One of the most exciting things, to me, is how startups are everywhere. This is a photo of Marc Eckō speaking at Big Omaha last year. The fact that Silicon Prairie News has become so big locally gives me confidence in startups.
After reading chapter 3 and 5 of Entrepreneurial Journalism, I found that more goes into the planning process of a startup then I ever thought to be the case. It’s not as if I thought startups came out of nowhere, it’s that I have always kind of thought that people who run startups came up with the idea and just let it unfold on its own. These two chapters showed me that much thought goes directly into the planning, and what the result is, is often unknown.
This, I think, is what scared me most about getting involved in a startup is that there is a lot of pre-planning that goes into it. Yes, there are many things that come with time (like establishing a social media presence and gaining public attention), but a lot goes into establishing how the business will be run, how collaborators will work together and apart, how to make money, how to gain advertisers and more. The other large aspect of a startup that really scares me is the incorporation of money. The fact that many times, as was said in the book, the company has to start with itself for funding, scares me because it’s hard to know where that could end. When will money seriously come into play? When does making money become a large aspect of the startup versus a goal?
This idea also snowballs into what I find exciting about startups: the fact that journalistic starups can make money. Like many, I simply assume journalistic startups don’t make an income. As said in the book, many journalists look at online media and assume there won’t be any money made and the focus on money won’t be a good one. However, not only was I reassured by the idea that this is not necessarily the case, but I was also reassured by the different way to look at an online business that the book offered. As it says in chapter 3, there is no need to tear down the wall between business and journalism if one is just not built in the first place (73). This is something that I hadn’t considered, as I always looked at business separate from the goals at the center of startups. If you look at the business and the journalism together, the problem of business can actually be turned into something exciting for a business. Having the two aspects work hand in hand is cool, and can make for a great business plan and goal.
Since I do not have any business background, I would say my the biggest things I would have to learn is how to turn my idea into a successful business. I find that coming up with ideas is not necessarily the issue, and nor is keeping those ideas progressing forward, but rather finding out the way to keep them business oriented. I think it would be easy for me to get distracted with what the company is in its current state rather than look toward the future, which would be necessary in creating a successful business or startup.
My biggest obstacles in learning about business would probably be what was touched on in chapter 5, about creating a niche and attach it like no one else (168). This would be a challenge because as creative as journalists can be, creating and establishing a niche is more challenging, to me, than just coming up with ideas. Succeeding in a niche market is where being able to understand business would be essential.
Words on a Wire 