Small Business Podcast

The couple believed that a small business podcast was exactly what they needed to take their learning center business to the next level. A free educational web broadcast referencing many of the hot button issues that plague school children and their concerned parents was the direction they decided to go. This was a learning center of their design and creation. After several years of research and curriculum search, the woman, a PhD in education and her husband, with a Master's degree in business, believed that their unique approach to student learning would eventually have real potential to be franchised. Learning center franchises that the two looked into did not allow any freelance web subscriber broadcasts of any kind, in fact, no creativity and freedom of any kind was allowed under several brands of learning centers they investigated. For them, it was the liberty to talk to parents in their own language that set them on the course of developing an independent learning center.

A podcast is much like a niche radio broadcast every so often that a person can download and listen at leisure. They are often delivered to subscribers and are different from Internet radio webcasts because those listeners had to tune in and listen at a certain time or miss the information. Podcasting can be an exceptional way of gathering an audience for a specific topic of interest without fear on interruption, censorship or commercials. And it is rather quite simple procedure to begin podcasting and get it on the web; it's another thing to make it sound professional so that people will actually hear.

To create free educational podcasts, the husband and wife asked some experts in the podcasting field what kinds of equipment to buy. There was, of course, the computer. Next was the choice of microphone which the experts cautioned was huge to a high quality of voice reproduction. Recommended was a large diaphragm condenser microphone to create real warmth in the voice tones. Also recommended was a small mixer to give a little more freedom in the area of timbre, equalization and reverb. Since the two of them would often be talking, two microphones were needed, and each one's pickup could be designed to enhance each individual's voice. A little less low end for the man, and a few more highs, while them woman would need a little more low end and not as much mid range.

While this learning center would be offering free educational podcasts, a small business podcast for many other types of businesses might be of real value. What about a live podcasting broadcast from the local place for teens to eat, where a reporter might interview the jocks after a Friday night ballgame? Or how about the local fabric shop running a podcast on the best types of fabrics for sewing a bridal dress? The opportunities and possibilities are endless, and each podcast can direct listeners to certain websites to further advertise the business. The whole idea of a small business podcast is to stir up interest and questions in a specific area that the business making the Internet production can answer.

For this entrepreneurial couple, the beginning of successful, free educational podcasts was the choosing of hot button topics that would really have a pull with parents. In their plan for the first ten podcasts, the two decided to interview a school principal, a teacher, and a child psychologist. In addition they would address the importance of foundational skills that children need to be successful in school such a knowing phonics and foundational match skills. Of course a very very soft sell of the benefits of the ne learning center would be included. And any small business podcast can use the same format, selectively adjusted for the market. Or perhaps the business would want to use its podcasting efforts for a more community focused agenda, using community goodwill as an opportunity to build a strong public relations foundation.

Getting listeners to subscribe to the free educational podcasts they would be making would be the hard part of all this process.. The couple decided that the largest advertising expense for the year would be spent on a small information pagoda in the local mall that would simply be a place to hand out information on how to get to the website and hear the center's podcasting program. Since the part time teachers for the staff had already been hired, one would be at the pagoda each evening and all day Saturday to share the good news about help for struggling students. In the weeks before opening the center, the couple spent every spare moment learning how to be both podcast producers and directors. Some minor disagreements arose, but things such as opening and closing music and guests to the subscriber informational learning center cast were firmly secured. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Success most often comes in little steps, and little steps they were for the free educational podcasts by these business owners. The first week there were two subscribers. The third week there was five and by the end of the tenth week there were thirty four. But along with a few radio spots, a full page ad in the paper and lots of balloons outside the center, the seven students the center started with was encouraging. The hectic schedule of running this business forced the couple to cut back to a once a month podcast, but the subscriptions actually went up, and by the end of the first year, three hundred subscribers listened each month to the center's subscriber informational corner, and the student population had climbed to twenty three.

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