Creating your animation studio business plan is the first step for success...

Starting your own animation studio can feel like a pipe dream. It can be tempting to procrastinate making your own animation studio business plan. Alternatively, many start-up animation studios don’t have a strong enough business plan to be successful. Here’s why creating a failproof business plan is worth it…

1. You'll know if your studio is viable

Sitting down and crunching the numbers will inject your vision with some hard reality. To hit the ground running, you want to start from the strongest position possible. If you need to more time to strengthen your business plan, take a step back.

Start your business with solutions for the hurdles ahead of you. This means funds to get started, viable client contacts for the future, and a clear strategy to help you grow. Know the numbers inside and out, and make sure they’re strong enough to start your studio.

checking your experience before starting a studio

2. You can plan your marketing strategy

Why you should begin an animation studio business plan today: marketing strategy

Your business plan isn’t just for starting your animation studio—it’s for growing it in the future. Not only will you need a clear idea of what will get you off the ground, you should also have planned a thorough marketing strategy. When you’re starting out, focus on short-term, high-reward marketing strategies. A good example of this is pay-per-click ads. At the same time, work on building long-term growth strategies. These could include promotional content on social media, starting a blog, or making sure your company website is SEO.

It's worth considering, your studio niche. For example at our own animation studio, we've focused on business animation as a whole but then we've further focused on particular sectors. Allowing us to try and stand out as experts in a given field. For example, safety animmation, renewable energy explainers and more recently the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical animation market.

To find out more about producing content to promote your services, check out our posts below:

2. You can plan your marketing strategy

Your business plan isn’t just for starting your animation studio—it’s for growing it in the future. Not only will you need a clear idea of what will get you off the ground, you should also have planned a thorough marketing strategy. When you’re starting out, focus on short-term, high-reward marketing strategies. A good example of this is pay-per-click ads. At the same time, work on building long-term growth strategies. These could include promotional content on social media, starting a blog, or making sure your company website is SEO.

To find out more about producing content to promote your services, check out our posts below:

3. Streamline your production

Writing an animation studio business plan for the future will help you streamline your process today. When it comes down to production, it’s always better to work smarter than harder. With a clear plan in mind, you’ll be able to strip your production down to its essentials. Are there any unnecessary steps that are costing you time and money? What tools could you use to speed up the production process and make it more efficient?

Want to speed up production? Check out Start A Studio’s list of resources for the tools that keeps us efficient.

making connections to help start a studio

4. You can decide set-up costs

The set-up costs for your animation studio are arguably the most important you’ll have to consider. Taking the time to write an animation studio business plan will make sure set-up costs are realistic. You should also know where the money is coming from. The last thing you want is to rely on a client who suddenly cancels on you.

Summary: writing an animation studio business plan

The best way to create an animation studio business plan is through tangible checkpoints rather than vague milestones. The process of starting a studio is all about turning a personal dream into a successful business, and the difference is in the detail.

Want a free checklist for starting your animation studio?

Check out Start A Studio’s free PDF of all the steps you need to start your own animation studio. Created by studio founder Jon Draper, this list will ensure that you don’t miss a thing!