27- Importance of a feasibility plan for your startup

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This episode is being repurposed from the original podcast show called PodcastReporter.com. But it critically relates to the challenges of creating a feasibility plan for your business, startup or entrepreneurship.

Here we discuss what kind of research and other challenges you might consider for your podcast show — In terms of a feasibility study.

If your podcast is considered a “branded podcast,” then you should take a look at a recent article by Tim O’Brien in the Podcast Business Journal.

The title of this article is “Conducting a feasibility analysis of your Branded Podcast.” Now, as a matter of fact, I myself have conducted and done a feasibility analysis and study back in the days of 2005 for my small business. For me, this was a detailed process and took several weeks to complete, along with a detailed document created as a result of the study — and the document was really a template in which I had to fill in the forms and deliver key detailed information and my forecasts. For that, you had to know the business and the environment of your niche, and the competitive environment, as well. It was quite a lengthy process. And what was the end result? — a FEASIBILITY PLAN.

Well, in this short article, Tim states the blunt suggestion: “The answer, quite simply, is you need to conduct a feasibility study. ..it should be thorough, methodical, and above all, realistic.” And, as I mentioned, the result would be a written feasibility plan. But let’s NOT confuse this with a written Business Plan. The two are quite different.

A business plan document gives you the outline and details of the objectives of the business, the products or offerings or offers and the forecasted production, revenues and directions of the entrepreneurship. The feasibility study provides the basis to get approvals for your project or startup or small business. As Tim states, “You’re going to need approvals of your plans to spend time, money and resources on the project.” And even if you are a solo-preneur, the approvals must be justified with yourself as the CEO and CFO to meet with the direction of the business and the projected outcomes in terms of revenue and profit.

Tim then states what a feasibility study should look like:

It should be SPECIFIC
It should be STRATEGIC
It should be MISSION-DRIVEN
It should detail all the ‘HOW’ ASPECTS of the business;
It should identify COSTS

and a few sentences to explain each of these points is delivered by Tim.

Tim’s main point includes: “A feasibility study forces you to look at both the big picture and the minutia to ensure success.”

And Tim concludes with the following statement: “I prepared a one-pager on the Five Steps a Brand Can Take to Create its Podcasting Story. Please feel free to get in touch with me to get your copy…

Tim O’Brien founded Pittsburgh-based O’Brien Communications and is the creator of the Shaping Opinion Podcast. Contact Tim: 412.854.8845,timobrien@timobrienpr.com, or on Twitter: @OBrienPR”

For myself, the feasibility plan created by me during my 2005 exercise forced me into uncomfortable territory only because it did temper my enthusiasm for the business and the excitement of creating an entrepreneurship with the golden rewards of success with a sense of boring REALITY. It gives you a devil’s advocate’s view of the skepticism and critical thinking from the point of view of what it really will take to get the business off the ground.

Now, the feasibility study that we did in 2005 was in an advanced education environment for aspiring entrepreneurs. For myself, when the feasibility plan was complete, the truthful mentor that viewed it advised me that my initial plan for my business was not based in total reality as far as funding and recovering costs to launch the business. How right he was.

Thus, when it came time for me to enter the podosphere just a few months later, I took the lessons that I had learned from the exercise of the feasibility analysis and I used them to project in general the landscape of entering the podosphere and the possible success of monetization. With the help of other podcasters like Paul Colligan (who became my new mentor), I saw the uphill battle with education, training, delivery, funding and a new field with very little competition in existence — and I decided to enter with the funding required from the start. I became obsessed with the possibility of success, and I rode into the battle for podcasting. So, in the process, I became a luminary, a solution-provider, a subject-matter expert and a trusted advisor over the course of the next 2 years. And the revenues did start to come in — but in the world of high tech, a new competitor entered the marketplace to destroy all that I had built up and all that I had planned. It was the announcement of the Apple iPhone, which changed the landscape of what I had planned (which was a podcast show for training and its companion podcast show). So I had to pick up the pieces of whatever revenue streams I had created up to that point and then change (or “pivot” — if you will, as the term was being used at that time for lean startups) to a different, though related, strategy for the business.

However, the feasibility plan exercise that I had undergone earlier did serve to prepare me for entering the podosphere with an objective of monetization, and it gave me the impetus of being one of the early entrant podcasters. And the success I had as far as image, appearance, notoriety, skills, presence, content, delivery of value and relationships were all influenced, indeed, by having had the experience of creating a feasibility plan (and, yes, after I entered the podosphere, I did document a business plan, but it was not the 40-page document used in today’s templates, as most of the items were covered initially in the feasibility plan — it was only a 5-page document, because that’s all that was really needed).

So for you, as an aspiring podcaster, should you undergo having a feasibility study and create a documented feasibility plan? I would suggest that you do — more for a reality check than a business plan. Because the excitement of entering the podosphere as a podcaster with dreams of success for your podcast may be clouded by the thrill of creating your content and delivering it, with hopes of monetization being overestimated and perhaps too optimistic.

And, if you do decide to create a feasibility plan, there are several MS Word documents that you can use as templates, and you can find them on the internet. I cannot offer the one that I used, as it was proprietary and because I had signed a “do not distribute” form for a NDA as to the nature of the template. But you can get some good approximations — but beware, some of them will be for a fee, and you should plan for that if you become enamored with one of the templates.

So, if you do decide to create your own feasibility plan, we wish you the best and hope that this reality check will provide you the comfort and confidence for a “go-ahead” suggestion to launch and create your podcast with the investment that it requires in all areas. And we hope that your new project in the podosphere will meet and exceed your business objectives and bring you success.

Thank you for your attention.