty of your fanbase.

Get verified

A small gray checkmark next to a channel’s name means a lot, as it adds trust. It will let people know that your channel is the official representation of your brand on YouTube. To verify your account, you need to go to “Settings” – “Channel” – “Feature eligibility.” There you will find the button that lets you get verified. After the process is finished, you will be able to post longer videos, stream live, and add custom thumbnails.

3. Optimize for search

All of your efforts will be in vain if you don’t have enough  search engine exposure . Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, it’s time to learn how to optimize it for your purposes. 

The title, description, and tags should be optimized so that viewers searching for related items will find your content. You should do it for individual videos, but you can also have a pool of generic keywords that you will use every time.  SEO on YouTube works the same way as in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. The easiest way to  research the keywords  is by typing them into the search bar. If you have a match in bold, that’s the phrase you need.

Alternatively, you can use services like Google Ads, Ahrefs, and Semrush to get the whole picture of what’s happening in your niche SEO-wise. Among other tools are vidIQ and TubeBuddy, which have YouTube in their primary focus.

One more important thing that differentiates YouTube is that you have to actually use keywords in your videos. Not just pronounced separately, but used in your speech and subtitles. That’s how search algorithms understand that your video is relevant and answers the users’ intent.

4. Dive into content-making

Making a cool video may take a lot of time, so, as we’ve mentioned before, you should consider having a dedicated YouTube team. They will take care of the video production and marketing, as well as building a community.

If you, however, are on a budget, you can rely on  free tools for video-making  and have a marketing specialist help you do the promotional part.

You will need: 

• An online video editor like Fastreel, Magisto, or Kapwing
• An illustration-maker for channel art: Canva, Venngage, or Crello
• A content planner like Loomly, Trello, or Agorapulse

When you have all the tools you need, it’s time to find out how to make a YouTube channel more interesting with different video content.

• Types of content that perform well on YouTube

You will find dozens of video content types across YouTube. But which ones to pick for promoting a small business? The ones below work great for corporate accounts, so let’s take a closer look.

Brand introduction

A brand presentation is arguably the most important video on your channel. Tell your audience who you are, what you do, and what your content is about. This type of video works great as a channel trailer for the newcomers to get to know you. You can also make a series of short “meet the team” videos when introducing your employees. These videos can include short interviews, time-lapses of workdays, and little anecdotes about their lives.

Product overviews

If you produce cool items, develop handy software, or provide great services, YouTube is the best place to showcase your offerings. Product overviews are basically advertisements where you talk about features and benefits for users. These videos fit very well when you launch new products or release updates to your existing goods.

Instructions

Instructional guides are a must-have if you want the audience to treat you as an expert. Teach your subscribers how to use your services or products and make QA videos about the most troublesome moments. If you have your own profound guides and instructional videos, people won’t need to search for them anywhere else.

Educational videos

These differ from instructions in a way that they cover a wider range of topics. These topics, however, should be related to your product or service. For example, if you are a digital design agency, you can educate your audience about current design trends or color theory.

Customer testimonials

Client testimonials will draw viewers to your channel and provide valuable content for your subscriber base. A customer testimonial can include specific details about the benefits of a product or service based on real-life experience. Such feedback is more believable than bragging from the brand’s side.

Live streams

A scheduled live stream event will cause anticipation among your subscribers. You can tease the public on your other social media accounts and then talk to the audience in real-time. Live streams are perfect for product launches, QA sessions, and educational webinars.

• Creating a successful YouTube channel takes time

As you can see, there are a lot of advantages to  making use of YouTube . Not every company is successful in doing so, but with enough time and effort, you can reach your goal. A YouTube account will attract new audiences, improve relationships with customers, and draw more traffic to your site.

Plan out your digital strategy first, research the market, and you’re good to go. Don’t forget to optimize your content for search engines, upload videos regularly, and the followers won’t take long to come. By balancing the amount and types of content, you can keep your clients entertained for a long time.

Victoria is a content manager in Movavi. She specializes in writing user-friendly content and researching complex topics to make them easy to understand in her articles.

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YouTube Video Channel Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business ideas » Media Industry » Youtube Channel Business

Are you about starting a starting a YouTube video channel ? If YES, here’s a complete sample YouTube video channel business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE to raise money .

Digital marketing cum YouTube video channel are some of the fruits of the internet cum advancement in technology and for sure it has enabled loads of entrepreneur to launch multimillion dollars international businesses; businesses with clientele base that cut across geographical boundaries.

A Sample YouTube Video Channel Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

YouTube is basically an online platform that allows users to upload, view, rate, share, and comment on videos; it is a global video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States. The service was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005.

