Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
-
[Todd at Fantastic Plastic] “Oh THAT is bordering on brilliant!”
Bordering? That IS brilliant!!! Thanx, Steve!
Reminds me of the previously mentioned public threat for deadbeats – “Pay me or I’ll tell all of your other creditors that you did.”
-
[Steve Wargo] “Get rid of any client that is not a positive asset to your company.”
Bravo, Steve! While each of your ideas are right on the money, this observation is brilliant. It’s almost always the hardest one to do but also the most necessary. Get the negative stuff and negative people out of your life as quickly as possible because they’re only eating up time you should be spending on stuff that matters, jobs that you will be proud, new business you should be seeking and people you care about.
A great recent example of this have been posts about taking an ex-client to court over a few thousand dollars. What’s the actual cost to a business for all the wasted days, sleepless nights and just plain lost mindshare? The answer is almost always CONSIDERABLY more than the disputed few thousands of dollars.
It’s hard to push away a paying client even when they are difficult and cause problems. It’s also hard to walk away from money you know that you’ve earned. But it’s almost always FAR more important to learn from your mistakes then move on to better things. Preserve your sanity and preserve your attitude by not wasting time on negative stuff.
-
First, I couldn’t agree more with Mark’s suggestion. One of my operating principals has always been to not buy anything until we absolutely need it. We also delay updates to new versions of software packages / suites as one means of spending only when we’ve got it. New features are cool, but not always necessary right away.
Second, it may seem a bit obvious, but… one of the best ways to protect the bottom line is by paying a lot of attention to pumping up the top line (gross sales).
How much are you doing to keep in touch with current and past customers? The holidays provides a great excuse for sending out gifts small and large. We routinely do a different promo piece each year that ends up costing us $3,500 to $4,000 by the time the item, the packaging, the wrapping labor and postage are figured in. It goes to 150+ of our customers as well as a few key suppliers. Why? Because it helps keep us top of mind and that’s always good for the top line.
-
Look guys, I can’t see any reason to disagree with anything Walter said here and, in more detail, in his blog post. The name CreativeCOW has enormous value and having some other entity attempt to clamp onto it is repugnant.
With the noted exception of Todd Terry, which of you would not be ready to fight if someone, even tangentally related, came into your space using a similar name to one you had spent years building?
I also agree with Tim A. If someone has to tell you they’re creative they’re probably not. This is the same reason we all need to steer clear of people who tell you how honest they are. If they are then why do they even bring it up?
My hope is that Ron, Kathlyn and the rest of COW management fight this and that Plastercity Digital be sufficiently embarrassed to pick something else.
-
[Todd at Fantastic Plastic] “Be careful, or you will find yourself at work all the time”
Oh! So THAT’S why I’m always working!
Zoning is certainly an issue and one with which I don’t trifle. I’m fortunate in that there’s just two of us full time and we both have home offices and, while he may be a fairly frequent visitor in my offices, my junior partner is a visitor rather than someone with a dedicated desk and an office. The various writers and art directors we work with also have their own home offices.
Another company I know in this area which did have zoning and neighbor problems got pinched because he had messengers, FedEx and other couriers constantly coming and going. If your business needs that kind of constant flow of physical materials you’re better off in an office.
If you need multiple employees, you’re better off in an office. A home-based business buzzing with people who are always there will only become a zoning violation waiting to get caught.
The nature of what we do and the widespread geography of our clients means that only a few clients come visit us each year. (Most of our contacts are in their offices — and NOW through MediaBatch.) I can easily understand how if we were hired out as edit suites or worked as a production company for other producers having clients constantly coming to me would be untenable. I consider myself lucky to have a business model that works for me. But, like I said, your mileage may vary.
-
Yes, Tim. I wear PANTS in the office (usually). Yet I’m almost always in flip flops.
I have no regrets about the decision years ago to sell a normal size house, stop paying rent for a downtown office and consolidate in a very large structure with a separate entrance for the office and a thick door to close between the spaces where I work and the spaces where I live.
