Industry news & advice blog

AIM Start Ups is a new program designed to help new businesses with initial hurdles by providing low interest start-up loans, business specific training and mentoring, and on-going support from the team. Whether you’re a self-releasing artist needing capital for recording your next album, an artist manager facing an opportunity to sign the most talked about act in town if only you had the money, a record label needing a PR push for your latest release, we can help.

Applicants will receive help and support from the very first steps with perfecting their business plan through their first year of operating their business. Our motto here is ‘AIM for success‘ because we want to help you best as we can in creating a successful business.

Creative businesses have faced significant difficulties in accessing finance from banks since almost the beginning of time, and unless you can borrow from family or friends, or attract private investors to fund you, you may not be able to get the business off the ground. Private investment is a valid option for secondary finance for when you have already had some success, but at the very starting stage it usually means selling a relatively big portion of your business for a fraction of the potential value. Borrowing from friends and family also comes with a risk; arguments relating to money are the arguments that most commonly break up relationships. Then there’s AIM Start Ups: affordable, unsecured start-up loan designed to fund initial costs to get your business up and running, and business specific training and mentoring designed to maximise your chance of success.

AIM Startups will be running run three blog posts this autumn to share the success stories of their applicants. The first one to start the series is I’m Not a Machine Music run by Verity Pabla .

I’m Not a Machine Music (INAMM) is a music company consisting of a record label, and music publishing, founded by singer-songwriter Verity Pabla. INAMM is home to five powerful female artists, and they all share a quality that got them signed with INAMM: soulful, conscious lyrics and powerful vocals. INAMM is in many ways more than just a music company, it is a brand spreading ideas of kindness, humanitarian values, and female empowerment.

Verity first launched INAMM in December 2013, and business had picked up by spring 2014 enough that Verity found herself on the Los Angeles Sync Licensing Mission in June, which prompted her to seek out funding options to best take advantage of the opportunities presented to her. Of her experience with the AIM Start Ups scheme Verity says:

"The structure that AIM Start Ups provides is so valuable in beginning a new business. Being self-employed is not new to me but owning and running a limited company is and so AIM Start Ups helps to make that step up by offering training, support in developing business plan/cash flow, mentoring and more. Having a mentor and one who is industry specific is incredibly helpful and a big part of the start up scheme."

Verity is mentored by Merida Sussex of Stolen Recordings who had this to say about volunteering her time to help start-ups:

 "I'm really pleased to be part of the AIM Start Ups mentor program; I wanted to be able to give back in some way for all the help and advice I have received, and continue to receive, from AIM.”

The AIM membership has embraced the opportunity to help new businesses entering the industry and we have been lucky that so many great business owners are happy to provide assistance through mentoring.

To read more case studies, find out more about the scheme,or to apply for a start-up loan, please go to:

www.aimstartups.com