Develop a business model that will bring in diverse profits. Survival of your label will be dependent upon having a motley of revenue streams, which, according to entertainment attorney Richard B. Jefferson, includes "management, touring, merchandising, publishing, technology (Internet and mobile phone content), or any other passive opportunity in which your company, or its artists, may engage."
Form a separate legal entity--for small record labels, an S-Corp or LLP (limited liability partnership) is the general recommendation. Register your business by filing your articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State, and get a federal tax ID number.
Fund your venture with your savings, family loans, or apply for one of Georgia's small business loans or grants. As of 2010, Georgia is providing funds to subsidize the hiring and training of staff at companies with 50 or fewer employees.
Visit artist showcases and open mic nights to scout new talent or test out new songs. The Peach State has plenty of talent ripe for the picking if you’re starting a label for the purpose of releasing others’ music. Sign artists that fans connect with, and artists that see themselves as a product and a brand.
Check out American Intercontinental University or the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia for interns from their media production and music business programs. Your talent scouting and development department is the heart of your record label, pumping in fresh blood, and nurturing the talent on your roster. Hire staff that not only has a solid business sense, but the fine-tuned ears of a lifelong music lover, a networking sensibility, and the finesse to navigate their way around a recording studio. For small labels on a very tight budget, it may be best to sign on A&R, booking, marketing and distribution staff as independent contractors or consultants, and pay them on a commission basis.
Fashion a marketing strategy that will brand the name of your label and artists everywhere you go. Georgia is a state where grass-roots marketing, street teams and playing live anywhere and everywhere is the standard. Every genre of music benefits from visibility campaigns, such as car wraps, posters, fliers, t-shirts, hats, stickers, buttons, pens, lighters, etc.
Contact some smaller radio stations that love to promote local bands and artists, such as Project 96.1 for rock and metal, and WRFG 89.3 FM, both in Atlanta. Internet radio stations, such as Pandora and Slacker, happily play music from smaller labels.
Sign up for digital distribution through iTunes, CDBaby.com, and Amazon.com. The cost of purely digital distribution is nominal compared to pressing physical CDs, which as of 2010 averages around $2 per disc, depending on the quantity of discs ordered.