how to write a business plan podcast

Podcast Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Podcast Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their podcasts. 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 podcast business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

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What is a Podcast Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your podcast 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 Your Podcast

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

Sources of Funding for Podcasts

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a podcast 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 and bank loans are the most common funding paths for podcasts.

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How to Write a Podcast Business Plan

If you want to start a successful podcast or expand your current one, you need a plan. Below we detail each section of a podcast business plan:

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 podcast you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a podcast that you would like to grow, or are you operating podcasts in multiple markets?

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

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will provide a podcast overview.

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

Interview podcast : this type of podcast involves one or two hosts who speak with one or more guests each episode.
Conversational podcast: this type of podcast involves two podcast hosts that have entertaining conversations about specific themes and topics, similar to a radio show.
Storytelling/Investigative podcast: this type of podcast has one or more hosts that use each episode to tell a story or delve into a news/current events topic.

In addition to the podcast overview you will operate, the Company Analysis section needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

When and why did you start the business?
What is your mission statement?
What podcast monetization methods will you use?
What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of listeners and/or subscribers, number of positive reviews, reaching X amount of subscribers, 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 podcast industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the podcast 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:

How big is the 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 podcast? 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 podcast business plan must detail the audience you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals of a certain niche, households, students, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of podcast you operate. Clearly, university students would respond to different marketing promotions than individuals of a niche targeting cooking segments, for example.

Try to break out your target market 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 audience you seek to serve.

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

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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 podcasts.

Indirect competitors are other options that audiences have to subscribe from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes radio shows, news networks, TV, online streaming, etc.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other podcasts with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be podcasts located very close to your niche.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

What types of podcast shows do they operate and what is their content?
What types of audience do they serve?
What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
What are they good at?
What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the audience’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ audience what they like most and least about them.

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

Will you provide podcast content that your competitors don’t offer?
Will you provide better and more relevant topics?
Will you provide better audience engagement?
Will you offer better streaming platforms?

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

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a podcast business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of podcast that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific services you will be offering. For example, in addition to a podcast, will you provide online and media engagement, blogs, and any other products?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location (reach) of your podcast. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your podcast streamed locally or will it have a nationwide audience?

Promotions : The final part is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive listeners/subscribers to your podcast. The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

Music streaming apps
Social media marketing
Content creation
SEO for your podcast website

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections 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 podcast, including developing new and relevant content for each show, engaging with audience members and/or listeners, marketing the podcast, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to obtain your XXth listener/subscriber, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your podcast to a new streaming platform.

Management Team

To demonstrate your podcast’ 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 podcasts. 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 a podcast or have a successful career in media production.

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.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you start streaming your podcast locally or will you stream nationwide to gain a larger network of listeners/subscribers? 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 podcast, 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.

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

Cost of podcast supplies and equipment
Marketing costs
Payroll or salaries paid to production 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 list of topics your podcast will offer, types of audience you will be targeting, and the streaming platforms your podcast will be featured on.

Putting together a business plan for your podcast 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 industry, your competition, and your audience. You will have developed a marketing strategy and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful podcast.

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How to Write a Podcast Business Plan

The rise in technology has created thousands of jobs that didn’t exist in the 20th century. Over 30 years ago, who would have thought you could quit your nine-to-five job and make a living talking about the things you love? For many, podcasting has transitioned into a full-time job.

If you’re taking the next step in your podcasting journey and transitioning from hobby to career, you’ll need a podcast business plan. While business plans aren’t the most exciting thing to write, they ensure that you have the best chance at success.

This post will outline how to write a business plan for a podcast so you can grow your podcast business .

Do you need a podcast business plan?

The simple answer is yes. Any podcaster who’s been in the podcasting space for a while will tell you that it’s best to develop a business plan for podcast success. Planning helps you know what you have to do and when.

If you want to take your show seriously and make money from it, then, like any other business venture, it’s best to have a plan in place. Even if you’re not planning to become the next Joe Rogan (a famous podcaster and comedian), having a plan allows you to enjoy the process and avoid making it unnecessarily laborious.

A business plan is like using a recipe when baking a cake – you know exactly what you need ahead of time.

Here’s an overview of how to write up a business plan for your podcast:

Mission statement
Know your audience
Establish your team
Work out your budget
Create a content calendar
Create a marketing plan
Think about monetization

The main reasons to have a plan are to understand the purpose of your podcast and increase your chances of success. Read below for the breakdown of each of these steps.

