# WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Hi my name is Anthony Charles and I’m co founder of Choices Magazine; we are launching a Business and Lifestyle magazine that helps employees make a smooth transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur.
At its core, Choices Magazine is all about everyday people just like you, just like us, making extraordinary choices with their lives and we’d love you to be part of this campaign.
Choices Magazine is a multi media, multi platform business and lifestyle magazine with three main purposes:
1. To make the transition from employee to entrepreneur easier
2. To make the dream of having a business of your own a reality
3. To provide a continuous support system and network of people who have made a successful transition
Choices Magazine focuses on four main crucial areas, essential for business success:
Business – Making a successful transition to business start-up.
Lifestyle – The lifestyle rewards that a successful transition gives you; quantity, quality or both.
Wellbeing – Staying healthy during and beyond the transition, to enjoy the rewards of your business and providing solutions and support for personal, mental, social and emotional health.
Personal Growth – Developing your knowledge and your skills to make a smooth transition.
Choices Magazine will be available via mail order @ £5.00 + £1.00 postage per issue.
# WHY ARE YOU DOING IT?
Every year in the UK over 100,000 people make the decision to start a business of their own; many are employees who are making the shaky transition from employee to entrepreneur;
It’s not something for the fainthearted; it can be difficult, lonely and sometimes really stressful, especially when things are not going the way you want them to.
And sadly when you look at the failure rate for new businesses and the amount of people stuck in a job and just dreaming of having a business of their own without success; it’s no secret that entrepreneurs starting up in business need some serious support and guidance.
# WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Entrepreneurs need more support; to boost the economy and create more jobs; however it’s not just the entrepreneurs with a dream of a business of their own who need help and support; everyday unsuspecting employees are having entrepreneurship forced upon them.
They may have been made redundant without clear prospects of future employment forcing them to look into themselves for a solution; their contracts may change and they have to go freelance, becoming self employed in their place of employment.
Up and down the country the playing field is changing rapidly and more and more people need the skills of an entrepreneur to survive whether they like it or not.
# SOUNDS GOOD - ANY PROGRESS YET?
We now have over 500 subscribers signed up waiting for the printed magazine and 60 contributors providing us with amazing articles and interviews. We have also made some great strategic partnerships to raise the profile and success of the magazine:
Partnered with The Peter Jones Academy based at Westminster Kingsway Business College (Victoria Centre) in London; running workshops, giving advice and providing future opportunities for young entrepreneurs to be featured in Choices Magazine once their businesses are up and running.
Invited to be on the judging and advice panel for the 2014 Young Enterprise Company of the Year competition.
Working with Haringey Libraries to organise a series of networking events to help local businesses to network and grow.
Chosen to be the media partner for The North East London Business Expo; now in its fourth year, hosting over 70 businesses and 500 delegates.
And we are now in talks to partner with Metro Bank to present a series of networking events for local businesses.
Yep; we’ve been busy!
# I THINK I WANT TO CONTRIBUTE.... CONVINCE ME!
There is no other magazine in the UK like Choices Magazine. Instead of featuring the celebrity business people we feature people relatable to the everyday entrepreneur.
We are more than just a magazine; we’re a support system; guiding, helping and supporting entrepreneurs.
Choices Magazine not only provides essential, relatable advice and information for business start-ups; but for the existing growing entrepreneur it provides an ongoing opportunity for them to get more exposure to build their brand, to have a real voice and a platform to reach a wider audience; that’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Plus it provides the rare opportunity for an everyday entrepreneur who isn’t a celebrity or mega successful to appear inside or on the front cover of a national, quality, respected, business and lifestyle magazine; without being forced to buy advertising space, or pay huge fees.
Entrepreneurs need what we have; but to succeed in helping them, we need support. Every business that we help to create or support will create opportunities and jobs for your friends, families and children.
This isn’t just a crowdfunding campaign for Choices Magazine; its’ a collective show of support for the everyday ordinary person making extraordinary choices!
# WHO ARE YOU?
We are Anthony and Lisa Charles; business partners, husband and wife, proud parents of a 5 and 1 year old and visionaries. We’ve created this magazine and concept on a shoestring budget, but with your contribution, we can do so much more.
My original background was in retail, working with volunteers who mentored young offenders; my passion to succeed and help others to do so led me to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur and develop a coaching, training, and speaking business so that I could help others do the same.
Lisa’s original background was in PR where she worked with many well known national and international brands such as Walt Disney World in Florida, Energizer batteries and The New Year’s Day Parade; her passion to pursue her goals and make the choices that she wanted to make with her future led her to also make the transition from employee to entrepreneur.
We're not alone. We've attracted over 60 contributors so far and we are only just getting started...
# WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?
Choose your reward and pledge. Don’t miss out on our Treasure-it-Forever print edition featuring this entire campaign and our launch event; we think that’s a must have. We would love you to get involved and whatever you can contribute from £1 to £1000 or more will be fantastic; but it would be amazing if you can really be part of this campaign and tell everyone you know about the difference you are making with us.
Crowdfunding is all about crowds so get on your favourite social media platform and spread the word; get on your email, your mobile your soapbox and let everyone know about ‘Ordinary people who are making extraordinary choices.
Like us, follow us, +1 us across our social media platforms. All links at www.choicesmagazine.co.uk
# WHAT IS SPONSUME?
Sponsume is a crowdfunding platform, which means that people come together to fund projects that interest them. It’s not investing in equity or shares, it’s simple funding for business. You make a pledge and you are rewarded with a gift for supporting the project.
# REWARDS
We have 22 fantastic rewards to say thank you for supporting our campaign. We’ve done our best to pack as many rewards into each pledge so you’ll have to check below for individual items estimated delivery times.
Badge of Honour:
This is your show of support for our campaign and for UK Entrepreneurs.
Estimated delivery time: Feb 2015
Launch Event:
This takes place in March 2015 – we will confirm the date and venue mid January. Make sure you join us; grab one of the VIP tickets floating around; you’ll be really glad that you did.
Certificate:
Recognition for being part of the campaign and supporting ordinary people making extraordinary choices.
Estimated delivery time: Feb 2015
The absolute must have:
This is our specially designed limited edition, Treasure it Forever, collector’s copy of Choices Magazine. This will be a specially designed one off collector’s item. It will document our ‘Ordinary People’ campaign and celebration event, featuring all of the entrepreneurs that have worked hard to make the campaign a real success; also featuring all of our qualifying supporters; yes that includes YOU if you choose the right reward.
Estimated delivery time: April 2015
Wear it with pride:
This is our range of must have, special edition campaign message T-Shirts. Bearing our campaign logo ‘Ordinary People Making Extraordinary Choices’ and available in a choice of 2 logo designs and 3 colours.
Next summer you’ll be looking smart while letting everyone know that you were part of the ordinary people making extraordinary choices campaign. You’ll also be able to take part in our ‘spot you’ competition with fantastic prizes in the summer.
Estimated time of delivery Feb 2015
You on the front page:
You will receive a beautifully framed custom made souvenir front cover of Choices Magazine featuring you. If you are not in business this could be a great novelty keepsake, or even a fantastic gift for someone. We will need a high res picture of yourself or the subject; if you don’t have one, we can help; but you will have to be willing to travel to London to get your picture taken; say cheese...
Estimated time of delivery Mar 2015
Coaching sessions with Anthony:
These will be face to face or telephone sessions, held at a mutually convenient time. The sessions run from 1 hour to 1 ½ hours.
Defining Moments:
Anthony is writing a book documenting his life stages and the journey of building this business. He is approaching it from the view of featuring key people who played important parts and made it possible in chapters of the book.
You can be named on the front for the first edition for everyone to know that you were a contributor and a supporter; or Anthony will interview you and you’ll have a chapter dedicated to you and two other people. There are only three spaces available for this; don’t miss being a real part of this amazing story forever.
Estimated time of delivery Nov 2015
# HOW WILL THE MONEY BE USED?
The £25,000 raised will ensure that Choices Magazine can be produced for a full 24 months; enough time for us to build a huge database of subscribers and advertisers to sustain future production. It will pay for our freelance editors, designers and printing of the magazine.
We will be able to revamp our website, making it more interactive, with more bandwidth to hold more videos and versatile to look good on all platforms and also to get some much needed equipment and software.
But if you exceed our expectations, we’ll exceed yours. If we raise more than £35,000 we'll be able to create permanent part-time vacancies, building a bigger team and reaching so many more entrepreneurs.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Hopefully, if you believe in it as much as we do; you’ll consider backing the project.
We’d love to see you at our launch event.
Thanks for reading; we hope you’ll join us in creating a great future for entrepreneurs; we think it’s a very worthwhile project and we hope you do too.
Thank you for letting so many ordinary people like us, make extraordinary decisions with our lives.
