Most podcasters and creators don't struggle with ideas. They struggle with everything around the ideas: pitching sponsors, booking guests, turning one episode into a week of posts, keeping track of who paid and who didn't, and remembering what was promised to which brand. Each job needs a system, and building them all from blank spreadsheets is where a lot of good shows stall.
We're the team behind The Cigar Guys Podcast, and we built our template kits for exactly those jobs. This post walks through the business side of creator work, area by area, and shows what's inside the Creator Business Template Library (All 10 Kits), the bundle that puts every kit we make in one download.
Why "run it like a business" starts with systems
Treating your show or channel like a business doesn't mean hiring a team or buying expensive software. It means you can answer a few basic questions at any time:
- What did I earn this month, from which sources, and what did it cost me?
- Which sponsors have I pitched, and who needs a follow-up?
- Which guests are booked, and do they have their prep notes?
- What am I posting this week, and where did it come from?
- What did I promise a brand or client, and did I deliver it?
If those answers live in your head and your inbox, each one takes longer than it should. A consistent template for each job usually fixes that.
The money side: sponsors, brand deals and income
Sponsorships. Before you quote a sponsor, it helps to know your cost floor: what an episode actually costs you in hosting, tools, editing and time. The Podcast Sponsorship Kit starts there. Its pricing calculator works out a cost floor, gives an audience-based estimate range from CPM assumptions you enter yourself, and helps you build Starter, Standard and Premium packages. Around that sit a media kit template, a proposal you tailor to one sponsor, outreach and follow-up emails (cold, warm intro, follow-ups, negotiation replies and a confirmation), a prospect and deal tracker that dates your next follow-up for you, and a post-campaign report with a renewal proposal.
Brand deals. If you work with brands on social content rather than (or as well as) podcast ads, the Brand Deal Tracker covers the deal pipeline, deliverables, usage rights and exclusivity, invoices and 12 email templates.
Income and expenses. The Creator Business Dashboard is a spreadsheet for creators who earn from more than one place: sponsors, affiliates, products, client work and platform payouts. You log income and expenses (500 rows each), and the dashboard shows the selected month's income, fees, expenses, profit and margin, income by source, goals against actuals, and audience numbers by platform. Only income marked Received counts toward totals, so pending invoices don't make the month look better than it was. It also keeps downloads, views and impressions in separate columns instead of adding them together, because they measure different things.
The show side: launch, guests and repurposing
Launching. The Podcast Launch Kit includes a show planning workbook, a launch budget, and a 41-task, 30-day launch checklist that dates itself from your launch day.
Guests. The Podcast Guest Booking System gives you a guest tracker, 8 outreach emails, an intake form, reminders and interview prep, so you aren't digging through old threads the night before a recording.
Repurposing. The Podcast Content Repurposing Kit lays out an 11-step workflow for turning an episode into clips, posts and more, with 9 AI prompts that include accuracy guardrails, a content calendar and a quality-control checklist.
The business-around-the-business: social, events, clients and AI
Many creators also run a small business, take on client work, or cover events. Four kits handle that side:
- Small Business Social Media Content Planner: a year plan, key dates, a post planner, a week view and 24 caption templates.
- Event Media Coverage Kit: a run of show, shot list, interview and release templates, a posting schedule and a client recap.
- Freelance Service Business Kit: a pricing worksheet, client CRM, proposal, scope of work, invoices and 17 emails.
- AI Employee Setup Kit: a task audit, AI role descriptions, a prompt library, SOPs, guardrails and a QA log, so you decide what an AI assistant does and you check its work.
What's in every kit
Each of the 10 kits arrives as its own ZIP file with the same structure:
- A Start Here guide that tells you which file to open first, plus a quick-start routine.
- A completed example for a fictional business, so you can see what a finished version looks like before you fill in your own. (The example businesses and numbers are made up. They show how the files work. They aren't typical results.)
- A license for your own personal or business use (no resale or sharing of the files).
- A version number and changelog, so you know what changed when a kit is updated. Updated files replace the old ones in Payhip, and you can download them again from your purchase link or customer account.
Files come as .xlsx, .docx and .pdf, and they're made to be edited in Microsoft Excel and Word, Google Sheets and Docs, or LibreOffice. There are no macros or add-ons. Spreadsheets are easiest to set up on a computer; the PDFs open anywhere.
To be clear about what the kits are not: they don't connect to your podcast host, bank or social accounts, and they don't send emails or invoices for you. You stay in charge and enter your own numbers. Contract, release-form and privacy templates are starting points, not legal advice. And no template can promise sponsors, followers or income.
Bundle or single kits?
If you only need one job covered, each kit is sold on its own. If you run more than one side of your business yourself, the bundle is the simpler option:
- All 10 kits bought separately: $360 at current prices ($49 + $29 + $19 + $39 + $39 + $29 + $29 + $39 + $49 + $39).
- Creator Business Template Library (All 10 Kits): $149, one-time payment.
If you're mainly focused on podcast sponsorships, repurposing and guest booking, the smaller Podcast Business Template Bundle (3 kits) is $69.
Launch offer: use code LAUNCH20 for 20% off any order, bundles included, through November 7, 2026. That brings the all-kits bundle to $119.20.
Already own a kit? Kit owners can get $30 off the all-kits bundle. Email info@thecigarguys.com with your order email and we'll send you the code.
Where to start
Pick the job that's costing you the most time right now, whether that's chasing sponsors, tracking income or wrangling guests, and set up that kit first.
Browse the full library here: Creator Business Template Library (All 10 Kits).
Questions or a file that won't open? Email info@thecigarguys.com. These are instant digital downloads, so all sales are final, but if a file is broken or missing we'll fix or replace it.