We don’t often hear stories from the business managers of podcasts, because they don’t have the sexiest of jobs. But it’s not an exaggeration to say they have some of the most important jobs. For example: ensuring the podcast business itself grows. That means monetization, which likely has its fingers in lots of other pies that make the podcast go.

The first thing a business manager needs to understand is the profit stream of the podcast: income and expenses. Profit (or loss) is the difference between income and expenses. And profits are what businesses often use to facilitate growth.

But it’s more complicated than simple addition. To really understand income and expenses, your podcast’s business manager will need to do two things you probably don’t want to do: categorize and forecast. Planning for growth requires some insight into how much money the podcast will make from advertising and how much the podcast will spend on freelancers over the next three months, by way of example. 

Armed with solid financial projections, a good business manager for a podcast will seek out opportunities. Income opportunities, obviously. Podcast advertising income, licensing, merchandising, paid gigs, direct listener support, sponsorship… the full gamut. Whatever your podcast’s income streams are, the business manager’s job is to point out ways teach stream ca be optimized or grown.

But the business manager will also seek out additional opportunities for income. A good business manager is always looking for new income streams based on activities the company is already doing.

You’ve probably heard the old adage “You gotta spend money to make money”, right? To truly take advantage of some of those uncovered opportunities, your podcast studio might need an upgrade. That costs money. To get more opportunities, you might need to spend money on a marketing campaign to raise the awareness of your podcast or your services. That also costs money. Maybe your website needs a complete and total overhaul. Maybe there's an opportunity for you to travel (when we can travel once again) to events. All of those things cost money, and the business manager of your podcast can tell you not only if you can afford to do it, but help you project the income that needs to come out of the other end to make it worth the expense.

If you’re serious about treating your podcast as a business, you need to get someone on board who is a serious business manager. A job for which they will require compensation.

If your podcasting is doing well enough that it covers all expenses and allows you to pay yourself a handsome wage, then your best course of action might be simply hiring a business manager. Make it a paid position, complete with a salary. 

But if you're like most podcasters who aren’t rolling in stacks of sweet, sweet cash, you can’t afford to pay a business manager. In that case, your best course of action is bringing the business manager on as a partner. Yes, your partner is going to own a portion of your podcasting business. That's their compensation. 

So how much ownership you should give up? I can’t tell you the right answer. But I can tell you that 40 - 50% ownership is not an uncommon deal. Make it 49% if you want to maintain majority control, that’s fine. Whatever number you choose, make sure it makes sense for both of you. 

If the opportunity is really there to seriously boost your podcast’s monetization and make it a true going concern, it’s probably worth it.

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Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

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