____________________________________________________________
1. Why put out a printed magazine?
2. Who will be in the magazine?
3. Why don’t you feature the big entrepreneurs, like the ones on the TV shows?
4. How many pages will the printed magazine have?
5. When will the magazine come out?
6. How will the pledged money be used?
7. How many copies of the magazine will be printed?
8. Is there a maximum pledge amount?
9. Can I pledge anonymously?
10. Do I have to be an entrepreneur to pledge?
11. How do I get to feature in Choices Magazine?
12. Is the cost of international shipping included in the pledge price?
13. Why do you have subtitles on the video?
14. What is the future for Choices Magazine?
15. What will be the frequency of the subscription for Choices Magazine?
16. This project is a great idea! How can I help?
17. I have a different question?
1. Why put out a printed magazine?
We are excited about the possibilities technology provides and we will deliver Choices Magazine on all media platforms. But even though we will keep well abreast of technology, which is moving at an amazing rate, we just can’t miss out on the specialist market for printed magazines; because that’s still expanding.
PricewaterhouseCoopers 2008 report predicted the growth we are seeing now, namely that the UK consumer magazine market worth over US$5.6 billion was set to increase by 5.7% with advertising expenditure set to increase by 12.9%
Also The Guardian newspapers 2009 report correctly stated that specialist magazines with a specific target audience have a greater chance of success. We’ve proved what we can do on a shoestring; imagine what we can do with your support?
The initial feedback and support of our readers and the contributors tells us overwhelmingly that a printed specialist magazine is still popular and favoured.
That’s why we started the project with the hard copy which allows us to physically connect with clients, customers and contributors. This is proving to be invaluable during this Crowdfunding campaign on the road.
Publishing on all platforms will satisfy both our techno savvy and our specialist readers who may well love technology, but still want to unplug from time to time.
2. Who will be in the magazine?
Everyday entrepreneurs who are making their businesses a success, who are willing to exchange their knowledge, expertise and insights for more exposure, more contacts and a bigger audience.
3. Why don’t you feature the big entrepreneurs, like the ones on the TV shows?
The super successful entrepreneurs are inspiring and do have a lot to teach; but some of their original stories are old (some started before the internet); the deals they do these days are huge and entrepreneurs struggle to scale that to their own vision; it’s inspirational but not something to help the small business person succeed now.
Featuring ordinary people, making extraordinary choices, who are sharing what we call ‘real time information’ with our readers provide them with inspiration but more importantly, relatable information and how toos that they can implement in their businesses immediately.
We have had so many readers making contact with people in the magazine, resulting in more sales, joint ventures and great networking. This doesn’t happen in celebrity, icon business magazines.
4. How many pages will the printed magazine have?
68 pages.
5. When will the magazine come out?
At the end of this successful crowdfunding campaign in February / March 2015.
6. How will the pledged money be used?
90% of the money will go towards ensuring that Choices Magazine can be produced for a full 24 months; enough time for us to build a huge database of subscribers and advertiser to sustain future production. It will pay for our freelance editors, designers and printing of the magazine.
We will also revamp our website, making it more interactive, with more bandwidth to hold more videos and versatile to look good on all platforms and also to get some much needed equipment and software.
7. How many copies of the magazine will be printed?
We will start with a minimum of 2000 and increase from there. By the end of the first year we aim to be printing and successfully selling 10,000.
8. Is there a maximum pledge amount?
Nope. Feel free to pledge as much as you’d like! Go on, knock yourself out!
9. Can I pledge anonymously?
Yes you can.
10. Do I have to be an entrepreneur to pledge?
Not at all; we welcome pledges from everyone.
11. How do I get to feature in Choices Magazine?
If you want to be in the special edition as part of this campaign, then choose that reward and pledge. If you want to contribute an article or be interviewed for Choices Magazine then contact us at: .
12. Is the cost of international shipping included in the pledge price?
No, please add £5 to your pledge to cover international shipping. Please note, we only ship individual magazines internationally; the subscription is for UK based readers only.
13. Why do you have subtitles on the video?
We not only want to be inclusive and reach as wide an audience as possible, Anthony has a goal to work with entrepreneurs who are deaf without speech. He is leaning sign language and will be teaming up with deaf entrepreneurs to support their entrepreneurial community. The subtitles are just the beginning.
14. What is the future for Choices Magazine?
We see a thriving magazine; a source of knowledge and a platform for entrepreneurs; we see Choices Magazine making a valuable contribution to the business communities we work in and to the UK economy. We see a magazine show, seminars, workshops, broadcasting and so much more. But it starts right here, right now, with you.
15. What will be the frequency of the subscription for Choices Magazine?
For 2015 we will release 4 issues (less than 10p a day or 60p per week to access this essential knowledge)
For 2016 we will release 6 issues
For 2017 we will release 12 issues
16. This project is a great idea! How can I help?
You can pledge or share this campaign or volunteer at one of our upcoming events promoting this campaign.
17. I have a different question?
If you have any additional questions or comments, feel free to contact me directly at: .
The owner of this project has not made any updates yet.
