Editor’s Note: “Young and Professional” is a continuing column written by young Hoboken entrepreneur Sabrina Ricci, who just started a fiction website with one of her peers in the mile-square city. Follow her efforts to see if it all works out!
A lot can happen in one month. About four weeks ago, Bethany and I launched our FictionBrigade Kickstarter project. Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects, and we decided to use the site as a way to turn FictionBrigade into a real business.
So what have we learned so far from Kickstarter? Well, mainly this: marketing is hard.
Kickstarter can be a scary thing. You set your goal, you give yourself a deadline, and if you don’t reach your goal by your deadline, you don’t get any of the money you’ve raised. So marketing and Kickstarter go hand-in-hand, and clicking the button to launch a Kickstarter project is akin to getting a kick in the pants.
Before we could start fundraising, however, we had to open a bank account. So I swung by the Wells Fargo on River and First Street, by the PATH. The banker was very friendly, and helpful.
“Your next step should be to turn this into a business bank account,” she said. She sounded excited for us. “That way you can protect your personal information.”
I asked if that meant I had to form a Limited Liability Company first, which provides limited liability to owners in the U.S.
“Yes,” she said. “But there’s a website you can go to and easily take care of it online.”
The website is www.state.nj.us.gov. But from my research, I’ve found that forming an LLC can cost up to $1,500. My hope is to raise enough money on Kickstarter to take this next important step, and on Dec. 2, we’ll find out if FictionBrigade raised enough money to become an actual business.
After opening a bank account, we had to focus on creating a video for our page. Videos attract more viewers, so they are a must-have for Kickstarter. My partner Bethany and I met at Stacks on Fifth and Washington to discuss our ideas for the first video. We’re both big fans of food, and pancakes are a good mix of comforting and filling — perfect for brainstorming.
We should probably explain somehow what flash fiction is,” I said, in between bites.
Bethany nodded. “How about we ask people we know? We could film short interviews, and they can say funny things, like ‘flash fiction is something on Twitter.”
I poured more syrup on my pancakes. “We could also film us passing out flyers at the Brooklyn Books Festival.” The festival is a celebration of established and emerging authors, held every September at the Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza. We had decided earlier to promote our new magazine at the festival, as well as hear some of our favorite writers, such as Jhumpa Lahiri, speak.
We agreed to make our video as funny and informative as possible, and under two minutes. Two minutes is the maximum length of video we’re willing to publish for our flash fiction magazine, so it seemed only fair that the videos we made would adhere to our own guidelines.
Brainstorming always makes me more excited about a project. I think it’s because when we brainstorm, the possibilities seem endless. In our minds, we can make millions and creating a company seems easy. Of course in reality, that’s not true.
Here’s how we’ve marketed our Kickstarter project so far:
• E-mailed everyone we knew, as well as people we didn’t know who we thought might be interested
• Regularly abused all major and minor social networks—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, Chime.in, MySpace, YouTube, and more
• Blogged and sent out numerous FictionBrigade newsletters
• Talked about FictionBrigade and Kickstarter with everyone we’ve met
Unfortunately, that’s not enough. So I’ve spent almost every weekend this past month creating FictionBrigade-related videos, in hopes of enticing new readers and backers. Our last video involved muppets, and our next one will resemble a book trailer.
Come Dec. 2 we will know how well our efforts worked. At the very least, we hope to have more readers and story contributions. The key is to never stop trying.
I’d still like to hear from any other entrepreneurs in Hoboken. If you’d like to share any of your experiences, please email info@fictionbrigade.com. If you’d like to watch our videos, please check out our Kickstarter project page at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1257267741/fiction-brigade-online-literary-magazine.
Comments on this column? Respond at hudsonreporter.com or email editorial@hudsonreporter.com. and put “Hoboken column” in the subject head.