1. Mission statement – Identify the why

Before you start designing merch and organizing giveaways, identify your mission statement or the “why” behind your podcast. Podcasting is no small undertaking, so identifying your reason for starting your podcast business will be the fire that pushes you forward when things get difficult.

Be honest with yourself so you can define what success really means to you. If you want to build a content strategy for an existing customer base, you may not be as interested in monetization as you are in developing a strong listenership.

If you want to become famous, however, you’ll have to follow the pros and figure out how to build your brand to that level.

2. Know your target audience

You can’t please everyone. This is especially true with podcasting due to the niche nature of the medium. A business plan for a podcast will help you determine who your ideal listener is and how you can reach them through your content.

In a consumer-driven industry, the best brands are user-centric. Figure out what your target audience needs and use your content to solve that need.

3. Establish your team and divvy up roles

Now that you know the mission and your audience, it’s time to assemble your team. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor was it built by a single person. Identify your podcasting team and determine what each person will be responsible for.

If you are working alone, that’s perfectly fine! While it will be more work for one person, it’s definitely possible. If that’s the case, try outsourcing some of the work to take some weight off your shoulders. Play to your strengths and consider finding a partner or hiring a freelancer to help with your less skilled areas.

4. Work out your budget

Any business plan will require a budget, and a podcast business plan is no different. If you don’t already have a podcast budget , create one. Podcasting is not as expensive as filmmaking, but it will take some financial resources to get started and keep going.

Spreadsheets are a great tool that many entrepreneurs (podcasters and otherwise) use to keep track of their resources. Your spreadsheet can include some necessary expenses. These can include:

Equipment
Hosting network fees
Marketing costs
Paying personnel or freelancers

Podcasts are a lot of work, so remember to budget your time in addition to money. On a separate page, log the amount of time you can allot to things like recording, editing and publishing episodes. Be sure to factor in your marketing needs, like running your website and social media pages.

5. Create a content calendar

Develop a content calendar as part of your business plan for podcast success and peace of mind. A calendar will help you plan your content creation and posting schedule in advance so you can execute it one day at a time.

Continuing with the recipe analogy, a content calendar is like laying out all of your ingredients in front of you and pre-measuring them so you can simply add things as needed.

Here you can plan the release schedule, also determine if your content themes will coincide with holidays or remain universal.

6. Create a marketing plan

Your podcast business plan needs a marketing strategy. How will you market your podcast as a product or service and get the word out to your audience? Determine what methods you want to use and when you want to launch them. You can integrate this as part of your content creation plan.

Having a presence on the right platforms or channels will promote your show within your niche and establish your brand authority. Some common marketing strategies include creating a podcast website to centralize the information from your business or email marketing campaigns to directly connect your audience.

7. Think about monetization

Even if you’re just starting out, if you’re hoping to eventually develop your show into a career, consider monetization.

Every business plan should always note the expenses and potential income streams. Podcast monetization can help your show sustain itself and even generate a profit. Check that your hosting network has applicable monetization features, as not all do.

With Podbean, podcasters can choose from a variety of monetization features, including the ads marketplace and paid content.

Conclusion

If you want to turn your podcasting hobby into a business, it’s best to have a plan. Without one, the process will become stressful at best and unsuccessful at worst. A business plan is the best way you can grow your podcast.

The right network can make or break your business. That’s why hobbyists and professional podcasters alike choose Podbean. Podcasting takes work, but Podbean makes podcasting simple.

Start your free trial today.

7 comments on “ How to Write a Podcast Business Plan ”

It emphasizes the importance of crafting a podcast business plan as a strategic roadmap for success, offering practical steps and insights for both beginners and aspiring career podcasters. The conclusion underscores the significance of a well-thought-out plan and introduces Podbean as a pivotal partner in simplifying the podcasting journey.

This is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to professionalize their podcasting hobby. The step-by-step guide is clear and comprehensive, covering everything from mission statements to budgeting and marketing plans. It’s like having a roadmap for success in podcasting, similar to how an IQ test measures and guides one’s intellectual development. The emphasis on understanding your audience and creating a content calendar is particularly useful. This article is a must-read for aspiring podcasters who want to turn their passion into a profitable venture.