In November 2006, it was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion hence YouTube now operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries. The site

YouTube video channel business is under the digital marketing agencies industry and what they do basically is to create advertising campaigns and place the advertisements across digital media outlets. Through in-house capabilities or subcontracting, the agencies provide advice, creative services, account management, production of advertising material, and media planning and buying.

YouTube’s revenues in 2007 were noted as “not material” in a regulatory filing. In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales via YouTube channels. In January 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of 15 minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical U.S. citizen watching television.

In 2012, YouTube’s revenue from its ads program was estimated at 3.7 billion and in 2013 it nearly doubled and estimated to hit 5.6 billion dollars according to e – Marketer, others estimated 4.7 billion.

It is important to categorically state that the vast majority of videos on YouTube are free to view and they are supported by advertising. In May 2013, YouTube introduced a trial scheme of 53 subscription channels with prices ranging from $0.99 to $6.99 a month.

The move was seen as an attempt to compete with other providers of online video subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu.

The Digital Marketing Agencies Industry of which YouTube Video Channel line of business is a subset of is indeed a very large industry and pretty much thriving in all parts of the world especially in developed countries such as United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Italy et al.

Statistics has it that in the united states of America alone, there are about 2,508 licensed and registered digital marketing agencies responsible for employing about 59,271 employees and the industry rakes in a whopping sum of $14 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 0.6 percent.

It is important to state that the establishments with a lion share of the available market in the YouTube Video Channel line of business are PewDiePie, Justin Bieber Vevo, Get Movie and Fun ToyzCollector et al. When compared to traditional media that are often too expensive for start – ups and even SMEs, a digital marketing approach does not require expensive and out of – reach budgeting.

This is why companies make use of modern technology and also platforms such as YouTube Video Channels, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram et al in order to reach a much wider target market as against making use of mainstream marketing tools which are expensive.

Over and above, YouTube video channel business cum digital marketing has become an important tool for promoting ones businesses as it relates to products and services all over the world, not only to sell to customers, but also to engage them.

It is now easier for organization to expand their market from local level to national and even international markets with minimum capital investment under the YouTube video channel platform and other digital marketing platforms.

2. Executive Summary

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is a U.S based and world class digital advertising agency that will leverage on YouTube video channels to advertise goods and services for our clients. We have been able to secure a standard and well – positioned office facility in a central business district in San Diego – California.

We are a digital advertising agency that is set to compete in the highly competitive social media marketing and advertising industry not only in the United States market, but also in the global market because our clientele base will not be restricted to just businesses and organizations in the United States.

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC will offer robust digital advertising services to both corporate organization and individual clients. Aside from offering our advertising services via our YouTube Channels, We will also offer services such as:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Banner advertising
• Video advertising
• Rich media advertising
• Sponsorship advertising
• Classifieds/directories
• Lead generation
• Mobile messaging/email
• Digital display advertising
• Mobile advertising
• Social media management and other related consulting and advisory services.

Our business goal is to become one of the leading digital advertising agencies in the United States of America with high profile corporate and individual clients scattered all around the world. Our workers are going to be selected from a pool of talented and highly creative digital advertising experts in and around San Diego – California and also from any part of the world as the business grows.

We will make sure that we take all the members of our workforce through the required trainings that will position them to meet the expectation of the company and to compete with leading digital advertising cum marketing agencies in the United States and throughout the globe.

At Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC, our client’s best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our clients.

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is founded by Andrea Coleman and his friend and business partner for many years Bob Sutton.

They both graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology and they have a combine experience that revolves around digital market researching, video editing and streaming, web designing, graphic designing, corporate branding and advertising and business management et al.

3. Our Products and Services

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC was established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Digital Marketing Agencies industry cum YouTube video channel line of business.

We want to compete favorably with the leading digital advertising agencies in the United States of America and the world which is why we have but in place a competent team that will ensure that we meet and even surpass our customers’ expectations.

We will work hard to ensure that Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC do not just work for clients in the United States of America, but also for clients in other parts of the world. Our products and services are listed below;

• YouTube Video Channel advertising
• Social media management
• Other related digital marketing advisory and consulting services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to establish a standard and world class digital advertising agencies whose services and brand will not only be accepted in the United States of America, but also in other parts of the world.
• Our mission is to provide professional and highly creative result oriented digital advertising services and other related advisory and consulting services that will assist businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations in promoting their brands and reaching out to a wide range of potential customers all over the globe via our YouTube video channel and other digital advertising platforms.
• We want to build a digital advertising agency that can favorably compete with other leading brands in the digital marketing agencies industry.

Our Business Structure

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC, is a digital advertising agency with strong bias in YouTube video channel that intend starting small in San Diego, but hope to grow big in order to compete favorably with leading digital advertising agencies in the industry both in the United States and on a global stage.

We are aware of the importance of building a solid business structure that can support the picture of the kind of world class business we want to own. This is why we are committed to only hire the best hands within our area of operations.

At Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC, we will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, hardworking, and creative, result driven, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stakeholders (the owners, workforce, and customers).

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our senior management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as agreed by the board of trustees of the company. In view of the above, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Creative Director

Digital Advertising Specialist

Human Resources and Admin Manager

• Sales and Marketing Executive
• Video Editor cum Graphic Artist
• Content Creator / Online Traffic Generator

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Creative Director:

• Serves as project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
• Responsible for designing concepts and winning business proposals for the organization
• In charge of copy writing and laying out chronological advertisement plans
• Develops strategic plan by studying video and film technological and financial opportunities; presenting assumptions; recommending objectives.
• Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
• Coordinates efforts by establishing procurement, production, marketing, field, and technical services policies and practices; coordinating actions with corporate staff.
• Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices.
• Maintains quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
• Make certain that operations and marketing department perform efficiently, coordinate employee efforts, and facilitate communications between management and employees
• Ensures that the organization work in line with international best practices.
• Responsible for handling core digital advertising services such as video uploading, banner advertising, video advertising, rich media advertising, sponsorship advertising, classifieds/directories, lead generation, mobile messaging/email, digital display advertising, mobile advertising, social media management
• Handle other related digital advertising advisory and consulting services
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Enhances department and organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office

Sales and Marketing Manager

• Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Model demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
• Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develop, execute and evaluate new plans for expanding increase sales
• Create new markets cum businesses for the organization
• Empower and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets

Accountant / Cashier:

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC
• Serves as internal auditor for Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC.

Video Editor cum Graphic Designers

• Responsible for handling video shooting, editing and uploading on our YouTube video channel
• Liaising with clients to determine their requirement and budget
• Responsible for Optimizing Website Functionality for owners of existing websites
• Responsible for Search Engine Optimization Services and Code Writing Services
• Responsible for developing concepts, graphics and layouts for product illustrations, company logos, and websites
• Responsible for managing client proposals from typesetting through to design, print and production
• Responsible for preparing drafts or material based on an agreement brief.
• Research and advice the organization on style, genre and other trendy info as it relates to social media marketing.

Content Creator / Traffic Generator

• Responsible for creating video content / buzz words that will help attract traffics
• Responsible for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Responsible for engaging internet users to get help statistics and leads
• Liaising and working effectively With other staff members to generate sales for our clients
• Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person, online or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the creative director in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc; to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries.

6. SWOT Analysis

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC engaged the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist our organization in building a well – structured digital advertising business that can favorably compete in the highly competitive digital marketing agencies industry in the United States and the world at large.

Part of what the team of business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient digital advertising expert, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the digital marketing agencies industry and other related industry.

Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected digital advertising experts, our services will be measurable, result driven and guided by best practices in the industry.

As a new digital advertising agency in San Diego – California, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from top profile clients in the already saturated and highly competitive digital marketing agencies industry; that is perhaps our major weakness.

Another weakness is that we may not have the required cash to pump into promoting our business especially via main stream media (TV, Radio and Newspapers et al) the way we would want to.

• Opportunities:

No doubt, the opportunities available in the digital marketing agencies industry is massive considering the number of individuals and corporate organizations with active presence on the internet and of course the pretty large numbers of people who visit the internet / social media and YouTube platforms on a daily basis and own mobile phones / smart phones and other related gadgets.

As a standard and world class digital advertising agency, we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that is available in the industry.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing / spending power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a digital marketing agency or even a social media marketing company in same location where our target market exist and who may want to adopt same Business model like us.

We are not ruling out the fact that YouTube which happens to be our major platform can also stand as a threat – especially if they come up with unfavorable policies.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

No doubt, the Digital Marketing Agencies industry has benefited from the rapid switch from traditional print advertising to digital advertisements. As more consumers generate website traffic through the use of smartphones and tablets, businesses have purchased digital advertising services to build brand awareness across multiple screens and platforms.

In the next five years, the industry will continue to grow, as more effective advertising tools / software apps and technology platforms that measure consumer demographics are developed.

The growing trend which makes it easier for people to spend more time on the internet especially on social media networking sites such as YouTube is a major boost in the revenue generated by digital advertising agencies. It is not common to find players in this industry generating an increasing amount of advertising revenue per user by developing targeted advertising platforms and tools to measure the effectiveness of advertising and marketing.

This has indeed changed the ways that organizations approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions and profiling are now being carried out over online and social media platforms with much higher visibility.

In as much as digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. This portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of press time.

Another important factor worthy of mentioning in this industry is that the target market keep expanding, people and organizations are now seeing the need for them to have an official website and also to engage the services of digital marketing experts either in branding or packaging their products and services or in helping them directly sell their products and services to their targeted market.

