Starting a syndicated show is a very expensive proposition (more expensive than buying a house). Thus, most people need to use funds other than their own.

The first place too look for funds is obvious... your current listeners. Using your mailing list that you've already gathered, send a note to them (along with your regular mailing-list info) mentioning that you are "making plans for your next phase of growth... interested parties contact me." That's all you need to say; business folks will know what you mean by "making plans" (although your non-business listeners might not... and that's what you want.) Never ask listeners directly for investments, unless you are positioning yourself as "listener-supported", which will limit how many stations will consider your show.

Speaking of listeners, setting up seminars for them in conjunction with lawyer / investment / banking seminars will do you well, since many of these will pay you to be there. Allow most of your free time there to talk with the audience, one-to-one. Approach ten of these seminars with your offer, and you will get two or three that say OK.

Next up are your local business papers or "business journals" found in larger news stands and libraries. In these papers, you will have no competition from other radio hosts. Just run a simple ad stating "Radio Syndication Investment Sought", along with your voice mail number or email. When they contact you, be sure to put them on the list for your next seminar, and send them an investment package.

On the more-intense marketing side of things, your next step would be to direct-market yourself to a contact list of well-appointed individuals in your town. This process is beyond many folks, since it requires intense phone work, but here is how to do it...

Start by purchasing a list of doctors or lawyers or "high income" individuals. One big supplier of such lists is www.infoUSA.com . What you are looking for is a select list of 500 to 1,000 prospects in your home town.

Your next step is to email / mail / fax these people a brief letter telling them the style show that you do, and that you are seeking investors for syndication. (It's OK to ask directly for investors here, since you are not under the guise of your listener mailing list.) Give them a link to your show, and offer to send them an investment pack.

Out of 1,000 contacts, maybe four will ask for the pack. To activate the remaining 996 prospects, however, you have to get on the phone. Start my making contacts or by leaving messages with every one of the 996 names. The best way is to stagger the job over 10 weeks...doing 100 calls per week. You should also call the original four and make sure they know the date of your next seminar.

The 996 calls will probably result in you leaving about 500 messages; you might talk to 200 who are "not interested", and get maybe 60 hang-ups, 100 "check back later" responses, and about 100 "send us a pack" calls. Note that it is not necessarily the "send a pack" group that is the best... they may just be trying to get off the phone. But do go ahead and send them. Regardless, all 1,000 should be re-contacted in two months and invited to another seminar, in addition to reminding them what station you are on. At this point, you should have created a hot list of 15 to 20 people who are really interested, and your remaining time should be spent with them. Out of these, you are looking for one or two good offers of $100,000 to $150,000 each.

And yes, the large number of contacts is really necessary, in order to obtain an extremely elusive item... a high income person willing to place at least $100,000 into your radio campaign, with no guarantee of return.

Next Topic: Investors, Part 2

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