Dear friends,
I’m looking for someone new to run The Busking Project CIC. We’ve finished our “proof of concept” stage, and now need someone who’s going to focus on pricing our products, marketing, grant writing and basically turning our little nonprofit into a sustainable organisation.

We barely market what we do, we haven’t focused on customer funnels for a long time, and we’ve only applied for a handful of grants, which we’ve had a much higher than industry standard success rate with. I strongly believe that if somebody was to take over from me who cared about actually running a business, the business side of things would be much better off!

In other words, I’m looking for a new CEO to run the company — to effectively be my boss (I will remain on as a volunteer for as long as you need me).

Thanks, and I’m looking forward to finding my replacement!

Nick

 

 

Position of Volunteer Director of The Busking Project CIC

The Busking Project CIC (busk.co) is looking for someone who is business-minded to lead the company on a voluntary basis. The aim is to build the company to a place where we’re earning enough revenue to be able to pay you a fair wage for your time and expertise.

What is The Busking Project CIC?

The Busking Project CIC is an exciting arts nonprofit that offers a diverse range of services to support street performers. You watch our now-outdated promo video of ‘everything you can do on busk.co’, but our assets include:

  • the fastest choose-your-own-tip cashless payments in the street
  • an events platform where people can find street performers to hire them
  • ‘The Busker’s Guide’; an advocacy platform full of resources for street performers
  • ‘BuskPay’; a range of physical signs buskers can display to get QR-code-based tips (launching soon)
  • $10,000-worth of free Google Ads to spend every month
  • Premium accounts, with several unique benefits
  • A tool that can build interactive maps for outdoor festivals in a matter of hours
  • Over 8,000 performers registered in 120 countries
  • We’re the only people who do what we do!

For some perspective, tips to performers on our site average in the $10 USD range (a little more or less depending on the currency), and have taken a HUGE increase over the last year. Our site is now processing 11 times as many tips as it was pre-Covid. In other words, we’re really helping street performers to survive during the largest ban on street shows in world history.

Finally, we also do a range of advocacy work. Most recently, we supported the fight against anti-busking legislation in Westminster, and we’ve also helped ‘busker advocates’ across Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere with several significant successes.

You can read testimonials on what we mean to to the world’s buskers here.

Our Values

Anyone old enough to experience the internet revolution of the 90s will remember its promises of a more equal, social and fair society. Instead, we got the divisive digital hellscape of today, where middlemen treat their users like products and opaque algorithms determine our fates.

That’s not us. Our technology is driven by our passion to make a difference in an ethical way. For example, we don’t sell users’ data, we’ve only installed enough cookies to make our site work, almost every feature on our site is free, and we have strict ‘asset locks’ preventing directors or shareholders from receiving dividends or profiting from shares.

The only way we could make this work so far is because I (director/co-founder Nick Broad) have been a volunteer since our inception in 2014, and a lot of people have donated their time and expertise, given us huge discounts, and even donated money to us. In fact, our only profit motive has been to be able to afford for the development of the technology that makes all this possible. Furthermore, our ‘community interest company’ status means everything we do has to benefit our community of street performers. We are the only organisation in the world that does what we do on a nonprofit basis. Read our social mission to learn more about our values.

What will you be doing?

Our company is more popular than ever with street performers, our services are more important than ever (especially as the world opens up post-Covid) and we have two new, game-changing projects on the go, both of which could help us earn new revenue. I’m looking for a volunteer director to lead this company through this busy and exciting time.

Here are some of the areas in which you could work:

  • Develop and implement a plan to scale our business
  • Rethink our business model and financial plan
  • Apply for grants
  • Lead initiatives
  • Take on day to day responsibilities
  • Hire a team and lead them to execute our new plans
  • And “Customer service” (it’s important for you to have contact with our users)

I will help you to get started here, but I will not be your boss. I will not be directing what you’re working on, nor your hours. You will be expected to take on some of the day-to-day responsibilities, but which and how much will be up to you. You need to work well with a lot of freedom. I’m looking for someone who’ll a) get up to speed, and then b) start leading, and solidifying our real-world successes.

This might sound contradictory, but we are looking for someone who is financially minded to fill this volunteer position. You need to both have experience with and an interest in generating revenues, something we’ve previously not paid much attention to. I would eventually like you to work at The Busking Project full time as a director that is paid fairly for your time. This will only be possible if we focus on our business plan.

This won’t be easy, but there are two major reasons why I think there is hope. We’ve always had a good success rate with the grants we’ve applied for (winning roughly 30-40% of our applications), and right now we’re more grantable than ever. We now have concrete evidence of our impressive ROI, and we have a lot of new potential in the post-lockdown, post-covid world of ruined arts industries and decimated commercial districts. The world has never been more in need of vibrant public spaces and high quality street performances, and we’re here to help.

In other words, a passionate strategist with good business sense is needed. Hopefully, that person is you. You’ll be seeing how we can ethically increase our revenues, envision our business strategy, write grants, set prices, work out how best to promote the business and improve features, see which areas we can improve in, what services to focus on, and lead the company on its mission to help the world’s street performers.

Your Skills/Experience

I’m looking for people who have at least some relevant work experience. It would be great if you were at least one or more of the following:

  • A street performer. Someone who has performed in multiple countries, also at busker festivals, and already knows about the issues facing the busking community.
  • A true leader. You can work autonomously, with passion and little oversight, and can support us in more than one of our fundraising efforts; grants, building our paid membership base, launching products, client management, sales, customer service etc.
  • A Non-profit director. Perhaps you have founded or run a successful festival, theatre, arts organisation or other non-profit, created a board of directors, and have experience sourcing grants, philanthropy partners and sponsors.
  • A technophile. You don’t need to be able to code, but it’s a plus if you’ve previously worked on an app or innovative website, and are comfortable talking about technology.
  • An innovator. You’ve invented, built or successfully sold a product or brand. This includes producing high-quality albums, or portable circus equipment, or building an impressive fan base for your show.
  • An evangelist. Someone with the time and passion to volunteer for a project like this, and who has the belief that we can take our assets and turn it into a sustainable company (that will be able to pay you a fair wage).

If you are interested and your profile doesn’t quite fit, please do still apply, as these are just guidelines.

How to apply

To apply, send your CV and a cover letter to nick@busk.co, detailing why you’re the right fit for the job. If I’m interested, we will jump on a video call, and take it from there.

Deadline to apply

June 1st 2022

 

 

With the help of a financially motivated lead, the company could continue to support thousands of street performers worldwide, years into the future.

I’m looking forwards to doing that with you,


Nick Broad
CEO and co-founder of The Busking Project CIC
Email: nick@busk.co