Another common trend in the digital marketing agencies industry is that, most digital marketing firms no longer settle for clients within the location where their physical office is located but also from any part of the world. The truth is that with the advent of the internet, it is now easier for a digital marketing agency to work for clients in any part of the world.

A digital marketing agency can be located in the United States of America and have their biggest client in United Arab Emirates or in China.

Many thanks to the power of the internet which has brought the world closer to us. Lastly, the digital marketing agencies industry will continue to evolve due to the advancement of computer technology and software applications designs et al.

8. Our Target Market

Before starting our digital advertising agency cum YouTube video channel business, we are certain that there is a wide range of both corporate and individual clients who cannot successfully run their businesses without the services and support of a standard digital advertising agencies; a company that can help them reach out to their target market.

In view of that, we have created strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations, non – profits, government agencies and individual who we know can’t afford to do without our services. We have conducted our market research and survey and we will ensure that we meet and surpass the expectations of our clients Below is a list of the people and organizations that we have specifically market our services to;

• Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
• Blue Chips Companies
• Corporate Organizations
• Manufacturers and Distributors
• Real Estate Owners, Developers, and Contractors
• Research and Development Companies
• The Government (Public Sector)
• Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
• Celebrities, Politicians, Public Figures and Public Speakers
• Sport Organizations
• Religious Organizations
• Political Parties
• Television Stations
• Printing Press (Publishing Houses) and Authors
• Branding and Advertising agencies
• Aspiring celebrities
• Entrepreneurs and Startups

Our Competitive Advantage

Surviving in the business world as a digital advertising agency requires more than, your expertise, knowing how to conduct your business but also how to network with key people that matters; decision makers that can decide who will get a contract or a business deal.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the digital marketing agencies industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and excellent services, but you must be result driven and able to meet set targets.

No one would want to continue to hire your services if don’t always meet up with the target sales the organization intends to generate when they hired you.

Our competitive advantage lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient digital advertising experts, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the digital marketing agencies industry and other related industry.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups digital advertising agencies in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the digital marketing agencies industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to meet and surpass the expectations of all our clients.

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC will generate income by offering the following digital marketing services and other related services;

• YouTube Video Channel Advertising

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be corporate organizations, government agencies, non – profits and individuals who would need the services of digital advertising agencies to help them increase sales or promote their brands.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in digital marketing agencies industry and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six month of operations and grow our digital advertising agencies to enviable heights.

We have been able to critically examine the digital advertising space and we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projection is based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in San Diego – California.

Below is the sales projection for Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC, it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of our services and target market;

• First Fiscal Year-: $100,000
• Second Fiscal Year-: $300,000
• Third Fiscal Year-: $550,000

N.B: This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same digital advertising services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there is stiffer competition in the YouTube video channel line of business cum digital marketing agencies industry; hence we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the digital marketing agencies industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC.

Our corporate goal is to grow Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC to become one of the leading digital advertising brands in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the world.

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our digital advertising agency cum YouTube video channel by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to individuals, corporate organizations, government agencies, non – profits, religious organizations and key stakeholders.
• Promptness in bidding for digital advertising contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
• Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver excellent services
• Leverage on the internet which is our forte to promote our business
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in house brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate clients and individual clients in the whole of the United States and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our digital advertising agency.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Andréa & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC;

• Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around San Diego – California
• Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighborhoods
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Contact corporate organizations, non – profits and government agencies by calling them up and informing them of Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC and the services we offer
• List our digital advertising agency in local directories / yellow pages
• Advertise our digital advertising agency in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC we will keep the prices of our services below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals.

We are aware that leveraging on the YouTube video channel as a business platform means that you will be at the mercy of the management of YouTube.com since the revenue you are expected to generate from the business is based on ads and percentage.

• Payment Options

At Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC, our payment policy will be all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that we will make available to our clients;

• Payment by via bank transfer
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment with cash

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our plans with little or no itches.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business. The materials and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any difference in prices would be minimal and can be overlooked.

As for the detailed cost analysis for starting a YouTube video channel business; it might differ in other countries due to the value of their money. However, this is what it would cost us to setup Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC in the United of America;

• Business incorporation fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
• The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
• Acquiring an office space that will accommodate the number of employees for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $150,000.
• Equipping the office (video shooting / recording gadgets, computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
• Amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $3,500
• Launching an official Website will cost – $500
• Amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
• Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
• Miscellaneous – $5000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about two hundred and fifty thousand ( 250,000 ) U.S. dollars to successfully set – up a medium scale but standard digital advertising agency in the United States of America.

