The Batavian sort of fell into our lap. We didn't plan to go into business for ourselves. It just happened.
It's a great opportunity and we're very excited about the prospects, but it's not like we went into this with the financial planning that usually accompanies a new business.
While revenue for The Batavian at this point is strong enough to meet our daily living and operational expenses, there is little money left over for improvements, be they new or better equipment, hardware replacement or software upgrades.
These sort of expenses are, however, investments that businesses are necessary. They're usually considered capital expenses. So we're asking our friends, friends of The Batavian and supporters who are rooting for the success of The Batavian and believe its a worthy effort in building an online-only local news site to please help with donations to The Batavian's CapEx Fund.
All such donations will be kept separate from operational expenses and used only for the intended expenses.
Also, from this point forward, at least 5 percent of The Batavian's weekly revenue (when possible, more) will be placed in the CapEx Fund.
Intended expenses include:
- Replacement laptop (my MacBook Pro is getting old and the longer battery life of new MacBooks would be a huge help in covering breaking news).
- Digital SLR camera. Point-and-shoots are great, but there are times when you need the greater control and capabilities of an SLR camera, especially for covering sports.
- Canon XL 2 video camera. Again, P&S is great, and we love our Canon DV30, but we would like to upgrade what we do with video. We could also use a second Canon DV30 as a loner to our correspondents.
- Software development. We have plenty of projects on the drawing board that would help both with audience growth and revenue.
