When beginning a business it's important to know where your money is going to come from. Often times it’s rewarding to seek out alternative financing opportunities. With a little research, you could find grants or opportunities meant for someone like you. Here are some examples:
First Nations is an organization that provides grants and investments for Native American economies. The organization helps Native American youth, and they also help strengthen non-profits. Their mission is to strengthen economies to support Native communities. If you have a company that hires Native American people, that is considered “green,” or possibly a nonprofit that supports communities as well, then this organization may be very interested in supporting your business. Another similar organization is Oweesta.
CFED is an organization that helps empower low or moderate-income people to build wealth. They have led in policy change for several levels of government and strive to advance economic opportunity for many. Their organization would probably be happy to play a part in a company that is hiring people who need jobs, and also stimulating opportunity economies. They provide a program for entrepreneurs who have a critical role in the growth and stability of their economy. They focus on entrepreneurs that provide jobs or others through themselves or micro businesses.
A lot of these different types of funding are very important for us as entrepreneurs. When researching alternative funding I found a lot of organizations are looking to invest in companies, or entrepreneurs, who are providing jobs and stimulating their economies. Trying to stimulate or grow an economy anywhere is hard to begin with, but trying to where there is no economy, or in a region that has a bad overall economy is even harder. With the help from these organizations, you can be a part of something much larger than starting a business, you can create opportunity.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans
Sir Richard Branson
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group and is an entrepreneur and investor. Starting his first business at the age of sixteen with the magazine Student, he was on the fast track to success in entrepreneurial business. He is most notably known for his success with his businesses developed from Virgin Group. He opened airlines, record stores, and even a record label. He was knighted in 2000 for his “services to entrepreneurship.”
Richards’s key strategy is to work towards business ideas that interest you. His interests are to rise above challenges that seem impossible to overcome. In business plans, he looks for this challenge, as well as determined minds that want to live life to the full and experience it. In his own autobiography, he states, “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.” (Losing my Virginity, 98)
I would use this key point to keep the confidence I have in my business plan. When asked about obstacles I may face with my business plan I will have strong solutions, and make it known that challenges can be overcome.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and television personality most notably from the television series Shark Tank. He was raised in Pennsylvania, and experienced his first business practice when he was twelve, and sold garbage bags to raise funds for a pair of shoes he wanted. From there in college, he had a lot of jobs from teaching dance, to promoting parties.
During his career with the TV show Shark Tank, he has invested in over 80 businesses, as well as given a lot of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
The biggest take away I get from his role on Shark Tank, is to come prepared when meeting with investors. Often business owners come into meetings with the investors and do not have the correct answers to questions they have. The most important is to have the financials in place. You must know how much you are worth, how much you’ve made, and most importantly you should be pretty accurate with your numbers.
When I meet with investors, I would be sure to have all of my information present, so that the investors feel they can trust me and trust their decisions to invest.
Resources:
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (1998)
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Unfriended
2015 had a lot of great, and not so great films released. To find some good ones, Buzzfeed put together a list of The 19 Best Horror Films Of 2015. A lot of filmmakers tried to follow current trends to attract viewers, and Unfriended is not any different. Unfriended is a horror film that takes place completely on the computer screen of a teenager. A young teen Laura commits suicide and her friends try to uncover who leaked the video that leads her to kill herself.
This film is extremely experimental, but continues to play on some trends we have seen in the past like "found footage" films. Films like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity have found new ways to create horror films that seem more authentic to the viewers. The idea is if even in the moment the viewers can believe the film is real or based on real events, and then they can enjoy the film more.
Another very large trend that is current is social media. It is fair to say that most people use social media and are affected by it. The creators of Unfriended had a great advantage with their marketing, being as they were able to use social media to advertise a horror film about social media. The filmmakers were able to get extremely creative with their marketing to attract their viewers to see the film. They also did a lot of marketing at Playlist Live, which is a very popular convention for people to see Internet celebrities or YouTube stars. They also used the popular app KIK for marketing. They created a profile with automated responses where people could have conversations with the girl who committed suicide in the film. The primary market were high school kids who actively used social media who could relate to the films topic more.
The film has a sequel set to be released this year, and will be released by Blumhouse Productions.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Atlantic Records A&R
Earlier this year Atlantic Records
began expanding their A&R reach with some major moves. Steve Robertson,
Senior Vice President of A&R, built his roots here in Orlando and has now
moved out to Nashville to be the eyes and ears for in the great city. Steve has
been working at Atlantic now for about 2 decades and has been a long time asset
for the label. Getting his start at a few radio stations in Florida, he was
first noticed by Atlantic Records while working at Orlando’s Alternative
station, WJRR. While at the station he brought a range of notable acts to the
attention of Atlantic, including Matchbox 20, and was then hired on to the
A&R team.
While Steve was hired by Atlantic,
he has been responsible for many popular acts today. One of his first signings
were the platinum award winning band, Shinedown, then later signed the pop rock
band Paramore. Steve was promoted internally several times before finally being
named the Senior Vice President in 2010 since then he has played a large role
in the companies success.
It's no secret that Nashville has always been a constant revolving door
for the music scene in this country, with notable acts such as Johnny Cash,
Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, and many more. In an effort to continue to be a
leading brand for music, Atlantic Records has begun to expand their presence in
the Nashville community. Steve’s expertise in the pop and rock genre has made
him the perfect candidate for this position, and the existing A&R team
welcomed him happily to the music city.