Generating Funding / Startup Capital for Andréa & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is a business that will be owned, financed and managed by Andréa Coleman and his friend and business partner for many years Bob Sutton. They are the sole financial of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $85,000 and soft loan from family members $15,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $150,000 from our bank. All the papers and document has been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our digital advertising services and other related advisory and consulting services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Andrea & Bob Digital Advertising Consulting™, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Securing a standard office facility in a good location: Completed
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founders: Completed
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of Logo for the business: Completed
• Secure trademark for our products: In Progress
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In Progress
• Creating Official Website for the business: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with the management of YouTube, vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress

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Texas-based company says it’s in ‘advanced discussions’ with Alaska utilities on plan to import natural gas to Cook Inlet

Excelerate Energy FSRU at terminal in Bahia Blanca, Argentina (Photo: Business Wire)

A Texas energy company that uses specialized ships to deliver natural gas said this week that it’s engaged in talks with Southcentral Alaska utilities on a plan to import liquefied natural gas into Cook Inlet.

Excelerate Energy said its working on a plan to procure and deliver natural gas to Southcentral Alaska to address dwindling gas reserves in Cook Inlet, executives with the company said in a call with financial analysts.

Cook Inlet for more than five decades has produced the gas needed to provide heat and power in the region, they said.

But Hilcorp, the basin’s dominant gas producer, has warned Southcentral Alaska utilities that it does not currently have enough gas to provide for future gas contracts, once existing contracts expire.

The warning has raised fears that Cook Inlet’s gas supply could begin running short as early as next year. That has forced utilities to look for potential solutions, including costly imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

Steven Kobos, Excelerate chief executive, said in the call that the company’s plans involve using a specialized floating ship known as a “floating storage regasification unit.” After the liquefied gas has been transported over the ocean, the units convert the LNG into gas that can be transported in pipelines.

Excelerate, based in The Woodlands, Texas, operates one of the world’s largest fleets of those specialized ships.

“Excelerate is in advanced discussions with local utilities in Southcentral Alaska for the development of an integrated LNG terminal in the lower Cook Inlet region,” Kobos said.

Excelerate would obtain the gas and sell it to utilities, Kobos said.

“Excelerate would own the FSRU-based terminal, source the LNG supply that is required, and sell gas to local utilities and other off-takers,” he said in the call. “The start of commercial operations is targeted for 2028.”

Excelerate officials on the call did not name the Alaska utilities they are working with.

Enstar, the natural gas utility in Southcentral Alaska, has provided state regulators with a rough idea of how it envisions gas imports occurring.

Enstar is taking steps to build a $57 million, 16-mile pipeline that can accept future gas imports. The pipeline would accept gas imports in upper Cook Inlet at Port MacKenzie.

Enstar has informed the Regulatory Commission of Alaska that it envisions the use of a “floating storage regasification unit” to import gas.

On Thursday, representatives with large utilities in Southcentral declined to say if they are working with Excelerate.

Enstar is “laser-focused” on finding new gas supplies, Lindsay Hobson, a spokesperson with Enstar, said in a text.

“As part of this process, ENSTAR continues discussions with local producers and LNG import service companies,” she said. “If and when any commercial discussions are finalized, ENSTAR will file agreements with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for approval and share that information with Alaskans.”

Chugach Electric Association in Anchorage continues to support local gas development, said Trish Baker, senior manager of government and business affairs for the utility, said in an email.

“However, to meet projected future natural gas needs beyond 2028, we will need a bridge fuel to support our transition to a renewable future,” she said. “Imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) has the potential to be that bridge.”

Matanuska Electric Association in Palmer “continues to collaborate with the other Southcentral utilities to solve the gas uncertainty,” said Julie Estey, a spokesperson for the utility, in an email.

That “includes commercial discussions with organizations that are capable and interested in providing viable solutions to meet the needs of our members,” she said. “We are committed to keeping our electric co-op members and communities informed and will share further details as they become available.”

Larry Persily, an oil and gas analyst and former Alaska deputy commissioner of revenue, said the Excelerate option could “make sense” for Alaska utilities.

Excelerate would operate the terminal and reduce the need for capital investments by the utilities, Persily said. Excelerate would also secure the gas and presumably provide it under a long-term lease to the utilities.

“It’s like how some people lease a car instead of buying it,” he said.

Excelerate had said it’s looking at a potential project in the lower Cook Inlet region, but did not provide a specific location.

It’s possible Excelerate is looking at using existing port facilities in Nikiski, in mid Cook Inlet, though a small gas pipeline would need to be built there, Persily said.

Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or [email protected].

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AST SpaceMobile's Big Plan Is Paying Off

• AST SpaceMobile is attempting to build a space-based cellular broadband network.
• A key company goal is to partner with existing cellphone companies.
• AST SpaceMobile just linked up with Verizon, and it already had a deal with AT&T.
• Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert

NASDAQ: ASTS

Ast spacemobile.

AST SpaceMobile just inked a big deal that suggests a core tenet of its business model has set it up for success.