The couple of times I’ve re-visited this decision I’ve always come back to not wanting to pay tens of thousands of dollars in rent for a “proper” office nor wanting the hassle of owning and maintaining a second location. Another consideration is being able to work when I want to because the computers containing the work and the studio with the cameras is footsteps away instead of miles away.
And just to clarify, my accountant does NOT have the business paying part of the mortgage because he says that opens up areas of tax liability which we don’t need to enter. The business does reimburse for utilities, though.
This arrangement works for me. Your mileage may vary.
-
[Mark Suszko] “Call the station that airs the spots and ask to talk to their legal department about the fact that they are running copyrighted stuff without your permission, and that you really dont want to drag the station into the middle of a payment dispute with one client…”
I guess it was inevitable that Mark Suszko would come up with something with which I totally disagree and with this post it has happened. Mark’s suggestion might work in the very short term and might work in a vacuum, but it also might be very bad for the long term success of your business.
Don’t contact the station’s sales or legal department. First, they won’t be on your side, they’ll be on their own side. Second they’ll be on the side of the guy who gives them money — the car dealer. He probably has for years and probably will for years to come.
While it’s possible that the station may go along with what you’re asking, it will likely be after you’ve had to engage an attorney to convince them you’re serious. They will also, from that point forward, have you pegged as a trouble-maker — someone who makes their primary business of selling airtime MORE DIFFICULT. Can you hear what the station’s sales people might say? “Sure there are several decent production companies around town, but stay away from DVDProducer because he’s hard to work with. I heard he had a fight with another of our advertisers and you don’t want to get in the middle of something like that.”
Get whatever money you can get and MOVE ON.
-
Look, D (short for dvdproducer)-
They’re not taking you seriously and they’re not likely to take a letter from you seriously and maybe even a letter from an attorney. They know that at anytime they can simply pay the invoice and the whole thing goes away. The downside of this for you is how much time and energy you’ve wasted getting to that point.
You could go the copyright route, but for this amount of money WHAT AN ENORMOUS WASTE OF YOUR TIME. Get what you can and move on to POSITIVE new projects. Sometimes bad guys win. Hope that karma gets them in the end.
Here’s an idea: Get someone who looks like they could be a local TV reporter and stage a stand-up — on PUBLIC land — in front of their dealership. It won’t take long for someone from inside to come out to ask what’s going on. Have your “reporter” say it’s a story about local businesses who don’t pay their bills —– WAIT a minute! Bad idea. This could get YOU sued. It’s far more fun to dream about stuff like this than it is to actually do it.
D, I’ve been where you are now. I was screwed over by a big multi-location car dealer when I was just starting out. Take my advice. Get what you can. Move on. Identify their competition and see what you can do for them.
-
[dvproducer] “can I get them on copyright infringement?”
Can you? Sure. Should you? No. Don’t waste any more of your time or mental energy on this hole of negativity. Get what you can and move on. Car dealers and other forms of retail are why I went headlong into B2B, Corporate and Industrial.
What hasn’t been discussed, and I suspect is a central issue, is the fact that these guys have no respect for you or what you do, therefore they see no downside to them for trying to screw you. At some point it might even be a form of game for them: “Let’s see just how much we can F*** with this kid.” In their minds there are dozens more production companies like you who will take their work, so why give a crap about any one of them?
Todd makes a good point about working through agencies. That certainly raises the bar. But then there are bad agencies, too. Especially ones that think net 120 is fast pay. Overcoming this too is a mater of respect and appreciation of what you do.
And just to clarify: YES. There are some good car dealers out there. And there certainly are some good agencies of all sizes. Work on your sales technique and presentation skills and work on generating respect for yourself starting with your very first contact.
And, dvdproducer, if you respond directly to this post STOP CALLING ME “MR.” dammit!
-
In my 12 things I learned article for the COW Magazine I wrote:
“…even though I don