Meet our Monday guest

Our class guest Monday is John Herman. You may have met him during one of his visits to UNH. John is a very interesting character, to say the least. He does many things and he does them all well. "Artist, teacher, writer, web adventurer," he calls himself on his website. Oh, and actor. And director. And producer. And very good friend of the UNH Journalism Program.

But one of his most remarkable qualities has been his ability to brand himself through intensive use of social media. As an entrepreneur, that is exactly what you need to do and what you need to be thinking of all the time -- every time you tweet, every time you post on Facebook, every blog you create. It is a constant process that requires constant attention, and that's what John is going to help us with.

I'm looking forward to it. I know you will enjoy it.

What to do for next week, Class #5, Sept. 30

Next week is class #5. That puts us one-third of the way through the course. Yesterday we discussed -- or attempted to discuss -- ideas for the new ventures you will be creating this semester. Clearly some of you have thought a lot about this and are energized. Others appear not to have found a focus yet. We need to all get on the same page before any more time goes by. This is idea week. Through your reading and blogging, we will firm up your idea. Please remember that your idea/project/product must have some connection to journalism.

For next week, before doing anything, read chapters 9-12 in Newsonomics (you should already have read Chapter 11, actually) and Chapter 8 in Entrepreneurial Journalism.

You should also have already read Chapter 5 of the Briggs book. Review it if you need to. In it, Briggs says, "...the idea alone is never enough. Ideas become sustainable only when they are transformed into a product or business -- and that's a constant process of development, marketing and improvement." So let's begin that process. Here's what to do:

1. State your project idea as concisely and precisely as possible. Keep it very focused. A sentence or two should do. Post this to your blog.

2. Socialize your idea. Run it by three people who are not hotshot business people -- just regular people who might someday become your customers. Friends, strangers, parents, uncles, aunts, neighbors -- doesn't matter as long as they will give you honest answers. Take notes on their responses so that you can quote them exactly later on. You could also record their responses or even videotape them. Add these responses in any creative way to your blog. Identify the three people by name, age, gender, and profession. For those of you who know multimedia, it might be fun to do it in a video or slide show that you can upload to your blog.

3. Copy and paste the following Q & A to your blog and answer the questions as thoroughly as you can:

Question: I have read your idea and I would like to understand a little more about it. What need does this idea fill? Is this a need that you have yourself? Who would share this need?

Answer: 

Q: At this point you should have some idea of who the average user of your product will be. What is the profile of that person?

A:

Q: Who wants this product that you intend to develop?

A:

Q: What problem or need are you satisfying for your customers? (Remember, the customers aren't necessarily the people who will be using your product. For example, television audiences aren't customers unless they pay for the product, as in HBO. The customers are advertisers.)

A:

Q: Who wants this product?

A: 

Q: We all have to live. Where is the money in this product?

A:

Q: You are a journalist. Where is the journalism in this product?

A:

Q: We've read that passion is key to success of a new venture. Money alone will not sustain it. So where is the passion in your product?

This should all be done by class time next week so that we can look at them on the big screen.

Assignment for next week, Class #4, Sept. 23

1. Reading: Chapters 4 and 5 in Entrepreneurial Journalism; Chapter 11 in Newsonomics; and Ken Doctor's story on the runway that Jeff Bezos and other dot.commers are building for legacy media. As I mentioned in class, the future of journalism is kind of splitting into two tiers: existing media companies re-thinking their strategies, and individual journalist entrepreneurs trying to find a niche for themselves. The reading this week is more about the existing media reinventing themselves. These should give you fodder for some blogging. Remember, four blogs a week.

2. Most of you have identified a non-journalism (or could be a journalist) entrepreneur you would like to profile. Most of them are accessible, but one or two of you chose big shots who probably won't give you the time of day unless you have some inside connection. Those people will have to come up with someone new or pull off a miracle. I would like you to do a 600-word Q & A (question and answer) with this person or with another entrepreneur. This should be an in-person or over-the-phone interview. Obviously you are the Questioner and your entrepreneur is the Answerer and it's set up like this:

Question: What has been the most difficult part of becoming an entrepreneur?

Answer: Eating. Or not eating. It never seems there is enough money around and what does come in goes right back into the business. But as my appetite grows, so does the business, so I think we will reach a point where I'm gaining weight and the company is gaining customers and everyone is happy. But I must admit I have a lot of sleepless nights thinking about how far off that time is.

Question: What's your worst nightmare? etc.

The technique is to ask short, snappy, concrete, open-ended questions that elicit long answers. You can then edit those answers as you like as long as you do not change the meaning. Most of your questions should somehow involve this person's experience as an entrepreneur. They should be probing and insightful. Usually you will make up most of the questions beforehand, but it should read like a conversation. These are extended versions of the Q & A interviews in Ken Doctor's book. These should be on your blogs by class time Monday.

3. Start thinking about what you would like to do for a project this semester. This should be some kind of journalism-related venture, as we discussed in class. In one of your blogs, explain what it is you would like to do.

To do for next week, Sept. 16, Class #3

1. Read Chapter 4 of Entrepreneurial Journalism.

You will see on the class schedule that you are also to identify two entrepreneurs. We're not there yet, so ignore that. But I would like you to identify and briefly profile for one of your blog entries an entrepreneur from any field. Just remember this needs to be an entrepreneur -- not someone who has signed on to an existing company, and not someone who has bought a business, and not someone who is opening a plumbing business or a used car lot. That's not entrepreneurship because the venture is not unique or original of necessarily risky or innovative. It will be someone like the razor blade guy, or whoever set up Zipcar, or something smaller, like a homemade cupcake van, or an app, or a website that sells beer glasses from every college in the world. There are several student entrepreneurs on campus. Ask around. Ask your parents. Ask your parents to ask their friends. Look in Linkedin. When you have found someone, which will be before the next class, contact the person and post a 100-word profile of this person on your blog. If you're not sure the person is appropriate, shoot me an email and I'll let you know.

3. You should do three other blog entries prior to class on whatever you choose, for a total of four for the week. Those should be 150 words or so. Ideas: the use of social networking to cover the situation in Syria; some cool websites you have found relating to entrepreneurial journalism; your thoughts about the complexity of opening something as simple as a lemonade stand; how your news habits are changing; an idea blog.

4. Wrap up the lemonade stand project. To do so, you and your team need to come up with the following.

Assume the lemonade stand will be open for 6 hours a day for 5 days. Figure out how many cups of lemonade you think you can sell in that amount of time and how much each cup will cost.

Based on the previous calculation, create a detailed list of all your expenses -- lemons, cups, sugar, straws, electricity, equipment such as heating pots, cart, etc.

Finally make a simple profit and loss statement. Here's an example.

Our lemonade stand

A simple profit and loss statement

Revenues (money coming in)

            Net sales:                                    $100 (total of all cups sold at your price)

            Other:

Total revenue:                                    $100

Expenses (money going out, from your detailed list)

            Salaries                                    $10

            Utilities                                    $2

            Supplies                                    $50

            Debt paydown                        $10 (you borrowed $500 from me)

Total operating

Expenses:                                                $72

Net Income/loss:                                    $28 (if this is a loss, put it in parentheses)

Print this and your detailed expense list and bring to class.

Get famous first, then worry about the money

Check out this college kid, who has made a name for himself photographing Republican politicians. He's not worried about money yet, just college credit. But anytime he wants, he's got a profession to slip into.