AST SpaceMobile ( ASTS 13.65% ) has big plans and not a whole lot to show for them just yet. But that hasn't stopped it from executing well on one very important aspect of its business model: partnering with the cellular industry's leaders. There's a virtuous cycle here, though, because the more partners it has, the more likely it is to succeed. Which is why the company recently linking up with Verizon  was such a big deal.

Early-stage development looks promising

AST SpaceMobile is looking to build a space -based cellular broadband network that will provide reception anywhere in the world. The key attraction of the service is that it allows customers to use the devices they already use. So there's no new fancy gear to buy and set up; just pull out your handy cellphone and use it the same way you always have. Only this time, you could be on top of a mountain or in the middle of the ocean, where there aren't any nearby cell towers.

Image source: Getty Images.

That's the plan, anyway. Right now, AST SpaceMobile has one single test satellite in orbit. It won't launch additional satellites until the end of 2024 at the earliest.

Or, to put it another way, AST SpaceMobile is still in the development stage. That means the balance sheet is likely to bleed red ink for a long time into the future even as the company has to spend vast sums to create the network it needs to produce revenue. This is not a great option if you are a conservative investor.

However, the test satellite that's in orbit was enough to prove out the technology concept. Indeed, the company successfully used the satellite and existing cellular phone technology to make space-based connections. That was an important milestone, and it set the company up to achieve another important milestone.

AST SpaceMobile partners up

AST SpaceMobile is basically competing with Elon Musk's Starlink . The most notable difference is that Starlink is attempting to go it alone, with its own hardware, while AST SpaceMobile is specifically looking to partner with existing cellphone providers . There are a few reasons for this.

First off, AST SpaceMobile will be able to tap into existing customer bases and, thus, won't have to build one from scratch.

Second, it can ask its partners for funding to help it build out its system. It partnered up with AT&T  in January 2024. Not long afterward, in late May, it announced an agreement with Verizon. Both companies are lining up to be customers and are providing cash to AST SpaceMobile so it can continue to develop its network.

On that score, the company announced in late July that it had completed the first five satellites for the network it hopes to build. They will be ready to ship in early August, which was a stated management goal.

Getting the satellites to the launch facility is just step one, however. The company needs to wait until there's a launch window, which is expected to come in the latter months of 2024. But the launch depends on many factors outside of the company's control, including the weather, so there are no guarantees on a final date.

That said, the dominoes are falling into place quite well at the moment. And with the extra cash being provided by large partners like AT&T and Verizon, the future looks more certain now than it did as 2024 got underway.

AST SpaceMobile is risky but increasingly less so

While AST SpaceMobile's stock is still only appropriate for more aggressive investors, given that it remains in the development stage, it is making important progress. Notably, its operational success has allowed it to ink the partnerships it requires to succeed financially over the long term. The next big step is getting more satellites into space.

AST SpaceMobile's stock has rocketed higher this year, likely because of the partnerships noted above, but there could be more upside if the news flow continues in a positive direction.

Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .

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Generative AI Has a 'Shoplifting' Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It

Bill Gross made his name in the tech world in the 1990s , when he came up with a novel way for search engines to make money on advertising. Under his pricing scheme, advertisers would pay when people clicked on their ads. Now, the “pay-per-click” guy has founded a startup called ProRata, which has an audacious, possibly pie-in-the-sky business model: “AI pay-per-use.”

Gross, who is CEO of the Pasadena, California, company, doesn’t mince words about the generative AI industry. “It’s stealing,” he says. “They’re shoplifting and laundering the world’s knowledge to their benefit.”

AI companies often argue that they need vast troves of data to create cutting-edge generative tools and that scraping data from the internet, whether it’s text from websites, video or captions from YouTube, or books pilfered from pirate libraries, is legally allowed. Gross doesn’t buy that argument. “I think it’s bullshit,” he says.

So do plenty of media executives, artists, writers, musicians, and other rights-holders who are pushing back—it’s hard to keep up with the constant flurry of copyright lawsuits filed against AI companies, alleging that the way they operate amounts to theft.

But Gross thinks ProRata offers a solution that beats legal battles. “To make it fair—that’s what I’m trying to do,” he says. “I don’t think this should be solved by lawsuits.”

His company aims to arrange revenue-sharing deals so publishers and individuals get paid when AI companies use their work. Gross explains it like this: “We can take the output of generative AI, whether it's text or an image or music or a movie, and break it down into the components, to figure out where they came from, and then give a percentage attribution to each copyright holder, and then pay them accordingly.” ProRata has filed patent applications for the algorithms it created to assign attribution and make the appropriate payments.

This week, the company, which has raised $25 million, launched with a number of big-name partners, including Universal Music Group, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, and media company Axel Springer. In addition, it has made deals with authors with large followings, including Tony Robbins, Neal Postman, and Scott Galloway. (It has also partnered with former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.)

