business update march 2022
Hallojis! It’s been two months since the official launch of Ravi Ray Audio.
We’ve already learned SO MUCH and have quickly adapted our strategy to better set us up for the long term. Below are some of the highlights from Jan/Feb. This post is for those curious about starting a small business, or those interested in keeping up with RRA.
1. Project Work
At the start of the year, I thought I’d have to push really hard to bring in clients. I had plans for a DM campaign and had set a lofty revenue target. Quickly though I realized, especially in these early stages, that it’s more important to focus on executing on our existing project queue with high-quality, on learning, and on building consistency.
We’ve had music mixing, podcast mixing, lyric-writing, music production, and even television scoring opportunities come in the door!— all via word of mouth or via our marketing. Check out our portfolio here.
2. Heightened Focus on Music
At launch, we had three service offerings: music mixing, podcast mixing, and audiobook mixing. I’d always intended to focus on music, but I realized (duh) that 2/3 of our offerings were related to dialogue audio. Moreover, visual content (particularly short-form video) has gained traction in recent years and is expected to continue to thrive. Thus, we scaled back on our dialogue offerings and created a new category for short-form music mixing- a unique service not explicitly offered often by freelancers and companies.
3. Streamlining to a Flat-Rate Model
At launch, in the spirit of giving clients more choices, we had two packages for each service (i.e. a “standard” package and a “premium” package). While there is published research on the benefits of having multiple tiers, I realized taking a simpler approach would cut down on information overload, lower the sticker price, and make client engagements easier. Thus, we changed all of our service offerings to a flat-rate model. Learn more about the specifics around our pricing for music mixing here.
4. Starting a Team
I knew from the beginning that I mainly loved the technical work. Social media and marketing? Not so much, haha. In short, I’m leaning into the ideology of “allowing the expert to do what they do best.” Suhana and Meera, our new marketing leads, have been helping with social media optimization + setting up a mailing list and blog. Anusha, our new innovation lead, has been helping with researching trends, changes, and challenges in the audio post-production space.
All that aside, I think the biggest benefit of having team members is that it keeps me from working in a silo- I have people that I trust to bounce ideas off of and take things off of my plate, and that has been invaluable. Moreover (and honest-to-God, this was happenstance), we have three South Asian women working for RRA in the music/audio industry- WHOOP! to more representation!! :) Learn more about Suhana, Meera, and Anusha on our team page.
5. Social Media Pivot to TikTok
At launch, I planned to focus on building primarily on Instagram through Reels. I’d set TikTok to be a place for re-posts, LinkedIn/Facebook to be a place for occasional updates, and YouTube as an initiative to tackle in 2Q22. We started posting regular content: 2 Reels focused around educational mixing tips + 1 “Wildcard” Reel as a place to experiment, per week. After collecting 4-6 weeks of data, we decided to pivot.
An oversupply of content has nearly deadened the organic reach of Instagram and Facebook. Moreover, authentic, unpolished, relatable content often connects better with our target market and users in general. TLDR; we switched our focus to TikTok and YouTube, and feel that investing in these platforms will position us better for the long run. Data and results TBD.
In summary, this year is all about building consistency and a strong foundation. We’ll continue to learn and pivot as we grow.
Until the next update- stay well, shine bright.
