Passion is a a driver for many entrepreneurs to start their business. And so it was for Shirley Lau Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief of Minted Magazine. With her co-founder Kimberly Lin, and with the help of friends and family they launched Minted. 

The magazine is the culmination of everything they think a woman wants to, and needs to, know to be a successful, savvy businesswoman.

It's for the modern carreerwoman. And that is despite thay they are "suckers when it comes to a sparkly pair of heels", as they confess themselves.

Next step: to develop the proper business model for Minted.

 Time for an interview with The Next Women.

How did you come up with the idea of your start-up?

Despite the fact that the print industry has suffered a great deal because of the accessibility and availability of news and information on the internet, my love for magazines has never waivered. My career focus has been writing and I've been grooming myself to be an editor of a magazine for years. The downside to that was, of course, the job market.

 But it was being at the right place at the right time that was the real catalyst for creating Minted.

 I met the publisher and co-founder, Kimberly S. Lin, this past summer—I was working at magazine in Los Angeles, Calif. and I was interviewing her for a story. We stayed in touch after the interview and randomly one day, Lin asked if I was interested in teaming up with her to launch a women's business and lifestyle publication.

 After just a few short emails with one another, Lin and I began conceptualizing what Minted would be.

 How did you form your team?

Our “team” is just the two of us! After we nailed down the focus of the magazine, we started right away on learning how to actually make a magazine with no budget and without outsourcing anything, with the exception of some editorial.

This meant it was up to us to do everything from design and photography to selling advertisements to marketing our product. In some areas, we had experience, but in others, not so much. It's definitely been a tremendous learning experience for us and quite humbling!

It was important to us that as we shaped the company from the start—it would be with our own ideas and execution, thus ensuring it remained true to our goal of providing engaging and informational content. It’s not to say we don’t intend on outsourcing some of the workload in the future as our company grows, but we definitely want to keep the creative control between the two of us.

How did you fund it, with how much money, and what is the business model?

I’m currently finishing my last semester of graduate school—I’ll be receiving my master’s in journalism this May—and when we decided to launch the magazine, Lin quit her job as a hedge fund analyst to pursue the venture. She had just self-published her first novel and wanted to continue on the career path of writing.

Needless to say, we didn’t have a wealth of funds, so we were determined to find creative ways to save money. As a new company, we both wanted to avoid giving any part of the company to investors.

Fortunately, my parents are entrepreneurs themselves and so is Lin’s uncle, so they were willing to fund us to cover the necessary start-up costs, which has come out to about $4,000. Luckily, being an online publication, we’ve been able to avoid print costs, aside from a small print run we made for the launch party this week in San Francisco.

Our business model is built around revenue from advertising and “Mintedshop,” an online boutique/e-commerce section on our site set to launch in March 2012.

Our research showed that people are weary to pay for online content because information is so readily available elsewhere … and for free. With that in mind, we knew charging readers to download or view our magazine online was likely going to fail.

Instead, we focused on what people are willing to spend money on—anything that saves them time and is easily accessible, but can’t be found elsewhere.

Accessibility is one important difference between what an advertiser gains from placing an ad in our publication versus a print magazine. There is the opportunity for direct traffic to the company’s site. In each issue, Minted has “hotspots” throughout the magazine, in both editorial and advertisements. A reader simply has to click on an ad or product and will be directed to the relative website. That increases exposure for all content in our magazine.

 
Mintedshop is not only a specialty online boutique, but viable and cost-effective platform for small business owners. Along with selling specially-curated items from our favorite stores and brands—much like the typical e-commerce site—we are a place where smaller businesses can sell their products services on our site without dealing with the hassle of much higher set-up and service/sales fees found elsewhere.

Lin and I both know how hard it is to get your foot in the door as a start-up, so we want to be a resource for others in the same position. Despite having lower service/sales fees, we will still be able to turn a profit from Mintedshop. It’s a win-win!


What makes you different from other players in your sector?

We definitely have some stiff competition when it comes to women’s lifestyle publications. But during our initial research of our competition, what Lin and I found to be a trend among those publications is the direction of the content. Aside from beautiful photography and wonderfully executed design, what was lacking in most (not all!) publications was informational content.

Like any other woman, we love shopping and gazing and pretty pictures, but at the end of the day, we don’t really gain anything from reading those magazines, aside from an hour of entertainment. That’s where Minted is different. We provide engaging and informational editorial.

We give our readers career and life advice—things that will stick in their minds long past the flipping of the page—and the resources to better themselves. We’re also a platform for other small businesses and female entrepreneurs to showcase their products and innovative ideas. Nowadays it seems like that real estate in a magazine is rare, but we want each issue of Minted to be full of profiles of these women, in all sectors and of all levels—from start-ups to successful and established businesses.

 
Did you do research whether people use I-pads rather than website to read stuff?

We did! We found that although the number of iPad users was growing exponentially each year, it didn’t outnumber the use of laptops and PCs. But because our magazine is available to view directly on our site and has a special version formatted for the iPad, we knew we would hit both markets.


What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from that?

Our biggest challenge was starting the magazine without necessarily having the knowledge or background in a lot of areas such as graphic design, marketing and ad sales. Even though my background was in journalism, you can’t have a successful magazine without a visually engaging design!

So, it took a lot of practice using InDesign and Photoshop (required programs to design a publication) and also seeking design inspiration from other publications. I also had to learn the programming involved with building a website.

Lin’s background was in business, so she was able to write up the business plan, do accounting and be the sales woman—along with writing some of the editorial. Like I said, we had minimal funds, so we took it upon ourselves to do a lot of the legwork.

In retrospect, it was a blessing for us to be forced to do all of it ourselves. In this situation, we have more control over our company and in the future, we won’t have to rely on someone else to do what we already know.

That’s not to say we won’t outsource any of the workload, but it’s nice to know that you can do it yourself. For example, if we want to make changes to the website, we don’t have to deal with a third-party or going through multiple revisions—we can do it ourselves.

One piece of advice for other start-ups: Do as much as you possibly can on your own! It’s not just a way tosave money, but in the long-run will make you an overall much smarter businessperson.

If you don’t know how to do something, instead of finding someone who you can pay to do it for you, seek someone to help you. There are a plethora of organizations and other entrepreneurs who are willing to be your mentor.

Are you profitable?

Unfortunately (but as expected!), we are not profitable at this point. We just launched the first issue and are working on our second issue, Spring 2012, launching in March.

Where is the company in 1 year?

After one year, we hope to have a much larger readership (of course), be profitable to where Lin and I can afford to cover costs and pay ourselves, and have Mintedshop fully-operating and streamlined.

We also want to start spearheading networking nights each month as a way of getting female entrepreneurs in one room to swap advice and build connections, since so much of doing business is meeting the right people and networking.

We also hope to become a monthly publication in the future, but that won’t likely happen until a few years into the business.