Even journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, who believes scraping the web for AI training is fair use, has signed on. He tells WIRED that it’s smart for people in the news industry to band together to get AI companies access to “credible and current information” to include in their output. “I hope that ProRata might open discussion for what could turn into APIs [application programming interfaces] for various content,” he says.

Following the company’s initial announcement, Gross says he had a deluge of messages from other companies asking to sign up, including a text from Time CEO Jessica Sibley. ProRata secured a deal with Time, the publisher confirmed to WIRED. He plans to pursue agreements with high-profile YouTubers and other individual online stars.

The key word here is “plans.” The company is still in its very early days, and Gross is talking a big game. As a proof of concept, ProRata is launching its own subscription chatbot-style search engine in October. Unlike other AI search products , ProRata’s search tool will exclusively use licensed data. There’s nothing scraped using a web crawler. “Nothing from Reddit,” he says.

Ed Newton-Rex, a former Stability AI executive who now runs the ethical data licensing nonprofit Fairly Trained , is heartened by ProRata’s debut. “It’s great to see a generative AI company licensing training data before releasing their model, in contrast to many other companies’ approach,” he says. “The deals they have in place further demonstrate media companies’ openness to working with good actors.”

Gross wants the search engine to demonstrate that quality of data is more important than quantity and believes that limiting the model to trustworthy information sources will curb hallucinations. “I’m claiming that 70 million good documents is actually superior to 70 billion bad documents,” he says. “It’s going to lead to better answers.”

What’s more, Gross thinks he can get enough people to sign up for this all-licensed-data AI search engine to make as much money needed to pay its data providers their allotted share. “Every month the partners will get a statement from us saying, ‘Here’s what people search for, here's how your content was used, and here's your pro rata check,’” he says.

Other startups already are jostling for prominence in this new world of training-data licensing, like the marketplaces TollBit and Human Native AI . A nonprofit called the Dataset Providers Alliance was formed earlier this summer to push for more standards in licensing; founding members include services like the Global Copyright Exchange and Datarade .

ProRata’s business model hinges in part on its plan to license its attribution and payment technologies to other companies, including major AI players. Some of those companies have begun striking their own deals with publishers. (The Atlantic and Axel Springer, for instance, have agreements with OpenAI.) Gross hopes that AI companies will find licensing ProRata’s models more affordable than creating them in-house.

“I’ll license the system to anyone who wants to use it,” Gross says. “I want to make it so cheap that it’s like a Visa or Mastercard fee.”

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'I fully plan on winning the industry'

Everyone hates Friend, the creepy new AI necklace. Its 21-year-old creator is undeterred.

Earlier this week, another product contending for the future of AI companionship made its debut: an eavesdropping necklace called Friend. The device was introduced in a glossy, A24-style promotional video in which fresh-faced Zoomers speak to an AI pendant that provides emotional support, commentary, and playful jabs in the form of canned text messages. "This show is completely underrated," it texts a woman while she's watching a show and eating falafel on her lunch break. Then it texts, "How's the falafel?" The woman is seemingly heartened by this. "It's dank," she tells her necklace, "I could eat one of these every day."

The internet, however, has found Friend to be less than dank.

Unlike Siri, Alexa , and their brethren, Friend is not an ask-and-tell robot assistant. Instead, the $99 device aspires to take the place of human companionship, capitalizing on a culture in which nearly 10% of Americans say they have no close friends. With Friend, you're never alone — which, depending on how much you value solitude and privacy, is either extremely comforting or extremely creepy.

If any of this sounds bleak or dystopian, then you'll understand the vitriolic reactions to the product across the internet. A sampling from X: "Friend strikes me as a product for losers, which is a totally valid market," and "One of the more depressing things I've ever seen…Do whatever the opposite of this is." Many compared Friend to a "Black Mirror" episode.

The online commentary grew only more heated when Friend's founder, a 21-year-old Harvard dropout named Avi Schiffmann, revealed that he spent $1.8 million of Friend's $2.5 million funding to buy the website domain "Friend.com."

"People think it's outrageous that I would buy a domain like that, but this is the point of VC money," Schiffmann told me in an interview. (He is not the first entrepreneur to purchase an expensive domain — Elon Musk, Schiffmann was quick to point out, spent some $11 million to acquire Tesla.com.) Friend's investors include Caffeinated Capital's Raymond Tonsing, Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas, and Morning Brew cofounder Austin Rief. "People think my investors hate me, but they could not love me any more," he said.

