Nick Griffin
Forum Replies Created
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Michael –
Wow! You mean someone besides me is also NOT at NAB? Okay. Here’s my two cents worth of ideas and lots of loose change worth of questions.
What’s the downside for you in this? Assuming the buyout price is reasonable — usually some multiplier of your annual earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, perhaps with a serious nod to your existing capital investment) — doesn’t seem like you’ve got a lot to loose. UNLESS you’re happy with the way your business is going, happy with your clients, they’re happy with you and life is all around good. If you’re happy why change?
Well one obvious answer is that if this outsider is that intent on moving into your market and you turn them down, they may just do it without you and you have a new, potentially stronger competitor.
What I don’t understand, and maybe you do, is what’s up with the lack of non-compete and why just 90 days? Are these two things big danger signs? Both seem extremely odd for one business purchasing another business. If they’re going to make it possible to invest in a big upgrade to your facility, why wouldn’t you want to stay around for a lot longer than 90 days? Granted, 90 days may be all you can take if the chemistry isn’t good and I’ve known a whole lot of entrepreneurs who simply can’t hack being just an “employee” after a buy out. But them not wanting more than 90 days? That’s just strange. Are these “grown-ups” or just someone with a lot of money to throw around?
As to the cable job, it could be a nice way to bridge this extremely dangerous period wherein many of us are forced to move into HD at prices which are likely to keep falling. Could be. Maybe. Perhaps. If any of us had a crystal ball we’d probably be in investment banking, not video production. The other thing about the cable job again comes back to being an “employee.” Do you have the stomach to just sit back and be quiet when someone over you makes stupid decisions? Personally, I like making my own stupid decisions.
Don’t know if this has been any help, but I would advise that you have both a lawyer and an accountant carefully examine the deal before going any further.
-Nick Griffin
“Some people say that I’m superficial. But that’s just on the surface.” -
THANK YOU, Steven! (And thanx, too to Kevin for his initial questions.)
Works like a CHAMP with FCP. Yet oddly enough the Black Magic Deck Control software, which Black Magic told me to use for testing, only sends the eject command to the deck. Must be something I need to set in its prefs. Then again I don’t use the Deck Control software I use FCP, so I’m home free.
THANX!!
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Yes and yes. Any other ideas? Thanx!
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(CROSS-POSTED from the Boris COW)
“have you contacted Borisfx with your concerns…I have always found them to be very helpful.”
Yes. I’ve contacted them. That’s how I learned that I needed to buy 4.0.2 to “solve” the problem. The tech guy was sympathetic but took the attitude “yea, it sucks, but what are you gonna do?” He did however point out that I could use it in demo mode for 14 days before it would X-out the results. Time to seriously look at which of these are redundant with what comes in AE 7. I did mention that this whole thing became an issue because I needed to re-use an old project and it called for the FEC plug-ins on launch.
Oh, well. With the emotion of this subsiding I guess the money is not that big a deal. But I am still struck by the amazing contrast wherein Final Cut Studio is $1,300 and this meager update is $100. At least I didn’t buy the ICE card. Sorry Bogiesan.
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“have you contacted Borisfx with your concerns…I have always found them to be very helpful.”
Yes. I’ve contacted them. That’s how I learned that I needed to buy 4.0.2 to “solve” the problem. The tech guy was sympathetic but took the attitude “yea, it sucks, but what are you gonna do?” He did however point out that I could use it in demo mode for 14 days before it would X-out the results. Time to seriously look at which of these are redundant with what comes in AE 7. I did mention that this whole thing became an issue because I needed to re-use an old project and it called for the FEC plug-ins on launch.
Oh, well. With the emotion of this subsiding I guess the money is not that big a deal. But I am still struck by the amazing contrast wherein Final Cut Studio is $1,300 and this meager update is $100.
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“Now raise your rates.”
Short, sweet and dead on.
The key to growth isn’t always adding staff because at some point you can find yourself looking at your business only to realize that you’re working for your employees, your vendors, almost everyone but yourself. Add staff only as really needed and only when their workload is sustainable.
So what about raising the rates? In a healthy and growing business your focus should be on the top half of your clientele. You can gradually charge most existing clients more, but the real key is adding new ones at higher rates than the existing ones. Where does this turn into more time for you? When the clients who are at the bottom of the scale of profitability and/or size drop off.
I don’t believe that there is a number for this or that it’s a “one size fits all approach,” but a portion of your time — let’s say 10 to 20% — should be devoted to actively developing new business. Who would you like to have as a client and how are you going about getting them? Fact is the bigger the client, the longer it will take and the more complex the process. You can start knocking on doors today that may not open for years, so do it with a plan and keep doing it.
Finally, congratulations on a phenominal rate of growth! Now start managing it.
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I believe I mis-stated. FEC didn’t come from Cycore and the plug-ins are totally different from what’s now bundled with AE. And that’s another one, but oh well, I paid several hundreds of dollars for Cycore only to have it bundled a couple of years later. C’est la vie. That one I can live with. But $100 for what Boris says is basically just a different installer and very minor bug fixes — that still has me ticked.
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I believe I mis-stated. FEC didn’t come from Cycore and the plug-ins are totally different from what’s now bundled with AE. And that’s another one, but oh well, I paid several hundreds of dollars for Cycore only to have it bundled a couple of years later. C’est la vie. That one I can live with. But $100 for what Boris says is basically just a different installer and very minor bug fixes — that still has me ticked.
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Granted this may not be for everyone, but here’s an alternative thought to the “home office.”
Several years ago when my wife and I were looking for a larger house we found one big enough to provide an entire wing as office/studio space. By combining what I had, in years past, spent on rent with what we would spend on a home we were able to get a much, much bigger, 115 year old house and fund minor renovation and updating.
So when clients come over, they’re not stepping over the kids’ toys to go into a converted spare bedroom. They’re comng to a seperate business entrance then into a large, spacious group of offices with all the normal office bells and whistles. My office itself is the largest room, 20 x 20 with an 18 ft ceiling.
If I had it to do over… I’d go for an even bigger place. The photography studio is only 16 x 32 ft and while that seemed OK in the beginning it gets hairy when there’s a large subject or more than one person. That’s not too much of an issue as the bulk of what we do is out at client sites.
So the idea is to take what you would spend on office rent and combine that with what you’d spend on housing and this alternative approach can provide a home office you don’t have to apologize for.
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Paul –
You should definately keep the system. Now, would you like to buy several boxes of T-10’s, 15’s and 60’s? I’ll make you a real good deal and throw in a nearly full case of VHS sleeves.But seriously, some things I’ve seen in the past several months. Nearly EVERYONE these days has a DVD player in some form or another. Current generation writers, players and PCs seem to have fewer and fewer compatibility issues. We don’t duplicate but have to send out approval copies and DVDs sure are easier to mail and FedEx.
On the flip side — and I have NOT gone back to check old invoices — I believe that those still doing VHS duplication in my market have crept up prices as they have less and less competition.
So, to quote H.L. Mencken: “For every complex question, there’s a simple, easy answer… and it’s usually wrong.”