Steve is also no stranger to Nashville, he has been part of the
conference scene for many years there. Although he was based in Orlando Florida,
he often travelled to Nashville to look for what he hopes can be the next
Paramore.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Industry Liabilities
Starting an independent label, I will most likely have to protect myself from issues of liability. After doing some research, it seems a very common liability faced are those surrounding copyright laws.
One example of this is the dispute between Rick Ross and the group LMFAO. At one point, LMFAO had a similar phrase to that of a Rick Ross song “Every day I’m hustling” in their own song and on merchandising. Though LMFAO had “every day I’m shuffling,” Rick Ross claimed it was an obvious attempt to build off the success he had created. It was decided that the merchandising was not found violating any copyright. The fact was, there is no way to copyright the line “Every day I’m hustling” when you take it away from a melodic and musical components.
Another example of a copyright infringement case is that between Jack Urbont and Ghostface Killah. Urbont created music for “The Marvel Super Heroes” show in the 1960’s, which Ghostface later used portions of to sample in a song of his. Urbont filed a lawsuit against Ghostface which lasted three years, after many attempts to deliver a complaint about the issue to the defendant. Urbont won the case and found it a fair outcome.
This goes to show that there are many situations you can get yourself caught up in with regards to copyright. Another liability would be the breach of a contract.
An example of this could be the situation between Morgan Creek, and Furla Oasis. There was a long-term agreement set in place between the two production companies regarding a co-production they were working on based off the late Tupac Shakur. Without the approval of Emmitt/Furla’s production company, Morgan Creek selected a lead actor, set a budget and a production schedule. When contracts like this are breached it can put a very big strain on the project, and could even waste a lot of money that has been invested into it.
There are many ways to prevent liabilities from taking your business down. My plan to protect my business is to continue to educate and research about my industry. If I continue to educate myself I will know the laws better, and be able to stay within the correct boundaries. If I can continue to research about lawsuits or disputes within my industry I can avoid the mistakes other companies are making. I will also make sure to copyright all of my work, to protect the investments I make into the company and other artists. Any contracts signed between other employees, or artists would be carefully analyzed to make sure there will be no breaching or disputes with the contract in the future.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Dangerbird Records, believing in the long haul.
There are many independent record
labels and a high amount of competition for them. When artists look for a label
to sign them, what they want most is a label that will back them up and invest
in a long healthy career. Dangerbird Records has proven to be this label and
continues to believe in its artists.
Dangerbird Records was founded in
2004 by two men who had very different places in the music world. Jeff
Castelaz, who was a manager working with many bands such as Feist and Phoenix,
while the other founder, Peter Walker, was a solo artist. Castelaz and Walker
started Dangerbird Records to have the ability to put an emphasis on artist
development. The label has and continues to build a wide network of partners to
help their signed artists reach as large a market as possible.
The label grew a great reputation
in 2006 when one of their signed artists, Silversun Pickups, released their
debut album, Carnavas. The band noted they had a lot of respect for Dangerbird
Records, and the lead singer Brian Aubert even made a comment about the labels
integrity saying “They believe in careers, and the long haul – something that
majors used to believe in.” The band mentioned that Dangerbird had stuck by
their side when most labels wouldn’t have. Silversun Pickups has now gone on to
start their own label, “New Machine Recordings” and is releasing a new album
next month.
In 2012, co-founder Jeff Castelaz
took a job as President of Elektra Records, and Walker promoted Jenni Sperandeo
to President at Dangerbird.
The company continues to focus on
the development of its artists, ensuring long and happy careers with Dangerbird
Records. As they continue to change the way artists view record labels, we will
continue to see a highlight on artists who take advantage of independent labels
and better quality music in our industry.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
TED: Martin Villeneuve "How I made an impossible film."
Martin Villeneuve
Martin Villeneuve is responsible for making an “impossible”
film, Mars et Avril. Villeneuve
claims he did not know it was impossible, which is how he was able to do it. He
had a passion to create films ever since he was young.
Many people
who see the film think that he must have had an extremely high budget when in
fact he did not. So what really made it possible for Villeneuve to create this
film, while on a low budget?
The film
took Villeneuve 7 years to complete. He states, “If you do not have money, you
must have time.” Being as the team did not have a lot of money, every
department had to turn and rely on their creativity. They were able to re work,
and re write certain parts of the film to work around the low budget and still
create a very well put together film. An example of this is that one of the
actors was very popular and very busy, so he was not able to be in the film.
The crew filmed him with 6 angles in a green room, and made his character a
hologram in the film. They had another actor film the parts, and replaced his
face with the original actors face with this effect. Villeneuve is very good at
creating relationships with people, and he often times will create
opportunities for others in return for their work on his films. In doing this,
he was able to involve some of the most talented and respected people to be a
part of his film.
While
Villeneuve has a “Sharing Knowledge” type narrative pattern, he is effectively able
to inspire people to take problems head on, and use them as allies rather then
enemies. He believes that problems create opportunities to be creative and
productive. Problems help create strong relationships and great outcomes.
Villeneuve shows that it takes a considerable amount of time to produce a high
quality product, and in taking your time you can be more proud of your
achievements.
Link to Ted Speech http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_villeneuve_how_i_made_an_impossible_film#t-385219
Link to Ted Speech http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_villeneuve_how_i_made_an_impossible_film#t-385219
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