Still, Schiffmann admitted that the online reaction to Friend is not what he expected. "I honestly think it's because the video was too good," he said."That, maybe, was my biggest mistake. There hasn't been a video this high quality about AI companionship since 'Her,'" — the Oscar-winning 2013 film in which Scarlett Johansson plays an AI voice assistant so transfixing Joaquin Phoenix's human character falls in love with her.

Schiffmann's original vision for an AI hardware device was a pendant that would act as a more standard-fare AI assistant called Tab — he once described it as a " wearable mom ." But after spending a lonely night in Tokyo, he began considering a more intimate version, a "friend" that could offer camaraderie and emotional support. "A good friend that sends you a text like 'Good luck on the interview' is more productive than reminding you that you have a meeting in five minutes," he said.

A venture-funded AI-friendship necklace is something of a hard pivot for Schiffmann. In 2020, when he was 17, he built one of the first COVID-tracking websites. Anthony Fauci presented him with a Webby Person of the Year award. He went on to build a tool that tracked Black Lives Matter protesters and a website that helped refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine find people offering spare rooms and couches around the world. But Schiffmann sees a throughline in all these projects: "These are all really just big art projects to me," he said. "I haven't been able to come up with a stronger intrinsic [reason] why it's worth doing anything like this at all. It's just something to do and I'm bored. But maybe I've just read too much Camus."

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"I'm building friends for myself, but I also have a ton of friends," he added. "I don't think it's a complete substitution. If one of your five close friends is an AI, it's a good thing, especially if you fear judgment from other people. It can fill in gaps when you're traveling and it's late at night and you want to talk to someone."

Of the many AI hardware devices that launched in recent months, such as Humane's AI pin, Meta's smart glasses, and Rabbit's AI-powered R1, Friend is the most personal contender. Not only does it aspire to be a close confidant, it's also privy to all its users' conversations. As in, it never stops listening. The incessant eavesdropping that people fear when it comes to devices like Siri and Alexa is a selling point to allay Friend users who fear being alone. Friend needs to have access to every aspect of your life in order to work, Schiffmann said. "You wouldn't put headphones over your dog," he said. "It makes it feel like it's actually there with you. It's nice to be with a sentient entity."

I'm just chilling at my house smoking cigarettes and continuing to work."

Schiffmann is not the only tech founder building an AI companion in the form of a pendant. In fact, on the day Friend launched, a competing AI hardware founder named Nik Shevchenko released a diss track — as any self-respecting 23-year-old AI hardware founder would — insinuating that Schiffmann stole his idea. Shevchenko is also building an open-source competitor AI pendant, which he wears in his rap video, that looks a lot like Friend's. It is, in what seems to be more than a coincidence, also named Friend. "For those who don't know / I built Friend / renamed your Tab/ jacked my style," Shevchenko raps.

When I asked Schiffmann about Shevchenko's claims, Schiffmann told me it was the opposite: Shevchenko had copied him . (It would not be the first time that Shevchenko built an open-source competitor that closely resembled another AI hardware device. In March, the AI pin company Humane sent Shevchenko a cease-and-desist letter after he launched a similar device called Whomane.) "There are a lot of people building open-source competitors," Schiffmann said. Shevchenko "is the most annoying one."

"Maybe I am annoying," Shevchenko said when I reached him for comment. But he disagreed with at least some of Schiffmann's claims. He actually had been copying another AI-companion pendant, he said. "The project that we built was indeed fascinated by another project but it was not Avi's Tab. It was an open-source wearable called Adeus." There are nearly as many upstart AI-companion pendant necklaces, it seems, as there are Taylor Swift friendship bracelets.

Based on the public's initial reaction to it, Friend appears to be a long way from product-market fit, in that people do not want this product. Schiffmann disagrees. "People underlyingly want this," he told me. As for Friend's online detractors, they are just "being Twitter tech people and, like, yappin'," he said.

Schiffmann is unbothered by the vitriol, he said. When it comes to creating Friend, "every decision I made was guided by personal vibes."

"I'm just chilling at my house smoking cigarettes and continuing to work," he continued. And Schiffmann has big plans for Friend. "I fully plan on winning the industry," he said. "If this is what I can do with $2.5 million, wait till you see what I can do with $100 million."

Zoë Bernard is a feature writer based in Los Angeles. She writes about technology, crime, and culture. Formerly, she covered technology for The Information and Business Insider.

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Democrats Harris, Walz campaign together for first time as White House ticket

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Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Jarrett Renshaw, Steve Holland, Gram Slattery and Kat Stafford; writing by Jeff Mason and Joseph Ax Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington

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Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA's work was recognized with Deutsche Welle's "Freedom of Speech Award." Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA's “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure" award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists' "Breaking News" award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.

Sudan government delegation will consult with US on ceasefire talks

The Sudanese government said on Friday it will send a delegation to Jeddah to consult with the United States regarding an invitation to ceasefire talks in Geneva to be held on August 14.